Chapter 3 | Alpha's Ambitions

Leon’s POV

I harbored a hidden ambition. I desired eternal glory and to establish myself as the strongest alpha to lead all packs. I had been doing the strictly forbidden Eternal Blood Ritual for the last seven full moons in a row without a single mistake.

Tonight was the final stage, and unluckily, the girl had appeared and ruined everything. I almost couldn't believe it when I saw Rhea, who had now run away. I thought she had gone home. Why is she here?

The fallen lantern still swayed gently as I jerked myself out of the ritual circle. The red light from the sigils on the floor had not yet completely faded.

“I just remembered you asked her to work overtime, and I think she followed us because she wanted to submit the revised report.” Edwin checked notes on his phone.

"You should have made sure no one was in this building! Now what? She saw it,” I hissed with heavy breathing. “She saw everything.” I am full of anger.

Edwin quickly stepped closer. “Leon, wait a minute.” His voice was tense but not as fearful as usual. “She probably doesn't understand what she saw.”

I turned sharply. “It doesn't matter whether she understands or not. The fact that she saw it is enough to destroy us.”

“It's not her fault.” Edwin tried to hold my arm. “I forgot to tell you that you asked her to work overtime. That was my mistake, I should have watched her. Rhea Valeria wouldn't act recklessly. She's a hard worker, never meddles in matters outside of work. And—” Edwin swallowed, holding back a subtle emotional tremor. “She doesn't deserve to be killed.”

I brushed Edwin's hand away. “You talk too much. And you assume too much. Do you think I can take that risk?” My Alpha aura weighed heavily on the air in the basement. “If this ritual is leaked, the Targarion Pack is finished. I'm finished!”

“Leon,” Edwin pleaded once more. “I know that girl. She won't leak anything.”

I moved closer, bending down until our eyes were level. “You talk as if you know her more than you should. So you're defending her?”

Edwin fell silent, his face tense.

I smiled thinly. "Don't be stupid, Edwin. I have no choice but to kill her. Eternal Blood Ritual, no one can know about this! I even got the method from years of resets and searching! If the elders find out, our pack finds out, even other packs find out, no one will let me live!”

“Leon, please—”

“Shut up! We have to chase her now!”

I moved quickly toward the exit hallway. My body swayed for a moment. Due to the effects of the seventh-month ritual, I couldn't shift tonight because my body hadn't recovered. “Damn it!”

“What's wrong?” asked Edwin.

“My body seems to have weakened because I failed to complete the seventh-month ritual. Shit! I have to start over again from the beginning, from the first month! All because of that damn girl!” I growled with great anger.

“Get the car. Now!” I ordered.

Edwin, though his face was pale and anxious, had no choice but to obey.

~o0O0o~

The night got darker when our black vehicle hit the road heading out of town. I stayed tense, eyes locked outside without a word. Driving slowly, Edwin kept quiet, afraid to start that conversation.

"My intuition says that she ran away to her hometown. I don't smell her presence in this city," I leaned back in the seat of the Rolls-Royce.

"How do you know her hometown?" asked Edwin, who was driving.

“I’ve known for a long time, since she joined our company,” I finally muttered. “The Valerian Pack isn’t far from the eastern edge of the city. They’re small, weak, and tend to be closed off.”

Edwin swallowed hard. “You think she’s really going home?”

“It’s the safest place for a frightened wolf. She’ll return to her Alpha,” I said.

When our car entered the Valerian Pack’s territory, both of us suddenly sensed something odd, no territorial pressure nor energy of rejection. The pack’s territory should have offered a subtle resistance to foreign wolves, especially an Alpha. But it was silent.

“No one’s guarding it,” Edwin hissed. “This is weird.”

I got out of the car without waiting. The night wind carried an unnatural damp scent, the smell of dead earth, the smell of severed moonlink energy, the smell of the remains of wolves that would never wake again. My eyes scanned the dark area, the houses and small buildings that looked faded as if time had stopped.

One by one, wolf bodies lay scattered across the houses and yards, some already returned to human form, others still half transformed. There were no wounds or blood, nor signs of a fight. They seemed to have simply died.

Edwin covered his mouth in horror. “Damn! What happened to them?”

I knelt beside one of the bodies. I touched the corpse's back with my fingertips, feeling the decaying energy inside. “This wasn't an attack,” I muttered. “There was no enemy. They died slowly.”

“A plague,” Edwin said softly. "I heard the news a few months ago that the Valerian Pack had been reported weak for a long time. But this fast?”

I got to my feet, slow with eyes darting everywhere, fueled by rage, mixed with shock. Supposing the spirit sickness really took hold, nobody’d make it out alive, not like they are now. Including the Alpha.” I pointed to the largest residence with its door half open. “The Alpha of the Valerian Pack, Rhea’s father, must be inside.”

Edwin walked in, swallowing his tears when he saw the Alpha and Luna lying lifeless in the main bedroom, holding hands.

I followed him in, my cold gaze sweeping the room. “There's nothing left. This pack is truly dead.”

Edwin looked around. “But where is Rhea? If she came home, she must—”

“She’s not here,” I interrupted. I shut my eyes quickly, then sucked in air slowly. A hint of a smell hit me, somehow familiar, maybe Rhea’s. “She is still alive,” I said low. I opened my eyes, cold and focused once more. “And she flees.”

“And we had no clue.” Edwin tries to make me change my mind.

I looked east-west, where the trees formed a dark line. “Maybe to the forest. There's a river. If she has lived here since she was a child, that's the favorite area for wolf children to play and hide. She must not have gone far.”

Edwin bit his lip. “Leon, are you really going to kill her?”

“Of course.” I quickly walked back to the car. “She knows our secret.”

I smelled her scent in the woods, she sounded clearer now. She was still around, and I wasn't going to let her go.

~o0O0o~