Lydia was setting a cup of tea on the small stool beside me when I swore softly, careful not to wake the sleeping bundle cradled in my arms after an hour of rocking her to sleep.
My wife looked up at the sound of my voice, her expression soft but knowing.
As soon as I slanted an apologetic look her way, she smiled faintly. “Your Alpha needs you.”
“I’m on leave, dammit.” My grip on my daughter, Mira, tightened. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Go,” she said gently, brushing a kiss over my jaw. “He wouldn’t call you unless it was serious.”
I looked at her, guilt pricking under my ribs. “You just gave birth three days ago, Ly. I shouldn’t-“
Her hand pressed over mine, warm and steady. “You’re his Beta, Gav. That means he’s your number one priority. I knew that when I said ‘I do.’”
I cupped her face, running my thumb along her cheekbone. “You’re my number one priority,” I told her firmly. “Then Mira. Kieran will always come in third place.”
She laughed softly as she gently lifted the tiny bundle out of my arms. “Go.”
I was out of the house a heartbeat later, yanking my shirt off as I ran and Shifting before my feet even hit the tree line.
The world blurred into scents and sounds-the metallic tang of blood in the wind, the rip of claws against bark, the echoing growl that made my wolf, Xander, bare his teeth.
The scent trail led me up through the ridges, where the earth had been violently scarred. Claw marks gouged deep into the rock face, the scent of fury and despair soaked into the soil.
When I reached the clearing, the sight hit me like a punch.
Ashar’s hulking golden form was a cyclone of violence-ripping, tearing, lashing out at nothing. Trees lay splintered. The ground itself looked mauled. Every motion screamed of guilt and self-loathing.
‘Ashar!’ I projected through the mind-link, Xander stepping cautiously from the shadows. ‘Enough! You’ll destroy yourself.’
Ashar’s head snapped up, and I swore internally. His eyes only ever burned gold when he was displaying a gargantuan amount of power. Or lack of control.
His chest heaved with every growl, each breath steaming in the cold night air.
‘Finally,’ he snarled-and lunged.
I braced. I’d known this was why I’d been summoned. He wasn’t looking for comfort. He was looking for punishment.
Our bodies collided with bone-jarring force, the impact echoing through the clearing. Xander met him head-on, claws flashing.
We grappled, rolled, and broke apart, only to crash together again. The scent of blood thickened as fur and dust swirled through the air.
Ashar struck like a storm-relentless, blistering.
His movements were a blur of raw instinct, no strategy, no restraint. Every slash, every bite carried the weight of something deeper than rage.
I ducked a swipe that would’ve torn my throat open, countering with a shoulder slam that sent him stumbling back. But he was on me again in seconds, moving too fast for a creature his size.
Xander barely twisted aside in time. Claws raked across my shoulder, searing fire through muscle and bone. The pain snapped through both of us like lightning, but it only sharpened my focus.
‘He’s not trying to kill you,’ Xander growled inside my head. ‘He’s trying to kill himself.’
‘Sure seems like he’s trying to kill me too,’ I thought bitterly.
I slammed back into him, jaws snapping, forcing him down. The earth cracked beneath our combined weight, dust rising in a thick haze. Ashar bucked violently, throwing me off with a surge of power that made the air tremble.
He was magnificent, terrifying-every line of muscle carved with fury, every breath a growl.
His golden fur was streaked with blood, his own and mine, and his eyes blazed like molten sunlight through a storm.
This was unlike any sparring match we’d ever had. This was destruction made flesh.
“You’re going to burn yourself out,” I snarled aloud, half-shifting, my voice roughened by the strain. “Kieran, call him back before he destroys what’s left of you!”
But there was no answer. Only a low, guttural snarl that made the trees shudder.
Ashar’s howl broke the night again-raw anguish, echoing down the ridges. Then he lunged once more, claws colliding with my chest. I hit the ground hard, the air knocked from my lungs.
Before I could recover, he was over me, fangs bared, inches from my throat.
And then…hesitation.
His body trembled. The golden light in his eyes flickered-once, twice-before dimming, like a dying ember.
His breathing came ragged, desperate, as though the weight of what he’d done finally crashed down on him all at once.
The rage bled out slowly. His massive frame sagged, claws digging into the earth for balance.
Then his head dropped, pressing into the dirt, and a low, broken sound escaped him-less of a growl, closer to a sob.
I didn’t move. I waited.
When he Shifted, it wasn’t explosive. It was weary. Bones reformed with dull cracks, fur receding back into bloodied skin. The golden wolf dissolved into a man-shaking, bruised, half-naked, half-wild.
Kieran collapsed onto his hands and knees, gasping for air, the moonlight cutting harshly across his torn back.
His knuckles were raw, streaked with blood and dirt. For a long moment, he didn’t speak-just stared at the ground, chest rising and falling too fast, eyes vacant.
The forest was quiet now-eerily so. The scent of blood and splintered wood still lingered, but the storm had passed.
And Kieran Blackthorne, the golden Alpha who commanded armies, now sat slumped in the wreckage, trembling like a man who’d lost his entire world.
GAVIN’S POV
By the time we made our way to the pack infirmary, the forest was preternaturally still, as if the storm that had torn through it had never come.
The trees stood silent again, but the air still held the ghost of violence-charred earth, splintered bark, blood. The quiet after carnage.
We looked like hell-ragged, bloody, and utterly spent-as we sank onto the stone bench in the infirmary courtyard.
Moonlight caught the edges of Kieran’s shredded skin and the sheen of sweat on him. He didn’t look like an Alpha then-just a man gutted by his own mistakes.
I grabbed a first aid box and a spare set of clothes from the store. When I came back, he hadn’t moved, staring at nothing, jaw tight, eyes hollow.
Ashar had receded deep within him, but the wolf’s unease hadn’t vanished; I could feel it simmering beneath the surface.
The night air stung against the open cuts on my arms and legs, and the faint metallic tang of blood clung to our skin. I began cleaning the gashes along my forearm, the sting of antiseptic grounding me in the moment.
When I handed Kieran an alcohol wipe, he just shook his head-too proud or too tired, I wasn’t sure which-and I didn’t press him.
Our wolves would heal it all by morning anyway. No bruises, the faintest of scars. Barely any proof of the chaos that had torn through the mountains.
That was the cruel irony of it: the body would forget what the heart never could.
For a long time, the only sound between us was the faint chorus of crickets and cicadas, a fragile attempt by nature to return to normal.
I knew better than to fill the silence. Kieran wasn’t ready, and pushing him would only drive him deeper into that spiral.
It took nearly an eternity before he exhaled-a long, weighted breath that seemed to deflate something inside him. He stared down at his hands, at the blood crusted over his knuckles.
“I broke it off with Celeste,” he said hoarsely.
The words hung in the air, thick and heavy.
“Congratulations” nearly slipped out, but I bit my tongue just in time.
“Why?” I asked instead, quietly.
He shook his head, sweat-damp hair sticking to his temples. “It’s not important.” Another exhale, longer, harsher, like he was expelling poison from his lungs. “I never should have gotten with her to begin with.”
“And…what did Sera have to say about the news?”
That was the real wound. Beneath the blood, the sweat, the exhaustion-her scent lingered. Lavender and heartbreak.
Kieran stiffened instantly, his entire body coiling like a drawn bow. I held my breath, weighing whether I had the energy to survive another round with Ashar.
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