Love's Alpha Redemption - Crimson Eyes, Shattered Chains.

The first time I saw him; I forgot to breathe.

Alpha Dane stood in the center of the room like a storm, given human form. His piercing crimson eyes scanned the gathering, settling on each person for a fleeting moment before moving on. But when they locked with mine, I felt as if the very air around me had been stolen. The weight of his gaze was suffocating, yet I couldn't look away. It wasn't just his power that unnerved me-it was the strange flicker of recognition in those eyes, as though he had found something he hadn't been looking for.

I had no right to stand out, not in this room, not ever. My brother, Kieran, made sure of that. For years, I was nothing more than a shadow-a servant in my very own pack, scurrying around unnoticed, unseen, unheard. It was safer that way. Drawing Kieran's attention meant pain, humiliation, and worse. And yet, for one fleeting moment, Alpha Dane had seen me.

I should have felt terrified. Instead, I felt... alive.

My life hadn't always been this bleak. There was a time when our family's laughter echoed through these walls when my parents ruled the pack with fairness and love. But that world was shattered the day they died. The accident had come out of nowhere, or so everyone believed. One moment, my parents were the leaders, the protectors, the heart of our pack; the next moment, they were gone, leaving Kieran to take their place.

But Kieran didn't inherit their compassion. He wielded his power like a weapon, his ambition burning brighter than any bond of blood. The first thing he did as Alpha was strip me of my wolf. I still remember the ritual-the blinding pain as the spell locked away the very essence of who I was, leaving me hollow.

"You're a liability," he had said, his voice cold and final. "The weaker link. You'll serve this pack better in silence."

From that moment on, I wasn't his sister anymore. I was a scapegoat, a servant, and a prisoner in my own home.

I was carrying a tray of drinks when Dane arrived that night. Kieran had summoned the pack for an emergency meeting-something about a looming alliance with the Malakar pack. I kept to the edges of the room, my eyes downcast, hoping to escape unnoticed. But when Dane walked in, the atmosphere shifted.

His presence demanded attention. The other alphas deferred to him instinctively, their chatter fading into silence. He wasn't the tallest man in the room, nor the most muscular, but his sheer aura of dominance made him seem larger than life.

When his eyes swept over the crowd and landed on me, I froze. My heart pounded, my wolf-bound though she was-stirred faintly, almost as if in recognition. For years, I had buried her voice so deeply I almost forgot she existed. Yet in that moment, she pressed against the confines of her prison, as though Alpha Dane's gaze had called to something primal within me.

Later that night, I overheard them.

Kieran's voice was sharp and low, filled with the venom I had come to know too well. "Dane is a threat. His power grows unchecked, and if he discovers my plans, this entire alliance will fall apart."

"Then why invite him here?" a second voice asked-one of Kieran's lieutenants.

Kieran scoffed. "To keep him close. To watch him. And when the time is right, to destroy him."

I pressed my back against the cold stone wall, every muscle in my body tense. Dane wasn't just a visitor; he was a pawn in Kieran's twisted game. And if Kieran was willing to destroy an alpha like Dane, what chance did I have if I ever stepped out of line?

A faint creak of the floorboards startled me, and I realized how dangerous it was to linger. If Kieran caught me eavesdropping, his wrath would be unthinkable. But as I slipped away, the weight of what I'd overheard settled in my chest.

Alpha Dane might have been powerful, but Kieran's cunning was unmatched. And in this deadly dance of ambition and betrayal, I was a pawn, just like everyone else.

When I lay down that night, sleep refused to come. My mind replayed Dane's gaze, the raw power behind those crimson eyes, and the strange spark of hope they had kindled in me. For years, I had learned to accept my fate, to survive one day at a time without daring to dream of more. But something had shifted tonight.

Hope was dangerous. It made you think of things you couldn't have, couldn't be. And yet, for the first time in years, I felt its warmth in the cold void of my existence.

I knew better than to cling to it. Hope only led to disappointment, and disappointment often came with punishment. Still, as I stared at the ceiling of my small, dark room, I couldn't stop wondering:

Why had Dane looked at me that way?

And what would happen when Kieran's plans finally unfolded?

The answers scared me, but not as much as the thought of staying in this shadowed prison forever.

As the first rays of dawn crept into the sky, I made a silent vow: If there was even the faintest chance to escape this life, I would take it. For freedom, for survival... and for the strange, dangerous pull I felt toward the Alpha with the crimson eyes.

The sound of Kieran's voice the next morning shattered my resolve. His commanding tone echoed down the hall, and I knew he was issuing orders-something big was about to happen. My heart sank as dread coiled around me like a vice.

I wasn't strong. I wasn't brave. But I was tired of living like this.

As I opened the door to face another day, one thought burned in my mind:

Change was coming. I just didn't know if it would save me or destroy me.

Kieran's words echoed in my mind as I carried out my chores that day. "Dane won't see it coming," he had said. But I wasn't so sure. Dane's gaze lingered in my mind, and I couldn't shake the feeling that he knew far more than he let on.

If Kieran thought he could outmaneuver an alpha like Dane, he might have underestimated the storm he was inviting into our lives.

And somehow, I knew I was standing at the heart of it.