All Chapters of Kidnapped by the Alpha : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Aria Blake had always believed the forest was her escape. To most of Cedar Hollow, Whispering Pines was a place of shadows and danger, a stretch of wilderness whispered about in hushed voices. Parents warned their children not to go too far. Hunters carried silver rounds they swore were only for bears. Farmers muttered of strange howls when the moon was high. But to Aria, the forest felt more like home than the town ever did. Cedar Hollow was small, safe, predictable. Life there was mapped out in neat, suffocating steps—graduate school, marry young, settle into routines that never changed. Her aunt Miriam, who had raised her after her parents’ deaths, saw that safety as a blessing. But for Aria, safety was just another word for a cage. When the weight of the town pressed too hard, she ran to the trees with her sketchbook tucked under her arm. There, under the canopy of whispering leaves, she could breathe. She could imagine a life bigger than this. She could let her pencil capt

The firelight painted Kael’s face in gold and shadow, but his voice carried the weight of command that silenced the lodge. “She stays.” The gray-eyed wolf’s jaw tightened, his nostrils flaring. His gaze swept over Aria, cold and cutting, as though he could strip her down to bone just by looking. “Alpha,” he said, voice laced with contempt, “the pack will never accept this. A human in our den? She’s a liability. The Council will demand blood.” Aria’s stomach knotted. Blood. The word rang like a death bell in her mind. Kael didn’t flinch. His stance was calm, but there was a tension to him, like a storm barely held at bay. “The pack will obey me,” he said simply. “As they always have.” The gray-eyed man stepped closer, his voice dropping to a snarl. “Not this time.” For a moment, the air thickened, heavy with something primal. Aria felt it push against her skin, a force that made the hair on her arms stand on end. Kael’s golden gaze clashed with the other man’s storm-gray,

Smoke and blood clung to the night air long after the howls faded. Aria sat on the steps of the Alpha’s lodge, her hands trembling in her lap. The dirt beneath her was slick with blood—not hers, but enough that her stomach rolled every time she looked down. She had never seen death up close. Now it was everywhere. Bodies—wolves that shifted back to human in death—were carried into the shadows. Some were Kael’s pack, their faces pale and still. Others were rogues, twisted in madness even in death, their eyes glazed and red. Aria pressed her hands against her ears, but it didn’t block out the sounds. The sobs. The growls. The murmurs that followed her like a curse. The human brought this. She’s a danger. The Alpha is blinded by her. Every whisper cut deeper than claws. She should never have come here. Except she hadn’t come willingly—Kael had dragged her. Yet somehow, she was the one they blamed. The lodge door creaked. Aria looked up to see Lyra standing there, her b

Sleep never came. Aria lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling beams until her chest ached. Kael’s words rattled in her skull like a chain she couldn’t break. Once you know, there’s no going back. She had been kidnapped, hunted, nearly killed. And now she was supposed to sit quietly while everyone whispered about her? No. She deserved the truth. When the lodge finally stilled and the fire burned low, she rose. Barefoot, she slipped through the hall, each board groaning too loud under her weight. The night air chilled her skin as she crept outside. The camp was restless even in the dark. Torches still burned along the borders, and sentries moved like shadows between the trees. But Aria kept low, hugging the edges of the clearing until voices carried to her. From the stone meeting house. Its windows glowed faintly. Shapes moved within—Kael, Rowan, Lyra, and two older wolves she didn’t know. Their voices were sharp, tense, echoing through the crack in the half-open door. Ari

Chapter 9 – The Alpha’s BurdenKael watched her storm away, her silhouette swallowed by the lodge’s doorway, her words still hanging like a blade at his throat.Then I’ll find out without you.The forest around him was quiet now, save for the faint rustle of leaves where the rogue had vanished. His claws itched to give chase, to finish the kill, but his chest ached with something far heavier.He hadn’t feared the rogue’s teeth. He hadn’t feared Lucien’s plots.He feared Aria—Or rather, what she was becoming to him.---Rowan emerged from the trees, his shirt torn, blood streaking his temple. His gray eyes flicked toward the lodge. “She almost died.”“I know.”“You should’ve told her.”Kael’s jaw tightened. “And have her look at me with the same hatred she gives him?” He spat the words, meaning Lucien.Rowan’s silence was sharp. At last, he said, “Secrets don’t protect forever. When the truth comes, it cuts deeper than any claw.”Kael turned away, but the weight of his Beta’s words fo