The first thing I noticed when the gates of Blackridge Territory closed behind me was the silence.
Not the kind of quiet where you could hear the wind. The kind that pressed against your chest, heavy and watchful, like the forest itself was waiting for a command.
Alpha Kael walked ahead of me, his silhouette sharp against the pale moonlight. I wanted to look away, to shrink into the shadows, but something in the way he moved made me freeze in place. Every step he took radiated power, and I felt it scrape against the edges of my control.
"You will walk beside me," he said, without looking back. The voice was calm, but beneath it hummed a tension I couldn't identify—like a wire stretched taut. "Do not lag behind. Do not speak unless spoken to."
"Yes," I whispered, my throat tight.
We crossed the courtyard, torches flickering against the stone walls of his estate. I tried to steady my breathing, but every instinct screamed at me: this was not a place for someone like me. Not yet. Maybe never.
The doors to the main hall opened silently. Inside, the air was warmer, heavier, scented faintly of smoke and pine. Warriors lined the walls, silent and alert, their eyes flicking briefly to me before returning to their posts. Even in my nervous state, I noticed the subtle signs: the alpha presence in the room was everywhere.
Kael stopped at the top of a staircase. "This will be your room." His gaze swept the hall, then back to me. "Follow."
The hallways twisted like the veins of a mountain, torches mounted in carved sconces casting flickering shadows that danced on the walls. My wolf stirred inside me, a low, uneasy vibration. She didn't like the scent here. Not fully. But she was curious.
The room was large, with heavy drapes drawn over a window that looked out into the misty forest. A bed draped in dark linens dominated the space. Kael stepped inside and closed the door softly behind him.
I swallowed, forcing my gaze to the floor. "I… thank you?"
He looked at me, and for a moment, the stoic mask slipped. His eyes flickered—not warmth. Not kindness. Something else. Proprietary. Dominant. Claiming.
"You will sleep here," he said. His voice was calm, but I could feel the weight in it. "You will obey the rules of Blackridge. You will respect the pack. And most importantly… you will remember that you are mine while you are here."
The words made my heart hammer. Mine. The single syllable carried a gravity that made my wolf stir, a mix of fear and a strange pull I didn't understand.
"I—" I tried to protest, but he cut me off with a lift of his hand, and I stopped. His control wasn't loud. It wasn't violent. But it was absolute.
"You may unpack your things. Tomorrow, we begin your… introduction to the pack. Don't think about escape. Don't think about the past. Think only of now."
The moment stretched between us. The air in the room felt alive, thrumming with tension that my blood could feel. His presence filled every corner, and yet, he did not touch me. Not yet.
I wanted to run. I wanted to scream. But deep inside, a voice—a quiet whisper my wolf recognized—told me to stay. Something about this man, this Alpha, was beyond ordinary fear. He was dangerous, yes, but also… magnetic.
Kael turned toward the door, pausing just once, his silhouette against the torchlight sharp as a blade. "Good night."
Then he left.
The click of the door behind him felt like the closing of a world I could no longer return to.
I sank onto the bed, heart racing. The first night in Blackridge had begun. And I already knew, without fully understanding why, that nothing—no law, no pack, no rule—would ever feel safe again.