Chapter 2 The Alpha From the North

“S-Sorry,” I whispered to nobody.

Every wolf in Duskveil pack was looking over my shoulder, but my mind kept telling me, it was me they were looking at.

Everything hurt. I need to get away from here. I slowly lifted my feet, afraid to make another mistake.

This isn’t the world I’m used to. My world is muffled, I barely hear movements from the next room. A wolf should have a clear hearing. I didn’t, not until tonight, I could hear the fire eating the wood, the withered leaf snap off the branch, the elder’s heartbeat. Everything is crystal clear. All my senses were tingling. I can smell all kinds of fear from every wolf around me, and under it something like pine and rain and cold iron is getting closer.

“Stay,” the voice inside my chest said.

She’s really here, my wolf. I thought I had just imagined her.

“P-Please,” I whispered. “I-I want to leave.”

She said it again, warmer now. “He’s here.”

Before I could ponder what she meant, the crowd behind me split down in the middle. They tilted their heads, either looking away or growling even before the figure becomes clear. A man walked out of the trees. Tall, black coated, each step confident. He knows exactly why he’s here.

His eyes didn’t wander among the crowd, not at the elders, not at Raulf.

He was looking at me. Stormy, shinning grey eyes. His dark hair is swept back like he raked his hands through it on the way here. Everything about him screamed he has never asked for anything twice.

He crossed the crowd without stopping, not until he reached me.

I couldn’t keep my eyes away from him. I should’ve looked away. He is definitely not an Omega or a Beta. The thread I had with Alpha Raulf is nothing compared to the strong pull I feel with his person. Something hard and total snatched inside of me, like a fish on a hook.

His hands rises toward my cheek. I could feel my whole body shakes even before his palm touches my skin.

“There you are,” he said, smiling a little.

I had never met this person and yet, clearly, something inside me yearns for him. “I-I think there’s been a mistake.” The words came out before I could even stop them. “Y-You wouldn’t want me. I-I never shifted. M-My wolf never spoke, I-I think. I’m just-”

“I don’t care,” he said.

All my thoughts instantly disappeared. He said it so simply that I stopped. I had spent my whole life being told what I am not. It felt like a dream when he waved all those away just like that.

“Stay behind me.”

His hand closes around my elbow, carefully guiding me behind him. Our bodies barely touched in the process, but I could not ignore that heat that was running all over my body. I know he feels it too. I just know it.

“Nightfang,” someone whispers and the name races around the clearing. “That’s Thane,” another whispers around the crowd. The wolves who laughed at me minutes ago, stared like they’ve watched a mountain walk into their party.

I was right. He wasn’t just anybody. He’s an Alpha. The Nightfang’s Alpha.

“Thane,” I mouthed his name, barely making a sound.

He squeezed my hand, running his thumb back and forth.  “Yeah, that’s me.”

Two Alphas in one place is never good news. My eyes instinctively moved back to the ring. Alpha Raulf found his footing. “This is Duskveil land, Nightfang.” Sensing tension from his voice, I know nothing good will come out of this. “You’re looking for trouble?”

Alpha Thane titled his head a little. I’ve feared Alpha Raulf my whole life, but Thane’s gave off something different. His look could go through a wall. I was wrong about what fear is.

“Trouble,” he said. “That depends.” Thane moves to the side, pinning the attention back to me. “Tell me,  what is she to you?”

“She’s...” Alpha Raulf’s mouth opened before words came out. He looked at the elders. “Under my protection.” He didn’t sound sure.

Thane flicked his tongue, irritated. “You rejected her in front of your pack. Words of rite. She accepted.” He looked at the elders. They flinched. “By rite’s law, a rejected wolf belongs to no Alpha and no pack, correct?”

“It is.”

“Then she’s unclaimed.” Thane looks back to Alpha Raulf. “You threw her away yourself. You don’t get to pick her up because someone else wants her.”

The silence is so deep I can hear the fire crackling. I almost stopped Alpha Thane, but the thick air around us stopped me from moving.

“I crossed three borders tonight to answer to her howl.”

To answer. Those words stayed with me. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. He came for me. That seemed impossible.

I looked down the dirt. Trying so hard to be small again. “I-I don’t want to cause trouble,” I whispered. “P-Please, I don’t want anyone to fight.”

A finger lifted my chin until I have nowhere to look but him. “You’re not the trouble,” Alpha Thane said.

His voice isn’t gentle. It’s flat and certain. But my chest does something strange and painful, it made my eyes sting. I’ve never heard those words before, I don’t know what to do with it.

He turns me behind him with one hand. His shoulders fill my whole view. When he speaks again, it’s to Alpha Raulf. “You are.”

Alpha Raulf doesn’t move. No one moved.

“Bond doesn’t take that fast,” he said, hollow. “It takes months, even years.”

He’s right. Every wolf knows how bond works. And this isn’t one of them. “It’s a trick,” Alpha Raulf said, “She’s nothing. She’s…”

“Shut up,” Alpha Thane said, assertive but controlled. Even wolves around us flinched. A small stupid part of me almost felt sorry for him. I crushed that thought quickly.

I should feel relieved. Instead I’m counting how many people I’ve upset. My fingers curl into the back of Alpha’s coat without my full control.

It’s the only solid thing I have right now.

He goes still, then slowly reached for my hand.

“She’s mine,” he said under his breath.

His words haven’t sunk in yet when a hand settles on my shoulder. It’s warm and measured, like it has every right to be there.

A different voice, low and laughing, curls out behind my ear. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “She’s mine too.”