Bound to the Alpha

The forest breathed around me.

At night, the woods surrounding Black Hollow felt ancient and alive, far older than the packs themselves. Mist drifted slowly between the massive trees, the wind shook the wet leaves, and the thin rain soaked the air with the scent of damp earth, moss, and blood.

Fresh blood. I slowed my pace slightly, letting the silence wrap completely around me.

There was something deeply different about the forest during a hunt. Sounds became sharper. Heartbeats louder. Scents almost suffocating.

I was alone. As always.

The soles of my boots sank into the wet ground as I moved soundlessly through the trees. The black hood barely shielded me from the rain, and a few dark strands of hair had already stuck to the skin of my neck.

I inhaled slowly, trying to catch what only wolves could sense.

Rage. Violence. Wolf.

The rogue was close. Wolves who had long since lost every trace of humanity, corrupted to the core.

For days he had been moving along the eastern borders of Black Hollow’s territory, close enough to terrify the younger members of the pack. Elias had tried to convince me to wait for reinforcements.

I ignored him. Not because I was stupid. Because I knew exactly what those wolves were capable of doing to small packs like ours.

Black Hollow didn’t have armies, vast territories, or legendary Alphas. We only had each other, and I would never allow anyone to step into our land.

A sudden noise shattered the silence. I stopped immediately. Ahead of me, something moved in the shadows between the trees.

Golden eyes appeared first. Then the rest of the body. Large. Too large for a normal wolf.

The rogue crouched over the mutilated carcass of a deer, his muzzle stained with blood and his claws buried in the still-warm flesh.

When he saw me, he smiled. A wrong smile, animalistic, soulless.

“You…” he growled hoarsely. “You smell strange. Like something powerful. If I devoured you, how much power would I gain?”

I stayed still. I hated when they could still speak. The more their souls rotted away, the less human speech they were capable of.

Rain slid down my face as I kept staring at him without blinking. Years ago, I had learned that fear had a scent. Predators could smell it. But I no longer felt emotions at all.

“You’re in the wrong territory,” I said quietly.

The rogue laughed. A low, disturbing sound that made the forest vibrate around us.

“This pack is too weak to stop me.”

Something cold crossed my chest. Not anger. Something worse. Calm.

“Probably,” I murmured. “But I’m not.”

He moved so fast a human wouldn’t have even seen his body lunge forward. I did. I dodged the first strike at the last second, twisting my body as his claws grazed my black coat. The rogue slammed violently into a tree trunk, splintering the wood.

The growl that tore from his throat sounded almost human. For an instant, his eyes flashed with something I knew well. Madness. I would never understand why some wolves chose to completely surrender themselves, to let their souls decay this way and lose all control.

Losing control was the thing I feared most.

The wolf charged at me with a roar. I waited. One, two heartbeats, then I moved.

I drew a dagger hidden behind my back and ducked beneath the rogue’s bite, feeling the wind of his attack brush against my face. I struck. Clean and precise.

Warm blood stained my hand as the blade sank into his side. The wolf collapsed into the mud with a choked sound.

I remained still, staring at the lifeless body in front of me as my breathing slowly returned to normal. I should have felt satisfied. Very few people could take down a rogue without shifting into wolf form. Yet I felt nothing, and that was exactly how it should be.

I closed my eyes for just a moment. And there it was again, that feeling. Always the same. It moved beneath my skin, in my blood and soul. That instinct to command, to overpower everyone and everything, to make them submit.

I hated it. For years I had pretended it didn’t exist, but the older I became, the louder it buzzed beneath my skin, begging to be claimed.

I slowly wiped the blade clean on the dead rogue’s coat and slid it back into its sheath.

“Impressive as always.” Marcus’s voice came from the trees behind me.

“You’re late.”

Black Hollow’s Beta emerged from the mist with the usual tired half-smile on his face. The scar along his jaw looked even darker beneath the rain.

“I didn’t want to interrupt your fun.” I let out a quiet scoff.

Marcus stepped closer to the rogue’s body and fell silent for a few seconds. “I thought there were three of them.”

“There were.”

He lifted his gaze toward me. “And the others?” I had already started walking toward the trail. He knew exactly who he was talking to. The question was pointless.

“Dead.” I heard Marcus curse softly behind me. After all these years, he still acted surprised by the things I did. He didn’t say another word for the rest of the walk.

The forest slowly began to thin as the lights of Black Hollow appeared in the distance. And something inside my chest loosened immediately.

Black Hollow wasn’t impressive. It didn’t have the massive buildings of the central packs or the luxurious estates of the most powerful Alphas. We had small wooden houses, dirt and stone roads, fireplaces that were always burning, and enough warmth to melt even my frozen heart. And that was enough. I had never wanted more. Maybe because it was the first place that had ever made me feel safe.

When we crossed into the village boundaries, I immediately noticed the people still awake. A few warriors near the central square, an old woman sitting on her porch, two children leaning out of a window.

And the moment they saw me return…

relief spread through the pack like a wave. I hated that feeling. The fact that they felt safe because of me, because I knew exactly how fragile safety truly was. If anyone ever discovered who I really was, this place could burn. Or worse, I would be forced to run.

“Ash!”

A little girl ran toward me through the mud before I could stop her. I managed to catch her just in time. She laughed as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“You’re late.” She looked at me with wide, lively eyes that made it impossible to deny her anything.

“There was work to do.”

“Did you kill the rogue?” Marcus laughed behind us. “I’d say so.”

The little girl looked at me like I was something extraordinary. I immediately looked away.

That was the problem. Over the past few years, Black Hollow had started seeing me as a protector, an unstoppable warrior.

But none of them truly knew what I was. And every single day, I prayed it would stay that way.

“Let the girl breathe.”

Elias’s deep voice cut through the courtyard.

Black Hollow’s Alpha stood beneath the warm lantern light, his hands clasped behind his back. Gray hair fell slightly over his eyes, and the lines on his face looked deeper than usual.

Old wolf, but still strong.

The man who had found me years ago at the edge of the forest. Covered in blood, traumatized, alone. The man who had never asked questions.

The little girl finally climbed out of my arms and ran off. Elias’s gaze dropped to the blood on my coat.

“Rogue?”

I nodded.

“Near the eastern border.”

Marcus climbed the porch steps beside us. “The Northern packs lied to us. He wasn’t alone.” Elias sighed slowly. “I figured.”

For a few seconds, no one spoke.

The rain kept falling softly over the village while the wind moved through the trees surrounding Black Hollow.

Then Elias truly looked at me, and something in his expression made me stiffen.

“Lately the rogues have been getting closer and closer, as if they’re searching for something… or someone.”

My body remained still. Controlled. Always controlled.

Marcus immediately lowered his gaze thoughtfully.

I simply kept staring at Elias without showing emotion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He stayed silent for too long, just looking at me. As if he knew there was something inside me. As if he knew something within me was waiting to be claimed and declared.