Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 25
The command hall seemed to hold its breath as Ethel spoke the name. “Lucian Blackthorn.” Recognition moved through the room, colder than confusion. Jackson’s expression tightened, Alexander’s gaze sharpened, and Selene’s body remembered fear before her mind found a face.
“Lucian Blackthorn,” Jackson repeated. The name belonged to Blood Moon history, attached to a senior Alpha who had supposedly died fifteen years earlier. Lucian had commanded covert operations under Jackson’s predecessor and possessed access to every border route. His portrait had been removed after the conflict, and most records described his death without details or a recovered body.
Ethel shook his head. “He did not die. He disappeared inside the institutions he helped build.” The sealed report identified Lucian as the commander who ordered Bloodwind’s heir extracted and re-registered under Blood Moon authority. Later payments flowed through shell traders connected to several packs, proving his network survived his supposed death.
Luke stepped toward the table. “That cannot be authentic.” Ethel turned the pages, revealing matching authorization marks across patrol changes, payments, and the memory-seal request. Forging all of them would have required access equal to the original crime.
This was no longer a servant’s mistreatment or one hidden abduction. It was corruption at Alpha level, designed to remove Bloodwind’s succession while preserving the child for a purpose the files did not explain. Selene’s unusual power offered one possible motive: Lucian may have intended to control the convergence once she matured.
A sharp pulse struck Selene’s chest. She staggered as Lyla urged her to remain grounded. The name had found one of the final locks inside her memory, and something behind it wanted to break free.
A face flickered: cold eyes beneath a dark hood, a hand bearing a black thorn ring, and a voice ordering someone to erase her existence. The ring’s stone reflected the same sickly green light as the spell suppressing Lyla. “No,” Selene gasped, pressing both palms to her temples as the memory tried to pull her backward.
Alexander moved toward her. “The seal is reacting.” Jackson blocked him instinctively and ordered him back. Alexander did not look away from Selene. “She is no longer responding to your dominance. Stop making this harder.”
The truth held Jackson still. His aura could pressure the room, but it could not reach Selene through the memory. Years of forcing obedience had left him with no gentler path into her trust.
Inside her mind, the scattered images collapsed into one terrifying scene. A man stood in a shadowed chamber wearing a black cloak, while three-year-old Selene cried behind a silver barrier. Two Blood Moon officers stood beside him, their faces hidden, and a map of Nightwind territory lay open across the table.
“The bloodline must be removed,” Lucian said. A spellcaster asked whether to kill the child. He refused. Killing a guarded heir could release the ancestral force into another relative, while keeping Selene alive contained it within a controllable body. “Reassign her identity. Seal her wolf. Make her forget until we are ready to use her.”
Adult Selene screamed into the memory. “I remember you!” The scene shattered, and silver energy burst outward through the command hall. Guards dropped to their knees as the floor trembled.
Luke shouted that she was losing control, but Ethel recognized the runes tearing apart around her crest. “No. She is breaking his seal. Let her finish.”
Jackson and Alexander moved at the same time, then stopped when the power rejected both of them. Silver barriers rose around Selene, allowing neither Alpha to substitute his strength for hers. She was not reacting to mate bonds. She was fighting the man who had imprisoned her mind, and this victory had to belong to her.
The Bloodwind crest ignited beneath her collarbone and spread in silver lines across her shoulders like living ink. Lyla merged deeper with the ancestral consciousness, lending Selene the strength to remain herself while forbidden magic broke.
The ancient voice entered clearly. This is him. Selene forced the name through clenched teeth. “Lucian?” The presence confirmed it. The one who erased you—and who expected the seal to hold until your power belonged to him. Beneath that message came a warning: breaking the seal would alert its creator to her exact location.
Selene’s eyes opened completely silver. Fear vanished beneath clarity. “I will find him.” Her voice carried through the manor with the authority of Bloodwind’s returning heir.
Jackson stepped forward. “No. You are not leaving Blood Moon while an enemy is hunting you.” His Alpha aura flared, transforming concern into another command.
Selene did not look away. “You do not command me anymore.” The words shattered the last assumption that her bond made her subject to him. Jackson’s wolf recoiled, unable to turn possession into loyalty.
Alexander felt his own bond shift as well. Selene was moving beyond instinctive reactions to both Alphas. If either connection was to survive, it would have to meet her as an equal.
