Fated to My Forbidden Alpha – Episode 09
Lantern light transformed Blood Moon’s packhouse into something almost beautiful. Silver ribbons curved beneath the ballroom gallery, musicians played beside tall windows, and the full moon shone over guests in formal clothes. Every polished detail invited admiration for Jackson’s engagement.
To Selene, the splendor felt hollow. Her eighteenth birthday had awakened Lyla and exposed the cruelest secret of her life, yet no one celebrating knew she was Jackson’s hidden mate. She carried trays beneath decorations she had hung while each toast praised the future he planned to build after rejecting her.
The bond loomed like a storm. Selene sensed Jackson whenever he crossed the room, her body recognizing him before her eyes did. Lyla remained wounded by his promised rejection, but the wolf’s steady presence kept pain from deciding how Selene carried herself.
Near midnight, tension moved through the crowd. Guards at the entrance straightened, conversations softened, and one name traveled through the ballroom in an awed whisper: Alexander Kane had arrived. Before the doors opened, warmth surged through Selene strongly enough to stop her midstep.
The sensation differed from Jackson’s bond, which pulled against years of hurt. This connection spread through her limbs as longing, safety, and recognition intertwined. Lyla rose with a startled growl. He’s here, she whispered, sounding almost as shaken as Selene felt.
“Who?” Selene asked silently, though her pulse already raced toward the answer. Lyla called it the other bond—the impossible connection fate demanded they notice. Questions scattered when the ballroom doors swung inward.
Nightwind warriors entered first, disciplined and silent, followed by Beta Drake. Alexander crossed the threshold behind them in a dark formal coat. He never demanded attention, yet the room reorganized itself around his power, and even the musicians faltered before finding the rhythm again.
His golden eyes swept the gathering while his wolf searched beneath every scent. Alexander greeted Jackson, accepted Tiffany’s practiced welcome, and presented the ceremonial gifts expected of an honored guest. Each controlled gesture concealed the urgency growing beneath his skin.
Drake sensed the change beside him. Somewhere among jeweled guests and political allies stood the woman Nightwind had crossed the country to find. Alexander’s composure remained flawless, but the bond pulled harder with every breath he took inside Blood Moon.
Selene retreated toward the servants’ passage. She wanted no more revelations on a birthday already split open by one hidden mate. The tray in her hands offered the familiar protection of work, but even that ordinary weight could not steady her. Each step Alexander took into the ballroom sent warmth through her chest, urging her closer while Lyla filled her senses with winter pine and rain.
Alexander turned. Across the crowded room, his gaze found the servant in a plain gray dress. The instant their eyes met, the connection surged so violently Selene nearly dropped the tray, and his wolf answered with joyous certainty.
Jackson noticed. A growl vibrated beneath his breath as he followed Alexander’s stare to Selene. He left the receiving line and crossed the ballroom, disguising panic as the rigid authority of a host correcting someone beneath his rank.
Alexander barely registered the movement. The young woman carried the loneliness he had felt across the distance and the defiant silver light haunting his dreams. Guests shifted aside as he approached, bewildered that Nightwind’s Alpha had crossed the room for an unknown servant.
Selene wanted to run, but no part of Alexander’s presence felt cruel. That instinctive trust frightened her almost as much as Jackson’s rejection. Every measured step increased the warmth until the ballroom blurred, leaving golden eyes as the only fixed point.
Jackson reached her first and positioned himself close enough to imply possession without touching her. He ordered her back to the service corridor, but Selene heard fear beneath the command. Lyla bristled at the man who wanted to discard their bond while preventing anyone else from seeing it.
Alexander stopped several feet away. “You are the one my wolf has been sensing.” His voice carried through the quiet hall without becoming a command. Up close, his attention was overwhelming, yet he kept enough distance to leave Selene room to breathe.
She admitted she did not understand. Alexander said he had searched for her for years and would not leave without learning who she was. His wolf pressed a possessive claim through the bond, but the man restrained it, asking for truth rather than ordering submission.
Jackson stepped between them and claimed Selene was a member of Blood Moon. He reminded her who had kept her safe for fifteen years and warned her not to forget where she belonged because a stranger showed interest. The words transformed every hardship he permitted into a debt she supposedly owed.
“One of you hid the truth from me, and the other doesn’t even know my name.” Selene’s voice trembled but reached the silent guests. She admitted feeling both bonds, then lifted her chin. “I am not a prize for two Alphas to claim. Whatever fate has done, I decide who earns my trust.”
Whispers erupted as she stepped away from both men. Alexander’s surprise became respect, while Jackson looked furious that she had spoken publicly. Across the ballroom, Tiffany watched with a frozen smile and dawning suspicion—just as Selene’s bonds began gathering enough power to expose every secret before the night ended.
