บททั้งหมดของ The last Alpha : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 9

___ The rain had not stopped in 40 days. It came down in sheets over Oka'ru, turning the dirt roads to rivers and the fields to black swamp. The mist rolled off the forest and swallowed the huts whole. At night you couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the trees began. Old Mama Ireti said it was a curse. The priest said it was the gods angry. The hunters from the Capital said it was proof. "Beasts make bad weather," their captain had said 2 weeks ago, with silver on his belt and men at his back. "Beasts must be culled." Three nights after he left, Alpha Doran was dead. Kael stood at the edge of the forest, far enough that the torchlight didn’t reach him. Close enough that he could hear the prayers. His father’s body lay on the stone in the village square. Wrapped in white. Rain running off him like he was still bleeding. A silver bolt through the chest. Hunters’ work. The pack was there. 12 of them. Some in human skin, some barely holding it. Elder Mara, who was older than the

___Night came fast in Oka'ru when it rained.The sky went from grey to black in an hour, and the forest ate the light. No moon. No stars. Just rain and the sound of water dripping off every leaf.Kael stood at the edge of the tree line with a spear in his hand. His father’s spear. The wood was old and dark and smelled like smoke and blood.He wasn’t supposed to have company.“Alone,” Elder Mara had said.“Alone,” Jorin had nodded.But Amina was next to him anyway.She had a satchel over her shoulder. Herbs, bandages, a small knife. Her hair was braided back and she wore her father’s old hunting cloak. It was too big for her, but she looked like she belonged in it.“You’re going to tell me to go back,” she said before he could speak.“Yes.”“No.”Kael sighed. The thread in his chest pulled toward her. Toward the pack behind him. Toward the thing in the woods. All at once. It made his head hurt.“If you come and get hurt—”“If I stay and you die, who’s going to stitch you back up?” She

___The rain never stopped. It just changed.From sheets to needles to mist. But it was always there. On the roofs. In the mud. In your lungs.Kael didn’t sleep.He sat on the roof of the watch hut, spear across his knees, watching the ridge. The hunters would come from there. And somewhere in the dark below, the other thing was moving too.He could feel it. Like an itch under his skin.Down in the village, 10 werewolves prepared.No words. Just the sound of whetstones on metal. Of rope being tied. Of prayers whispered by humans who didn’t know who to pray to anymore.It was just past midnight when the first sound came.Not a howl.A drum.Far. Distant. But steady. _Thump. Thump. Thump._Military drums. The Capital’s march.Jorin was up in an instant. “Positions!”The pack moved. Ghosts in the rain.Kael jumped down from the roof. His legs felt wrong. Too long. The shift was closer tonight. He could taste it.“Tree line,” Jorin ordered. “We hit them as they enter the clearing. We don’

---Kael didn’t heal right.Werewolves were supposed to. Cuts closed in hours. Bones in a day.But silver did different things. And whatever the rogue had in its claws wasn’t just claw.The wound in his side festered. Black lines crawled out from under the bandages. Fever came in waves.Amina didn’t leave his side.She changed his dressings. Fed him broth. Wiped the sweat off his forehead when the fever dreams got bad.In the dreams, the rogue was still alive. It stood in the rain and pointed at him.“Blood calls to blood,” it said. “You’ll see.”On the third day, Kael could stand.On the fourth, he could walk.On the fifth, Jorin said they had no more time.---The pack gathered in the big hut. 10 wolves. Thin. Tired.Outside, the hunters had built a camp on the ridge. 50 fires. Every night they got closer.And in the forest, the rogues moved. Kael could feel them. Circling. Watching.“We fight on two fronts,” Jorin said. “We can’t.”“Then we choose one,” Kemi said.“Which one?” Mara

___ One year later. The dry season came hard to Oka'ru. No rain. No mist. The river was low and the fields cracked. But the village was full. Word had spread. _The pack at Oka'ru doesn’t break._ So the strays came. The ones hunted out of other villages. The ones whose Alphas died. 3 wolves. A mother and 2 pups. Scarred and starving. Kael met them at the tree line. The mother stepped forward. Thin. Eyes hard. “We heard you take in broken things.” Kael looked at the pups. They were shaking. He remembered being 8 and scared and trying not to shift. “You’re home now,” he said. “If you swear the oath.” Jorin stood behind him with 9 other wolves. New faces. Old faces. All watching. “What oath?” the mother asked. Mara answered. She leaned on a stick now, but her voice was still steel. “To protect the land. To protect each other. To bleed before you let harm come to Oka'ru.” The mother looked at Kael. At his scar. At Amina standing next to him with a bowl of water for the pup