Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 16
The night after the chandelier attack brought no true rest to Blood Moon. Guards doubled patrols, servants whispered behind locked doors, and every settling beam made someone glance toward the ceiling. Investigators sealed the storage wing while the packhouse pretended order had returned. Visiting delegations delayed their departures, turning a private crime into a public measure of Jackson’s control. By dawn, every corridor carried suspicion.
Selene lay awake in the infirmary, watching moonlight cross the ceiling. Each time she closed her eyes, iron fell again and Alexander’s arm closed around her waist one heartbeat before death. The healer called her injuries minor, but no salve could touch the terror beneath them. Her body startled whenever footsteps paused outside, and sleep felt like surrendering the vigilance that had kept her alive for years.
Lyla remained close inside her mind. When Selene asked why everything felt worse after finally finding her wolf, Lyla answered that the truth was approaching. Selene had spent years believing truth would set her free; each new discovery now seemed to expose another danger.
The wolf spoke of three Alpha presences surrounding Selene: Jackson through the first mate bond, Alexander through an impossible second, and Ethel through something rooted in scent and blood. “Three Alphas cannot be connected to one servant,” Selene whispered.
The final word sounded increasingly false. Servant described the labor Blood Moon demanded, not the blood she carried or the woman she might become. Lyla warned that Selene was measuring herself by a story written by people who benefited from keeping her small.
In the main hall, Jackson watched investigators catalog chandelier fragments. Someone inside his territory had prepared a murder, bypassed his guards, and selected Selene as the target. The attack challenged his authority as completely as it endangered her life.
Alexander had saved her again. Jealousy scraped Jackson’s pride, but gratitude cut deeper. He had felt Selene’s panic through their bond and still arrived too late; without his rival, the woman he intended to reject would already be dead.
Luke confirmed the support was weakened and the last rope pulled from the upper landing. Only servants, senior staff, and celebration workers possessed access. Every fact pointed toward someone inside Blood Moon who understood the manor’s neglected corridors. The murderer had not merely found an opportunity; they had studied Selene’s work assignment and prepared the location around her routine.
Jackson ordered Luke to find the attacker. Alpha power chilled the hall, but Luke could not tell whether the fury belonged more to the hidden murderer or Alexander, who repeatedly reached Selene before the man fate first tied to her.
Outside, Alexander stood beneath an open infirmary window while Drake reported that Nightwind’s scholars found no law explaining two living Alpha bonds around one wolf. The connection to Selene strengthened after the rescue and carried an older current whenever Ethel approached her.
“Something about her was buried,” Alexander said. Not merely her name, but power old enough to bend rules wolves considered absolute. If it awakened without guidance, the consequences could reach beyond the people trapped inside the competing bonds.
A sharp pulse drove the breath from Selene’s lungs. Lyla steadied her and called it a summons rather than an injury. Before she could identify the source, Alexander appeared at the infirmary doorway and asked permission with his stillness instead of entering.
Selene claimed she was fine. Alexander did not challenge the lie, but he said she should not face a murderer and an awakening alone. “I’m used to being alone,” she replied, sharper than intended.
Pain crossed his face because the answer revealed how Blood Moon taught her solitude was safer than dependence. Alexander clarified that help did not need to come from him. He could offer guards, healers, and Nightwind’s records while leaving Selene free to refuse every personal claim.
The restraint eased something possession never could. Their bond pulsed, and Alexander felt a sealed power turn toward consciousness inside her. His wolf went silent, listening to something ancient answer beneath Lyla’s presence.
Far below them, Ethel opened the final sealed record in Blood Moon’s archive. The packet carried the former Alpha’s private mark and had been removed from the public sequence. Brittle pages contained the original patrol statement from fifteen years earlier.
Masked Blood Moon wolves had been seen carrying a three-year-old girl through the eastern forest. She was transferred to the former Gamma, stripped of identifying possessions, and later registered as an orphan. Her crescent mark and Bloodwind pendant were described precisely.
Ethel read the report twice. His daughter’s identity had not been overlooked; someone deliberately erased it and hid her inside the territory responsible for her disappearance. Grief hardened into an Alpha’s purpose as he memorized every signature.
At the end of the infirmary corridor, Jackson watched the quiet between Alexander and Selene. No intimate words passed between them, yet the trust beginning to grow frightened him more than any public declaration. His intended rejection no longer felt like a decision he could make without consequence.
In the courtyard shadows, Tiffany watched all three Alphas circle the girl she had failed to kill. Selene was no longer merely a romantic rival but evidence of an old crime powerful men intended to expose. Tiffany smiled without warmth and decided the next attempt would erase both the woman and the truth buried inside her.
