Chapter Ten: The Alpha’s Burden

Chapter Ten: The Alpha's Burden

Pain was not strange to me. Bruises faded, bones mended, scars told stories. But this pain—the memory of flames licking at my mate's flesh from miles distant—was more than any wound a sword could inflict.

It snuck like a whisper at first. The cord taut, a shiver of terror not my own. And then flame, burning my hands though I sat in the quiet of my room. I closed fists against the spectral fire, but it wouldn't recede.

Hold fast, I'd exhaled down the cord, investing energy I scarce could spare. Her breath had answered mine—rough, terrified, living.

And relief afterwards. The fire dimmed, the connection steadied, and I knew she'd succeeded.

But at what cost?

I got up, pacing around the room, muscles screaming from the renegade fight hours before. Blood was still under my nails, and my ribs ached where claws had bitten too deep in. I was supposed to be sleeping, healing—but sleep was for Alphas who didn't have illegal ties holding them to their enemy's daughter.

The door banged open. My Beta, Rowan, strode in without waiting for permission. His eyes swept over me—my bruises, my unsteady gait—and narrowed.

“You shouldn’t have gone alone,” he growled. “You’re Alpha, not some reckless pup looking for glory.”

I met his stare, letting my own dominance press against his until the air between us crackled. “I didn’t go for glory.”

No?" He folded his arms. "Then tell me why Adrian Kane, Alpha of the strongest pack in the North, risked his life chasing rogues along the border when he has warriors to do so."

Because she was there. Because I could sense her fear as though it were mine. Because every cell cried protect her even if it cost my blood on the snow.

But I couldn't say it to him. Not to him.

"I needed answers," I told him instead, voice low. "Those robbers weren't prowling. They were sent. Someone wants war between Kane and Rivera, and I'm going to find out who."

Rowan's eyes froze, hard, wary. For a moment I thought he'd push harder, peel away the lie hanging too tenuously to hold. But then he exhaled, turned away.

"Your council is already agitated," he growled. "They say that your judgment is. clouded. That you're distracted."

My stomach knotted. "Distracted?"

"They think you're hiding something. A flaw." Rowan's voice dropped, full of threat. "If you can't manage that, they'll start to wonder if you're qualified to rule.".

A weakness. They didn't get it. Not yet. If my council were to ever learn of Elena—the bond, the truth—they would do more than strip me of my position. They'd hunt her, tear her asunder to excise what they'd consider my curse.

I curled my hands into fists, struggling to maintain restraint. "Let them guess," I said coldly. "While I draw breath, this pack will obey no one."

Rowan bestowed upon me a long, measuring look, then bent his head in grudging respect. Suspicion remained in his eyes when he left.

Again alone, I braced my hands on the table, chest thudding. The connection still ran through me, fragile but intact—her heartbeat pulsing in mine. She was safe, at least for now.

Both our universes constricted around us. My council mistrusted me. Her father hunted weakness in her lies.

The truth was a knife against our necks. And one way or another, someone was going to drive it home.