The Alpha's Shy Luna

Chapter 15- The Alpha Of BloodFang

The main hall smelled like blood, splintered wood, and fear.

Not panic.

Blackridge wolves did not panic easily. But fear was there all the same, threaded beneath the sharp scent of adrenaline and the fading heat of battle. Emily could feel it in the room now that the fighting had stopped-the way warriors stood a little straighter than usual, the way their eyes kept drifting toward the broken section of roof, the way silence sat over the hall like a second ceiling.

They had won the fight.

But no one believed that meant they were safe.

Emily stood near the center of the room, still trying to regulate her breathing. Her hands looked normal again, but she couldn't stop staring at them. A few minutes earlier, silver claws had pushed through her fingertips in front of half the pack. She had felt bones shift beneath her skin, had felt power crackle through her body in a way that had been both terrifying and intoxicating.

And now every wolf in the hall knew.

Not suspected.

Knew.

Jay remained beside her, close enough that the heat of him grounded her even while the bond between them still pulsed with the aftermath of the attack-anger, relief, protection, and underneath all of it a darker current she was beginning to understand far too well.

Possession.

Not in the cruel way.

In the wolf way.

In the sacred, dangerous, impossible-to-ignore way that made her chest tighten every time he looked at her after someone else had threatened her.

Across the room, Rowan was already issuing orders. "Get the bodies out. Double roof watch. I want two wolves on every upper beam until dawn. Reinforce the inner walls."

The Blackridge warriors moved at once, dragging the unconscious Bloodfang wolf toward the doors while others began checking the shattered roofline for weak points. A few older wolves ushered the younger ones back toward the hall's rear chambers, keeping them away from the blood on the floor.

No one was pretending this was over.

Jay turned slightly toward Rowan. "Send a runner to the south watch. If they breached from above once, they may test the lower ridge next."

Rowan nodded. "Already done."

Only then did Jay look back at Emily fully.

His gaze ran over her face, her shoulders, her hands, as if making certain for the tenth time that she was still in one piece.

"I'm fine," she said quietly.

His brow lifted a fraction.

"You almost shifted in the middle of a hall fight."

Emily exhaled. "Okay. I'm mostly fine."

That did not impress him.

The bond flickered with restrained impatience.

And somehow, despite everything, that almost made her smile.

Almost.

"Can you stand?" he asked.

Emily gave him a look. "I'm already standing."

"Without proving a point."

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again.

Because the truth was, her knees did feel unsteady. The silver energy had faded, but it had left her body aching in a strange way, like she had run too far in a form she didn't know how to control.