Chapter five

Katherine’s POV

LAST NIGHT.

“I know how much you love me, Katherine.” His voice sounded so much confidence, the same voice that used to whisper promises against my throat. “After I become Alpha tomorrow we can still be together.”

I stared at him, arms folded so tight my nails bit crescents into my skin. “Still be together?” I repeated, the words tasting like rust. “After you rejected me?”

He shrugged like it was nothing. Like ripping out my heart in front of half the pack had been a minor inconvenience.

“You aren’t what I need politically right now. But once I’m Alpha, things will be different. I’ll have the power. I can do whatever I want.”

My wolf whimpered, still stupidly longing for the bond he’d severed. I gritted my teeth until I tasted blood.

“So now that you’re crawling toward the throne you humiliated me to reach, you want me back as your dirty little secret?”

Kenneth ran a hand through his dark hair, the gesture I used to find sexy. Now it just looked rehearsed. “Don’t be dramatic.”

I laughed, cold and sharp enough to cut.

“You think I’m dramatic, Kenneth? You rejected me because I’m ‘just a weak omega,’ after I found you cock deep inside her telling her how her pussy was better than mine and now you want me as your side piece ? No. I don’t need your second-hand affection.”

“Kat, you should understand this thing by now…I said those things because Judith was there.. imagine what it would feel like when I become the alpha…” he said, stepping closer, reaching for me.

I stepped back. “You don’t get to touch me ever again!.”

I grabbed my bag walked away, his pleas fading behind me like smoke.

He was selfish.

Thoughtless.

He wanted the benefits of love without loyalty.

Now he sat across the clearing with the other nine candidates, that same smug tilt to his mouth, like the crown was already on his head and I was just the consolation prize he would collect later.

The outgoing Alpha, Gerald, stood tall in the center, silver streaking his beard. The elders flanked him, faces carved from stone. Almost four hundred wolves waited in perfect silence.

Gerald’s voice rolled like thunder. “Leadership is not dominance alone, but the strength to carry the legacy of the bloodline. Today the new Alpha of New Haven will be decided the old way. Ten enter the circle. One leaves standing. No killing blows. Once a back touches the ground, disqualification. May the candidates step forward.”

They did.

Ten warriors, the best trained in the pack, Broad shoulders, scarred knuckles, eyes burning with hunger. Four betas including Kenneth lean, fast, cunning. Six gammas pack enforcers built like siege engines.

Cheers sounded in the crowd.

The second Gerald’s hand dropped, the circle detonated.

It was beautiful and brutal.

Thorne, the shaved-headed gamma with the neck tattoo, charged Marcus first. Marcus twisted away, but Thorne caught him mid-spin and drove him into the dirt. One down.

Lila, the only female in the fight, braids whipping like weapons took out Jax with a leg sweep, then flipped Viktor over her hip before he could recover. The crowd howled for her.

Kenneth stayed on the edges, predator-smart, letting the gammas thin each other. When Lila turned, triumphant, he struck—low with a vicious sweep.

She hit the ground hard, eyes wide in betrayal, she hadn’t expected it. Kenneth offered a hand and a smile for the elders. Politics even in combat.

Six left.

Ronan the red-haired endurance beast locked up with Elias. They grappled like gods, sweat flying. Elias used Ronan’s momentum against him—twist, roll, slam.

Ronan’s shoulders touched earth. Out.

Kenneth pounced on Elias before he could rise, elbow to solar plexus, knee to thigh. Elias folded. Out.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Now it was Kenneth against Thorne and Garrick two of the biggest, meanest gammas we had. They moved as a unit, years of patrol together making them lethal. Garrick went low, Thorne high. Kenneth took the kick to the knee, staggered, but rolled under Thorne’s haymaker, coming up bleeding and grinning.

He grabbed Thorne’s arm mid-swing, used the bigger man’s weight to hurl him into Garrick causing a collision. Dust cloud.

Garrick hit first—back down. Disqualified.

Thorne roared, charging like a freight train. Kenneth dropped low at the last second, shoulder driving into Thorne’s gut, lifting. The entire pack inhaled as Kenneth hoisted almost three hundred pounds of furious gamma and slammed him down. The ground shook when Thorne landed.

Silence.

Then the clearing erupted.

Gerald strode forward, seized Kenneth’s wrist, and thrust it skyward.

“By blood, by claw, by right of combat,Kenneth…

He stopped.

Every wolf in the square froze.

Because the wind shifted, and every single one of us smelled it at the same time.

So sharp that it hit us, It didn’t just feel like a chill, it was a force.

A force that sent shivers to the bones.

It suppressed everyone.

Even Alpha Gerald had stopped talking mid sentence and instinctively lowered his shoulders.

The force was ancient, dominant, and unignorable.

The elders fell at their feet, one by one in fear. And even Alpha Gerald our leader, our judge, the pride of the New Haven pack reduced himself because of the force.

Everyone followed, we were driven by instincts, we didn’t understand. My wolf shrieked in submission. Some wolves even shook as they lowered their heads.

Then footsteps could be heard, two footsteps, I knew from the sound of their feet.

Whoever this person was, his presence screamed louder than any Alpha ever had.

The silence was thick, no one dared move.

Then came a Voice that was smooth, low, undeniably commanding. “It’s been a while, Alpha Gerald.”

I blinked.

“Yes my lord, it has.”

My lord?

The entire hall seems to lean in.

“We almost forgot,” he continued,his voice certain,“Who runs the New Haven pack.”

Then the voice low and sharp sounded again. “I see you have forgotten the hierarchy of the bloodline and crossed your boundaries..”

Alpha Gerald whimpered.

“Zeke,tell them.”

Another voice sounded not as powerful as the first voice but it was still powerful.

“By law and blood, this territory falls under the dominion of the last pure-blooded, Lycan..”

Everyone in the room stiffened.

Lycans are extinct,The moon goddess destroyed them, after the purge because they are evil, why would she now assign pack territories to them?

“The New Haven Pack lies under the sovereignty of Reign Salvatore. It is his by right..since before the time men walked the earth.You may rise and greet your lord”

Instinctively my wolf and four hundred thousand wolves lurched upright as one, necks craned, throats bared three times in the old ancient salute that was for superiors.

I lifted my eyes and my body froze.