Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 15
The chandelier filled Selene’s vision as it plunged toward the marble floor. For one impossible instant, time slowed enough for her to see each iron arm, each spinning crystal, and the shadow closing over her body. There was no room to run.
“Selene!” Alexander’s voice thundered down the corridor. He launched forward, caught one arm around her waist, and threw them both beyond the falling fixture. They struck the floor as the chandelier crashed where Selene had stood a heartbeat earlier.
The impact shook the manor. Iron twisted against marble, crystals burst into glittering fragments, and dust rolled through the hallway. A broken arm of the fixture struck the wall hard enough to split stone where Selene’s head had been. Alexander shielded her beneath his body until the last pieces stopped raining from the ceiling.
“Are you hurt?” His hand braced beside her head, his breath uneven from the force of the rescue. Selene blinked through the haze. “I don’t think so.” A scrape burned along her arm, but the rest of her body answered.
Only then did they realize how close they were. Their eyes met, and the mate bond surged through them with luminous warmth. Selene felt the rapid beat of Alexander’s heart and the absolute terror he had experienced when he saw the chandelier fall. His wolf settled with a fierce, satisfied sound. Lyla answered inside Selene. He protected us without stopping to calculate the cost.
Color warmed Selene’s cheeks, but before either could move, another voice crashed through the corridor. “Alexander!” Jackson arrived seconds too late and stopped at the sight of the Nightwind Alpha bent protectively over his mate.
Alexander’s arm still circled Selene. She looked up at him with trust Jackson had never earned. Something inside Jackson snapped, and his Alpha aura burst through the hallway, driving nearby servants several steps back.
“What happened?” His voice was dangerously calm. Alexander rose and helped Selene to her feet without looking away from him. Dust coated her dress, blood from the scrape marked one sleeve, and tiny crystals clung to her hair. Jackson reached toward her before remembering the room was watching.
Luke crouched beside the wreckage and examined the severed support. “This was not an accident.” He lifted the rope end for the others to see. Its fibers showed a deliberate cut before the final break.
Jackson’s eyes hardened. Someone inside his own pack had tried to kill Selene. The knowledge stripped away every excuse he had used to keep emotional distance; his wolf’s terror still echoed through his bones. He had planned to reject her, yet the possibility of a world in which she no longer existed had felt like death arriving through the bond.
On the upper landing, Tiffany retreated from the railing before anyone looked up. She had not expected Alexander to arrive so quickly or Selene to survive. Panic hammered against her ribs, but years of manipulation had taught her never to show fear.
She entered with the gathering servants, one hand covering her mouth. “Oh, my Goddess! Selene, are you all right?” Her performance carried exactly the right mixture of horror and concern. She even reached toward Selene before Alexander’s cold gaze made her stop, as though his wolf sensed danger his mind had not identified.
Selene studied her. Tiffany’s sympathy felt rehearsed, and Lyla growled softly. Be careful. She smells afraid. Selene asked whether Tiffany feared the accident. Lyla’s answer chilled her. No. She fears what survived it.
Ethel knelt beside the broken fixture and examined the severed chain. The cut was clean enough to reveal intent. “If someone prepared this,” he said, looking toward Selene, “then someone wanted her dead.”
His wolf rose with a protective fury buried for fifteen years. If Selene was truly his daughter, he had nearly lost her again moments after finding her. The old failure of the nursery attack tore open inside him, transforming shock into a need for vengeance. Not again, the wolf vowed. Never again.
Jackson ordered the corridor cleared. Within minutes only Selene, Alexander, Ethel, Luke, Drake, and Jackson remained. The broken chandelier lay between them like evidence from a battlefield.
Jackson faced Alexander. “Thank you.” The words came reluctantly but sincerely. Alexander inclined his head. “I did what anyone should.” Both knew that was untrue; few Alphas would throw themselves beneath falling iron for a servant they had met the previous night.
“Why?” Jackson asked. Alexander looked toward Selene. “I don’t know how to explain it.” His wolf already had, but the impossible second bond denied him the simple proof others expected. He had moved before recognizing the chandelier, driven by Selene’s fear through their connection. He only knew letting her die had never been an option.
Later, Selene sat in the infirmary while a healer bandaged her arm. The quiet room smelled of bitter herbs and clean linen, a fragile refuge after the chaos of the ruined corridor. Lyla remained thoughtful until Selene asked what troubled her.
Everyone reacted as if your life mattered, the wolf said. Jackson felt your fear. Alexander risked himself. The older Alpha looked ready to tear the manor apart. Selene gave a sad laugh. “My life has never mattered before.”
