The True Alpha of Lupine (Seraphina and Ronan) novel Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Guess

SERAPHINA

What was that shadow?

I half–shifted in an instant, pressing my back hard against the damp, crumbling stone, the coldness of it seeping into my skin. I didn’t dare make a reckless move, not when the unknown lurked so close. A crawling prickle of unease worked its way up the back of my neck, my instincts speaking in an ancient, silent language: something was terribly wrong here

The air was dense, unnaturally heavy, carrying the thick scent of decayed moss and stale earth, with a sharper, metallic tang lurking beneath it. A scent 1 knew too well

Blood.

I held my position, every muscle locked tight, straining to hear past the thundering of my own pulse. But there was nothing;! no footsteps, no breath, no rustle of movement in the darkness.

“Did I mishear?” I asked my wolf.

Phina’s voice was low and certain in my mind. “No, 1 definitely sensed something”

I waited another beat, pulse pounding in my ears, before easing away from the stone wall. Moonlight filtered through the fractured ceiling, illuminating slivers of the ruin in a pale, ghostly glow. I took a cautious step forward and felt my shoe dip into something slick.

I glanced down, sharpening my wolf vision to pierce the gloom. It wasn’t mud, nor water. It was blood, Dark, congealed, and pooling in shallow hollows.

My gaze followed the blood to where scattered bones lay half–buried beneath moss and dirt. Not old enough to be forgotten, not fresh enough to still reek. The sight seuled a cold knot in my gut.

My muscles tensed. This wasn’t just another decaying part of the ruin.

“We’ve stepped into someone’s territory,” I murmured under my breath.

A forbidden, dangerous place. I could feel it deep in my bones, in the way the very air seemed to press against my skin, thick and oppressive like an invisible hand.

I needed to get out. Now.

Carefully, I began to edge sideways, sliding one foot after the other without letting the soles scrape against the dirt. Each breath I took was shallow, my entire body coiled tight, ready to bolt at the slightest sound.

“Don’t look back. Don’t make a sound,” Phina whispered.

And I followed that instinct, until something made me stop cold.

There, in the ruined chamber ahead, crouched a figure

Naked, coated in a layer of dried mud and streaked with old blood, the moonlight pooled over him, catching the jagged ridges of his spine and the rope–like cords of muscle along his back. His body was a grotesque canvas of grime, old wounds, and twisted scars. And the way he sat motionless, silent sent shards of ice through my veins.

His posture wasn’t fully human. Nor fully wolf. It was something in–between, as though he’d been left behind by time itself. an ancient piece of the ruin. His head hung low, hair matted and tangled, and though I couldn’t see his face, something about the shape of him was wrong. Fundamentally wrong.

Was this his place? Was he alone? Or were others hiding in the shadows, watching?

I didn’t want to find out

| took a rautious step back, then another. Each inch of distance felt like a small salvation. I was nearly clear of the my heel snapped a dry branch beneath it.

The sound cracked like a gunshot through the oppressive silence.

space when

Five seconds, that’s all I had before he would be upon me.

By the time the creature reached the base of the tree. I was gone.

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