Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 17
Blood Moon did not sleep after Ethel found the sealed report. Rumors spread between patrols and servants, changing with every retelling. Some claimed Selene was a witch; others insisted Nightwind had planted her to weaken Jackson’s engagement. She was no longer discussed as an ordinary maid. She had become a mystery—and mysteries frightened packs built on rigid hierarchy.
Outside the infirmary, Selene found Alpha Ethel waiting. For the first time, he did not hide behind the distance of a visiting leader. His eyes met hers with such naked recognition that her chest tightened.
“Selene,” he whispered. Her name broke in his voice as though it belonged to a memory rather than an introduction. Lyla stirred sharply. Something is wrong, she warned, though fear was not what Selene sensed from the older Alpha.
His scent feels like ours, Lyla said. Selene frowned. Blood relatives shared subtle notes beneath their individual scent, but she had never possessed family against whom to recognize the pattern. Ethel carried mountain rain, old pine, and something that made her wolf ache. Beneath it lay the same cold silver note Selene had begun detecting in her own skin since turning eighteen.
He stepped closer, moving carefully as though any sudden gesture might send her running. “Who gave you your name?” Selene glanced toward the infirmary door. “The pack did, I think. I was too young to remember.” No one had ever told her whether the name came from her belongings or a servant’s whim, and she had learned not to ask questions that irritated her keepers.
“And before Blood Moon?” Ethel asked. She shook her head. All she knew was the story repeated since childhood: someone found her near the eastern border after a conflict, alone and feverish, with no family willing to claim her.
Ethel’s breath caught at each detail. Alexander entered the corridor in time to hear the exchange, followed moments later by Jackson. Three Alpha presences collided in the narrow space, forcing guards and servants toward the walls.
Luke exchanged a grim look with Drake. The air carried grief from Ethel, wary protection from Alexander, and territorial anger from Jackson. Guards farther down the hall struggled to remain upright beneath the competing authority. Any careless word could turn a family revelation into an Alpha challenge and bring three packs to the edge of conflict.
Ethel kept his attention on Selene. “You were found after the Bloodwind conflict, and you were approximately three.” His precision made her pulse quicken. None of this sounded like a stranger’s curiosity.
“Yes,” she answered. “Why?” Ethel reached inside his coat slowly. Jackson shifted as though the movement might conceal a weapon, but Alexander recognized the small cloth bundle from their earlier conversation.
Ethel unfolded it and revealed a child’s silver bracelet. Time had softened its shine, yet the engraving remained legible: My Selene. He held it on his palm, unable to close the final distance himself.
The moment Selene saw it, emotion struck without memory. Grief, warmth, and recognition broke through her defenses in one wave. She staggered back, gripping the wall as Lyla gasped inside her mind.
I remember that scent, the wolf whispered. It belongs to us. Selene shook her head. “No. I have never seen him or that bracelet.” Her voice lacked conviction because her blood answered before her mind could.
Ethel’s eyes filled, but he did not force the bracelet into her hand. It had been intended for her third birthday, he explained, commissioned by his wife shortly before their child vanished. She had chosen its tiny moon-and-wolf pattern herself and hidden it so the gift would be a surprise. The daughter engraved in its silver had also been named Selene.
Jackson stepped forward. “This is speculation. She is a registered member of Blood Moon.” The claim sounded less certain than he intended. Ethel turned toward him with the quiet fury of a father. “Is she? Or is that merely what your records were altered to say?”
For the first time, Jackson hesitated. He had inherited pack records and accepted Selene’s status without investigation. He remembered older council members discouraging questions about the orphan and realized he had never challenged their convenient silence. Whether or not he knew of the original abduction, his authority now stood between Ethel and the daughter Blood Moon had failed.
Alexander said nothing, but his wolf tracked each change in Selene. Her reaction to Ethel carried no mate pull; it was deeper, shaped by inherited power. The bond between Alexander and Selene sharpened in response, as though her awakening bloodline brought it nearer completion.
A painful pulse burst inside Selene’s chest. Her vision blurred, and she pressed a hand against the wall. “Lyla?” Silence answered first. Shapes moved behind her closed eyes: silver cloth, a child’s hand, and a woman humming beside a fire. Then the wolf whispered that she could see something pushing against Selene’s blocked memories.
“What do you see?” Selene asked inwardly. Lyla’s reply came with wonder and fear. Your blood remembers him. The statement weakened Selene’s knees. Her body recognized a father her stolen childhood could not recall.
Alexander stepped forward. “Enough. This corridor is not the place, and Selene is barely standing.” His command was aimed at the Alphas, not at her. That distinction did not escape her.
