The Alpha's Forbidden Mate - Blood Moon Bond

Kael Noctravan:

“Did you find Thorian?!” I roared into the device, furious that my lead had gone cold.

I was taking too many risks, sniffing around enemy borders, and there wasn’t even a trace of his scent. Whoever had kidnapped our Regent Alpha, at least it didn’t seem to be those fucking Vaelkar clan bastards.

“No… not exactly.” Brugor sounded distressed.

“Spit it out, for fuck’s sake!”

“I found a woman who belongs to him. A human. She’s the mother of a offspring… He has a daughter.”

“Where is the child?” My voice turned into an inhuman snarl.

“His offspring isn’t a child anymore, Kael. Zarek doesn’t know what to do with the mother, she’s in shock. We need ord—”

The line went dead. I pulled the device away from my ear.

I broke the phone.

I lost control. Something that hadn’t happened since I was a fucking pre-teen. My hand turned into a hominid paw, with claws and black fur. My skin was smoking through my jacket. The shift line rippled along my spine.

Fuck!

I barely had time to take off my clothes. I blew the fucking pants and boots to pieces. After twenty-one years as a lupine, bursting out of clothes just didn’t happen anymore.

My skin stretched, bones cracked and reshaped to accommodate the new carcass. I couldn’t control myself enough to turn into a wolf. I was stuck in the monstrous form, the one that spawned legends: three meters tall, nearly three times my human weight.

I sniffed the air. I saw the moon in the sky, almost full. A half-moon, the one that preceded mine.

I howled, demonic, losing my rationality to my wolf.

The freezing wind painted my black fur gray. My claws pierced my palms, dripping crimson. My feet, buried in the snow, felt the claws carving into the frozen ground.

Pure primal fury. Thorian had an adult offspring?! A daughter who would never escape the Burden and would become a lupine…

Then why the fuck did Thorian make me his Heir-Alpha?

I went to meet Brugor in the city where Lyssara lived. A tourist town in the summer and a college town the rest of the year. Packed with young people and fucking happy folks. A dangerous place for the two of us to be seen together.

Brugor was an immense mammoth, fifteen centimeters taller than me, over two meters tall. Twenty kilos more of pure muscle. His wolf was a monstrosity on all fours.

“The two of us together draw way too much attention,” I said quietly.

I looked around, seeing girls taking pictures of us. This was why I didn’t like humans. Lupines get naked in front of each other when they shift, but humans objectify others’ bodies.

“You’re the one who doesn’t know how to blend in,” Brugor complained, still sore about how I’d spoken to him on the phone.

We grew up together. Me, him, and Zarek. I shouldn’t have talked to him like that.

“Leave it to me. I might not know how to blend in, but you attract more attention than I do.”

“Zarek’s the one who’s good at that.”

“He’d lose focus with all these thirsty women around. Go to the mother’s house. I’ll pick up the daughter and bring her there. We’ll interrogate both of them about Thorian’s disappearance.”

“Zarek said the woman hasn’t said a word for days. She’s out of her mind… And, Kael, he said the human has a bite mark.”

“What do you mean, a bite mark?!”

“She’s his partner.”

“She’s human! Thorian fathered a child on her, but she wouldn’t survive a partnership bite. Zarek’s fucking with us.”

I heard Brugor mutter, “At least he has some humor.” I chose to pretend I didn’t hear.

I inhaled the air and was flooded by a potent perfume, much stronger than the smell of any human with greasy blood and fake perfumes.

I didn’t even say goodbye to Brugor. I was guided by the scent to a café facing the snowy mountains. I sniffed discreetly and saw her sitting alone in a booth, staring dreamily at the glass wall.

Lyssara, Thorian’s offspring, who would probably be a competitor for my Heir-Alpha position, stared at the half-moon in the sky as if bewitched.

I took a step toward her. But a human male stopped near her, jotting down her order. They exchanged words and smiles, with intimacy.

My wolf rose to the surface. Nearly taking over our skin.

Like a fucking newly-turned teenager, my eyes changed. I ground my teeth, locking my wolf inside through brute force alone.

My wolf was extremely difficult, furious as hell. If he decided it was better to get rid of Lyssara before she turned from human to lupine, it would be very hard not to kill Thorian Noctravan’s offspring. The man who raised me, who I considered a father, but who was, in truth, my blood uncle.