Chapter Twenty Six - The Morning After ( Sienna's POV )

The fire had died sometime before dawn, leaving only the soft glow of embers and the faint scent of smoke clinging to our skin. Outside, the forest was still. The storm had washed everything clean , the leaves, the air, even the sky. It was too quiet, the kind of quiet that makes your instincts ache.

Kael stirred beside me, breath steady against my shoulder. His warmth still lingered, but the man who had held me through the night was gone the moment his eyes opened. The Alpha had returned. I saw it in the set of his jaw, the way his body went tense before he even rose.

“They’ll regroup,” he said, scanning the treeline. His voice was gravel, low and certain. “No one lets prey slip twice.”

I pushed myself up, pulling his cloak tighter around my shoulders. “Then maybe we stop being prey.”

He looked at me, really looked, and for a second, the corner of his mouth twitched like he might smile. But before he could answer, a sound cut through the air, distant but distinct. A horn.

Kael froze. “Scouts.”

We moved fast. I snatched the pack, Kael kicked dirt over the fire, and we slipped into the dripping undergrowth, moving north toward the ridge. The rain had softened the earth, each step sinking into silence.

But the silence didn’t last.

The first arrow sliced through the air, grazing Kael’s arm before shattering against the stone beside him. He spun, eyes flashing gold, and I felt that pulse in the air, that shift of power that made the forest hold its breath.

“Run!” he barked, but I didn’t.

Because I saw the shadow move behind him.

The attacker broke from the trees, blade glinting in the gray light, aiming straight for Kael’s heart. Instinct took over before thought could. I lifted my hand, the mark on my wrist burning to life. The air bent, a force I didn’t understand but felt, and the blade froze mid-strike before snapping backward, sending the enemy sprawling.

Kael spun to face him, eyes widening when he saw what I’d done.

“You...” he started, but another arrow cut him off. He lunged, knocking me to the ground as the shaft buried itself in the tree behind me.

For a moment, we lay tangled in the mud and leaves, his breath hot against my ear. “You’re not supposed to expose your power like that,” he growled.

“Would you rather I let you die?” I snapped back.

His glare softened just slightly. “No. But now they know what you are.”

I swallowed hard. He was right. Whoever was hunting us, and I had no doubt it was them, had seen what I could do. The prophecy wasn’t just a whisper anymore. It was a target.

By the time we reached the ridge, the air was thick with tension and the scent of blood. Kael’s wound had reopened, staining his sleeve, but he didn’t slow. Below us, through the trees, I saw movement, wolves. Not his pack, not ours. Another.

“Rival Alpha,” Kael muttered, nostrils flaring. “Ronan.”

The name carried weight, and venom.

Down below, the rival wolves were moving through the clearing, armor glinting faintly. They didn’t look like scouts. They looked like they were claiming territory.

Kael’s jaw clenched. “He’s not after land. He’s after you.”

The words sent a chill down my spine.

We’d heard rumors, whispers of another Alpha seeking to twist the prophecy, to claim the power meant to restore balance to the fractured clans. To control it instead. Ronan. A brute wrapped in silver and pride.

“Kael,” I said quietly, “we can’t take them alone.”

“I don’t plan to.” His eyes shifted toward the west. “Beta patrol’s two miles out. They’ll come.”

He reached into the bloodstained sleeve and pressed a small, wolf-marked token into my palm. “If I fall...”

I closed his hand around mine before he could finish. “Don’t.”

Something flickered across his face, a mix of anger and tenderness. “You saved me once already,” he said. “Don’t make a habit of it.”

But he smiled then, just barely. And before I could respond, the trees erupted with sound, howls, commands, chaos.

The battle came fast and vicious. Mud and claws, steel and rain-soaked fury. Kael tore through Ronan’s men like a storm made flesh, his movements a blur of rage and precision. But even Alphas bleed.

One of Ronan’s enforcers caught him from behind, driving a blade between his ribs. Kael stumbled, and my heart stopped.

“Kael!”

He turned, but his legs gave. I didn’t think. I couldn’t. The mark flared again, heat and light coursing through me, and the attacker’s weapon melted in his hands. The force of it knocked me to my knees, but it was enough.

Kael collapsed near the ridge, his breath shallow. I crawled to him, mud streaking my hands. “Stay with me,” I whispered.

His eyes found mine, unfocused. “You… shouldn’t be here.”

“Too late.”

I pressed my hand over the wound, warmth blooming under my palm. The energy surged again, uncontrolled but pure, and his bleeding slowed. His body tensed beneath my touch, but the wound sealed just enough to keep him breathing.

When I looked up, the Beta pack had arrived, their howls rolling through the valley. Ronan’s wolves retreated, dragging their wounded with them.

For now, the fight was done.

By the time dusk fell, Kael slept fitfully beside the fire we built beneath a new shelter. The others kept watch nearby, their low murmurs drifting through the trees. I sat apart, knees drawn to my chest, staring at the faint curve of my stomach beneath the thin fabric of my tunic.

It wasn’t showing yet, not really, but I could feel it. A pulse. A whisper of something both fragile and fierce. Life.

And the question that haunted me, what kind of world am I bringing this child into?

The prophecy spoke of balance, of power reborn. But power always demanded sacrifice. I wasn’t sure yet who would pay it.

Kael stirred, a faint groan escaping him. I turned, brushing damp hair from his face. His eyes opened slowly, weary but alive.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he murmured.

“I wasn’t,” I said softly. “You were with me.”

He frowned, confused, then looked down at my hand resting over his heart. Understanding flickered there.

“I felt it,” he whispered. “When you healed me. It wasn’t just power. It was… life.”

“Yours,” I said.

He reached for my hand, his touch rough but careful. “No. Ours.”

The silence between us thickened, heavy but not suffocating. He looked away then, jaw tight. “If I can’t protect you, protect both of you, then what am I worth as Alpha?”

I shook my head. “Being Alpha isn’t what makes you strong, Kael. Loving us does.”

He let out a rough breath, half a laugh, half a sigh. “You’re dangerous when you talk like that.”

“Maybe that’s why you keep me around.”

His gaze softened, tracing my face as though trying to memorize every part of it. “No,” he said finally. “I keep you because the moon itself listens when you speak.”

I smiled faintly, but it didn’t last. From beyond the trees, a distant howl rose, low, guttural, familiar.

Ronan wasn’t done.

Kael’s expression hardened, Alpha once more. “He’s regrouping.”

I stood, my pulse steady. “Then so are we.”

He rose beside me, wincing but unbroken. For a moment, our hands found each other in the half-light, a silent promise between heartbeats.

Whatever came next, we’d face it not as Alpha and prophecy, not even as warrior and mother-to-be — but as two souls bound beneath the same moon, refusing to bow to fate.

And when Kael’s lips brushed my temple before we stepped into the shadows again, I realized something new.

The prophecy wasn’t about destiny.

It was about choice.