CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE ALPHA’S CLAIM.

Kelvin’s POV.

The moment our eyes locked, the red furry  and rage that had consumed me immediately began to subside.

Lazarus’s grip on my wrist was strong like iron. His white hair was loose now, falling and framing his face that looked carved from winter stone, the long scar down his left cheek was very obvious now as I stared back at him.

 Those glowing red eyes held no fear, no disgust only a dark, powerful possessiveness that made my skin tingle.

“Easy, Mate” he said, voice low enough that only I could hear it over the chaos. “You’re going to tear the whole pack house down if you keep going.”

I snarled. 

Blood! my mother’s blood! I could still see it and the air in my lungs constricted. My claws that had ripped the executioner’s face apart were still out, black and sharp, dripping with his blood. I didn’t know how they had come. I only knew they wanted more.

Maya was making whimpering sounds behind Maddox. Alpha Frederick was busy shouting for more guards. But none of it mattered.

Lazarus didn’t look away from me. His free hand rose slowly and settled against the side of my neck, right over the place he had kissed the night before. 

Holy shit!

 The night before… I didn't want to remember that but I did.

The second his skin touched mine, something inside my chest snapped into place. A bond. Thick, heavy, and absolute. It didn’t feel like Nina’s thin, rejected thread. This one burned through me.

I could feel my claws retracting.

I staggered back feeling very dizzy. Lazarus caught me before I hit the floor, pulling me against his chest as if I weighed nothing. The scent of wood and mint flooded my senses, cutting through the stench of blood that was in the air.

“You’re safe,” he murmured against my hair. “I’ve got you.”

Alpha Frederick finally found his voice. “Who the hell are you to interfere in pack justice?” "Who exactly do you think you are?" He shouted in anger.

Lazarus lifted his head. The temperature in the room dropped. Every wolf present guards, Maddox, even the Alpha took an involuntary step backwards.

“I am Lazarus of the Lycan Realm,” he said, quiet and final. “And this is my mate.”

His words landed like a death sentence.

Maddox recovered first. “Your mate? That omega trash? He tried to rape the Luna….”

Lazarus’s eyes turned to him at once and Maddox’s mouth snapped shut so hard his teeth clenched.

" Call my mate trash again and you will lose your tongue " He threatened.

Maya, still half-naked and trembling, tried a different tactic. “Alpha Lazarus, please he forced himself on me. He’s very dangerous. Look at what he did to the guards!”

Lazarus’s gaze again moved towards her lazily as though the whole scene bored him.

 Whatever she saw in his eyes made her shrink behind Maddox again.

“I watched the entire scene from the shadows the moment I entered this territory,” Lazarus said. “I know exactly who invited whom into whose chambers. I know who lied. And I know whose blood is still drying on that executioner’s clothes.”

He shifted me slightly so I could stand on my own feet, though his arm was still wrapped firmly around my waist.

“This pack has one hour to gather every living relative of the woman you murdered,” he continued, his voice gentle and unhurried. “They will be given safe passage out of your borders with whatever coin and supplies they require. After that, I will decide whether this pack still deserves to exist.”

Alpha Frederick’s face had gone the color of ash. He began to tremble “You can’t just…”

“I can.” Lazarus said cutting him short. His power rolling through the room like a physical wave. Windows rattled. Every wolf dropped to one knee without being ordered. 

“Your laws mean nothing to me. Your rank means nothing to me. The only reason you are still breathing is because my mate has not yet asked me to end you.” Lazarus uttered looking down at me. “Have you?” he asked.

I stared at Maya. At Maddox. At the Alpha who had ordered my mother’s death like it was nothing; like she meant nothing. The rage was still there, coiled and waiting, but something colder and sharper had taken its place.

“Not yet,” I found myself saying. My voice didn’t sound like my own. “But if they ever touch anyone I care about again…” I left my sentence unfinished, threateningly.

Lazarus’s mouth curved, almost a smile. “Then they die.”

He turned and walked out of the chamber, carrying me with him as easily as if I were still the weak omega everyone had always believed I was. 

No one tried to stop us. No one even lifted their heads.

Outside, the night air hit my bare skin instantly and I shivered. I realized I was still only in boxers, covered in blood that wasn’t all mine.

 Lazarus shrugged off his heavy black coat and wrapped it around me without a word. It smelled like him and it was just as warm.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked.

“Home,” he answered simply. 

"Ho..home?" I stammered.

“My realm. Your mother’s body will be brought with us and given proper burial rites. After that… we talk about what you really are, Kelvin. Because whatever they told you about being a powerless omega was all a lie.”

I looked up at him. The scar, the red eyes, the impeccable white hair. The man Nina and all the other girls had been obsessed with. The man who had claimed me in a dark room while I was still bleeding from rejection.

“Why me?” The question slipped out before I could stop myself.

Lazarus stopped walking. He turned fully, cupped my face with both hands, and forced me to meet his gaze.

“Because the Moon Goddess is rarely ever kind,” he said, “but she is never wrong. You are mine. You have been mine since the first breath you took. And I will burn every pack, every realm, and every god that tries to take you from me again.”

Something in my chest; something that had been locked away for nineteen years stirred and despite myself I didn’t pull away.

For the first time since the rejection, since the dungeon, since watching my mother’s blood leave her body, the world stopped tilting.

Lazarus’s thumb brushed the corner of my mouth.

“Come,” he said. “We have a long night ahead. And you, little wolf, have a great deal of power left to discover.”

He lifted me into his arms again and stepped into the darkness between the trees.

Behind us, the pack house remained silent.

Ahead of us, the Lycan realm waited.

I should have been excited. Terrified, perhaps, but excited.

Instead, all I could think about was how desperately I wanted to sleep.

My entire body ached. My head felt like it was splitting open, and the warmth of Lazarus's coat did nothing to stop the exhaustion consuming me.

I forced my eyes open when they began to close.

Not now, Kelvin.

I still had questions. So many questions.

Who was I really? Why had Lazarus claimed me? And what the hell had happened to me back in that Park?

I needed answers.

But when I lifted my head to look at Lazarus, the forest was spinning violently around me.

"Lazarus..."

He glanced down. "What is it, little wolf?"

"I think something's wrong."

Before he could respond, my vision went black.

My body went limp in his arms.

"Kelvin?"

I heard the sudden panic in his voice, followed by a furious growl that seemed to shake the very trees around us.

"Kelvin, open your eyes!"

I wanted to tell him I could hear him.

I wanted to tell him I was just tired.

But I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't even force my eyes open.

And then, as consciousness slipped away completely, I heard him roar into the night.

"SOMEONE GET THE HEALERS! NOW!"