THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME - Chapter 46: Chapter 46
You are reading THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME, Chapter 46: Chapter 46. Read more chapters of THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME.
**Evangeline's POV**
The cold night air bit at my skin as I stumbled through the forest, branches tearing at my clothes. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I thought it might burst. Everything hurt. My head pounded from the magical backlash. My soul felt ripped apart from learning the truth about my identity.
I wasn't Evangeline Cross. I was Lunara Blackthorne.
The name echoed in my mind like a curse. My parents weren't the nobodies I'd been told about. They were powerful. They were dead. They died because of me.
I pressed my back against a thick oak tree, trying to catch my breath. The forest around me felt different tonight. Wrong. The usual sounds of night creatures were gone. No owls hooting. No rustling of small animals in the underbrush. Just silence that made my skin crawl.
My wolf stirred restlessly inside me. She'd been quiet since we discovered the truth, but now she paced back and forth like a caged animal. Something was coming. Something bad.
"Get up," I whispered to myself. "You can't stop here."
But my legs felt like jelly. The magical explosion at the Cross house had drained everything from me. I'd never used that much power before. Green light had poured from my hands, burning through decades of lies and protection spells. The filing cabinet had burst into flames, spelling out "RUN" in silver letters that seared themselves into my memory.
Someone knew I was awake now. Someone knew Lunara Blackthorne had returned.
A twig snapped somewhere to my left.
I froze. My wolf's ears pricked up inside my mind, listening. Another snap, closer this time. Then another.
They were circling me.
My hands shook as I pushed myself away from the tree. Whatever was out there, it wasn't human. The scent that drifted to me on the wind was wrong. It smelled like wet fur and something else. Something that made my stomach turn.
Death. It smelled like death.
A low growl rumbled through the darkness. Then another. And another.
My blood turned to ice. There were at least three of them, maybe more. I'd never heard growls like that before. They were deeper than any wolf I knew. Older. Hungrier.
Yellow eyes appeared between the trees. Then more. They reflected the moonlight like coins floating in the darkness.
I took a step back, then another. My foot caught on a root and I stumbled, barely keeping my balance. The eyes moved closer.
"What do you want?" I called out, surprised by how steady my voice sounded.
The only answer was more growls. These weren't regular wolves. They were something else. Something that shouldn't exist.
One of them stepped into a patch of moonlight, and I bit back a scream.
It was huge. Bigger than any wolf had a right to be. Its fur was black as midnight, but it seemed to absorb light instead of reflecting it. Its eyes glowed with an unnatural yellow fire. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth like daggers.
But the worst part was its smell. Not just death, but something rotten. Something that had crawled out of a grave.
"You're not real," I whispered.
The creature's lips pulled back in what might have been a smile. More of them emerged from the shadows. Five. Six. Seven.
They were all the same. All wrong. All focused on me with a hunger that made my bones ache.
My wolf snarled inside my head. "RUN!"
I didn't need to be told twice. I spun around and crashed through the underbrush, branches whipping at my face. Behind me, I heard the thunder of paws on forest floor. They were coming. They were fast.
I'd never been fast. But fear has its own kind of fuel.
I leaped over fallen logs and dodged between trees, my heart screaming in my chest. But they were faster.
I could hear them gaining on me. Their breathing was like bellows, harsh and wet. One of them howled, and the sound made my blood freeze. It wasn't the howl of any wolf I'd ever heard. It was the sound of something hungry. Something that had been waiting a long time to feed.
As I ran, a memory flashed through my mind. My mother's voice from the vision, urgent and desperate: "Beware the hollow wolves. They wear our faces but carry no souls."
Hollow wolves. That's what these things were. Not real wolves at all, but something wearing their shape.
I burst into a clearing and realized my mistake too late. Open ground. No trees to hide behind. No escape route.
The black wolves poured out of the forest like a living shadow. They spread out, cutting off every path. Their yellow eyes burned in the darkness, fixed on me with deadly focus.
I backed toward the center of the clearing, my hands raised in front of me. "Please," I whispered. "I don't know what you want."
The largest one, the one I'd seen first, stalked closer. Its massive head was level with my chest. Up close, I could see scars crisscrossing its muzzle. Battle scars. This thing was a killer.
It opened its mouth and spoke.
"Lunara Blackthorne." Its voice was like gravel scraping against stone. "We have been waiting so long."
My knees nearly buckled. Wolves couldn't talk. Not like this. Not with words that sounded like they came from the bottom of a well.
"You're not real," I said again, but my voice cracked.
"Real enough to tear you apart," another one said from my left. "Real enough to drag you back to our master."
"Who sent you?" I demanded, trying to sound braver than I felt.
The big one's head tilted. "The Blood Star rises again. He waits below, in the place where your bloodline began."
Blood Star. The words sent ice through my veins. I didn't know what it meant, but my wolf whimpered in recognition. This was older than I understood. Darker.
