My Alphas' Dark Desires novel Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Loser Heirs

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Chapter 122

~Dristan’s POV~

I was sixteen when I shifted for the first time.

It happened under a blood moon, during winter training in the Highlands, surrounded by cold and silence—and the pressure of legacy.

Everyone had been waiting for it. The heir to the Blackfang Alpha. Son of General Rydor. Expected to be stronger, faster, better.

And I was.

The pain of the shift had been nothing compared to the burning in my chest when it was done.

Soren had risen inside me like a tidal wave—primal, feral, hungry. His presence took over so quickly, so violently, that I lost all sense of time.

The elders called it a "perfect bond" between human and wolf.

But that night, when I returned to my room—bones aching, skin slick with sweat, voice raw from howling—I saw something that changed everything.

I saw my mother.

She was sitting in the corner of the room, half-shadowed, her face turned toward the window. Her long braid fell over one shoulder. Her hands were folded in her lap like she had been sitting there for hours.

She didn’t look up when my father entered behind me.

Alpha Alexander—Alpha of the Ironfang Pack. Cold eyes. A voice that never needed to be raised to be feared.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her.

"I wanted to be present for our son’s first shift," she said softly. freewebnøvel.coɱ

His face twisted.

"Your presence was not requested."

Her fingers tightened in her lap. "I am his mother. That should have been enough."

"It’s not."

I stood frozen. My limbs still burned from shifting, my head spinning, but I couldn’t look away. I should have spoken. Should have moved. Should have said anything.

But I didn’t.

My mother stood slowly, chin lifted with all the grace and dignity the Luna title carried. But there was a bruise blooming on her neck—dark and fresh. A gift from the last argument they’d had.

She said nothing more. Just nodded and walked out of the room without meeting my eyes.

I remember the way my father looked at me then. Prideful. Distant. Like I was a piece of armor he had finally forged into shape.

"You’ll be stronger than me one day," he said. "You’ll know how to use your mate bond when the time comes."

But all I could think about... was her bruise and the silence she left behind.

Later that night, I sat in front of the mirror, shirtless, still feeling the burn of the shift deep in my bones. My reflection looked older. Harder. My eyes shimmered with new power, but I didn’t feel powerful.

I felt broken.

Soren stirred for the first time since the shift. His voice was quiet in my mind.

"We’ll never be like him."

"I swear it," I whispered aloud.

"We’ll never mark someone unless it’s real. Unless we can protect it."

"We’ll never own what we can’t cherish."

And from that night on, I kept my vow.

I wouldn’t mark lightly. I wouldn’t let instinct decide who I took. I would never brand someone with my claim if I couldn’t offer them the safety my mother never had.

Even when I met Valerie—burned for her, ached for her—I still waited.

Because I was afraid.

Afraid of the Alpha in me.

Afraid of the man I might become if I let power control me over the mate bond like it did my father.

~Back to Present~

"You waited because you thought it was noble," Soren had said. "But sometimes, waiting is just another way to run."

The sound snapped me back to the present, reminding me that Xander was standing just feet away, his insult clear. "Hello, Alpha Kings’ Heirs... or should I say... Terrible Mates."

"You call yourselves Alphas," he went on, arms folding behind his back. "And yet none of you have done the one thing that matters to a mate—show up. You didn’t listen. You didn’t protect. You didn’t ask what she needed."

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