Chapter 6 The Blood Alpha's Truth
Kian's POV
She didn't know what she did to me.
I watched Lana sleep from her doorway, fighting the urge to go to her. My wolf paced inside me, desperate to claim what was ours. Three days of having her here and keeping distance was torture.
“Mine” my wolf growled.
“Soon”, I told him.
But would it be soon enough? The Council was coming, and they'd try to take her. Kill her. The thought made my claws extend, drawing blood from my palms.
"Alpha?"
I turned. Sera stood there, her black eyes knowing.
"How is she?"
"Adjusting. Her power grows stronger every hour." I closed Lana's door quietly. "She shattered every window in the throne room without trying."
"The Eclipse Wolf awakens." Sera smiled. "The Council will panic."
"Let them come." We walked toward my office. "They think their old laws still matter."
"You can't fight the entire Council."
"Watch me."
My office felt too small tonight. The full moon called to my wolf, but stronger than that was the pull to Lana. Three nights ago, I'd felt her terror like a knife to my chest. The mate bond had snapped into place so hard I'd nearly destroyed my own territory trying to get to her.
Then I saw her. Chained like an animal, terrified but still defiant. My perfect match. My Eclipse Wolf who didn't even know what she was.
"The Crystal Moon Pack sent another message," Sera said, handing me a letter.
I burned it without reading. "They have nothing to say that matters."
"They want her back."
"They threw her away. She's mine now.”
The Council will use that against you. Say you kidnapped her."
I laughed. "They chained her for rogues. I saved her. Let them try to spin that story."
A knock interrupted. My guard, Raven, entered.
"Alpha, we have a problem."
I was getting tired of problems. "What now?"
"Scouts report movement at all borders. Multiple packs sending warriors."
"How many?"
"Could be hundreds by tomorrow."
They were organizing against me. Against Lana.
"Double the patrols. Anyone who crosses our border dies."
"Yes, Alpha."
Raven left. Sera studied me with those unsettling eyes.
"You can't fight them all."
"I've fought worse."
"Not while protecting an unmated Eclipse Wolf who can't control her power."
She was right. Lana was vulnerable until she shifted, until our bond was complete. Every pack in existence would see her as either a weapon to control or a threat to eliminate.
"What do you suggest?"
"Complete the bond tonight. Once she's marked as yours, the Council can't touch her. Mate bonds are sacred, even to them."
"She needs to choose it." I ran my hand through my hair. "If I force it, her wolf could reject mine. Eclipse Wolves are different."
"Then make her choose."
"She barely knows me."
"She knows enough." Sera moved to leave. "She looks at you like you hung the moon, Alpha. She just doesn't understand why yet."
Alone, I walked to my balcony. The full moon sat heavy in the sky, calling to every wolf in existence. But my wolf only wanted one.
I thought about Lana at breakfast, fierce and confused. The way her power had exploded when Beta Marcus mentioned her parents. She didn't know it, but I'd been watching her pack for months before she turned eighteen. I knew every time Jace hurt her. Every night she went hungry. Every tear she thought no one saw.
I'd wanted to intervene, but Eclipse Wolves were tricky. If I'd taken her before she turned eighteen, before her wolf stirred, she might never have awakened. So I waited, even when it killed me to watch her suffer.
The night of her eighteenth birthday, I felt it. A spark in the darkness. Her wolf stirring for the first time. Then they decided to throw her to the rogues, and my control snapped.
I'd killed their Alpha slowly. Made him understand exactly why he was dying. His son Jace got worse because it was personal. Every bruise on Lana's skin, every cruel word, I paid back with interest.
"Can't sleep?"
I spun. Lana stood in my doorway, wrapped in a black robe, her hair messy from sleep.
"The moon," I said simply.
She joined me on the balcony. "It feels different tonight. Stronger."
"That's your wolf responding."
"Will it hurt? Shifting?"
"The first time always hurts." I wanted to comfort her but kept my distance. "But I'll be there."
"Why do you care so much?" She looked up at me with those green eyes that saw too much. "And don't say because I'm yours. Tell me the real reason."
The real reason. How did I explain that she was the first light I'd seen in a decade of darkness?
"When my mother died," I said slowly, "something in me broke. I became the Blood Alpha because I felt nothing except rage. For six years, I've been empty. A weapon without purpose except destruction."
"What changed?"
"You." I turned to face her fully. "Three nights ago, I felt you more strongly for the first time, and it was like breathing after drowning. Your pain, your fear, your strength despite everything; it all hit me at once."
"That's just the mate bond…"
"No." I moved closer. "The bond shows us our perfect match, but it doesn't create feelings. Everything I feel for you is real. The need to protect you, the rage at anyone who hurt you, the way my wolf goes silent when you're near because you bring us peace-that's all real."
Her heart raced. I could hear it, smell her confusion and something else. Attraction.
"I feel it too," she whispered. "This pull to you. It scares me."
"Why?"
"Because you're dangerous. You killed people for me."
"I'd do it again." I touched her face gently. "I'd burn the world to keep you safe."
"That's what scares me. What if I become like that other Eclipse Wolf? What if I destroy everything?"
"You won't."
"How do you know?"
"Because you have something she didn't." I pulled her closer. "You have an anchor. A mate who can hold your power, channel it, keep you stable.”
You mean yourself."
"Who else would be strong enough?" I smiled. "The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes, Lana. She made you an Eclipse Wolf and me strong enough to handle one."
She laughed softly. "You're so arrogant."
"Confident." I corrected. "There's a difference."
The moon pulsed overhead. Midnight was coming. Time for her first shift.
"Are you ready?"
She shook her head. "No. But I don't think I have a choice."
"There's always a choice."
"Not with this." She touched her chest. "I can feel her now. My wolf. She wants out."
I took her hand, leading her inside. "Then let's give her what she wants."
As we walked toward the forest, I didn't tell her what else I felt. The other packs massing at our borders. The Council's assassins already on their way. The war that was coming because I'd chosen to save an Eclipse Wolf.
She'd find out soon enough.
Tonight was about her transformation. Tomorrow, we'd face the world that wanted her dead.
But they'd have to go through me first. And I'd spent six years becoming the monster other monsters feared.
They had no idea what they were walking into.
"Kian?" Lana squeezed my hand. "Whatever happens tonight, thank you. For saving me. For seeing me as more than nothing."
"You were never nothing." I stopped, pulling her against me. "You were just waiting for someone to see your truth."
"And you see it?"
"I see everything." I touched the spot where her mark hid. "Your power, your strength, your beauty, your rage, your pain-I see it all. And I want it all."
She stood on her toes, and for a moment, I thought she might kiss me.
"Then help me become what I'm meant to be."
I would. Even if it meant war with every pack in existence.
Because she was mine. And I protected what was mine.
No matter the cost.