-ELARA-

The storm outside the Great Hall rattled the stained glass windows, casting eerie shadows across the polished stone floor.

I stood before the towering mirror in the gallery, smoothing the fabric of my simple grey dress. It was the best I owned, stitched together from discarded silks I’d salvaged from the palace laundry. I wasn't a warrior or a high-born lady. I was simply Elara Vance, the pack’s wolfless, orphaned Omega.

But tonight, I was also the girl Alpha Heir Kael had whispered promises to in the dark for two years.

"He will claim you tonight," I whispered to myself, my hand drifting instinctively to my stomach.

I hadn’t told Kael yet. I wanted everything to be perfect. Once he ascended to the throne. Once he marked me and I was under his protection. I would tell him that the next generation of Camelot was already growing safely inside me.

I let out a shaky breath as my fingers traced the intricate silver necklace at my throat. It was the only indulgence I’d allowed myself today. Its beauty eclipsed my entire dress and felt foreign on my skin.

“I think it looks beautiful on you,” a familiar voice came from behind me and my heart leaped into my throat.

“Bianca,” I blurted out, turning to face her.

My foster sister. She looked as fierce as always. Red hair falling down her back like flames, and dressed in ceremonial crimson and silver that radiated power.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have taken it,” I said, bowing my head in apology.

Bianca stepped closer, folding my hands into hers. “It’s all right,” she murmured, smiling. “You should keep it.”

Since the Oracle took me in as a foster child, Bianca had always been like a big sister to me. We had shared everything. Even secrets. 

A memory clawed its way up from a year ago. Bianca sat on her bed, braiding my hair, smiling at me the same way she was smiling now. This was after the Moon chose an orphan over the Oracle’s daughter.

“You’re going to be a queen, Elara,” she had said, her voice thick with what I thought was pride. “And I’ll be right there beside you.”

I never doubted her.

“Everything is going to be fine,”  Bianca reassured with a smile, cupping my face with one hand. Then turned to leave.  “I’ll see you inside.”

I watched Bianca disappear into the hall, my fingers tightening around the edge of my dress. 

It’s just a ceremony. You can do this. Just breathe.

But the pit in my stomach refused to calm.  I wanted to believe her, to trust that everything would be fine. But something about the quiet before the doors felt wrong.

" Elara!" 

I jumped as a hand grabbed my arm roughly. “Could you stop loitering in the shadows? 

Get to your place in the back and help like the rest of the maids for the Goddess sake. The Oracle is in a foul mood,” Alfred, the Pack Gamma who oversaw all the maids and Omegas barked at me

"I’m going," I groaned softly as he dragged me into the hall. " Is… is the Queen Mother doing well?"

Alfred scoffed. "She’s coughing blood again.You know, if your herb teas were half as good as you claimed they were, she’d be standing by her son's side today instead of wheezing on the throne."

I swallowed the Insult as he shoved me toward the back of the hall where the servants stood. I had brewed those teas with the utmost care. If the Queen wasn't improving, it wasn't for a lack of my efforts.

Trumpets blared, cutting through the murmur of the crowd as the heavy oak doors of the hall groaned open

Kael walked in. 

He was breathtaking. His shoulders were broad under the ceremonial black fur cloak, his jaw set in a line of grim determination. His gold-blonde hair was combed back, framing those gemstone gold eyes.

A warm pride swelled in my chest. That’s my mate. That’s the father of my child.

He walked past the rows of bowing wolves, his eyes scanning the room until they landed on mine. 

He didn’t return my smile. His gaze was cold, detached in a way I had never seen. He looked away toward the dais where the High Oracle, an ancient woman with cataract-clouded eyes, stood beside Bianca, who knelt before the slumped, dying queen on her throne.

“Brothers and sisters of Camelot,” Kael’s voice carried across the hall. “We stand at the edge of a cliff. 

To the west, the Lycan King Darius gathers his forces. His shadow already touches our borders, and war is no longer a rumor.”

A ripple of fear went through the crowd.

"To protect this pack," Kael continued, "I need to be strong. And my pack needs a strong queen.  Tonight, I choose my Luna.”

