The Alpha’s Reluctant Mate

The sky wept fire the night the Silver Crest Pack fell.Not rain, not snow but fire. It dripped from the heavens like molten sorrow, lighting the sacred mountains with flames that danced like devils across the trees. Smoke curled into the cold night air, thick and choking. And beneath it, raw, panicked, desperate, screams echoed through the valley like the wails of the dying stars. A blood moon hung swollen above the world, its crimson hue casting the snow-strewn earth in a sickly glow. It should have been a night of communion, a night of prophecy and peace, when Moonborne wolves gathered to sing beneath the stars and receive their gifts from the divine. Instead, the ground ran slick with blood, and the bones of prophecy cracked under the boots of traitors. Laura ran. Her bare feet tore through bramble and frost. Her breathing came ragged, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t. The infant strapped to her chest whimpered softly, the only precious thing Laura had left in a world colla

Kane Blackwood’s POVThey say the Silver Crest Pack was once mighty. Wolves touched by moonlight. A lineage steeped in prophecy and pride. But when I looked at their lands now, all I saw was rot.The wind carried the stench of decay. Not the kind that lingered in corpses, but the moral kind, the filth of liars cloaked in tradition, a once-noble bloodline strangled by its own vanity. Their buildings, though tall and old, stood like brittle bones. Their warriors, armored in rusting pride, watched us arrive with trembling hands.They lined up in front of their territory gates like cowards when we crossed the border. Some tried to look bold, but I could smell fear in the sweat beneath their armor. The alpha, if he even deserved the title stepped forward with a forced calm. His hair had gone white, but not from age. It was the kind of white bred by fear, shame, and too many nights lying to his own people.“Alpha Blackwood,” he greeted, dipping his chin just low enough to be insulting. “You

IVY’S POVThe silence was the worst part. Not the fire, not the capture, not even the eyes that wouldn’t meet mine. Just… the silence. We arrived at Nightfall just after dawn. The wagon creaked and groaned beneath me as the woods fell away and the trees gave birth to something colder, sharper. I’d never seen a pack like this. Even in the stories whispered between stolen breaths in Silver Crest, Nightfall had always been an enigma. A name more than a place. An idea more than a home. But it was real and it was terrifying. Massive stone walls rose ahead like sleeping giants, crowned with steel and shadow. The gates were black iron, adorned with symbols I couldn’t decipher—ancient, looping, carved with deliberate menace. Two towers flanked the entrance, each with sentries watching us like owls poised to strike. The closer we got, the more it felt like stepping into a myth. A dark, sacred one no child should ever repeat. And yet here I was. No chains, no ropes, just silence

IVY’S POVKane’s words echoed in my mind: “If she’s the one… we’re all damned.” The weight of that sentence pressed down on me, more suffocating than the silence that had become my constant companion in Nightfall. I retreated to my room, the walls closing in as questions swirled. What did he mean? Why would my existence spell doom? Sleep eluded me. Each time I closed my eyes, visions assaulted me: flames consuming forests, wolves howling in agony, shadows stretching across the land. And always, Kane stood at the center, his eyes filled with torment. The bond between us pulsed erratically, a tether pulling me toward him, then pushing me away with equal force. It was as if the universe itself couldn’t decide our fate. Determined to find answers, I ventured deeper into the Nightfall compound, seeking out the ancient archives rumored to hold the pack’s oldest secrets. Dust-laden tomes and scrolls lined the shelves, their contents whispering of prophecies and curses. One pas

IVY’S POVThe storm didn’t wait for dawn.It broke inside me the second Kane said fate didn’t care what we believed but only what we became.That sentence stayed with me like poison.What did that mean for someone like me, who never had the luxury of becoming anything at all?For as long as I could remember, I’d been passed around like an afterthought like a ward, a mistake, a burden too heavy for anyone to carry. Families took me in out of duty or pity, but never love, never choice. And just when I thought maybe just maybe fate had delivered something that felt like mine, it rejected me all over again.Kane wasn’t just avoiding the bond.He was avoiding me.And I didn’t know if I could survive that again.I left his quarters without another word, choking on emotions I didn’t want to name. The walls of Nightfall closed in tighter with every step. Whispers crawled out of shadows, feeding the doubt clawing at my throat. Faces blurred in my vision. Wolves I’d never harmed looked at me li