Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
She returned to her room. Fiona had canceled the day’s torture disguised as training to help Galen make arrangements for Alexander’s absence.
Selene was left with nothing to do but think. She looked around the room. She considered laying back down.
She gasped and placed her hand to her heart when she was suddenly struck by a deep sense of loneliness.
‘He must have taken the suppressant…’ she thought with a twinge of disappointment.
Alexander had warned her. He told her he would need to be focused on the task he set out to accomplish. Their bond was undeniably strong, their attachment even stronger. He knew that being separated would take a toll on them both.
Selene had understood, even agreed.
Still… he was gone, and she felt a void inside her without him.
She took a deep breath and left the room. It was still dark out, the early glow of sunrise starting to reach across the sky. There were few people out at this hour. She made her way across the campus and through the trees much quicker than she had anticipated.
Selene was out of breath when she reached the entrance. Still, she pushed the place on the bark that opened the door. Then, she climbed the stairs and entered the treehouse.
Closing the hatch behind her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She smiled.
His scent was everywhere.
Selene walked to the window. Staring out into the mountains and the valley below, she knew that he was running through the trees somewhere out there. She touched the glass with the tips of her fingers, wishing she knew where he was going.
She turned to look around the room. They had cleaned up the blanket and picnic supplies after spending hours talking and laughing. She looked over at the couch, where they had cuddled together while watching two different movies. Though the second was primarily ignored as they found themselves more interested in each other.
Remembering his touch sent a pulse of warm energy through her. She swallowed as she thought about his lips trailing kisses down her throat to her chest. He had teased her for a long time, and she had enjoyed every moment.
She sighed, the memory was beautiful, but it only fueled the desire to have him back in her arms. The empty feeling in her chest grew heavy.
Her eyes lingered on the couch until she turned to look at the bed.
Held in his arms through the night, they hadn’t done anything but sleep. And she had never felt safer or more at peace.
Selene walked over to their shared bed just a few hours ago. His scent was more pronounced here than anywhere else in the room. She found his pillow and hugged it to her chest, breathing it in as she climbed back into bed.
She curled around his pillow, imagining him lying beside her as the first rays of sunshine streamed through the window, and she drifted back to sleep.
“What did you find out?” Alexander asked as Axel entered the room.
They had agreed to meet in one of the old scout shelters in the forests to the northeast of Summer. It was a neutral territory between lesser packs.
“It was Shadowcrest,” Axel sighed. Dropping his bag on the ground. “They were one of the ones reported by your scout. Saul checked. There was another body pit, with fewer dead than before but no
children. So it seems likely they were the other pack with Whiteridge.”
Alexander sighed.
“Hallowed is gone,” Alexander said. “I sent my scout back. He found a pit as well, it was far from the settlement, and unfortunately, he found the entire pack.”
Alexander had a grim look that Axel understood all too well.
“Lone Rock as well, Saul confirmed it,” Axel replied regrettably, sitting down in the chair opposite Alexander. “I told him to take a break after that one. He has a baby at home. He shouldn’t have had to see that.”
Alexander rested his forehead in his hand, rubbing his temples as he felt a headache coming on.
Four packs dead. Children from two of them missing. How had this happened?
“That leaves Stone Garden, Riptide, and Darkmaw,” Axel continued. “I checked Stone Garden myself. Unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, the only gravesite I found belonged to the pack.”
“I have a scout headed to Riptide. We should hear something in the next day or two. We already checked Darkmaw,” Alexander said. “Same thing. No fresh graves, no pit, no sign of the pack.”
“How does Darkmaw just disappear?” Axel growled. Frustrated, he slouched down into his chair. “That pack has more than two hundred and fifty wolves!”.
“There’s something else you need to know,” Alexander said.
Axel sat up, resting his hands on the table.
“Since the first rogue attacks, something has been off between the major packs.”
“You mean other than the normal animosity and old hatreds?” Axel scoffed.
“More than that,” Alexander sighed. “The first rogue attack on Winter happened before all the others, and it was the only one where wolfsbane was used.”
“What?” Axel asked, sitting up even straighter. “No, that’s not… I read the reports, all the attacks happened simultaneously, and all reported wolfsbane. Including Summer!”
“Axel,” Alexander said, sitting forward and keeping eye contact with him. “The first I ever heard of wolfsbane being used in the attacks was when I saw the scar on Selene’s arm.”
