Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 18
The air inside Blood Moon Manor felt altered after Ethel’s confrontation with Selene. Servants lowered their voices near the infirmary, and even seasoned warriors avoided the corridor. Wolves who passed too close reported hearing distant howls despite the still morning. Something unseen had awakened there, leaving the walls charged with the promise of a storm.
Selene sat alone beside the infirmary window, no longer pretending to rest. Ethel’s silver bracelet lay on the table, small enough to fit the child she had once been. He had left it without asking her to accept his story, as if closeness might allow the truth to approach at its own pace. Even untouched, it seemed to carry the warmth of hands she could not remember.
She stared at the engraved words until her eyes burned. “Lyla, tell me what you know.” The wolf answered with unusual care. That bracelet belongs to you. Selene shook her head, though recognition tightened her throat.
“I have lived here since I was a child.” Not since you were born, Lyla corrected. The room seemed to cool around her. Selene reached for the bracelet but stopped before touching it.
“What are you saying?” Lyla’s pause carried the weight of a door about to open. You were taken. The words should have sounded impossible. Instead, they settled into spaces Selene had never understood—her missing memories, the false orphan record, and Ethel’s familiar scent. No family had abandoned her; someone had made certain her family could never find her.
Outside the infirmary, Jackson, Alexander, and Ethel converged again. None spoke at first. All three sensed the instability gathering inside Selene: Jackson through the bond he had rejected in everything but ritual, Alexander through the connection seeking completion, and Ethel through blood.
Jackson broke the silence. “This has gone too far.” He spoke as though the revelations themselves were the danger rather than the crime they exposed. Alexander kept his eyes on the closed door. “Then explain it. Explain why your mate bond exists beside mine and why her bloodline is reacting to Ethel.”
Jackson had no answer. Ethel stepped closer. “She is not merely a servant.” The sealed report rested beneath his coat, proof of a crime Blood Moon could no longer dismiss.
“She is mine,” Jackson said instinctively. Possession emerged before reason, and his wolf reinforced it with a growl. Alexander’s gaze sharpened. “Are you certain your claim means what you think it does?”
The question struck harder because Jackson’s certainty was eroding. He had treated the bond as an inconvenience when it seemed simple, measuring Selene against the Luna he thought ambition required. Now her hidden power and Alexander’s connection suggested Jackson had never understood what fate gave him—or whether his claim had been meant to test rather than reward him.
Inside, a violent pulse drove Selene against the table. “Lyla!” The wolf surged around her mind. It’s starting. Before Selene could demand an explanation, the bracelet began to glow.
Silver light flowed across the metal like liquid moonlight, collecting inside the engraved letters. Selene watched it brighten, unable to look away. The runes along its rim were invisible until the glow revealed them, forming a protective circle around her childhood name. Magic did not ordinarily remain inside objects for fifteen years, waiting for one specific heir to return.
“This isn’t normal,” she whispered. No, Lyla replied. It is awakening. The bracelet lifted a fraction above the table as an answering light formed beneath Selene’s skin.
All three Alphas felt the surge outside. Power struck through the corridor, shaking framed paintings and forcing Luke to catch himself against the wall. Drake stared at the infirmary door. “What in the Goddess is happening?”
Ethel’s face changed with recognition. Bloodwind’s royal line had once bound memories and protective magic into heirloom silver, though the practice was believed lost. His wife’s family had guarded the ritual, using it only when an heir faced extinction. “She’s remembering,” he said, hope and fear breaking through his control.
Jackson moved toward the door. Alexander stepped at the same instant. Ethel raised one hand, and the authority in his command stopped them both. “If you enter now, you may interrupt whatever is opening inside her.”
“She could be in danger,” Jackson snapped. Ethel turned the force of a father’s grief on him. “She has survived danger in your territory for fifteen years while your pack called her weak. For once, do not make her awakening about your fear or your claim.” Jackson flinched as though the accusation had found a wound.
Alexander held his position, listening through the bond. Selene was frightened, but the power surrounding her did not feel hostile. It was breaking locks that had been placed inside a child’s mind.
“What is she?” he asked. Ethel looked at the glowing line beneath the door. “She is the truth your mate bonds have been trying to reach.” The answer solved nothing, yet every wolf present sensed its weight.
Selene collapsed to her knees. The pain existed deeper than flesh, like frozen memories cracking open. Images flashed behind her eyes: a forest burning red, a woman clutching a crying child, and silver banners tearing in smoke. She felt small arms wrapped around a mother’s neck and heard warriors shouting that the eastern wall had fallen.
