Chapter 163 THE RUINS

Chapter 163 THE RUINS


The air in the hospital room went thick.

"Are you Alpha Alex?" She asked again
Jenna’s voice was small. Wet. She was still dripping on the floor. Her hands shook where she held the bed rail.

Alex didn’t answer right away.  
He just stared.

She looked like him.  
Not close. Not maybe.  
The same sharp jaw. The same storm-gray eyes. The same way her brows pulled together when she was scared. It was like someone took his face and made it softer. Female. Younger.

Mia saw it too. She felt it through the bond. A cold drop in Alex’s chest. Like ice.  
Sara made a small sound in her sleep and Mia pulled her closer.

"Who told you my name?" Alex finally said. His voice was rough. Low. Like he hadn’t used it in days.

Jenna blinked water from her eyes. "People in the East," she said. "They talk a lot about you."

"About me?"

She nodded. Quick. Nervous. "They say... they say you’re the cursed Alpha."

Cursed.
The word hit the room and stayed there.

Mia’s stomach turned. Ivan. Of course it was Ivan.  
Spreading lies in every border town. Every packless den. Every human city that touched wolf land.  
Make Alex look dangerous. Make him look broken. Make anyone think twice before following him.

Alex didn’t react. Not on the outside.  
But inside, his wolf was snarling.

He looked at Jenna again.
Wet clothes clinging to her. Hair stuck to her face. Tired eyes. The way she flinched when a nurse walked past with a metal tray.  

"How old are you?" he asked.

"I'm in my twenties," Jenna said. Her mother had taught her not to ever disclose her age no matter what,she still wondered why.

"And your parents?"

Jenna swallowed. "Home."

"Home where?"

"Eastbridge. With my mom." Her voice got smaller. "She raised me alone. She said my dad died before I was born."

Alex nodded once. Slow.  
He didn’t believe the dad part. Not with that face. Not with those eyes.

"I’ll find time to visit your mother," he said.  
Jenna frowned. "Visit?"

"Yes." Alex’s eyes cut to Sara, then back to Jenna. "Thank her for raising a daughter like you. Because you saved my daughter today."

Jenna shook her head. "I just... I saw her in the water. I didn’t think. I jumped."

"I know," Alex said. "And also... we need to know why we look alike. When I have my own sister back home."

The last sentence came out heavy.  
Jenna’s eyes went wide. "Sister?"

Alex didn’t answer. He couldn’t.  
His chest felt too tight. The walls felt too close.  
And underneath everything, like a drum far away, he could feel it.  
Ivan.

Ivan was still tied down at the packhouse.  
At least, that’s what Alex told himself.

He turned to Mia. Her face was pale but her eyes were clear. She was holding it together. For Sara.

"Keep them all here," Alex said. "At the hospital. Full treatment. No one leaves till the doctors say so."

Mia nodded. "Alex—"

"I’ll be back," he cut in. "I just need to handle something at the packhouse first."

He didn’t wait for her to argue.  
If he stayed one more second in that room, looking at Jenna, he was going to break.



The drive back to the packhouse took 40 minutes.  
It felt like forever.

The sky was dark when he got there.  
Too quiet.  
No guards at the gate. No scent of patrols.  
Just silence. Wrong silence.

He got out of the car. The gravel crunched under his boots.  
The front doors were open.

"Ivan," Alex called. His voice echoed in the hall.

No answer.

He walked in.  
Tables overturned. Chairs broken. Blood on the stone. Not fresh, but not dry either.  
And the elders.  
The five elders he trusted. The ones he told to hold Ivan while he was gone.

All dead.  
Throats torn. Bodies twisted.

Alex knelt next to an Elder.The man had taught him how to read treaty lines when he was 10.  
His eyes were still open.

The rage started small. A spark in Alex’s chest.  
Then it grew.

"Ivan!" he roared.

The sound bounced off the walls and came back empty.

He followed the scent.  
Down to the dungeons.  
The chains were cut. Clean cuts. Not broken.  
And other scents. Kane’s. Two of the young warriors.  
Gone.

Ivan didn’t just escape.  
He took people with him. People that mattered to Alex.

Alex stood in the middle of the dungeon and laughed.  
It wasn’t a human sound.

Because this was it.  
This was the moment.

The burning started in his bones.  
His vision went red at the edges.  
His hands shook. Then they weren’t hands. Claws pushed out.  
His back cracked. Pain shot through him.  
But this wasn’t a normal shift.

This was the curse.
The one Alex buried with training and control and duty.

It came up with the wolf.

He dropped to his knees.  
Fur came, but not right. Patchy. Black.  
Bones too long. Muscles too tight.  
His eyes weren’t silver anymore. They were red.  
His growl didn’t sound like a wolf. It sounded like stone breaking.

He wasn’t a wolf.  
He wasn’t a man.  
He was something wrong. Something in between.

The wolf in his head wasn’t just angry.  
It was done.  
Find him, it snarled. Tear him down. Before he kills them all.

Alex stumbled out of the packhouse.  
The night air hit him and he threw his head back and howled.  
It wasn’t a call.  
It was a warning.

Ivan had Kane.  
Ivan would go after Mia. After Sara. After Jenna now.  
Alex was done waiting.

He ran.  
On legs that weren’t quite legs.  
Through the forest. Through the river. Past human towns where people locked their doors when they heard the sound.

He didn’t think.  
He didn’t plan.  
One name.  
Ivan.

If he didn’t end him now, there would be nothing left to save.



Back at the hospital, Mia felt it.

She was sitting by Sara’s bed. Jenna was asleep in the chair beside her, wrapped in a dry blanket.  
Then the bond snapped.

It burned.  
Like fire under her skin.

Mia gasped.  
"Something’s wrong," she whispered.

The nurse looked up from the desk. "Ma’am?"

"The Alpha," Mia said. Her hands shook. "He…..he probably shifted.”

Outside, the wind picked up.  
And far away, a howl tore through the night.  
Not a wolf’s howl.  
Something worse.

Jenna woke up with a start. "What was that?"

Mia looked at her. At Alex’s eyes in a stranger’s face.  
"I don’t know," Mia lied.  
But she did know.  
And she was scared.



Alex ran for hours.  
The curse made him faster. Stronger.  
But it also made him hungry. Angry. Empty.

Memories flashed while he ran.  

Alex, screaming as the curse sank into his blood.  
His father, telling him "Control it, son. Or it will control you."

He pushed the memories down.  
Focus.  
Scent. Blood. Kane’s scent. Faint. To the north. To the old ruins.

The ruins where their pack started years and years ago.  
Where Ivan was born.

Of course.

By the time Alex reached the edge of the ruins, the moon was high. Full.  
It made the curse worse.  
His skin felt like it was tearing.