Axel furrowed his brows; he shook his head with a scoff.
“That… that doesn’t make sense.”
“The attack in Summer was at night. From what Selene told me, yours was in the afternoon. But the reports I received claimed all the attacks were at night, and there was no wolfsbane,” Alexander said.
“So… you’re saying that the reports… were fake?” Axel asked.
“Exactly,” Alexander replied. “What we each received was different from what happened. Which means that one of the others changed the reports.”
“Son of a b–”
“That’s not all,” Alexander continued. “Before the Fae attack, I got a report from some of my scouts near Autumn.”
“Your scouts near Autumn?” Axel asked. “Do you just always keep scouts looking in on other packs?”
“I do when those other packs falsify reports and hide information about wolfsbane and rogue attacks,” Alexander growled.
Axel clenched his jaw.
“My apologies,” Axel said.
“These scouts,” Alexander continued, ignoring the interruption. “Brought me a report about Autumn. I should have investigated it immediately, but I got a tip that Winter was in danger.”
“A tip?” Axel asked. “From who?”
“I can’t say.”
“The hell you can’t!” Axel growled, standing from his chair. “Someone knew that there was a Fae attack on Winter, and you’re protecting them. After all the lives we lost?”
“I’m not protecting them. They had nothing to do with it. They didn’t even know it was Fae.”
“Then what did they know? And how?”
“All they could tell me was that there would be an attack on Winter. I didn’t need to know anything else.”
“How do you know they weren’t part of it?”
“This person is… unique. I don’t fully trust them, but they have proven themselves,” Alexander replied. “If I’m being honest, that was the first time they contacted me like that. And I did wonder if I should question it. Still, my own scouts confirmed unusual movement in Winter territory, and I ran for the door.”
“But you know who they are?” Axel asked. “You don’t fully trust them, but you trust them enough to keep their identity secret?”
“They haven’t done anything to make me question them. I wouldn’t say I trust them, exactly. This is not an innocent person by any means.
“However, I don’t believe they intend to harm anyone… but they follow orders they don’t agree with.”
Axel looked away.
‘It sounds like her,” he thought with a bitterness he didn’t care for.
He wanted her to have reached out to him, but he knew he wouldn’t have reacted the same way Alexander did.
How could he trust a voice in the dark? No, what he trusted, what he believed in, were those chocolate eyes that haunted him. The far-off look inside of them called to him.
“That isn’t what matters right now anyway,” Alexander continued. “What matters is the reports I received about Autumn.”
“And what did those say?” Axel asked, feeling irritated by all the new information. Then, finally, he moved to sit back down again.
“Autumn has been taking in wolves from lesser packs.”
“What?!” Axel shouted, rising up from his chair once again. “For how long? How many?”
“At the time, it was a few here and there and at least one large group. But not whole packs,” Alexander replied. “As I said, I should have looked into it sooner.”
“Looked into it? You should have told us!” Axel snarled. “You should have told us about the reports, about the warning! All of it!”
Axel slammed his fist on the table.
Alexander clenched his jaw as he felt the power coming off Axel. It wasn’t enough to sway Alexander or make him submit, but the new Alpha had grown stronger quickly.
He suddenly remembered the power Selene had been able to draw on when she confronted Holden at Axel’s ceremony.
“Always lies…” Axel sighed between gritted teeth as he hung his head. “Everywhere.”
“What?” Alexander asked, confused by Axel’s words as his thoughts were interrupted.
Axel looked up at Alexander, a faint glow around his eyes.
“Why are there so many of you?” Axel asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“You lie all the time. About family, about love, about the things you say and do,” Axel sighed. “Why is no one honest?”
“At times, it is more important to maintain peace than maintain trust.”
“No,” Axel said, shaking his head softly. “It’s not.”
Axel pushed away from the table.
“Maintaining peace starts by maintaining trust. Lies are the catalyst of war,” Axel said as he reached down for the bag he had dropped as he entered the building.
“Have you never lied?” Alexander asked with a raised eyebrow and a look of annoyance.
“I have,” Axel said. “I thought it was to protect someone I care about. But I realize now that it probably was for nothing. Telling the truth would have kept her protected, possibly even given her a better life.”
He hoisted the bag over his shoulder.

New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?