I Can Hear Your Lies Now, Alpha

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.”

No stranger spoke those words. It was Alpha Alaric, my mate, my Alpha, the one the Goddess had bound to me. And yet he spoke of another. My vision blurred as I peered through the narrow crack in the door, the scent of betrayal coiling through me as surely as if it were blood spilled on the snow.

Alpha Alaric sat on the plush gray couch, his posture relaxed, predatory even, while opposite him lounged Ram, his Beta and closest confidant. Ram’s expression was tight with disbelief, his aura heavy with disapproval, but my eyes clung to Alpha Alaric, drinking in every detail of the man I thought I knew.

“If you give away Silverfang Holdings,” Ram said, exasperated, “you’ll strip yourself of rank. You’ll just be an ordinary wolf among Alphas. And what about your mate? What about Kaia? She’s the eldest daughter of the Blackthorn family. Are you planning to drag her into hardship?”

Alpha Alaric leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his face calm but unwavering. “Back then, Nyra didn’t choose me. I couldn’t take her as my mate, couldn’t give her my mark. But I can still prove that I’ve never abandoned her. Giving her Silverfang Holdings is the least I can do.”

The air seemed to vanish from my lungs.

“And your Luna?” Ram pressed, his voice low, almost pleading. “What about Kaia? She gave you everything.”

Alpha Alaric’s lips curved, cruel in their softness. “She told me she loves me. She said she’d endure anything with me. A weaker life, even the loss of her title. She won’t complain.”

The words cut deeper than claws. My knees trembled, and I gripped the frame of the door as if it were the only thing holding me up. My wolf whimpered in the back of my mind, wounded, betrayed.

Ram’s gaze darkened. “Alpha Alaric, if Kaia learns the truth, that you never marked her out of love, but only to keep her away from Ronan Stormclaw and Nyra, she’ll be destroyed.”

Destroyed.

The word echoed in my skull, rattling against the walls of my heart.

My vision blurred, my breath shallow as I fought the urge to storm inside and rip the lies from his throat. But my body betrayed me, frozen, trembling in the storm of revelation.

Then, Ram’s eyes flickered to the doorway. He stilled. His expression shifted from anger to dread as his gaze locked on me.

“L-Luna…” he stammered, rising to his feet. Alpha Alaric turned. “You’re back?”

The sound of my name pierced me. At last, I had what I had longed for, my mate’s voice, clear and sharp.

But not as I dreamed it. Not with love. Not with devotion.

His golden eyes meet mine. For a heartbeat, guilt flickered there, raw, unguarded. But in an instant, it was gone, replaced with that cold, calculating indifference he wore like armor.

His lips curved, smooth and dismissive.

“Why are you so flustered, Ram? She’s deaf. Even if you shouted in her ear, she wouldn’t hear a word.”

The words… The lie rang louder than any sound I had ever known.

And for the first time since regaining my hearing, I wished I had never heard at all.

Ram sagged with relief, forcing a nervous laugh as he bowed, his aura shifting from panic to uneasy calm. But I couldn’t look away from Alpha Alaric as he rose and crossed the room toward me.

Each step was deliberate, commanding, the Alpha in every movement. He plucked a shawl from a chair and draped it over my shoulders. His fingers brushed my skin, sending a shiver down my spine, but there was no warmth in his touch, only a yawning distance that left my wolf restless.

He raised his hands in the signs he had once patiently taught me, soft and protective.

“Why would you wander out in such cold, wearing so little? You’ll catch a cold.”

Once, that effort would have melted me. I remembered the long nights when he sat with his tutor, determined to master every sign despite the grueling demands of leading our pack. His brow furrowed, his jaw clenched, and still he persevered. Back then, I believed it was love. I thought he wanted to bridge the silence that had caged me, to pull me into a world where I was not always left behind.

Now, those same hands mocked me. Every graceful movement of his fingers was another mask, another layer of performance. The gentlest gestures hid the cruelest truths, truths he dared to speak aloud only when he thought I was deaf, truths that reduced me from his Luna to a mere placeholder.