Claimed By The Rival Alpha

Chapter 92: Chapter 92

Selena

I flinched so hard that the cloth in my hands nearly fell to the floor. A hand had touched my shoulder.

I spun around, my heart pounding violently against my ribs, only to find Niamh standing behind me with an amused smile spreading across her face.

She raised both hands innocently. "Gods, Selena. You look like you just saw a ghost."

I stared at her for a moment before forcing a laugh. "You scared me."

"I barely touched you."

"That was enough."

She laughed and shook her head before taking the cloth from my hands. "You’ve been strange lately."

"I’ve just been tired."

"You’re always tired."

I smiled faintly and looked away. The truth was, I had been thinking about the vampires.

It had been a week since the ones who had invaded Blackbourne had been killed.

A week and still, nothing has happened. There’s no invasion yet, no army appearing at the borders, no messenger arriving with a threat from their lord. There was nothing.

That should have made me feel relieved but instead, it made me more nervous.

Vampires were not the kind of creatures who simply accepted defeat. Especially not after three of their own had been killed by werewolves.

I had also barely seen Alpha Kael.

Whenever I asked where he was, someone always had a different answer. He was at the borders. He was in meetings. He was training warriors. He was dealing with the council.

And Sera... Sera would not speak to me. Every time I approached her, she became busy with something else.

I didn’t know whether she blamed me for what happened at her cottage or whether she simply didn’t want anything to do with me after learning who my father was.

Either way, I was surrounded by questions and had no answers.

Niamh suddenly brightened. "By the way, Sally finished everything."

I looked at her. "Everything?"

"Yes, the shrine."

My eyes widened in surprise, "Already?"

She nodded enthusiastically. "It has been cleaned from top to bottom. Sally even managed to make the place look respectable."

A smile finally appeared on my face. "Then we can meet there."

"That’s exactly what I told her."

I lowered my voice. "And we have a lot to discuss."

The image of the frightened girl flashed through my mind. She wasn’t Sophia Hawthorne.

She was only a peasant forced to take another girl’s place because vampires wanted the real daughter of the house.

If we were truly serious about changing the world, we couldn’t ignore someone simply because saving her was inconvenient.

"We’ll discuss everything later," I said.

Niamh nodded. "Then I’ll make sure everyone knows we have a meeting."

By evening, I found myself at the training grounds with Kieren.

I’d already begun combat training and Kieren told me I was progressing fast.

Since he was no longer oblivious to the fact that I was an Alpha female, he gave me more difficult tasks. But all these were away from the eyes of the other warriors.

And this time, we weren’t inside the pack. We were beyond the gates, where a long obstacle course had been constructed between the trees.

I wiped sweat from my forehead and stared at the path ahead.

Kieren stood several feet away, arms crossed. "Ready?"

I narrowed my eyes. "No."

He laughed. "Good answer. Go anyway."

I rolled my eyes before sprinting forward. The first marked point was easy.

The second was not. A heavy log suddenly swung across my path and I ducked beneath it.

Another came from the opposite direction and I jumped.

My boots landed hard against the earth before I pushed myself forward again.

Then came the falling logs. I heard one crack behind me and threw myself sideways.

It slammed into the ground where my body had been a second earlier.

"Keep moving!" Kieren shouted and I gritted my teeth.

A rocky beam swung toward my head... I dropped and It passed over me so closely that I felt the wind it created.

I rolled forward, jumped to my feet and continued. By the time I reached the final marker, my lungs were burning.

Kieren raised a hand. "Stop."

I bent over, trying to catch my breath. He walked toward me, looking impressed. "That was your third run."

"I know."

"And you barely slowed down."

"I told you I’m getting better."

He smiled. "Sure, you are."

I straightened slowly while he studied me for a moment. "Why didn’t your father train you like this?"

My expression tightened. "He did."

Kieren looked surprised. "He did?"

"Yes. He just never allowed me to focus on combat as much as I wanted."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Maybe because I was a girl."

Kieren frowned. "Or because you were his heir?"

I went still as the question caught me completely off guard. "Heir?"

He looked at me carefully before asking, "Did Alpha William ever officially proclaim you as his heir?"

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to.

Kieren’s expression changed. "He obviously never did."

"No." I finally muttered. "I realized that many Alphas don’t make their first daughters heirs."

"That doesn’t make it right."

"No. It doesn’t."