"They're dead," I whispered.
"Yes." The creature's smile widened. "We made sure of that. Just as we made sure of all the others."
Rage exploded through me like lightning. These monsters had killed my parents. They'd destroyed my family. They'd left me alone and broken and lying about who I was.
Power surged through my veins. The same green light that had destroyed the filing cabinet began to glow under my skin. My hands started to shake, but not from fear anymore.
From fury.
"You killed them," I snarled.
"We did." The leader took another step closer. "And now we'll finish what we started."
The light under my skin grew brighter. I could feel it building, looking for a way out. But this time it was different. The shadows around the clearing began to ripple and retreat, as if the darkness itself feared what I was becoming.
The wolves sensed it too. They shifted restlessly, their eyes flickering between me and the growing glow.
"You're afraid," I realized. "You're afraid of what I am."
"The Blood Star fears nothing, little witch," the leader snarled, but I caught the sharp tang of fear beneath its rotting scent.
"Come then," I said, spreading my arms wide. The light poured out of me, and the forest seemed to lean away, trees creaking as they bent back from my power. "Let's see what you're really made of."
The wolves hesitated. For a moment, I thought they might run. Then their leader snarled and lunged forward.
I threw my hands up, power streaming from my palms. Green fire crashed into the creature's chest, sending it flying backward. It hit a tree with a sickening crack but was back on its feet in seconds.
The others rushed me all at once.
I spun, light flowing from my hands like water. The shadows twisted away from me in spirals, and when my scream of rage tore through the clearing, the hollow wolves actually stumbled backward. The forest was listening to me. Responding to me.
But there were still too many. One of them got through my defenses and knocked me to the ground. Its weight pressed down on me, crushing the air from my lungs.
Hot breath washed over my face as it leaned closer. "The master wants you alive, little witch. But he didn't say you had to be whole."
Its teeth descended toward my throat.
A roar split the night air. Not the howl of the shadow wolves, but something else. Something familiar.
The wolf pinning me was suddenly gone, torn away by a blur of gray fur. I rolled to my side, gasping, as another wolf crashed into the clearing.
This one was different. Normal-sized. Gray and brown with white markings. And his scent...
"Ronan?" I breathed.
Of course it was him. When I no longer needed him, when I'd finally found my own strength, that's when he came.
The gray wolf stood over me, fangs bared at the shadow creatures. He was outnumbered seven to one, but he didn't back down. His growl was low and dangerous.
The cold night air bit at my skin as I stumbled through the forest, branches tearing at my clothes. My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I thought it might burst. Everything hurt. My head pounded from the magical backlash. My soul felt ripped apart from learning the truth about my identity.
I wasn't Evangeline Cross. I was Lunara Blackthorne.
The name echoed in my mind like a curse. My parents weren't the nobodies I'd been told about. They were powerful. They were dead. They died because of me.
I pressed my back against a thick oak tree, trying to catch my breath. The forest around me felt different tonight. Wrong. The usual sounds of night creatures were gone. No owls hooting. No rustling of small animals in the underbrush. Just silence that made my skin crawl.
My wolf stirred restlessly inside me. She'd been quiet since we discovered the truth, but now she paced back and forth like a caged animal. Something was coming. Something bad.
"Get up," I whispered to myself. "You can't stop here."
But my legs felt like jelly. The magical explosion at the Cross house had drained everything from me. I'd never used that much power before. Green light had poured from my hands, burning through decades of lies and protection spells. The filing cabinet had burst into flames, spelling out "RUN" in silver letters that seared themselves into my memory.
Someone knew I was awake now. Someone knew Lunara Blackthorne had returned.
A twig snapped somewhere to my left.
I froze. My wolf's ears pricked up inside my mind, listening. Another snap, closer this time. Then another.
They were circling me.
My hands shook as I pushed myself away from the tree. Whatever was out there, it wasn't human. The scent that drifted to me on the wind was wrong. It smelled like wet fur and something else. Something that made my stomach turn.
Death. It smelled like death.
A low growl rumbled through the darkness. Then another. And another.
My blood turned to ice. There were at least three of them, maybe more. I'd never heard growls like that before. They were deeper than any wolf I knew. Older. Hungrier.
Yellow eyes appeared between the trees. Then more. They reflected the moonlight like coins floating in the darkness.
I took a step back, then another. My foot caught on a root and I stumbled, barely keeping my balance. The eyes moved closer.
"What do you want?" I called out, surprised by how steady my voice sounded.
The only answer was more growls. These weren't regular wolves. They were something else. Something that shouldn't exist.
One of them stepped into a patch of moonlight, and I bit back a scream.
It was huge. Bigger than any wolf had a right to be. Its fur was black as midnight, but it seemed to absorb light instead of reflecting it. Its eyes glowed with an unnatural yellow fire. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth like daggers.
