Chapter 4

“Alpha, I—” My voice came out broken and desperate.

He didn’t let me finish. “Ezra.”

Beta Ezra materialized from the darkness, along with two other wolves I recognized as Gammas. Before I could scramble away, they seized me, hauling me to my feet even as my legs buckled.

“She tried to escape,” Ezra said, though they all clearly knew.

Zane’s jaw tightened, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “Drag her inside.”

“No—please—” I thrashed, but my struggles only made them tighten their grip.

They hauled me back through the gardens, past the servants’ quarters where curious faces peeked through windows, straight into the pack house. Into the main hall where Zane held his private meetings.

They threw me to the floor. My knees cracked against marble, pain shooting up my legs.

Alpha Zane loomed above me, every inch of him trembling with barely restrained fury.

“You tried to escape,” he said, his voice deadly quiet.

I couldn’t answer.

“I gave you three days to make the right choice. And instead of showing gratitude, instead of accepting your duty—” He stopped, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. “You insult me. You insult this pack. You—”

“Please let me go!” The words tore from me desperately. “I don’t want any of this! I can’t—”

“You can’t?” He laughed. “What makes you think you have a choice?”

“I’m fat! I’m ugly! I’m nothing like the women you choose!” I was shouting now, all the humiliation and pain from years of invisibility pouring out. “I don’t fit you. I never will! So why force this? Why not just let me—”

“Shut up.”

The command cracked through the air like a whip.

I fell silent, tears streaming down my face.

His eyes bore into mine, and in them I saw my words reflected back: every insecurity confirmed, every fear validated. He agreed. Every single thing I’d said was true to him.

I was not his choice. I would never be his choice.

“You dare think you have a choice?” His voice dropped to something dangerous, something that made my wolf whimper and retreat. “You think I want this? You think I want to be bound to someone like you?”

Each word was a knife.

“But the Priestess has spoken. The Moon Goddess herself has cursed me with you. So whether you want it or not, whether I want it or not—” He moved suddenly, closing the distance between us in two strides. His hand clamped around my throat, dragging me to my feet. “You are going to bear me a child.”

“Please—” I choked out.

“You are mine now, Tiana. And you will never forget it.”

Then his head dipped, and I felt his teeth at my throat.

Not gentle. Not a claiming done in love or even desire.

This was violence. Punishment. A brand seared into my flesh.

I screamed as his fangs sank deep, tearing through my skin and muscle. Fire exploded through my veins, my wolf howling in agony as the bond snapped into place. When he pulled back, his lips were wet with my blood. The mark on my neck burned like acid, pulsing with a sickly silver light that marked me as his property.

“Now it doesn’t matter where you run,” he growled, his breath hot against my face. “Every pack will know who you belong to. And I will always find you.”

My legs gave out, but he caught me, shoving me against the wall with enough force to rattle my teeth.

His hand slid up my thigh, pushing my dress higher.

Terror crashed over me in waves. “Stop,” I begged, my voice cracking. “Please, not like this—”

“Why not?” His voice was cruel, mocking. “This is all you’re good for anyway.”

His body pressed against mine, and I felt him—hard, ready, completely indifferent to the tears streaming down my face.

This was happening. He was going to take me right here, right now, with his Beta and Gammas watching, and there was nothing I could…

“I can’t.” The words tumbled out in a desperate rush. “I’m…I’m on my cycle. My menstruation. Please, I—”

He stilled.

For one horrible moment, his grip tightened painfully on my hip. Then, with a sound of pure disgust, he shoved me away so hard that I stumbled.

“You disgust me,” he spat.

I crumpled to the floor, clutching my bleeding neck, my body shaking in a way that made my teeth chatter.

He turned to his Beta. “Lock her in the Luna’s chambers. Post guards. If she tries to leave again, break her legs.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“And Ezra?” Zane’s voice stopped the Beta at the door. “Prepare for the ceremony. We’re moving the wedding up. Tomorrow night.”

My head snapped up. “Tomorrow? But—”

“You had your chance to do this with dignity,” Zane said coldly, not even looking at me. “Now you’ll do it on my terms.”

He walked out, leaving me bleeding and broken on the marble floor.

They dragged me to the Luna’s chambers—a suite I’d only ever seen from the outside when cleaning the hallways. Now it was my cage.

Beautiful, luxurious, and completely escape-proof.

The guards posted outside the door made sure of that.

I collapsed onto the bed, my body too exhausted to even cry. The mark on my neck throbbed with every heartbeat, a constant reminder of who owned me now.

Through the wall, I could hear movement in the Alpha’s adjacent chambers. The rustle of fabric. Then, to my horror, I realized the wall between our rooms wasn’t solid.

It was glass.

Frosted, but translucent enough that I could see his silhouette moving on the other side.

He wants me to know he’s there, I realized. Wants me to feel watched and trapped.

I turned away, pulled the blankets over my head, and prayed for morning to never come.

But morning came anyway.

And with it, came three servant girls carrying a white dress they called my wedding gown.

“The Alpha requests you to dress and present yourself in the great hall by sundown,” one said, her voice carefully neutral.

They laid the dress on the bed and left without another word.

I stared at it, my heart breaking painfully with the realization of what it meant.

Then I picked up the contract from where it had been placed on the bedside table.

My signature line was still blank.

He didn’t even wait for me to sign it, I thought bitterly. He just took what he wanted anyway.

I grabbed a pen and scrawled my name across the bottom in angry, jagged letters.

There. It was done.

I was Luna Tiana now.

Property of Alpha Zane.