I took a step forward, my heart hammering in my chest. Choose us. We can be strong together.

Kael turned to the Oracle, his gaze seeking her approval. "Speak, High One. Is the pack pure?"

The Oracle stepped forward. Her sightless eyes rolled back as she lifted a crooked finger. And pointed straight at me and my heart sank.

"Impurity!" she shrieked. "There is a rot in the root! Poison in our blood!" 

The crowd gasped, parting around me like I was contagious, and I was left standing alone in the center of the sudden void.

"Me?" I whispered. My hands pressed to my chest to steady the sudden tightness in my chest.

"She is wolfless! Cursed!" the Oracle shrieked. "She has been poisoning the queen to weaken the Alpha line from within!"

“No!” The word tore out of me as I spun toward the crowd. “I would never do that.”

Bianca stepped forward with a small vial clutched in her hand and my stomach twisted. I recognized it immediately. It was the vial I kept the queens sleeping draughts in.

“I didn’t want to believe it,” Bianca said softly. “But when I found this in her quarters I thought the High One should see it. 

It matches the traces of Wolfsbane found in the Queen’s evening tea.” 

"Lies!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "That’s valerian. I heal people— I would never hurt the Queen, Bianca, you know that!" 

"The Oracle doesn't lie," Bianca snapped.

Her words hit me like ice and my chest tightened. Bianca was looking at me as if I were a stranger, a traitor. How could she turn on me like this? My hands trembled, and for a moment, I thought I might collapse right there.

The Queen let out a ragged cough, spitting red into a handkerchief. Every head in the hall turned and the sight alone was damning.

“Kael, look at me,” I stumbled forward. “You know me! I’ve shared your bed for a year, I would never hurt your mother! I love you.”

The admission hung in the air, scandalizing the crowd. Kael’s eyes fixed on me and for a moment, I saw a flicker of conflict. The memories of nights we’d spent tangled together, the promises he had made to me.

His gaze shifted to his dying mother, to the fearful faces of his pack, and the conflict in his eyes died.

"I, Alpha Kael of the Camelot Pack," he began, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Don't," I begged, my tears already spilling over. " Please."

"I reject you, Elara Vance, as my mate."

The words hit me like a rusty knife twisting in my gut. The bond that had been humming in my veins snapped violently and I fell to my knees, gasping for air.

He reached out and took Bianca’s hand, pulling her close.

"My pack needs a strong Luna. Not an assassin," Kael said coldly. “Bianca will be my Luna. She is royal blood. She can give me strong heirs. You can’t even shift."

Heirs.

My hand went to my stomach. The irony was so cruel my heart threatened to stop

"Love doesn't protect the border against our enemies," Kael said, turning his back on me. "Guards. Get her out of my sight."

"What is her sentence, Alpha?" Bianca asked softly, a cruel glint finally breaking through her mask.

Kael paused. "The punishment for treason is death."

My breath stopped.

"But," Kael added, "I am not a butcher. And I will not stain my ascension day with 

 blood.

 Banishment. If she is found within the Camelot borders by sunrise, kill her." 

That was the moment Elara Vance died.

The guards lunged at me, dragged me through the streets and threw me into the mud outside the gates. Rain cut through my clothes, chilling me to the bone.

“ Run, traitor!” one guard sneered and kicked me. “ before the wolves get hungry.”

The other guards laughed. I scrambled to my feet, tears blinding my eyes as I ran into the dark forest. Branches tore at my dress and skin but I kept running till my lungs burned and my legs gave out. 

I collapsed under the roots of a giant oak tree, curling into a ball to protect my stomach.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to the tiny spark growing inside me as rain streamed down my face, mingling with my tears. “ I’m so sorry.”

The wind howled, carrying the scent of the distant border. Beyond the trees lay the Neutral Zone, and everything beyond that was Lycan territory. A place of death.

But behind me was Kael.

I gritted my teeth, wiping the mud from my face. He wanted an heir? He wanted a strong bloodline to fight the Lycans?

He had just rejected the only heir he would ever have. 

“ We will survive,” I vowed into the darkness, pressing a hand to my belly. “ And one day, he will regret throwing us to the wolves.”