The Alpha of the 13th District

Just before dawn, barely light outside. The moon is retreating.

Kiera sat on the edge of the bed, her arm bleeding, holding a cloth. In the corner of the room, Asher leaned against the cold wall.

In the shadows, his eyes shimmered violet, like a hiding place for secrets.

The whole room was silent. But the silence wasn't comfort. It was as if something was breathing beneath it slow, heavy, as if counting time.

Kiera gripped the blood on her arm tighter. The bleeding hadn't stopped.

But the deepening silence was more painful than the wound.

Asher hasn't moved. He didn't approach. He didn't ask if Kiera was okay. He just watched her all night.

Kiera looks at him, angry, afraid, and something harder to accept: confused.

"What kind of creature are you? Because no normal wolf would do this to its mate."

The air grew heavy.

Asher slowly rose. Not violently. But not peacefully either. Like something moving that didn't want to wake up.

His voice, low and softly asked her.

"You saw it, didn't you?"

Kiera paused. "Saw what?"

Asher approached. Just one step.

But enough to make Kiera's mark on her palm move and twitch.

It blazed.

She felt the heat, but it wasn't just the heat of the bond. There was coldness.

Like there was shadow.

"The part of myself that the Council didn't tell you about. The real reason why I didn't feel the bond when I first saw you."

Kiera touched her arm, as if instinctively wanting to protect herself.

"It didn't awaken the wolf in me," Asher whispered, "It awakened something else."

Kiera looked at the man, and now, it wasn't just anger in her eyes. There was horror.

She wasn't sure if the person in front of her was the mate she had promised to protect or a danger that shouldn't be released?

"What do you mean?" she asked, softly, but sharply.

Asher stopped in front of her. He didn't sit down. He didn't bow. He let their eyes meet.

"There's a reason I stay away from people. From packs. From... you. Because what's inside me isn't just a wolf."

Asher's mark on his neck glowed-an unfamiliar rune. It shimmered under his skin, violet like smoke.

"He's something older. Something the Council buried. He's not just a wolf... he's something else. And he wants out."

Outside the window, they heard a deep croak of a raven. But it wasn't a normal sound. It was like a warning cry.

Then the mark on Kiera's palm glowed again. But now, it wasn't just silver. There was a violet hue.

Two colors. Two powers. Two souls?

Kiera couldn't speak.

It was as if a voice in the back of her mind was whispering-not to Asher, but to her.

Mate.

Host.

Sacrifice.

She held the shimmering mark on her hand, trying to suppress the rising energy.

"Then what did I just mate with?" Kiera's voice was a whisper. She was trembling, disbelieving.

The answer didn't come immediately.

But in the silence of the room, between the breath of fire and the beat of the mark shimmering on her skin, a wind passed through.

Slow. Heavy. Like the sigh of a creature that shouldn't have awakened.

And there she heard it.

A whisper.

A low voice.

Almost not from this world.

"You didn't mate with a man. You woke the thing inside him...."

Kiera's eyes widened.

The voice was as if from the mark on her hand passing through the blood, rising to her neck, creeping into her brain.

"He was chosen... but you.." There was a pause. As if it was holding back. Or as if something was afraid. "You are the lock... and now, the key."

Kiera's chest tightened.

The fire in the torch flickered black.

At the corner of her eye, there was a shadow in the corner of the wall as if walking backward.

Time stopped.

And the last whisper, broken, as if from a shattered mirror of the world.

"Not everything that wears a heart... was born with one."

A hidden cave, the temple in the midst of the Ashen Woods.

No path. No mark.

The entrance is veiled by thick clouds and ancient wards that stir when touched.

The cave walls are made of cold stone, engraved with an ancient language, and in every corner bones and feathers of a black raven.

The candles are not placed, they float.

Glimmering like a heart. As if alive.

Kiera is alone behind her black horse.

Her cloak is damp with dew, her eyes swollen from sleeplessness and confusion.

This is not an Alpha's mission. This is a mission of someone with many questions they want answered.

She doesn't know how she found this place. No one told her the way. No map was given. Only the dream.

A black fire. Claw marks on skin. And the shadow that moves within Asher.

As she dismounted, a thick mist met her. Not just fog. It has a scent damp earth, ash, and old like the memory of a nightmare.

She pushed open the thin door of the cave and was immediately met by a cold gust. Like the breath of the dead.

Inside, the light doesn't come from the sun. The candles float in the air.

This is not ordinary fire but a fire with a pulse. As if alive.

