Chapter 2 The Alpha Is Using Me

Chapter Two: The Alpha Is Using Me

Liora Vale

The wind smelled like blood.

Not fresh...no, not the kind that stings the nose or clings to your skin.

Old blood.

Dried. Buried.

The kind the earth remembers even when everyone else forgets.

I moved through the trees with quiet steps, the silence of the forest pressing around me like a second skin. Every night Gonzalo sent me on patrols. Not because the borders weren't safe but because he didn't trust the pack.

"Keep an eye on the western ridge," he had told me that morning. "Some of the younger wolves are stirring. Too many questions."

I'd tilted my head. "Questions about what?"

"About you. And why you're always by my side."

I smiled when I said it, but my words tasted sour:

"Because I earned it."

He didn't smile back. "Because I allow it."

That one cut. Deeper than I let him see.

I bit my tongue. Like always.

Now I walked alone beneath the half lit sky, my body aching for rest I couldn't afford. If I slowed, if I complained, if I faltered even once, he'd see me as weak. And he would never love weakness.

But something in the air was changing. I could feel it.

The tension. The doubt. The sideways glances from wolves who used to bow.

Even Nyssa had grown distant, her quiet voice edged with warning now.

"You used to talk to me," I'd told her just days ago.

"I used to believe he'd make you Luna," she'd said. "Now I just pray you survive him."

Tonight, I didn't want prayers.

I wanted answers.

By the time I returned to the stronghold, the stone ringed fortress Gonzalo claimed as his throne, the sky was bleeding orange and gray. He was waiting, arms crossed, surrounded by his ever present shadows: Adrian, his Beta, and two enforcers whose names I never bothered to remember. They smelled like iron and smoke. Like men who burned things to prove they existed.

"Anything?" Gonzalo asked me.

"No threats," I replied. "But I saw tracks. West ridge. Big paws. Possibly rogues."

He raised a brow. "Possibly?"

"I didn't engage. Not without backup."

"Since when do you need backup?"

That voice. Low. Laced with disappointment and something worse...enjoyment.

He liked watching me squirm. He always had.

Adrian cleared his throat, breaking the silence. "We should send scouts..."

"Later," Gonzalo said, never taking his eyes off me.

I crossed my arms. "Or we could do something now."

It happened fast.

The air dropped.

The trees stilled.

He stepped forward. His enforcers stepped back.

"Watch your tone, Liora," he said.

"Then stop speaking to me like I'm just one of your guards."

His hand gripped my wrist, tight, commanding, not cruel, but enough.

"You forget who made you."

I stared at him. No flinch. No bow.

"You forget who stood beside you when no one else would."

His grip faltered.

There was a beat of silence.

"Adrian, send two wolves to the west ridge. Discreetly." Gonzalo finally said.

They scattered. We remained.

He didn't look at me for a long time.

"They're starting to question me," he said at last. "Because of you."

"Then give them answers."

"You're not my Luna."

The words hit harder than I thought they would.

Not because they were unexpected but because they were final.

"Not yet," I whispered.

"Maybe not ever."

It felt like claws raking through my chest.

"Then what am I to you?"

He didn't answer.

And I didn't wait.

***

I found Nyssa behind the northern den, tending to a pup with a bloodied paw. She didn't look up when I arrived.

"Say it," I murmured. "Go ahead."

Her voice was tired. "He's breaking you."

"He needs me."

"No. He uses you. There's a difference."

I knelt beside her.

"Do you think he'll ever choose me?"

She paused. That alone was an answer.

"No," she said softly. "And you already know that."

I stared past her, into the trees, into nothing.

"I believed him."

She nodded. "He made sure you did. That's the gift of wolves like him. They don't have to be gods. Just convincing liars."

"But he touched me like he meant it."

"Even poison tastes sweet if you've never had honey."

***

That night, I didn't return to Gonzalo's quarters.

I ran. Not away, but into the wild. Deep.

Where the trees remember the first blood spilled by Alphas.

Where the wind still carried the names of wolves long turned to dust.

I stripped down and shifted.

Fur slid over skin. Bone cracked.

My wolf form was lean and silver gray. My eyes were pale blue like frozen water.

I ran for hours. Let the wind pull the breath from my lungs. Let the ache in my legs be louder than the ache in my chest.

Let myself forget that I was Liora Vale, the girl who thought love could fix a monster.

When the moon sank low, I returned to my den. Alone.

I didn't cry.

I scraped bark with my claws. Pressed my forehead to the earth.

And then, I howled. Just once. Low and raw and trembling with everything I hadn't said.

The forest swallowed it.

***

The next morning, the stronghold buzzed.

I wasn't told why.

The courtyard was filled with wolves, murmuring, eyes flicking past me like I didn't exist.

I pushed through them until I saw the center of it all:

Gonzalo.

And beside him...

A woman.

Dark hair. Green eyes. Regal. Smiling.

"This is Vanya Spike," Gonzalo announced. "Daughter of the Redfang Alpha."

I froze.

"She'll be joining us as an ambassador. And staying in the main house."

There was a pause.

Then he added:

"For now."

My blood turned to ice.

Nyssa appeared at my side, her voice barely above a breath.

"Now do you see?"

"What's her purpose here?"

"Politics," she replied. "Or marriage. Maybe both."

I watched him rest his hand on Vanya's back.

The same way he used to touch me.

Gentle. Possessive. Like a lie whispered through fingers.

"This isn't happening," I said.

"It already is," Nyssa said.

***

I confronted him that night.

"You didn't tell me."

He barely looked up. "It's none of your concern."

I stepped closer. "I thought I was your future."

He laughed. The laughter was dry and cold. "You're my soldier. My blade. That's all."

My voice cracked. "I love you."

He shrugged. "I gave you the opportunity to."

I stepped back. Hurt turned to fury.

"You'll regret this."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"

"No." I shook my head. "A prophecy."

"You'd betray me over a title?"

"You betrayed me first."

"I saved you."

"You used me. And now you're discarding me for a prettier alliance."

He stepped forward. "You're forgetting your place."

I straightened. "No. I'm finally remembering my power."

I left his chambers with fire in my chest.

The first spark had been lit.

I was done begging.

Done bleeding for him.

Soon he'd learn what happened when you tried to cage a wolf that had remembered her fangs.