I Can Hear Your Lies Now, AlphaChapter 1
The first thing I heard when the healer confirmed my hearing was the steady, triumphant thrum of my wolf’s heart. Years of silence shattered, and the world rushed in, raw, untamed, alive.
Sound had been stolen from me by the last rogue attack. No growls in the training yard, no howls splitting the night sky, no pack heartbeat to anchor me, only the faint vibrations against my skin, the ripple of air when wolves passed near.
Now, as the healer’s glowing hands withdrew, power humming through the bond of pack magic, tears blurred my vision. I could hear it again. Every whisper of claws on stone, every howl carried on the wind, every wild breath of the forest beyond our walls.
But all I wanted was his voice, Alpha Alaric Silverfang’s voice. My mate. I wanted to hear him say my name, sharp and real, anchoring me back to him.
The winter air bit sharply as the driver opened the door, frost and pine filling my senses like fire. Snow drifted from the slate-gray sky, dusting the garden path to our pack house. My cheeks stung, but it was nothing compared to the heat roaring in my chest. The bond between mates was eternal, unbreakable, a tether forged by the Goddess herself, and I ached to let him hear the words my wolf had waited years to speak: that I could finally hear him, fully, with heart and soul.
As I neared the heavy oak doors, voices drifted out, stopping me cold. Each word cut sharper than claws on stone. I should have turned, trusted my mate’s loyalty, but the tone held me fast, my hand frozen over the iron handle, my wolf snarling inside me.
“I thought after five years I could move on,” the deep, familiar voice confessed, weighted with an emotion I had never heard from him before. “But it turns out, I still love Nyra.”
The sound struck me harder than any physical blow, my breath hitching as my wolf bristled inside me, a low growl vibrating through my chest, though I dared not let it slip free. My pulse pounded so fiercely in my ears I almost wished I were deaf again.
“You know,” the voice continued, steady and resolute, “I’ve been thinking of giving her Silverfang Holdings, the pack’s empire, so she never has to worry about money for the rest of her life.”