Kael's POV
The patrol route is clear of rogues when Kael heads back to pack territory. Nothing interesting. Nothing dangerous. Just endless forest and his own thoughts, which is worse.
He's thinking about nothing when the screaming starts.
It comes from the direction of the pack house, a sound that cuts through trees and silence and reaches him even this far out. Not pain screaming. Not fear screaming. This is something else. This is chaos.
Kael runs.
His wolf pushes forward, wanting to shift, wanting to sprint on four legs instead of two. He holds it back barely and crashes through the clearing toward the main courtyard. Guards are everywhere, shouting orders that don't make sense. Warriors are gathering in clusters, their voices rising over each other.
Something is very wrong.
He grabs the first person he sees, which happens to be Rylan. His best friend's face goes pale when Kael pins him against the stone wall.
"Talk. Now."
Rylan swallows hard. His hands come up in a placating gesture but his eyes are sharp and scared.
"Garrick. He's gone. Someone found him in his study and he's just... gone. Heart gave out or something. Nobody knows for sure," Rylan rushes the words out. "Kael, there's no heir. There's no plan. The Elders are losing their minds and the noble families are already talking about the Blood Moon Hunt and who's going to challenge for leadership and I think we're about to watch this pack tear itself apart."
The weight hits Kael like a physical thing. Heavy. Suffocating.
He lets go of Rylan and turns toward the Alpha wing without another word. His friend follows, talking fast, trying to explain things that don't need explaining. Kael already understands. He's been watching pack politics long enough to know how this goes.
Alpha dies. Pack panics. Strong wolves fight for control. People die. Eventually someone wins and they all pretend like everything is fine until the next challenge comes.
He's spent years making sure he never had to be the one sitting on top of that mess.
Now that choice isn't his anymore.
The stairs to Garrick's chambers are narrow and cold. Guards stand at the top but they move aside when Kael approaches. Nobody stops the scarred warrior when he's moving like this. Nobody stops him when there's nowhere else to go.
The study door is open. Light spills out.
And there's a girl standing in the middle of it like she's made of ice.
She's small. Impossibly small. Her dark hair has silver streaks running through it and her eyes are the kind of violet that doesn't belong in nature. She's wearing a servant's dress, the plain gray kind with water stains on the front.
She's staring at Garrick's body like she's forgotten how to breathe.
Kael has seen her before. In the great hall. Serving food. Moving like a ghost between tables, so invisible that his eyes would slide right past her without catching. He's eaten meals she prepared and never once looked at her face.
Now she's looking at him and her whole body is shaking.
"What's your name?" His voice comes out rough. Too harsh for someone this fragile.
She doesn't answer. Her violet eyes are wide and shocked and something inside Kael's chest does something unfamiliar. Something uncomfortable. Like his ribs are too tight.
"Your name," he says again, softer this time. "Tell me your name."
"M-Mira," she whispers.
The name fits her somehow. Small. Quiet. Easy to forget.
Except he's not going to forget it now.
She's staring at him like he's the thing she should be afraid of, not the dead Alpha on the floor. Her burned hands are trembling. Actual burns, he realizes. Fresh ones. Someone hurt her today.
"Did you see anyone else?" Kael asks, stepping further into the study. He doesn't look at Garrick's body. He already knows what it means without examining it. The pack is about to burn.
"No," Mira says, her voice barely above a whisper. "I was cleaning. I came in and he was already... he was already like this."
She's lying. Not about seeing Garrick dead. But about something. He can smell the lie underneath her fear, a faint tang that makes his wolf's ears perk up.
It doesn't matter right now. What matters is that Garrick is dead and this small Omega girl was alone when she found him.
"Did anyone see you coming up here?" Kael asks.
She shakes her head.
"Good. Then as far as anyone knows, you were never here. You finish your cleaning work and go back to the servants' quarters. You don't tell anyone what you saw. You don't talk about the body, you don't talk about finding him, you don't talk about anything. Do you understand?"
Mira nods, still shaking.
Kael doesn't know why he's protecting her. She's nobody. An Omega servant who probably won't matter past the next moon cycle when everything changes. But something in him needs her safe.
Something in him needs her to keep her eyes off him before he does something his wolf won't forgive him for.
He turns toward the door to call for Rylan and the Elders when her voice stops him.
"Are you going to be the next Alpha?"
The question is so small and so direct that it catches him off guard. He looks back at her. She's not shaking as much now. There's something hard starting to form underneath the fear. Like ice reforming after being cracked.
"No," he says, and means it completely. "I'm going to fight anyone who tries to make me."
But even as he says it, he knows it's a lie. Because the pack is broken now. Bleeding. And there's nobody else strong enough to hold it together while it heals.
The burden is already settling onto his shoulders, heavy as a stone.
Mira's violet eyes meet his for just a second and he sees something shift in them. Recognition maybe. Or understanding. Like she already knows what he's starting to understand.
The future is about to hit them both like a avalanche and neither of them is ready.
He's about to speak again when shouting erupts from downstairs. The Elders. They've realized something is wrong. They're coming.
"Go," Kael tells her, pointing toward the back stairs. "Now."
Mira moves fast, her burned hands clutching her wet cloth like it's a shield. She pauses at the doorway and looks back at him, her violet eyes fierce and terrified all at once.
"Will you protect her too?"
The question hits different than it should. Kael realizes she's asking about the child. The one she saved from the fire. Because that's the kind of thing that matters to someone like her.
"Yes," he says.
And the pack's future shifts on its axis because Kael just made his first promise to the invisible Omega.
The Elders' footsteps grow louder.
Mira disappears down the back stairs just as the door bursts open and Elder Thaddeus crashes through it, his old face twisted with panic and power hunger both.
His eyes go to Garrick's body and his voice echoes through the study.
"The Alpha is dead. By ancient law, this changes everything."
Kael watches the old wolf's face shift. Watches calculation bloom behind his eyes as he realizes the pack has no leader.
Watches him begin to smile.