​Chapter 9: The Altar of the First Alpha

​

​The sound of Elder William’s calm, calculated footsteps echoed against the cavern walls as he closed the distance between them.

​Kael stood up slowly, positioning his body directly between the Elder and Selene’s prone form. The black, corrupting veins of the hunter's curse still throbbed across Kael’s jawline, but a terrifying, unnatural calm took over his posture. He reached down to his hip, drawing his long, silver-hilted broadsword. The steel caught the dim crimson glow pulsing from the vault doors.

​"You're not touching her, William," Kael growled, his voice deep, vibrating with a deadly Alpha authority. "Explain what you've done before I sever your head from your shoulders."

​Elder William didn't flinch. He didn't even reach for a weapon. He simply held up the unfolded silver parchment, allowing the dim light to illuminate the ancient, faded bloodstains covering its surface.

​"Put the blade away, Kael. You are dying, and your father died keeping the exact same secret," William stated smoothly, his blue eyes icy and detached. "You demand answers? Fine. Look at the parchment in my hand. This is the original Pact of the Silver Lunas, signed two centuries ago by the First Alpha himself."

​Selene, struggling to keep her eyes open through the heavy, bone-chilling numbness paralyzing her left side, forced herself to listen.

​"What pact?" Kael demanded, his knuckles turning white on the hilt of his sword.

​"The First Alpha was not a god," William explained, taking a slow step to the side, pointing toward the colossal iron vault doors behind them. "He was a desperate warrior who made a deal with an ancient entity—the Shadow Hand. In exchange for unbeatable strength to unite the packs, he swore his bloodline to the Hand. But when the First Alpha realized the horror he had invited into our world, he betrayed the entity. He used the pure, untainted blood of the Silver Lunas to lock the creature inside this subterranean mountain."

​Selene gasped softly as pieces of her tragic past finally began to assemble. My bloodline wasn't just a royalty mark... it was a binding lock.

​"The Silver Lunas were never meant to rule," William continued, glancing down at Selene with cold detachment. "They were born to be jailers. Every century, the seal requires the blood of a direct Silver Luna descendant to keep the lock secure. Your parents knew this, Selene. They knew that to keep the Shadow Hand imprisoned, one of them would have to give their life on this altar."

​"And you murdered them when they refused," Selene choked out, her voice tight with grief and rage.

​"They didn't just refuse, child," William replied, his tone sharpening. "They tried to break the cycle entirely by hiding you and attempting to sever the seal. But doing so weakened the prison. The entity began seeping through the cracks—in the form of the hunter's curse that now runs through your Alpha's veins."

​Kael’s eyes widened slightly, the tip of his sword lowering an inch as the shocking truth hit him.

​"The poison..." Kael whispered. "It didn't come from an assassin's blade..."

​"It came from the vault itself," William confirmed, looking at Kael with a strange, dark pity. "The Shadow Hand reaches into the minds of the strongest Alphas, poisoning their blood to force them to open the doors. Your father, High Alpha Richard, succumbed to it twenty years ago. To save himself from dying of the curse, he made a deal with me and Thomas. He sacrificed the Silver Luna pack—Selene's parents—to feed the altar and buy himself twenty more years of life."

​Selene felt a tear slip down her cheek, burning hot against her cold skin. The mate bond in her chest throbbed with an agonizing mix of grief, rage, and profound heartbreak. Kael's father murdered my people not for power... but out of cowardice to save his own skin.

​Kael looked back at Selene, his eyes filled with immense, tragic horror. "My father... sacrificed your family to save himself..."

​"And now, history repeats itself," William said, gesturing to the crimson-lit vault doors. "The poison in your veins, Kael, is the entity calling its debt. Thomas thought he could use the shadow as a weapon. He was a fool, and the altar claimed him instead. But you, Kael... you are the High Alpha. Your blood, combined with Selene’s mark, is the only thing that can either permanently seal that creature away forever or shatter the doors and unleash it upon the entire world."

​"And what is 'the real hunt' you talked about?" Kael demanded, stepping closer to William, his sword rising again.

​William let out a quiet, chilling laugh.

​"The Shadow Hand isn't just locked behind those doors, young Alpha. Its physical manifestation—the arch-hunter who commands the black cloaks in the forest—is already walking among the High Council. He sent Thomas to force the opening, but now that Selene’s blood has activated the altar, the Arch-Hunter knows exactly where she is. He is coming here right now to drain her completely."

​A low, thunderous roar echoed from the deep caverns above them, followed by the terrifying sound of dozens of heavy boots descending the stone stairs.

​Selene tried to push herself up, but her body refused to cooperate. Her vision blurred, dark spots dancing across her field of view.

​Kael turned around, dropping to one knee beside her. He grabbed her hand—the uninjured one—and squeezed it tightly, his eyes blazing with a fierce golden light that defied his father's dark legacy.

​"I am not my father, Selene," Kael whispered, his voice trembling with emotion. "I won't sacrifice you. Not for the pack, not for the council, and not to save my own life."

​"Kael..." she stammered, her heart racing as the heavy footsteps grew deafeningly loud at the chamber entrance. "You're dying..."

​"Then we fight together," Kael growled, pulling her against his chest as a dark, massive figure clad in obsidian dragon-scale armor stepped out from the shadowy tunnel, flanked by twenty black-cloaked hunters armed with silver-tipped spears.

​The Arch-Hunter had arrived.