Chapter 31 CHAPTER 31
Dinner at the Moore's was usually a quiet affair - silverware, soft voices, and Lydia’s steady grace holding the family together.
Tonight the quiet cracked beneath Alpha Richard’s voice.
“Trainer Alen says you were slacking again.”
Sebastian’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth.
Richard’s gaze was hard across the table. “He said you could barely hold form during drills. That you looked distracted.”
“I wasn’t distracted,” Sebastian said flatly.
Richard ignored the protest. “Strange. This morning you went jogging before sunrise, told your mother you felt stronger than ever. So what happened between sunrise and training? Did your strength just evaporate?”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “ Beta Alen exaggerates. It wasn’t that bad.”
Richard’s fork clattered against his plate. “You’re supposed to be leading those trainees, not giving them something to gossip about. They see weakness in you, they’ll start questioning everything - your title, your bloodline, this pack’s future.”
“Richard,” Lydia murmured, “maybe we should...”
“No,” he snapped. “He needs to hear it. Being born my son doesn’t make him Alpha. The Goddess gives us heirs, but leadership must still be earned.”
The words hit like stones. Sebastian felt Kael pacing just under his skin, a restless growl vibrating in his chest.
“I said it’s fine,” he muttered.
Richard’s brows rose. “Fine? You think failure is fine? You’re not a child anymore, Sebastian.”
Kael snarled softly in his mind, Enough.
“Maybe that’s the problem,” Sebastian said, the anger finally breaking loose. “Everything is about the Alpha, the pack, duty, rules - like that’s all life is. Maybe I’m tired of being shaped into your idea of perfect.”
The air in the room thinned. Marcus, Sebastian's brother, froze with his fork midway to his mouth; Amy - his sister's - eyes widened.
Richard pushed back from the table. “Watch your tone.”
Sebastian stood, pulse hammering. “Why? You talk as if there’s nothing beyond that damned title. Maybe I don’t want it!”
The growl that tore from Richard’s throat was almost feral. He moved faster than Sebastian expected, and the slap cracked through the dining room.
Sebastian’s head snapped sideways. For a second he simply stood there, heat burning across his cheek, disbelief warring with fury.
“Do you know,” Richard thundered, “how many wolves would kill for the chance to lead Silverpine? How many would die for what you were born with?”
Sebastian’s voice came low, trembling with contained rage. “Then let them have it. I’m not those people.”
Lydia half-rose. “Sebastian…”
He pushed his chair back, the legs screeching against stone. “I’m done. I’m full.”
“Sebastian, don’t walk away,” Lydia called as he strode out, but the front door slammed before she finished.
Cold night air met him like a slap of its own. He inhaled sharply, fists clenched until his nails bit into his palms. The moon was rising over the treetops, its light silvering the roofs of the compound.
Breathe, Kael urged. Don’t give him this rage.
But the wolf was trembling too, half-snarling, half-pleading. The fury had already found roots.
Sebastian pulled his phone out and scrolled to the only name that could drown the noise.
“Sara.”
Her voice slid through the line like silk. “Sebastian? It’s late.”
“I need to see you.”
“What happened?”
“I just need to see you,” he said again, throat raw.
A beat of silence. Then, softly, “The ridge by the river.”
The forest swallowed him whole. Leaves whispered overhead, the scent of pine thick in the air. By the time he reached the clearing, his breath steamed against the chill.
Sara was there, framed by moonlight, her dark hair spilling around her shoulders. When she smiled, it looked almost painted by the moon.
“You look like you could tear down a tree,” she said lightly.
He didn’t answer. The words were still burning inside him, his father’s voice, the humiliation, the sting on his cheek.
Kael rumbled, close to the surface - Control it.
But control was gone.
Sara stepped closer, fingertips brushing his sleeve. “Hey,” she whispered, “whatever it is, breathe.”
He caught her wrist instead, not hard but desperate. The air between them pulsed, heavy, charged.
Kael’s growl broke loose, low and guttural. We need air, not this…
But even Kael’s warning blurred when Sara’s hand rose to his jaw. “Then don’t think,” she murmured. “Just let it go.”
The forest seemed to tilt. Moonlight shimmered off her hair; her scent wrapped around him, wild jasmine and smoke. His breath hitched, the fury twisting into something darker, hungrier. He tore at her blouse putting one breast in his mouth and the other between his fingers, growling hungrily as if his life depended on it. He suckled at it. his tongue going deeper with every breath he took. Sara moaned, softly at first then a loud shriek of pleasurable pain as Sebastian’s teeth bit into her hardened nipple.
His anger poured out through every motion, rough and urgent, his wolf’s growl echoing softly in his throat. Sara met his fury with calm, with something that wasn’t fear at all but an eerie stillness. The harder he tried to push the rage out of him, the deeper she pulled him into her quiet. Her touch was cool at first, then warm, like water turning to fire.
The world blurred around them - the whisper of the river, the rustle of leaves, the faint shimmer in the air that made every sound feel distant. His anger broke apart piece by piece until what remained was only breath and heartbeat and the strange hum that always seemed to surround her. She took his hand in hers and brought it to her core, let him feel the warm moist that lingered there. She moaned as he stroked it with his fingers, gently at first then with added urgency. He could feel the warm fluid running between his fingers making his manhood hard inside his jeans.
Sebastian slipped an arm around her back, the other beneath her knees and lifted her effortlessly. The world seemed to pause as he lowered her onto the soft grass, his movements tender, almost reverent. Sara must have read his mind as she instinctively unzipped his jeans and took his manhood in her hands, then guided it towards her waiting wet core.
Time folded. Only the thrusts in and out of her remained, and the pleasurable moaning of two beings who were enchanted to each other.
It might have been minutes; it might have been hours.
When at last the silence settled, he found himself lying on the grass beside her, chest rising and falling, eyes tracing the pattern of stars between the branches. Kael had retreated to a quiet corner of his mind, no longer snarling, only pacing restlessly.
The moonlight touched Sara’s skin, pale and soft. She turned her head toward him, her smile unreadable.
He exhaled slowly. “My father’s right,” he said finally, voice rough. “As much as I hate admitting it… he’s right. I’ve been weak. Every week in training I lose focus. Even the juniors are catching up. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.”
Sara propped herself on one elbow, strands of hair falling forward. “You worry too much,” she said with a soft laugh. “It’s normal to feel off sometimes. You carry more weight than anyone else in the pack. That’s bound to wear on you.”
He stared at the sky. “It’s not just stress. It feels like something’s… slipping.”
Her fingers traced light circles on his arm. “Then stop fighting it. Stop trying to be perfect all the time. Let the world spin without you for once.”
A tired smile tugged at his lips. “I don’t even have the energy to go home.”
She laughed quietly, a sound that mingled with the murmur of the river. She placed a soft kiss on his chest, “Then maybe we should sleep here, in the wild. Let the moon keep watch for you.”
He turned his head. In the pale glow, her eyes seemed to hold faint sparks, like starlight caught in water. For a moment he felt as if he were falling into them, thought slowing, limbs heavy.
She brushed her fingers through his hair. “Rest, Sebastian,” she whispered. “Tomorrow will sort itself out.”
Her voice slid around him like mist, gentle and unhurried. The forest swayed softly in the wind, and the anger that had driven him there drifted away into the trees.
His eyelids grew heavy. Somewhere in the distance Kael gave one last uneasy growl, something isn’t right, but even that warning faded beneath the lull of her voice.