But the worst part was its smell. Not just death, but something rotten. Something that had crawled out of a grave.
"You're not real," I whispered.
The creature's lips pulled back in what might have been a smile. More of them emerged from the shadows. Five. Six. Seven.
They were all the same. All wrong. All focused on me with a hunger that made my bones ache.
My wolf snarled inside my head. "RUN!"
I didn't need to be told twice. I spun around and crashed through the underbrush, branches whipping at my face. Behind me, I heard the thunder of paws on forest floor. They were coming. They were fast.
I'd never been fast. But fear has its own kind of fuel.
I leaped over fallen logs and dodged between trees, my heart screaming in my chest. But they were faster.
I could hear them gaining on me. Their breathing was like bellows, harsh and wet. One of them howled, and the sound made my blood freeze. It wasn't the howl of any wolf I'd ever heard. It was the sound of something hungry. Something that had been waiting a long time to feed.
As I ran, a memory flashed through my mind. My mother's voice from the vision, urgent and desperate: "Beware the hollow wolves. They wear our faces but carry no souls."
Hollow wolves. That's what these things were. Not real wolves at all, but something wearing their shape.
I burst into a clearing and realized my mistake too late. Open ground. No trees to hide behind. No escape route.
The black wolves poured out of the forest like a living shadow. They spread out, cutting off every path. Their yellow eyes burned in the darkness, fixed on me with deadly focus.
I backed toward the center of the clearing, my hands raised in front of me. "Please," I whispered. "I don't know what you want."
The largest one, the one I'd seen first, stalked closer. Its massive head was level with my chest. Up close, I could see scars crisscrossing its muzzle. Battle scars. This thing was a killer.
It opened its mouth and spoke.
"Lunara Blackthorne." Its voice was like gravel scraping against stone. "We have been waiting so long."
My knees nearly buckled. Wolves couldn't talk. Not like this. Not with words that sounded like they came from the bottom of a well.
"You're not real," I said again, but my voice cracked.
"Real enough to tear you apart," another one said from my left. "Real enough to drag you back to our master."
"Who sent you?" I demanded, trying to sound braver than I felt.
The big one's head tilted. "The Blood Star rises again. He waits below, in the place where your bloodline began."
Blood Star. The words sent ice through my veins. I didn't know what it meant, but my wolf whimpered in recognition. This was older than I understood. Darker.
"They're dead," I whispered.
"Yes." The creature's smile widened. "We made sure of that. Just as we made sure of all the others."
Rage exploded through me like lightning. These monsters had killed my parents. They'd destroyed my family. They'd left me alone and broken and lying about who I was.
Power surged through my veins. The same green light that had destroyed the filing cabinet began to glow under my skin. My hands started to shake, but not from fear anymore.
From fury.
"You killed them," I snarled.
"We did." The leader took another step closer. "And now we'll finish what we started."
The light under my skin grew brighter. I could feel it building, looking for a way out. But this time it was different. The shadows around the clearing began to ripple and retreat, as if the darkness itself feared what I was becoming.
The wolves sensed it too. They shifted restlessly, their eyes flickering between me and the growing glow.
"You're afraid," I realized. "You're afraid of what I am."
"The Blood Star fears nothing, little witch," the leader snarled, but I caught the sharp tang of fear beneath its rotting scent.
"Come then," I said, spreading my arms wide. The light poured out of me, and the forest seemed to lean away, trees creaking as they bent back from my power. "Let's see what you're really made of."
The wolves hesitated. For a moment, I thought they might run. Then their leader snarled and lunged forward.
I threw my hands up, power streaming from my palms. Green fire crashed into the creature's chest, sending it flying backward. It hit a tree with a sickening crack but was back on its feet in seconds.
The others rushed me all at once.
I spun, light flowing from my hands like water. The shadows twisted away from me in spirals, and when my scream of rage tore through the clearing, the hollow wolves actually stumbled backward. The forest was listening to me. Responding to me.
But there were still too many. One of them got through my defenses and knocked me to the ground. Its weight pressed down on me, crushing the air from my lungs.
Hot breath washed over my face as it leaned closer. "The master wants you alive, little witch. But he didn't say you had to be whole."
Its teeth descended toward my throat.
A roar split the night air. Not the howl of the shadow wolves, but something else. Something familiar.
The wolf pinning me was suddenly gone, torn away by a blur of gray fur. I rolled to my side, gasping, as another wolf crashed into the clearing.
This one was different. Normal-sized. Gray and brown with white markings. And his scent...
"Ronan?" I breathed.
Of course it was him. When I no longer needed him, when I'd finally found my own strength, that's when he came.
The gray wolf stood over me, fangs bared at the shadow creatures. He was outnumbered seven to one, but he didn't back down. His growl was low and dangerous.
End of THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME Chapter 46. Continue reading Chapter 47 or return to THE ALPHA WHO HATED ME book page.