Alpha of her Heart

CHAPTER 4

SERIS woke up with a gasp. The sky above her was endless, and gray clouds rolled over the sky, casting soft light over the trees like a ghost too exhausted to frighten. The leaves rustled softly, and dirt clung to her skin.

The forest floor was cold and damp, covered in moss and broken twigs. She felt her limbs heavy, which led to her bones and poison in her veins. Her heartbeat was slow, and her lungs strained as if each breath had to be earned.

“Where…am… I?”

Seris sat up slowly. The pain pierced her spine like shattered glass. She felt her world spin and her eyesight blurred. Blood had dried on her hands. Her shirt was torn, and she was barefoot.

However, she was not chained.

She was on the cold metal table, not in the Black Tower and not beneath Nyxaria’s gaze.

“I… am… out…” she let out a breath of relief.

But then she realized she was out and panic entered Seris’s system. Instinct pushed her to run, run, keep running, but her legs barely obeyed her. She stumbled through the trees, leaves cracking beneath her feet and branches tugging at her hair.

Seris pants.

Her vision dimmed.

But she kept running.

The only thing that was on her mind was to get away from the Poison Witch. She doesn’t want to go back to the Black Tower, being chained by iron and bound to the cold metal table.

Until her body was unable to take another step, she collapsed in a creek, gasping. The water by the creek shimmered nearby, but she lacked the strength to crawl to it.

And then, Seris heard a voice. It was low, soft, not from any human, and not from someone or a witch.

It came from within—her mind.

‘We were weak, Seris.’

Seris pushed herself to lean on a tree.

“I… I know you,” she whispered hoarsely.

Seris closed her eyes and saw a silver wolf in her mind. It was the same wolf that she saw every time she was in the dungeon, but the wolf never talked to her. The silver wolf was just looking at her.

‘We fought, but I couldn’t push anymore. Not like this. Not when your energy is fading.’

Seris opened her eyes and stared at nothing. A tear escaped from her eyes—not from sorrow, but from relief. She can finally see the light that she didn’t see while she was caged in the dungeon.

A faint smile appeared on Seris’ lips. “It’s okay.”

Because even if death came to her, it was her choice. Not Nyxaria. Not the chains that bound her.

Here, with the sky above and no chain around her throat, she could rest. “If this is where my life ends,” she murmured. “Then I’m glad it’s not on that cold metal table.”

Seris closed her eyes with a smile on her lips.

Suddenly, the sky darkened. Dark clouds hovered over the sky as if a storm was brewing. Thunder cracked in the sky, and lightning erupted.

After a few minutes, the rain poured heavily as if it were accompanying Seris to her sorrow.

ALPHA CASSIAN moved like a shadow through the trees, followed by Beta Noah and four of his best warriors. They were patrolling their territory in case something might happen. The forest was silent, but not still. It was the kind of silence that warned of rain and something more.

Dark clouds covered the sky. It was thick and gray as steel.

Suddenly, Cassian halted mid-step.

He sniffed the air.

“Alpha?”

Cassian raised his hand. “Stop,” he growled.

A whispered scent, nearly drowned in wet earth and wind. But the scent was unmistakable. It was the scent that he smelled at the Black Tower. The scent that disappeared.

Cassian felt warmed in his pocket. He fished out the necklace he had picked at the lakeside, and it was glowing like it was sensing something… like its owner.

“What is it, Alpha?” Noah asked.

Cassian’s eyes gleamed. “I smelled someone. Her scent was intoxicating.”

‘Find her! Find her!’

Cassian’s inner wolf was jumping.

Cassian moved forward. His warriors followed silently as their Alpha’s urgency radiated off like heat.

Cassian pushed deeper into the woods, ignoring the low crackle of thunder overhead and the way the trees swayed in warning.

Then the rain poured.

Cassian growled. “Dammit!” he cussed.

