349- Five Alphas
POV Seraphine Valerian:
“The war will escalate now. One of the five alphas has been killed.”
“He was going to kill me.”
Shock swept through me at the threat I had seen—the eyes of the man I thought was my friend looking like a murderer’s, always fixed on me. His shrill voice: “The human!” He never tried to save me.
I finally became certain that Konrad had been the one who attacked me in my father’s house and assaulted me in the forest. Viktor hadn’t lied.
But why? If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it during the year we spoke from a distance, or when I returned to Romania. Even the day we had coffee and he gave me a ride.
Back then, he insisted I should leave. Maybe he had given me a chance—or waited to be sure. Of what? I had never done anything against him. I couldn’t understand.
“My husband says Viktor is torn apart for letting Adelina escape.” The woman looked at me intently. “She went one way, you another.”
I didn’t move. It came back to me too. It was true.
“When it came to choosing who to save, he chose you, Seraphine. And now he regrets it. He left his daughter for a human, a stranger. I don’t understand why. Nor why you’ve been here since the beginning. Even the Elders wanted him to hand you over.”
“I don’t know,” I murmured, just as shocked as she was. “I didn’t want any of this, Daciana. My father just died. I was going to spend some time with my clan, decide my life. And everything happened so fast.”
“You put your lives at risk!”
“When Adelina asked me to run away, she thought it would solve the war. We decided quickly and… now I feel guilty. I don’t know what to do.”
“No one does.” She lowered her head, sad. “Twenty-one years ago, Viktor appeared here with a baby in his arms. She was thin, dehydrated, covered in insect bites. He healed her and raised her like a daughter. I helped raise her. That cursed alpha almost killed her. And now Adelina is with him. Do you know what could happen?”
“Yes.” Fear froze me. “But what if they really are destined?”
“And if they’re not? He might finish the job. He’s Viktor’s enemy.”
She stood up, crying harder.
“Have your breakfast. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
I couldn’t eat anything, nauseated and anxious. I only drank water, feeling like an intruder there. I had arrived and taken Adelina’s place, even if that wasn’t my intention. I was safe—and she wasn’t. In enemy territory.
“Daciana, what can I do to help?”
“Nothing. If you don’t make things worse, that’s already enough.”
“I’m sorry.”
With tears in my eyes, I left the kitchen. I returned to the suite and changed the sheets, got rid of his torn, bloodstained clothes scattered on the floor. Then I lay down, sobbing. Completely lost.
All the doubts attacked at once, guilt crushing me.
I didn’t understand what was happening. The dreams I’d had all my life about a complete stranger. There had always been something connecting us. My father had a vision with his wolf and Viktor appeared, and I was sent away. The first time I saw him, I felt hypnotized, certain I had to get closer.
My people believed in the supernatural and the elements of nature. Even though I was raised in Germany, hiding my Romani origins, I read and studied everything about them. I dreamed of the day I would return to my clan and finally live as a Romani.
Like them, I believed in the mysteries of spirituality, in the power of the winds, I listened to the symphony of birds as something sacred and tried to hear the voice of the hidden, infinite God that lived in everyone’s soul. Even so, all of this went far beyond anything imagined or possible.
We didn’t have a specific religion. We adopted the religions of the regions where we lived—there were Catholic, Evangelical, Muslim Roma, and others. But in all of them, spirituality was intrinsic to our lives.
I just wanted to understand the unknown at that moment, tired of fighting against something stronger than me.
I curled up, biting my lip as I shivered at the memories of what we had done there. Man and beast dominating me, one desperate, the other taking. My body invaded—my soul too. I had wanted Viktor with an urgent need. And I still felt him inside me.
I needed him. To make sure he was safe, to look into his eyes, to hear his voice. A part of me felt torn away in his absence. And it hurt.
He saved me. And took my virginity. In a single night, I became a woman, left illusions and immaturity behind. I saw the limits between death and life. I was marked forever.
I didn’t know what it meant or the risks. I was only human—he was something else. Adelina told me the women who died and were buried in the cemetery couldn’t handle it. Sex? Because he was too big? Because he came inside them? It wasn’t pregnancy—she said that only happened with destined she-wolves.
I didn’t even understand the danger—only that I felt strongly connected to Viktor.
“Dad…” I sobbed, clinging to his memory. “I wish you were here… that you could help me…”
I cried from missing him and from fear. For us, for the unknown, and for what was yet to come.
It was impossible to forget.
Everything kept spinning wildly.