Silence settled between us while I kicked a small stone away. "Do you think that has anything to do with the vampires?"

Kieren frowned before asking, "How?"

"Their demand for she-wolves as royalties. The old agreement. Their obsession with receiving daughters from powerful packs."

He shook his head. "I don’t know."

"Neither do I." I sighed. "What are they going to do with the vampire bodies?"

Kieren shrugged. "Alpha Kael hasn’t given any order concerning them."

"Why?"

"I suspect he’s keeping them."

"For what reason?"

"Perhaps to make a statement." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

I looked toward him. "A statement?"

"If the vampires attack, those bodies might remind everyone that they can bleed."

I smiled faintly. "When they chose to wage war." I pointedly corrected him.

Kieren gave me a questioning look with his mouth curved slightly. "You sound certain."

"One thing I know is, no race would simply accept what happened to those vampires."

I turned toward him. "If three werewolves had been killed in another realm, our pack would demand blood."

Kieren nodded. "Fair point."

He gestured toward the course. "Enough talking. Reflexes next."

I stepped forward but before I could begin, footsteps approached.

I turned and saw Sera walking toward us.

"Kieren." She called out.

I immediately noticed his entire expression changed. The hard warrior disappeared.

He smiled. "Sera."

She reached him, and before I could process what I was seeing, they embraced.

Not casually and definitely not like friends. There was tenderness in the way he held her.

The way she leaned into him. The way their voices dropped when they spoke to each other.

My mouth slowly fell open. ’They were mates...’

I stared opening at them without trying to be discreet.

Kieren eventually noticed me and he cleared his throat. "We’ll continue training another time."

I blinked. "What?"

"I have to help Sera with something important." He uttered.

I frowned and couldn’t help asking, "With what?"

Sera glared at me. "Something important just like he had said!"

"Is it about the weapons?" I asked, ignoring her tone.

Neither answered immediately.

I crossed my arms. "I’m part of this rebellion too so don’t treat me like I’m useless."

Sera’s expression remained unreadable then stepped closer to me. "Your role is simply different from ours."

I didn’t like the answer but before I could argue, she turned away and Kieren followed her.

I watched them disappear between the trees then I sighed.

Where was Alpha Kael?

By sunset, every maid had finished her duties. I washed my face, changed my clothes and stepped outside.

Sally was waiting so I nodded toward her and she nodded back. Niamh joined her, and the two of them walked ahead.

Tonight was the night to have our first real meeting since the chaotic ball.

I was supposed to arrive there last.

As I waited, I noticed an older woman struggling with two heavy carts so I immediately went over. "Let me help."

She smiled gratefully. "Thank you, child."

Together, we pushed one of the carts toward the kitchen. Then she began talking almost immediately. "My son is useless."

I laughed. "Is he that bad?"

"Worse. That boy can sleep through an entire day."

I smiled. "Perhaps he’s just tired."

"Tired? At his age?" She shook her head. "Young people these days..."

Her voice suddenly changed and I stopped.

The woman standing beside me was no longer the woman I had been helping.

Her face had become wrinkled and the face staring back at me was that of the old hooded woman I saw days ago on the streets.

Her eyes were deep and unsettling.

My entire body froze as she looked directly at me before repeating those same words she had uttered. "Chaos, order, light, overlapping..."

My spine tingled violently as she added, "...to form more chaos."

I stumbled backwards from her. "No..."

I blinked and the woman was gone. Now standing before me was the same old maid from moments earlier.

She looked confused as she asked, "Are you all right?"

I couldn’t answer.

My heart was racing.My mind was spinning. What had I just seen?

"Selena!" I turned sharply and Sally was standing near the entrance. "It’s time."

I swallowed. "Right."

I forced myself to move and we left through the normal castle exit.

Once we were outside, Sally handed me a brown cloak and I pulled it over myself, hiding my face.

The two of us walked through the streets without speaking much.

The farther we went, the quieter everything became. Eventually, the old shrine appeared ahead.

Sally smiled. "Don’t get too excited."

She reached for the door. "I’m opening it." She pushed it inward.

I stepped through and then I froze.

Beta Bastien stood at the head of the medium-sized room while everyone else was already there, casually positioned against the walls.

His eyes settled on me and I couldn’t move.

Beta Bastien gestured toward the room. "Come in, Selena."

He paused before adding, "We have a lot to discuss."

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