Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 26
The explosion from Blood Moon Manor’s lower level shook dust from the rafters and shattered the remaining celebration windows. Selene did not wait for orders. Silver energy traced the Bloodwind crest beneath her skin as she strode toward the smoke.
She no longer moved like a servant trained to make herself small. Each step carried the controlled authority of an awakened heir, and guards who once ignored her opened a path without being told.
Jackson, Alexander, and Ethel followed. None attempted to take the lead, though their wolves strained toward the danger. This attack had answered Selene’s awakening; whatever waited below had come for her truth.
“You should not go alone,” Jackson said. Selene continued down the corridor. “I was alone for fifteen years. If you want to help now, walk beside me rather than deciding where I’m allowed to go.”
Alexander warned that the intruder carried magic matching her seal. Ethel added that Lucian’s network rarely acted without several hidden objectives. At the name, Lyla growled inside Selene’s mind.
Be careful, the wolf urged. Selene promised she would, but caution no longer meant retreat. She expanded her senses through the crest, detecting scorched wolfsbane, concealed blood, and an unfamiliar Alpha pressure below.
They reached a lower chamber whose reinforced door had been blasted inward. Darkness filled the ruined room beyond, broken only by sparking wires and a single emergency lamp. Someone stood calmly at its center.
The destruction around the figure had been arranged with unsettling precision. Support columns remained intact, while every communication line and security charm lay severed. This was not the work of an intruder forcing a desperate entrance; someone had known the room’s construction and disabled only what prevented access to the levels below. Luke ordered the guards to search for a second team, but Selene sensed the masked wolf had expected that response as well.
The figure wore black from throat to boots, with a smooth mask concealing every feature. Spells distorted the intruder’s scent, but the pressure rolling from them belonged to an Alpha-level wolf.
Jackson stepped forward. “Identify yourself.” A slow laugh answered—not wild or mocking, but controlled enough to suggest complete confidence. Alexander tested the scent and confirmed the intruder was not Nightwind.
Ethel’s face hardened. “Lucian sent you.” The masked figure did not acknowledge him. Selene moved into the light, allowing her crest to glow. “You crossed the wall for me. Stop pretending otherwise.”
The mask tilted. “So the experiment finally woke up.” The word struck Selene harder than any weapon. Lyla erupted with recognition, remembering that altered voice from the chamber where their bond had been sealed.
Experiment returned Selene to the memory of cold hands measuring her blood while she cried for her parents. Anger rose quickly, but she directed it into the crest instead of allowing it to explode. Silver lines sharpened around her wrists, ready to form a shield or blade. The intruder noticed the control and shifted one foot back. Lucian’s servants had apparently been told to expect immense power, but not a young woman already learning how to govern it.
“Who are you?” Selene asked. The figure looked at her as if assessing a result rather than meeting a person. “Bloodwind was never meant to survive in its original form.”
Jackson’s wolf surged. Alexander shifted slightly in front of Selene, then checked himself when she stepped around him. Neither attacked; the intruder wanted them angry enough to miss information.
Ethel studied the stranger’s stance while the others argued. The intruder favored one leg and kept the left hand near the coat, habits Ethel remembered from Blood Moon officers during the old conflict. Whoever stood behind the mask had either survived that battle or been trained by someone who did. He quietly signaled the detail to Alexander, who began watching the concealed hand for a spell trigger rather than an ordinary weapon.
“Impressive,” the figure said, surveying the group. “A rejected bond that refuses to break, a second mate whose connection strengthens through truth, and a father carrying a dead bloodline.” Each description was designed to wound.
Jackson’s aura turned violent. Ethel demanded to know whether Lucian had ordered the attack. The intruder chuckled. “Lucian does not send people. He watches what his preparations make inevitable.”
Selene repeated Lucian Blackthorn’s name. The mask snapped toward her. “He is very interested in what you have become—and in whether the three Alphas around you accelerate the process.”
Heat burned across Selene’s crest. This was not merely revenge for an old abduction. Her awakening, the bonds, and Lucian’s location within Nightwind were pieces of a design still unfolding.
