Kael Draven had faced war without flinching.
He had stared down rival Alpha Kings, led massacres, crushed rebellions, and sentenced traitors to death without losing a single night of sleep.
Yet tonight
Sleep refused to come.
He stood on the balcony of the Alpha residence, bare hands gripping the cold stone railing as the wind tugged at his dark cloak. The moon hung high above the pack grounds, luminous and accusing.
Mocking him.
His chest tightened again.
Kael scowled and pressed a hand flat against his sternum.
The sensation was wrong.
Not pain. Not injury.
It was… pressure. A dull, persistent pull, as though something invisible was tugging at him from the inside, demanding attention.
He hadn't felt this since the ceremony.
Since her.
His jaw clenched.
Ariyah Vale.
The name surfaced unbidden, and irritation flared instantly.
Weak omega. Frail wolf. Barely any presence.
A mistake.
That was all she had ever been.
The Moon Goddess had erred had tested him, perhaps and he had corrected it. Publicly. Decisively.
So why did his wolf pace restlessly beneath his skin like a caged beast?
Kael turned sharply, stalking back into his chambers. The doors slammed shut behind him with a crack that echoed down the corridor.
The room was vast, carved from black stone and lit by flickering wall torches. Normally, the space grounded him. Tonight, it felt suffocating.
He shrugged off his cloak and tossed it aside, loosening the collar at his throat as though it were choking him.
His wolf snarled low in his mind.
Wrong.
Kael froze.
He hadn't imagined it.
"What's wrong," he muttered aloud, more annoyed than concerned.
You know what, his wolf replied, restless and sharp. You felt it. The bond.
Kael's eyes hardened. "The bond was a mistake."
A powerful mistake.
The memory slammed into him without warning.
The moment Ariyah had lifted her head.
The instant their gazes locked.
The shock that had ripped through him not attraction, but something far more dangerous.
Recognition.
Not weak.
Not submissive.
Something had looked back at him from her eyes that night.
Something that had unsettled him deeply.
Kael snarled and shoved the thought away.
"I rejected her," he said coldly. "It's done."
His wolf growled.
Rejected bonds don't end cleanly, it reminded him. Especially not ones that strong.
Kael strode to the table at the center of the room and poured himself a drink, downing it in one harsh swallow.
The burn did nothing to ease the tension coiled inside his chest.
Images rose unbidden.
Ariyah collapsing to the ground.
Her scream.
The way the air had shifted.
The way his dominance his absolute control had faltered for just a heartbeat.
Kael slammed the glass down hard enough for it to crack.
Enough.
He had done what was necessary.
The Blackmoon Pack needed a strong Luna someone visible, respected, capable of bearing heirs without controversy.
Not a fragile omega with no rank.
Not a liability.
And yet…
His chest tightened again, sharper this time.
Kael hissed under his breath and doubled over slightly, fingers digging into the stone table as a surge of heat rolled through him.
"What in the hell"
His wolf surged forward violently.
She's hurting.
Kael's breath hitched.
"That's not my concern."
She is your concern, his wolf snapped back. Mate or not.
Kael straightened slowly, eyes dark.
"I don't have a mate."
Silence followed.
Then
A lie, the wolf said calmly.
The torches flickered.
Kael looked up sharply as a strange pressure filled the room, subtle but undeniable. The same humming sensation he'd felt during the rejection faint, controlled, powerful.
His pulse quickened.
That power…
It wasn't omega.
It wasn't even beta.
It brushed against his senses like a restrained storm.
Impossible.
Female Alphas were myths. Forbidden relics of ancient bloodlines wiped out generations ago to preserve order.
Kael exhaled sharply, forcing his breathing steady.
"You're imagining things," he muttered.
But his wolf remained restless, pacing, claws scraping against his mind.
If she were truly weak, it said slowly, you wouldn't still feel her.
Kael closed his eyes.
Against his will, another memory surfaced one he hadn't allowed himself to examine.
The way Ariyah had looked at him as she was dragged away.
Not broken.
Not pleading.
Burning.
Gold, just at the edges of her pupils.
His eyes snapped open.
No.
That wasn't possible.
A knock sounded at the door.
Kael turned sharply. "Enter."
The door opened to reveal Elder Thorne, his lined face grave.
"My Alpha," the elder said carefully. "There's unrest among the lower ranks."
Kael straightened, composure snapping back into place like armor. "About the ceremony?"
"Yes. And about the girl."
Kael's jaw tightened. "She's irrelevant."
Elder Thorne hesitated. "With respect… the Moon Choosing has never behaved the way it did tonight."
Kael's gaze sharpened. "Explain."
"The pressure," the elder said slowly. "The resonance. Several elders felt it. Not submission. Not dominance."
Kael's fingers curled.
"Then what?"
The elder swallowed. "Recognition."
The word hit harder than Kael expected.
"That's superstition," Kael said flatly.
"Perhaps," Elder Thorne agreed. "But old magic doesn't vanish simply because we choose to forget it."
Kael turned away, staring out the tall windows toward the distant holding chambers.
Somewhere out there, Ariyah Vale lay broken.
And somehow…
Still pulling at him.
"Keep her contained," Kael ordered. "I don't want rumors spreading."
Elder Thorne studied him carefully. "And if containment fails?"
Kael's reflection stared back at him in the glass—cold, controlled, unyielding.
"Then we deal with it," he said.
The elder bowed and left.
Kael remained by the window long after, his chest tight, his wolf restless, the moon burning high above.
For the first time since becoming Alpha King, Kael Draven felt something dangerously close to doubt.
Not about his rule.
But about the woman he had rejected.
Because deep down, beneath pride and law and fear…
He knew one terrible truth:
If Ariyah Vale truly awakened
No Alpha alive would be able to stop her.