All Chapters of THE Alpha's HOLLOW BLOOD : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The night I was supposed to finally become like everyone else, the entire Blackwood pack gathered to watch me fail.I could feel the suffocating weight of their eyes on me before I even stepped through the grand oak doors of the ceremonial hall. For years, I had imagined what this milestone would feel like. Every young werewolf went through the Pack Transformation Ceremony at eighteen to meet the beast living inside them. For my peers, it was a night of celebration, a glorious transition into warriors and hunters. For me, it felt like walking toward a public execution.I was already twenty-one, well past the normal age of manifestation. Everyone in the territory knew my secret. Or rather, everyone knew my shame,I had no wolf. There had been no bone snapping shifts, no feral voice inside my head, and no animal instinct pulling me toward the pack. I was a defect. An omen of bad luck.Don't look at them, I whispered to myself, digging my fingernails into my palms until the pain ground

The rogue wolf's jaws snapped inches from my throat. Its hot breath struck my face, thick with the stench of blood and rotten meat. Yellow fangs flashed before my eyes as its claws scraped against the stone floor. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move.Then—THUD!The creature was ripped away from me. Cassian slammed into it with enough force to send both of them crashing through a wooden table. Splinters exploded across the floor, and the impact rattled every shelf in the library.“GET BACK!” he roared.I crawled backwards, my palms scraping against the cold stone. The rogue recovered first. It shook its mangled gray fur, spraying blood across the floor, then its red eyes found me again.My mark burned.A sharp cry escaped my mouth as heat tore through my wrist. It felt like someone had shoved a burning blade beneath my skin and dragged it through my veins. I grabbed my arm.“Cassian!”His head snapped towards me. The moment he saw my exposed wrist, his entire body went rigid. His ears

“Too late.”The voice came from directly behind me.Every muscle in my body locked.I could feel someone standing close enough that the air against my neck had changed, cold and heavy. I turned sharply, but there was no one there.Only the empty corridor.The lights above me flickered once.Then twice.A strange pressure filled my chest, making it difficult to breathe.Behind me, the guards were still on their knees.One of them lifted his trembling face towards me. “She made us kneel.”My stomach twisted.“I didn't—”“Elara.”Cassian’s voice cut through mine.He stepped between me and the guards, his body tense, his injured shoulder held slightly lower than the other.“Everyone out.”The guards exchanged frightened looks.“Now,” Cassian ordered.They scrambled to their feet and disappeared down the corridor.

The whisper stayed with me long after Cassian led me out of his study.He knows.I kept looking at him as we walked, searching for something in his face. He had returned to his usual cold expression, but his hand remained close to mine, as if he expected the mark to burn again.“What was behind that bookshelf?” I asked.“Nothing you need to see.”“That passage opened by itself.”“Then you should have stayed away from it.”I stopped walking.Cassian took two more steps before turning back.“You keep telling me what I should do,” I said. “But you never tell me why.”His eyes narrowed slightly. “Because you are alive.”“That doesn't explain anything.”“It explains enough.”“No, it doesn't.”For a moment, the corridor became too quiet. I could hear the faint crackle of the fire downstairs and the distant movement of guards beyond the walls.Cassian

I ran until my lungs burned.The stranger’s warning followed me through the darkness.Do not answer it.I didn’t know what I was supposed to hear, but I knew one thing.I did not want to find out.Branches clawed at my clothes as I pushed deeper into the forest. My ankle throbbed with every step, but stopping felt more dangerous than the pain.Behind me, the hunters were still somewhere in the darkness.Or maybe they weren’t.I didn’t dare look back.Another howl tore through the trees.I flinched.My foot caught on a root, and I fell hard.The obsidian stone slipped from my hand and disappeared into the leaves beside me.Pain shot through my ankle.I bit down on my lip to stop myself from crying out.For a moment, I stayed on the ground, listening.Nothing.No footsteps.No voices.Only the wind moving throug