Chapter 106 BEAST WITHIN
Kael sat on the top of the Star Moon border fence, sharpening his combat knife with another blade.
Metal scraped against metal in slow, steady strokes.
Shhhk.
Shhhk.
Shhhk.
The sound was quiet, but it carried in the night air.
Below them stretched the dark territory of the Star Moon pack. Dense forest. Long winding dirt roads. The distant glow of pack settlements flickering between the trees.
Kael did not look at any of it.
His attention stayed on the blade in his hand.
The knife was already sharp enough to cut skin with the slightest pressure. But he kept sharpening it anyway.
His movements were too calm for the rage within him.
Rowan sat a few feet away on the fence, watching the forest below. His posture was tense, shoulders tight.
Even from the distance, he could feel Kael’s pheromones pouring off the Alpha in thick, hot, violent, and scarily unstable waves.
Anyone weaker would have collapsed under it already. Any Beta would collapse, but Rowan is used to the violence of Kael's uncontrolled pheromones, he's trained for this.
The scent carried rage, grief, and something darker.
The feral edge of a wolf who had lost control.
Dax stood beside them, one foot braced against the fence rail as he scanned the territory below.
The wind shifted slightly, and Kael’s scent spread further.
Rowan rubbed a hand against the back of his neck.
Even as Kael’s Beta, the pressure was heavy tonight.
Three days.
Three days without his mate.
Kael’s wolf was no longer silent.
Inside his head, Ryn prowled like a starving beast.
Mate.
The word echoed again.
Mate.
Kael dragged the knife across the other blade again.
Shhhk.
Mate.
Kael's jaw tightened. His wolf won't stop chanting.
Dax finally spoke.
“It’s time,” he said.
Kael stopped sharpening the knife.
The sound of metal scraping stopped instantly.
For a moment the three of them sat in silence on the tall fence that separated their territory from Star Moon’s land.
Then Dax nodded once.
“Let’s move.”
Kael stood.
Without hesitation he stepped off the fence.
Rowan and Dax followed.
They landed on the forest floor almost silently.
The ground smelled strongly strange.
Every pack territory had its own scent.
Star Moon smelled colder, less organized, almost… feral.
Dax began walking immediately.
He knew the direction.
Kael followed.
Rowan stayed close behind.
They moved through the trees quickly, their footsteps light against the forest floor.
Kael’s senses were fully awake; every sound, every scent, every movement in the dark.
Ryn paced inside his mind.
Mate.
Kael inhaled slowly. The air filled his lungs, but there was no trace of Adam’s scent.
Only strangers.
Star Moon wolves.
His fingers tightened around the knife.
They reached a cluster of houses nearly half an hour later.
Dax stopped in front of one large building.
“This one,” he said quietly. “That’s the general’s residence.”
Kael didn’t ask how he knew.
Dax had spent years studying rival territories, it's part of his job.
Rowan stepped forward and kicked the door open.
The wood slammed against the wall.
A man inside jerked up from his chair.
He was middle-aged, broad-shouldered, with the scent of a high-ranking Alpha clinging to him.
His eyes widened as he saw them.
“Who—”
Kael crossed the room in two steps.
He grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.
The wood cracked under the impact.
The man growled instinctively.
But the moment Kael’s pheromones hit him fully, the growl died in his throat.
Fear flooded his scent.
“Where is your pack house?” Kael asked.
His voice was low and flat.
The man swallowed.
“Unlike your pack,” he said slowly, “we don’t have a pack house.”
Kael’s grip tightened.
The man winced.
“We have a palace,” the man continued. “We have kingship, not lordship like yours.”
Rowan stepped closer.
“Where is Alpha Thorne?”
The man gave a short laugh.
“Thorne doesn’t live in the palace.”
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
“Where does he live?”
The man shook his head slightly.
“You think I’d tell you that?”
Dax stepped forward.
“Talk,” he said quietly.
The man smirked. “You’re already dead men for coming here.”
Kael tilted his head slightly.
“Where is Sara?” Rowan asked suddenly.
The man’s smirk vanished instantly.
His eyes hardened.
“No one in this pack is allowed to mention that woman.”
The air in the room went cold.
Kael’s patience snapped.
His knife flashed.
The blade plunged straight into the man’s throat.
Blood sprayed across the wall behind him.
The man made a choking sound as his body collapsed.
Kael pulled the knife out slowly.
The blood dripping from the blade hit the floor in thick drops.
Silence filled the house.
Rowan exhaled slowly.
“That could’ve been useful information.”
Kael wiped the blade against the dead man’s shirt.
“Too slow,” he said.
Ryn growled inside his head.
Mate.
Kael turned toward the door.
“We keep moving.”
They left the house and disappeared back into the forest.
From that moment on, Kael stopped asking politely.
The next patrol they found never even saw him coming.
Four wolves walking the forest trail.
Kael dropped from the trees.
His blade cut the first man’s throat before the others even understood what was happening.
Rowan tackled the second wolf into the dirt.
Dax snapped the third man’s arm before slamming him against a tree.
The fourth tried to run.
Kael caught him easily.
He grabbed the man by the back of the neck and slammed his face into the ground.
“Where is Alpha Thorne?” Kael asked.
The man coughed blood.
“I don’t know!”
Kael twisted his arm.
Bone snapped.
The man screamed.
“Where.”
“I don’t know!” the man cried. “I swear!”
Kael studied his scent. There's fear, there's pain. But he's not lying.
Kael released him.
Then slit his throat anyway.
Blood soaked into the dirt.
They kept moving.
More patrols.
More scouts.
Every encounter ended the same way.
Kael asked questions, bones broke, blood spilled.
Most of them truly didn’t know anything.
But the slaughter spread quickly.
By the time the moon climbed higher in the sky, the forest smelled like blood.
Kael moved through it like a shadow. His knife never stopped moving.
Rowan had blood across his sleeves.
Dax’s breathing was heavier now.
But Kael showed no sign of slowing.
Kael crouched beside another dying scout.
The man’s leg bent at a wrong angle where Kael had broken it.
“Thorne,” Kael said.
The scout gasped for air.
“North,” he croaked.
Kael leaned closer.
“Where.”
“There’s… an old hunting lodge,” the scout wheezed. “He uses it sometimes.”
Kael studied the man’s scent again, then he stood up.
Rowan looked up. “You believe him?”
Kael nodded once.
Then he slit the scout’s throat.
They moved north.
The forest grew denser as they climbed the hill.
A narrow dirt road appeared between the trees.
Dax slowed suddenly.
He raised a hand.
“Look.”
Through the branches ahead, a large wooden building stood on the ridge.
Lanterns glowed in several windows.
Guards moved around the perimete
r.
Rowan’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s not a hunting lodge.”
“No,” Dax said quietly.
Kael stared at the building.
The scent of a powerful Alpha drifted from it.
Not as strong as Kael. But strong enough.
Kael’s eyes darkened.
“That’s him,” Rowan murmured.
Kael stepped forward.
His knife hung loosely in his hand.
“Alpha Thorne.”