No one is guarding. No watchman.

But she knows someone is watching.

A shadow sits in the middle of the cave wrapped in a cloud of smoke, seemingly motionless.

Eyes covered. The hair is long and white, like ash. Around it, a circle of black sand, with raven feathers and pieces of bone.

The Seer.

Before Kiera even approached, it spoke.

"You dreamed of drowning wolves and a flame that doesn't die."

Kiera stopped. She hadn't even asked.

She hadn't even spoken. But the Seer's words went straight to her heart.

As if reading her soul.

"Who really is Asher?" Kiera asked, her voice barely audible.

The Seer's face lifted slightly, but it still didn't remove the blindfold.

Its voice was like an echo in the cave the sound of time, not of man.

"He is the echo of a curse. Passed down in flesh and sealed in fire."

Suddenly, the surroundings brightened, not because of the candles, but because of a sudden surge of energy.

Suddenly, the world shrank.

Kiera sees in her vision, a wolf consumed by fire, but not dying.

A baby born while the moon screams.

A sword plunged into the heart of an Alpha.

And Asher's face but with horns.

The images suddenly stopped.

Kiera is trembling.

Her nails are turning black from the amount of energy that passed through her body.

And the Seer.

Slowly removed the blindfold.

The Seer's eyes were black. Whole. No white. As if it had never seen light.

But that's not what's surprising.

It's gaze is directly at Kiera's soul.

Then it whispered. "And now that you've touched him...it's already begun in you."

Kiera's chest tightened.

The pulse of the mark on her palm quickened.

It heated up.

And one of the candles burst, scattering ash into the air.

The innermost part of the temple, the Inner Sanctum. A circular room with no windows, no door to escape from.

The ceiling is full of moving glyphs, swaying in the wind as if written by spirits themselves.

In the center, a pool of glowing water.

But it's not just water, but liquid light, every movement showing an image beneath.

Kiera is silent as she approaches. As if something is sucking her in. As if she no longer controls her own feet.

She looked around, no shadow, but she felt someone watching.

At the side, the Seer stands silently, hands folded across its chest.

Motionless. Like a statue.

Kiera knelt before the pool.

"Touch it," whispered the Seer. "See what was never meant to be remembered."

When her finger touched the water the world changed. The water suddenly turned to smoke. Each wave is like a shattered mirror.

She first saw Asher still young, about six years old. Wearing a mud caked cloak, soaking wet, and surrounding him were corpses.

Wolf shifters. People. All dead. He alone is alive and smiling.

"Asher," she whispered. But she is not heard.

She's just like a spirit in a dream.

Second flash a creature.

Cloaked.

You can't see its face. It approached Asher. It has long claws. And whispered in his ear.

From behind young Asher, a sigil suddenly flared. Shadowfire of black fire with violet sparks.

"Stop," whispered Kiera, trembling.

But she can't leave.The following wave is deeper.

Third vision a room with a throne made of horns and ash.

Asher is there. But he's different.

Taller. More ferocious aura. And beside him Kiera. Wearing a silver cloak. But in her eyes no more mercy.

Beneath their throne a burning world.

The images suddenly cut off. The water rose, as if looking for a face.

Behind her, the Seer spoke.

"He's not just a wolf. He's born of two realms the wild, and the dark. "Half shadow fae. The forbidden kind."

Kiera's breath hitched. She couldn't speak immediately.

"Shadow fae?" she whispered. "Then why me? Of all those who could be given a bond, why was I chosen?"

The Seer spoke again.

But now, the voice is lower. As if not from it, but from the shadows inhabiting the room.

"Because the prophecy is not about a union. It's about a war."

Kiera stepped back. The back of her neck felt cold.

"What kind of war?"

The Seer slowly approached.

"One that begins when a Queen of Ruin rises... from love."

Kiera clutched her chest. The mark on her palm throbs heats up.

"I don't want to be anyone's Queen."

"Then don't love the one fated to burn the world," the Seer replied.

The Seer approached the edge of the pool. Looking at the burning water.

"The bond was never meant to bind. It was meant to break something sacred."

The water suddenly flared from light, turning into red blood. The smoke rose. It smells of iron. Rust. And of life.

In the middle of the red pool, Kiera's image appeared.

She sits on a throne made of ash. Her cloak is made of the skin of creatures.

Beneath her throne the whole world is burning.

She moved away.Trembling. Almost unable to walk.

The Seer whispered silently:

"That's one future. And it begins the moment you choose him."