Chapter 87 WHO YOU ARE
SEBASTIAN’S POV
The forest feels a little different now.
Not quieter though no, the birds still call above our heads and the leaves are blowing around from the heavy wind blowing the branches.
It's like it's not only alive, it's fully listening to our conversation.
I hate it.
I hate the mud clinging to my palms and my fingernails.
I hate this stranger’s scent clinging inside my lungs.
I hate the silence inside my own head as Alisander retreats like a coward once more.
And most of all, I hate the way the word ancient keeps echoing in my head like a curse I never agreed to carry.
The Alpha is still kneeling near me, but this time he's no longer pinning me.
I'm grateful for the distance between us, however small it may be since he's still close enough that I can feel the heat off of him.
He studies me like a puzzle that has finally begun to solve itself right in front of him.
I hate being made a spectacle so I refuse to look at him.
If I do, I might scream right at his face.
And from the brief moment with him, I know he'll just smile in return.
Or worse, listen closely to what I say.
“Get up,” he says quietly.
“I’m considering becoming one with the mud,” I mutter with petulance. “It seems less complicated.”
A pause.
Then, to my irritation, he huffs what might be the ghost of a laugh.
Why did he like laughing for no reason though?
“You’re not exactly what I expected,” he says.
“That makes two of us,” I shoot back.
Now to think of it, I don't know a single thing about this person.
He could be a lucid Rogue sent to finish the job and kill me for all I know.
Inside me, Alisander shifts and I'm surprised he's not all gone. He's still silent, but I'm feeling some sense of caution from him.
Watchful, like a wolf pacing the edge of a trap it does not trust.
I ignore him.
He's acting too paranoid for someone who kept such a huge secret from me.
If he has something to say, he can say it out loud for once.
The Alpha’s voice lowers as he tries to catch my stare. “Listen carefully, little wolf. I am not your enemy.”
I snort. “You tackled me, pinned me to the ground, dissected my identity and informed me I might be the reason for a great war. Forgive me if I’m struggling to see the friendly angle from where I am.”
“I did not really say I was your ally either,” he replies evenly.
That… makes me look at him.
His golden eyes hold mine looking straight in my eyes with a steady and unflinching gaze that said the truth.
He is frustratingly honest to be around.
“I only just came to confirm a rumor,” he continues. “Nothing more, nothing less. So imagine my shock when I took one look at you and saw your wolf?”
“And?” My throat feels tight with something. “Rumor confirmed? Or should I sign an autograph for you?”
His gaze sharpens. “You are already in danger and you don't even know it.”
My stomach drops.
I hate that my body believes him before my mind does.
From his expression down to Alisander's silence… he's right.
“Others are or they would soon start searching the moment they look at you,” he says. “They caught your scent days ago. The attack here was not some random Rogue attack.”
A cold spreads through my chest when I remember that day.
The attack.
All the blood and carnage.
The way my fury had shaken the entire forest.
Me, a powerless, defenseless Omega has gone feral and taken down what most wolves would struggle to do.
“That wasn’t–” My voice falters but I steel myself up. “That wasn’t about me.”
“It was about what you carry inside of you,” he corrects me.
Inside me, Alisander coils tight but doesn't say a single word of rebuttal.
“Stop this conversation Sebastian,” Alisander warns.
For once, I don’t listen to him.
“Fuck you Alisander.”
“What do they want?” I ask the stranger instead.
The Alpha studies me for a long moment, as if weighing whether I deserve to know the truth or if it would be better if he keeps quiet.
“I don’t have the patience for dramatic pauses, especially with all what's going on with me,” I snapped out. “Either tell me the truth, or leave.”
Something like approval flickers in his eyes as he shows me another grin.
Was his birth parent playing with the happy weed when they conceived him?
“What they want is control,” he says. “Ancient wolves were not merely a different and powerful type of wolf, they were… ungovernable to an extent.”
My skin prickles in anticipation.
“They could not be commanded by anyone and they did not submit. They broke the one vital structure that holds packs together.”
My chest tightens.
The unfair hierarchy of Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Omegas.
“They destabilized the entire hierarchy themselves,” he continues. “Alphas could not dominate them because they believed in equality, Omegas could not soothe them because they saw the fact that wolves easily succumbed to their base desires beneath them.”
Each word from him lands heavier than the last.
“And now,” he finishes, “one even I cannot identify sleeps inside the body of an Omega sleeping with the most powerful Alpha alive so you would understand my caution.”
The world tilts but I remain standing.
“You’re saying I weaken the pack,” I whisper.
“I’m saying your very existence can either weaken the pack or challenge the hierarchy of it,” he replies.
Inside me, Alisander growls low and dangerous as if warning this stranger.
“Sebastian do not accept his framing or explanations, it's all wrong and lies,” he says.
“Oh, now you speak.”
My temper flares.
“Is there more?” I ask the Alpha, ignoring Alisander inside of my head completely.
“Yes.”
Of course there is. When it comes to Alisander, there's always more.
“Ancient wolves could also commit the gravest sin any wolf would or could do,” he says softly. “They had the power to corrupt the mate bond.”
The word hits like a blade sliding between my ribs.
Corrupt the mate bond.
My lungs forget how to work.
By this logic, was Alpha Ragnar even my real mate or just someone controlled by Alisander?
“And how do they corrupt it?” I force out.
“Those who know how,” he replies. “Those who remember the old rites are the only ones that know more of this. Most of the ancient wolves have been destroyed and wiped out for the good of everyone. So how do you have one as your wolf?”
My vision blurs at the edges.
Inside me, Alisander goes utterly still.
He doesn't feel fear or even anger, it's worse. He feels resigned to the whole situation.
“No,” I whisper out. “No, that’s not–”
“It is why you are being hunted even now,” the Alpha says. “Not as prey or as a warning, but to completely get rid of you.”
Something inside me shatters finally…