The Alpha Who Was Never Meant to Love Me

ide my skull. *Ask Adrian why he remembers you when you don't remember him.* Eighteen years of believing I was an ordinary Omega whose mother had died when I was six, and n

ing what little light remained and throwing it in a hundred broken directions, and a low

hout thinking, and light tore out of me and swallowed the thing w

ast, familia

ng, his shirt torn at the collar from whatever fight had happened above me while I'd been down here

e?" I asked. "B

a moment I thought he might

came apart quietly, the way a seam

w l

you wer

At the temple.

es

ched me

ce I'd met him, almost young. "I couldn't come closer. Your memories were t

esn't ma

wi

keeps sa

e be furious, hands loose at his sides like he'd decided a long time ago tha

tly. "You used to hide under your mother's de

I didn't have, and yet it settled into me anyway, familiar in a way that

e I was

romising not to leave - and I pressed my fingers to my temple unti

almost unbearable, and I understood, watching him, that the fearsome Alpha King wasn't

llen," he said. "Not just rogues. We have to move." He offered his hand - not a comm

-

ngue. Warriors fought in Silverpine colors on one side and something darker on the other, and worse than either were the wolv

k is fighting

ng for the Council

by the minute. Adrian's face went somewhere cold and resigned, the expression of a man watchin

N

le

eep telling

once I understood exactly what that cost him to say, the weig

dirt. I ran before I decided to, Adrian a half-step behind - his black wolf tore one attacker away fro

moved past my shoulder to Adrian, and her whole expression chang

ha

ng. They said his father o

here behind my own heartbeat. I turned. Adrian had shifted back, blood running

it t

le

ria

ar him over the roar of the fire. "I found out years ago. I've spent that whole time

ld have

r, and he stepped closer anyway, voice dropping until it was almost only for me, the chaos around us b

" I said, before I

est, most reluctant smile, the kind that looked like it had forg

at

to fall in l

rom the Alpha Hall, and the moment fold

-

verdict already decided, his voice carrying easily over the settling smoke. "Adrian Blackthorne

Adrian

e no arm

ade up his mind and didn't intend to unmake it. Then another. Then a dozen, until it was the old man's certainty

fighting, and for one unbearable stretch I lost him entirely under a wav

,* something ancient said from underneath my own thoughts, and the light tore outward across the whole courtyard. Every warrior stopped moving. Weapo

the moon above it, and for a moment the entire pack was lit silv

said - not mine, not quite anyo

eyes and a blade in her hand that she didn't raise at me. She dropped it

e said. "I helped them hide her

ath me, the ground no lo

he

"Beyond the forbidden border. She's been waiting for you for twelve years." Her eyes moved to

said

me everything h