18 The Alpha’s Soal
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18 The Alpha’s Seal
Nyra’s POV
My mother stared at the letter like it had teeth.
The wax seal, Alpha Ethan’s crest, looked harmless enough, but the way her fingers tightened around the parchment told me she wanted to burn the whole thing and the hand that delivered it.
“This is madness,” she hissed, pacing the cabin like a storm trapped in wood. “He has no right. No right to summon you like you’re,
“Like I’m property?” I finished softly.
Her head snapped toward me, eyes blazing. “Don’t you dare say it like it’s normal.”
I kept my voice calm even though my stomach was twisting. “Mum… Elaine… breathe.”
She stopped short. Her chest rose and fell fast. The anger was real, but I could see something else
behind it, fear. The kind she tried to hide from me.
“I don’t like this,” she said, voice low. “I don’t like anything about it.”
“I know.” I reached for her hand. “But whatever his reason is, we can’t ignore the Alpha’s seal. You know
that.”
Her jaw clenched. “He’s doing this to remind me that he can.”
I didn’t argue, because deep down I suspected the same thing.
Elaine exhaled through her nose, forced herself to stillness, then looked at me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
“You will not go anywhere alone,” she said. “You will not speak unless I tell you to. And you will not let anyone corner you.”
I almost smiled at the mothering, but it wouldn’t form properly.
“Okay,” I whispered.
She held my gaze for a long moment, then turned away sharply as if softness hurt her pride.
“I’m going to the market,” she said, grabbing her shawl. “We need supplies. If he wants to drag you back into pack life, then you will not walk in there looking like a starving ghost.”
I wanted to tell her I already felt like one.
But I just nodded.
When she left, the cabin felt quieter than it should have, like even the walls were holding their breath.
I tried to distract myself by cleaning my wound again, checking the healed skin where my mother’s light
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18 The Alpha’s Seal
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had erased pain like it was nothing. Every time I looked at it, my stomach turned with disbelief.
Prima Wolf.
My mother had said it so simply, as if she hadn’t just dropped a truth big enough to split my life in half.
I was still staring at my side when a knock sounded.
Not the official knock from earlier.
Not the sharp, duty-laced knock of a messenger.
This one was measured. Familiar. Like someone who didn’t want to startle me.
My heart jumped anyway.
I opened the door and froze.
Charles stood on my porch.
Kieran’s Beta.
Kieran’s shadow.
He looked out of place in outcast territory, like the trees themselves were watching him. His posture was straight, his face serious, and his scent, clean wolf, leather, authority, filled the doorway.
My throat tightened.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Charles’s gaze swept over me quickly, like he was checking for injuries, for bruises, for signs of something worse.
“Kieran sent me,” he said.
The mention of Kieran’s name struck an old bruise in my chest.
“I didn’t ask him to,” I replied flatly.
Charles hesitated. “He was worried something might have happened to you.”
I let out a humourless laugh. “Worried.”
Charles’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he didn’t argue. He simply said, “He can’t come.”
I blinked. “Of course he can’t.”
“He’s tied up with pack duties,” Charles continued, voice controlled. “Things are… tense.”
I could have guessed why.
Ronan.
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18 The Alpha: Seal
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Drafting.
Power games.
The pack tightening like a fist around its own throat.
I crossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe, refusing to let him see how much it still hurt to
hear Kieran’s name.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Tell him to stop bothering about me.”
Charles studied me for a long moment.
I could tell he wanted to say something.
His jaw flexed once, like he was chewing on words that could change everything.
Then he swallowed them.
“Alright,” he said quietly. “But Nyra… be careful.”
Something in his tone made my skin prickle.
“Why?” I demanded. “What does that mean?”
Charles’s gaze flicked past me toward the cabin, toward the trees, toward the world that had always treated me like I was disposable.
“It means…” He exhaled. “The Alpha’s summons isn’t normal.”
I stiffened. “So you know about it.”
He didn’t deny it.
He just nodded once. “Everyone does.”
My stomach turned.
Of course they did.
In this pack, nothing happened quietly unless the powerful wanted it quiet.
Charles took a step back. “I should go.”
“Tell Kieran,” I said, voice sharp, “that I don’t need his concern in secret. Not anymore.”
Charles’s eyes tightened, but he didn’t defend him. He simply gave a short nod and left without another word.
I watched him disappear into the trees, and for a moment I stood there with my hand on the door, feeling something bitter twist inside me.
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18 The Alpha Soal
Even now, after everything, Kieran still couldn’t come himself.
He still couldn’t stand on my porch.
Still couldn’t be seen.
The sun dipped lower.
The air cooled.
And dread sat heavier in my stomach as evening crawled closer.
P
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