Chapter 3 THE ALPHA KINGS CLAIM

The world tilted sideways as Samantha stumbled through the dense forest, branches scraping her arms, roots catching her feet. She couldn't see anything, not the trees, not the sky, not even her own trembling hands, only the endless darkness that had swallowed her since Morris took her sight.

Her lungs burned.

Her legs shook.

Her face throbbed from the blood that had dried on her cheeks.

But she kept running.

Running from Morris.

Running from the monster who claimed it was love.

Her foot snagged on a fallen log. She pitched forward, collapsing on the cold forest floor with a broken cry.

Not again.

Not here.

Not when she was so close to... something, Somewhere. Anywhere but him.

Her fingers clawed uselessly at the dirt. She could smell something different in the air a heavy, ancient, powerful scent that didn't belong to Morris's territory.

A new scent.

A dangerous one.

And then she heard them. Steps, Slow. Deliberate. Too heavy to be human, too controlled to be a wild animal. The ground trembled with each approach. Samantha's heartbeat hammered in her chest.

"No," she whispered, voice cracking. "Not him. Please not him"

But the voice that cut through the air was not Morris's.

It was deeper.

Colder, and Royal.

"Who are you," the man demanded, "and why do you bleed on my border?"

His voice rumbled like thunder, quiet, deadly, impossible to ignore.

Samantha felt the air shift around her, as though the forest itself bowed in his presence.

She didn't know who he was.

Didn't know she had collapsed exactly at the edge of Shadow Pack territory.

Didn't know the man standing over her was Alpha King Zoro, the most feared werewolf in every kingdom.

She only knew one thing: This wasn't Morris.

"P-please..." she whispered, barely able to form words. "Help me..."

A low growl sounded, cold, sharp, assessing.

Not threatening... but not gentle either.

"Lift her," Zoro ordered.

Rough hands, not cruel, but strong. slid under her arms. She flinched violently, instincts screaming.

"Don't touch me!" she cried.

The entire forest stilled.

Even the warriors froze.

Zoro's tone dropped to something darker, something dangerously close to intrigued.

"She's blind."

His warriors exchanged glances, but none dared question him.

Samantha swallowed, throat raw. "Please... I... I'm just trying to get away. He's coming. He'll kill me if he finds me." please let me go, she groaned.

Zoro crouched beside her. She didn't see him, but she felt him, felt the cold authority radiating from him like a force of nature.

"Who?" he asked.

She hesitated.

Saying his name out loud made it too real.

Too terrifying.

Zoro reached toward her face, slowly, so slowly... then stopped as if surprised by his own movement. His thumb hovered inches from her cheek.

"What is your name?"

"S-Samantha," she breathed.

Zoro inhaled sharply.

Not because of her answer,

but because with her name came her scent.

A scent he recognized.

A scent that ignited the fury he kept buried beneath stone and ice.

"Morris," he growled, voice deadly calm, "has been here."

His warriors tensed immediately. Even Samantha felt the change, the tension in the air tightening like a noose.

"You... know him?" she asked weakly.

"I know what he is," Zoro said, each word dipped in venom.

A predator.

A traitor.

A rival he should've killed years ago.

Zoro stood slowly, his power pressing against the forest like a storm. Samantha felt it even without sight, felt it in her bones, in her trembling breaths, in the way the ground seemed to hum under him.

"Bring her to the palace," he commanded.

"W-wait," Samantha pleaded, reaching blindly toward the voice she could barely track. "Please don't take me back to him."

Zoro stiffened.

Her hand brushed his boot.

A tiny, accidental touch.

But it felt like a spark slamming straight into his chest.

His heart, silent and frozen for so many years, lurched once.

Hard.

What the hell was that?

He stepped back instinctively, momentarily caught off guard.

His gamma cleared his throat. "My king... should we send a healer?"

Zoro ignored him, eyes fixed on the fragile woman trembling on the ground.

She wasn't a warrior.

She wasn't a threat.

She wasn't even a wolf.

Yet something about her... called to him.

Something he didn't want.

Something he didn't allow.

Something dangerous.

"Carry her," he said at last, voice tight.

"I can walk," Samantha whispered.

She couldn't. Her legs barely moved.

Zoro exhaled, annoyed at himself for caring. "You'll collapse before you take two steps."

She flinched at the sternness in his tone. Zoro felt a stab in his chest,ban unfamiliar, unwanted feeling.

He hated it.

He crouched again, this time slower.

"Listen to me," he said, voice low but steady. "You're safe here. You crossed into my territory. Morris will not follow, not unless he wants war."

Samantha shivered. "War?"

Zoro's jaw tightened.

"Yes. And trust me, he knows he would lose."

For the first time, something softened in Samantha's expression. Not trust. Not comfort.

But relief.

Zoro hated how that tiny flicker affected him.

He stood and turned away abruptly.

"Move."

His warriors lifted her carefully. Samantha let out a small gasp of pain.

Zoro's hands curled into fists.

He shouldn't care.

He shouldn't.

But his wolf, silent for years, growled with a single, startling instinct:

Protect her.

The journey to the palace was long, but Zoro walked ahead like a shadow carved from stone. Every time Samantha whimpered, he found his jaw clenching. Every time her scent drifted toward him, his wolf stirred.

He told himself it was because she was Morris's victim.

Nothing more.

But that wasn't the truth.

Not even close.

By the time they reached the palace gates, Samantha's breathing had turned shallow. Zoro turned sharply to his warriors.

"Set her down. Gently."

His voice dropped to a tone none of them had heard before, firm but... careful.

They obeyed.

Samantha sat on the ground, trembling, her ruined eyes blank.

Zoro crouched in front of her again, unsure why he kept doing it, why he kept lowering himself to eye level with a human woman who wasn't even his subject.

Her lips parted. "Where... where am I?"

"In my palace," Zoro said quietly.

"Am I... safe?"

Zoro hesitated.

The Alpha King never hesitated.

"From Morris?" he said. "Yes."

A tear slipped down her cheek, not loud, not dramatic, just quiet heartbreak.

Zoro froze.

His body responded before his mind did. His hand lifted, hovering beside her face.

He shouldn't touch her.

He knew that.

But something inside him pushed forward, crossing a line he never crossed.

His thumb brushed her tear.

Soft.

Warm.

Gentle.

Samantha gasped at the unexpected tenderness.

Zoro's breath caught.

His wolf surged upward, whispering a single word he didn't want to hear:

Mate.

Zoro ripped his hand back like he'd touched fire.

Impossible.

A human?

Blind?

Morris's obsession?

No.

No.

No.

"Take her inside," he barked, stepping back so fast his warriors looked startled. "Prepare a room. Post guards. No one enters without my permission."

Samantha's trembling hand reached toward him.

"Please... don't leave me alone."

Zoro froze.

The Alpha King.

The cold ruler.

The untouchable shadow.

And this blind, broken girl had just asked him to stay.

His pulse roared with something he hadn't felt in decades.

Danger.

Desire.

Destiny.

He turned his face away, fighting himself.

"I will return," he said, voice low and conflicted.

"When?" she whispered.

He exhaled shakily.

"When I can trust myself."

Zoro walked away before his wolf could betray him again.

But as he reached the end of the corridor, he heard her soft, fragile voice, words that slipped under his armor like a blade.

"Thank you... whoever you are."

Zoro stopped.

He didn't turn.

He didn't speak.

But his heart, cold, locked, guarded, moved for the first time in years.

And he hated it.

Because destiny had just shifted.

And he smelled Morris approaching the border.

The war for Samantha...

Had only begun.