Chapter 3 The Kneeling Alpha

The Blackwood Pack territory looked different from the back of a warhorse.

From this height, the sturdy stone walls of the packhouse and the wooden cabins of the village didn't look like the impenetrable fortress I had grown up fearing. They looked small. Fragile.

I sat atop a massive black stallion, my spine straight, my hands gripping the reins so tightly my knuckles were white. Beside me, Kael rode a beast of a horse that frothed at the mouth, sensing the violence in the air.

Behind us, an army of Lycans stood in absolute, terrifying silence. There were thousands of them. They didn't speak, didn't shift. They just stood there, radiating a bloodlust so thick it tasted like copper on my tongue.

The iron gates of the Blackwood Pack were shut tight. On the other side, I could hear the frantic barking of the border patrols.

"Are you ready, little mate?" Kael asked, his voice a low, intimate rumble that carried only to my ears. He was wearing black armor that seemed to absorb the morning light.

I looked down at my new clothes. Kael had provided a gown of deep crimson silk that clung to my curves, topped with a heavy, fur-lined cloak. It was the attire of a Queen.

I thought of the mud. I thought of the rejection. I thought of the cold.

"I'm ready," I said, my voice steady.

Kael raised one gloved hand.

The Lycan army moved as one. They didn't charge; they walked. A slow, methodical advance. The sheer weight of their synchronized footsteps made the ground tremble.

By the time they reached the gates, the Blackwood warriors were lined up behind the barricades, their swords drawn, their faces pale with terror.

"Open the gates!" Kael's voice boomed, not a shout, but a command that seemed to shatter the morning air. "Or I will tear them down and bury your pack beneath the rubble."

A tense silence followed. Then, the heavy iron gates groaned and swung open.

Alpha Damien stepped out. He was flanked by his elite guard, dressed in his ceremonial armor, trying to look every inch the powerful Alpha. But I saw the truth. I saw the way his hand trembled on the hilt of his sword. I saw the fear in the eyes of the warriors behind him.

Beside him, draped in white furs, was Seraphina.

"Lycan King," Damien called out, his voice tight. "You cross a dangerous line. The Blackwood Pack has no quarrel with you. Why have you brought your army to my borders?"

Kael didn't answer. He simply urged his horse forward, stopping just a few feet from Damien.

And then, Kael looked at me.

He extended his hand.

I didn't hesitate. I swung my leg over the horse and let Kael help me down. He kept his hand firmly on the small of my back, a possessive, grounding weight.

The moment I stepped into the light, the Blackwood warriors gasped.

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. The Omega. The rejected one.

Damien's eyes locked onto me. His face drained of color. For a second, he looked like he had been struck by lightning.

"Selene?" he choked out. "What... what is the meaning of this?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Seraphina shrieked, stepping forward. Her face twisted in ugly, jealous rage. "You're supposed to be dead! You're a rogue! How dare you show your face here?"

I didn't flinch. I didn't lower my gaze. I looked at her the way one looks at a speck of dirt on a shoe.

"I am no longer an Omega, Seraphina," I said, my voice ringing out clear and cold across the clearing. "And I am no longer a rogue. I am the mate of the Lycan King."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Damien's eyes darted from me to Kael, then down to the fresh, unmistakable mark on my neck that was no longer hidden by the silver locket. The mark of a Lycan.

"You... you bonded with her?" Damien stammered, his face twisting in disbelief. "She is a weak, useless-"

CRACK.

Kael moved faster than the eye could follow. One second, he was standing beside me. The next, he was in front of Damien, his hand wrapped around the Alpha's throat.

Kael lifted Damien off the ground as if he weighed nothing. Damien's sword clattered to the dirt, his hands clawing uselessly at Kael's iron grip.

"Finish that sentence," Kael whispered, his crimson eyes burning with lethal malice. "I dare you to insult my Queen again."

"Let him go!" Seraphina screamed, drawing a silver dagger.

Kael didn't even look at her. He released a fraction of his aura.

The pressure was instant and suffocating. It was the weight of an ancient, monstrous power. Seraphina's dagger fell from her hands as she collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. Behind them, the entire Blackwood elite guard was forced to the ground, their faces pressed into the mud.

Only I remained standing. The aura didn't touch me. It flowed around me like a protective shield.

"Kael," I said softly.

Kael's eyes snapped to mine. The murderous rage in them flickered, then calmed. He opened his hand, and Damien fell to the dirt, coughing and gagging.

"Look at him, Selene," Kael said, his voice carrying across the silent pack. "Look at the mighty Alpha who threw you away."

Damien pushed himself up on his hands and knees, his chest heaving. He looked up at me, his eyes wide, filled with a mixture of terror, regret, and desperate longing. The mate bond-the one he had severed-was trying to reassert itself, drawn to the power radiating from me.

"Selene," Damien rasped, reaching a hand toward me. "I... I made a mistake. The Moon Goddess... she must have meant you for me. I see it now. Please."

I looked down at him. The man I had loved. The man I had cried for.

The hollow ache in my chest didn't even twinge.

"You are pathetic," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper, though the wind carried it to every ear. "You rejected me for a cheap imitation."

I stepped forward, my boots clicking against the stone pathway. I stopped right in front of him and looked down.

"I am the mate of the Lycan King," I said, the words tasting like sweet, dark wine. "I am a Moon Blessed. And you, Damien, are nothing but a cowardly dog who just lost his pack."

I turned my back on him. I turned my back on all of them.

"Kael," I said, looking over my shoulder. "Take what you want. I'm done here."

Kael smiled. A brutal, predatory, and utterly possessive smile.

He grabbed Damien by the hair and yanked his head back, forcing the Alpha to look up at him.

"You heard my Queen," Kael growled. "This territory is now mine. And if I ever see you look at her again, I will carve out your eyes and feed them to the crows."

Kael released him and walked back to my side, his hand finding my waist.

"Let's go home," he murmured, his voice dark and heavy with promise.

But before we could mount the horses, Seraphina, still trembling on the ground, let out a broken sob.

"You can't do this!" she screamed, her voice unhinged. "She's a monster! She's cursed! The Goddess didn't bless her, she-"

Before she could finish, a sharp, blinding pain shot through my skull.

A vision.

It was violent, sudden, and terrifying.

I saw the Blackwood Pack in flames. I saw Damien on his knees, screaming. But it wasn't Kael's army burning the pack.

It was me.

I was standing in the center of the flames, my eyes glowing a terrifying, monstrous silver. And in my hand, I held a beating heart.

I gasped, stumbling backward. Kael caught me instantly.

"Selene?" he asked, his voice sharp with concern. "What is it? What did you see?"

I looked at my hands. They were clean. Unblemished.

But I could still feel the phantom heat of the fire on my skin. I could still feel the warm blood.

I looked at Kael, my breath coming in short, panicked gasps.

"We have to go," I whispered, a cold dread settling deep in my bones. "Now."

I didn't wait for him. I pulled away and practically ran for the horse.

Because the worst part of the vision wasn't the fire. It wasn't the blood.

It was that I enjoyed it.

And I knew, deep down, that this was only the beginning.