Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 13
Alexander reached the study as the scent of Selene’s blood sharpened. His wolf surged beneath his skin with enough force to splinter control. Mate. He pushed through the door without knocking and found Jackson standing several feet from Selene.
The room fell silent. Jackson turned, fury darkening his face at the intrusion. “What are you doing here?” Alexander ignored the question. His eyes went directly to Selene, who held one hand around the other while a shallow cut bled across her palm.
The injury was minor, but fate magnified its scent into an alarm only his body fully understood. He smelled pain, fear, and the wild silver note of her newly awakened wolf. Lyla stirred inside Selene the instant he entered. He came for us, she said, wonder softening her voice. No one had ever crossed a room simply because Selene might be hurt.
Alexander crossed the room, each step drawn by something more inevitable than choice. Selene looked up, and the pain in her hand receded beneath the warmth opening between them. Jackson moved into his path.
“Stop.” Alpha command hardened the word. Alexander finally met his eyes. “She’s bleeding.” Jackson glanced at the cut as though its insignificance settled the matter. “It’s a scratch. My pack can care for its own.”
Power gathered between them. The bookshelves trembled, and guests passing in the corridor backed away before they knew the cause. Jackson’s aura carried territorial command, while Alexander’s felt colder and older, shaped by battles that had made Nightwind feared. Neither Alpha needed to raise his voice; two dominant wolves refusing to yield could turn stillness into violence.
Something is wrong, Lyla warned. Selene asked if she meant Jackson. No. Alexander’s wolf. I can feel him trying to protect us. The connection bewildered Selene. Alexander knew almost nothing about her, yet his concern felt more honest than years of Jackson’s hidden possession.
Dizziness swept through her before she could answer. The study tilted, and she reached for the desk. Both Alphas stepped toward her at the same instant, their mirrored reaction making the pressure surge.
Warmth expanded through Selene’s chest. It did not hurt; it felt like a missing piece moving close enough to reveal its shape. For a heartbeat she sensed Alexander’s concern as if it were her own, along with Jackson’s jealousy striking from the opposite direction. Alexander’s wolf howled in recognition, and Jackson’s answered with a furious growl.
Books rattled against their shelves. A crystal tumbler shattered on the sideboard without being touched. The explosive sound brought Luke running from one end of the corridor and Drake from the other.
Both Betas stopped outside the open door. They had witnessed Alpha challenges and mate bonds before, but never two wolves reacting so violently around one woman without shifting. The pressure carried two distinct claims, each powerful enough to be genuine. “This isn’t normal,” Drake murmured. Luke’s grim silence agreed.
While the study became the center of a different crisis, Ethel entered Blood Moon’s archive room. Dust coated the shelves and old ledgers leaned in uneven rows, holding histories Jackson’s pack had apparently forgotten. The air smelled of old paper, cooling wax, and dangerous secrets left undisturbed for far too long. An elderly steward had reluctantly granted access after Ethel invoked diplomatic courtesy and the authority owed to a visiting Alpha.
If Selene had arrived fifteen years ago, some record should remain. Ethel searched one ledger, then another, tracing names, transfers, deaths, and adoptions until the ink blurred beneath his exhausted eyes.
Near the bottom of a weathered page, he found an entry without a family name: female child, approximately three years old, discovered unconscious near the eastern forest after the Bloodwind conflict. The date was only two days after his daughter vanished. No relatives identified. Temporary name assigned—Selene. No investigation number or message to neighboring packs appeared beside it.
Ethel’s hands began to tremble. His daughter had been three when she vanished. The eastern forest lay along the route Blood Moon’s raiders had used to retreat. He forced himself to continue reading.
The listed possessions were a silver moon pendant, a child’s blanket, and an unknown crest embroidered in blue thread. Ethel recognized every item. His wife had sewn the blanket herself during the final months of pregnancy, stitching Bloodwind’s oldest crest into one corner for protection. Calling that crest unknown could only mean astonishing incompetence or a deliberate lie.
“Selene,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “My little girl.” For the first time in fifteen years, hope outweighed grief. The evidence felt conclusive to a father, yet an Alpha knew records could be altered and memories manipulated.
Footsteps approached outside the archive. Ethel closed the ledger and carried it into the shadow between shelves, listening until the visitor passed. He would not announce the discovery until he possessed proof no one could challenge—and until he understood who had concealed the child’s identity. If Blood Moon had acted deliberately, revealing his suspicion might place Selene in immediate danger.
Back in the study, Jackson seized Selene’s injured hand before Alexander could reach her. “I said she’s fine.” Possession roughened his voice even as his thumb pressed over the cut to stop the blood.
Alexander looked at their joined hands. “You’re lying.” Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?” Alexander did not flinch. “She is in pain, and not because of that scratch.”