The rain fell in sheets, drenching them within seconds. And the rain blurred the scent trails, washing away the footprints. And it will be hard for Cassian to track the scent.

But he won’t stop until he finds the owner of that scent.

He couldn’t.

Something inside him burned, a need, primal and wild. Not just to find the owner of that scent, but to reach it. His instinct was telling him something more. Moreover, his wolf was acting wild, pacing back and forth.

As the storm roared, he stopped at a shallow stream, mud splashing beneath his feet.

He walked forward, trying his best to track the faint scent, and as he walked forward, he saw a girl beneath a twisted oak tree, barely visible through the downpour. The girl was motionless, her hair matted to her face, her skin pale, and her blood missing from the rain.

Cassian felt the world stop moving when he saw the girl. His heart beats so fast. Then he saw the thin red line in his hand appear, and it connected to the girl in the twisted oak tree.

‘She is our mate, Cassian! Our mate!’ Cassian’s wolf howled.

“Alpha?” Beta Noah was confused, seeing Alpha Cassian in a daze.

Cassian let out a low growl. “My mate…” he whispered as he ran towards her.

“Little one,” he breathed, kneeling beside her.

His mate’s body was still, her breath too shallow. She looked like she had run until her soul had nothing left to give. His mate was dirty from the mud, but it didn’t hide the beauty she had.

But Cassian was disheartened when he saw the bruises and wounds on his mate. He also saw the bruises on her wrist and feet, and it was a bruise from a chain.

At that moment, Cassian wanted to scream in pain. His mate suffered in the Black Tower. And she ran for miles to escape the Poison Witch.

“Noah, notify Elena to get ready. Tell the maids to prepare a bath and dress for my mate.”

Noah’s eyes widened when he heard the last word from Alpha Cassian, but he obeyed his Alpha.

As Cassian held his mate in his arms, he felt a wave of soothing warmth surge through him. His ribs that were burning moments ago with the ache of silver poisoning, went numb. The pain faded, replaced by something softer, like cool water running through scorched veins.

And at the same time, under his touch, his mate’s wound began to close and her bruises lightened.

Cassian stared. “What the hell…”

“What happened, Alpha?” Noah asked.

With the pouring rain, Cassian gently carried his mate in his arms and looked at Noah. “Let’s go back.”

Noah and the four warriors bowed as they let their Alpha lead the way.

Cassian went back to his mansion with his mate in his arms. The rain was still pouring heavily, and it was tapping against the stone as he stepped through the doors of his private estate.

His warriors are silent behind him.

He glanced at his mate in his arms, unconscious, drenched in rain, and pale as moonlight. Her body was pressed against his chest like she weighed nothing. Yet he had never carried something so heavy.

The mansion was quiet but alert. His home was carved from blackstone and dark wood, built in the forest which he made his territory, and only a few dared to trespass.

There are not more than twenty people living here. They were rogues, outcasts, and either kicked out of the pack or wandered into the woods. He sheltered them, and later they became his warriors and family.

The maids stood in the living room, eyes widening when they saw the girl cradled in their Alpha’s arms.

“Elena,” Cassian called softly. “Now.”

The witch doctor was already on her way with everything she needed in her arms. She glanced at the girl in Alpha Cassian’s arms. Her forehead furrowed.

“Your mate was something, Alpha.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could feel the witch power in her, but I could also feel something within her that was awakened,” Elena said. Then she continued, “I’ll need time and a quiet room. And no one was glaring at me threateningly.”

“She’ll have the room beside my room,” Cassian said and looked at the maids. “Get her clean. I want it gently. I don’t care if she looks half-dead, but if you hurt her or hold her recklessly, I’ll know.”

The maids bowed their heads, stepping forward with warm towels and whispering reassurances. They took the girl in their Alpha’s arms, not understanding why she was, only that their Alpha’s voice had changed when he spoke of her.

Alpha Cassian was not commanding.

He speaks softly and with concern.