Chapter Six: The Alpha’s Claim

Silas’ POV

The room Ethan gave him wasn’t in the barracks.

It was tucked in the east wing of the main house quiet, warm, and far too close to where the Alpha slept. There were no guards at the door. No locks. Just one window overlooking the forest… and a silence that weighed like expectation.

Silas didn’t know what scared him more

That Ethan trusted him enough to bring him here

Or that part of him didn’t want to leave.

He pressed a hand to his ribs. The wound throbbed under clean bandages. Not deep, but personal. Like a warning from fate itself.

You don’t belong here.

You never did.

The door opened softly.

He didn’t have to turn to know it was Ethan. That scent of firewood, wildness, something deeper told him before a single step hit the floor.

“You should be resting,” Ethan said.

“I am.” Silas didn’t move.

Ethan walked further into the room. His voice was softer than usual. “Do you always bleed this easily?”

“Only when people try to kill me,” Silas murmured. “Comes with the job.”

Ethan didn’t laugh. “I don’t like seeing you like that.”

Silas finally turned. “Why?”

Ethan looked at him.

Really looked.

And then he said it.

“I think the bond’s forming.”

Silas’s breath caught.

“No,” he said, too quickly. “It’s not. That’s not possible.”

“Isn’t it?” Ethan stepped closer, slow and steady. “You bleed, I feel it. You’re in pain, I can’t think. When I thought I might lose you out theremy wolf almost surfaced.”

Silas backed up a step. “Ethan”

“I’m not asking you to say it,” Ethan cut in. “I’m not even asking you to want it. But I’m not going to lie to myself anymore.”

His voice dropped to something raw.

“You’re mine.”

Silas’s hands curled at his sides. “You don’t even know who I am.”

Ethan moved closer until their chests almost touched. “Then tell me.”

Silas looked away.

Because he couldn’t. Not yet.

Because the truth would burn this all to ash.

Meanwhile – Arden’s POV

He watched from the training balcony.

The way Noah paced outside the Alpha’s quarters. The clenched fists. The way he stared at the east wing like it was infected.

Arden didn’t need to ask.

He already knew what Noah was thinking.

The wolf Ethan had claimed the outsider, the stranger he was tearing their leadership apart from the inside.

And the pack could smell the shift in power.

Arden reached for his comm device and spoke into it quietly.

“Activate the tracer. If Silas Hati leaves that room again, I want to know where he goes.”

Back in the room – Silas’ POV

Ethan stood close enough now that Silas could see the scar beneath his jaw faint, barely there. A childhood wound, probably.

Something Silas never thought he’d find beautiful.

He hated that it felt easy with him. That every instinct, every bit of training, every warning Marcus gave was quiet now. Drowned beneath the sound of Ethan’s voice. His breath.

“You don’t have to feel it yet,” Ethan whispered. “You just have to stop running from it.”

Silas said .

Couldn’t.

So instead… he leaned in.

Just barely. A fraction.

And Ethan, the Alpha, leader, the untouchable did something no one would believe.

He rested his forehead against Silas’s and closed his eyes.

No kiss.

No command.

Just stillness.

Breath against breath.

A promise unspoken.

But outside the door, someone was listening.

And in the Crescent Moon territory, a transmission blinked to life.

Marcus stared at the blurry feed of Silas in Ethan’s arms.

His face darkened.

And the screen shattered beneath his fist.

Because love wasn’t the only bond forming now

War was waking with it.