02

Elara’s pov

When Ana said I shouldn’t be here today,I thought she meant by the crack of dawn.

For the first time, maids entered my room to help me get ready for a wedding I never said yes to.

I saw the looks on their face, their horror stricken eyes as they saw that my head held little to no hair but nobody dared to say a word.

I let them dress me up in a gown that was so tight, my breasts begged for mercy. 

I hoped at some point that Ana would burst in and drag me away but Ana didn’t come. 

I waited for her up until it was time for me to walk down the aisle. Disappointment crawled down my throat in agony.

Was it wrong to actually have hope?

I let go of the ache in my chest and quietly gave a nod of approval. The doors to my doom were opened and I walked slowly as though I had practiced.

Timothy was at the front row, a snicker and a smirk playing on his stupid face, no surprise there.

All eyes were on me but my gaze was centered on my father. I saw his eyes grow dark when he realized that my hair was gone but he had no more right to speak to me.

I walked to the altar where I finally faced the crowd, all of the elders from yesterday were gathered. Soldiers, guards, generals…people I had smeared blood with on the war front.

I saw flickers of emotions on their stoic faces and that alone brought me a shred of comfort before I turned and gasped.

He was a walking nightmare. Towering above six feet, his frame was frightening with a scar that cleaved through his face taking an eye in its path. Varkas. A monster and now my husband.

A bitter lump lodged in my throat, a battle of confidence warring inside of me as I forced myself to watch him slip the ring on me.

I glanced at my father one more time, my eyes pleading even promising to behave but my father gave me a fleeting glance as the priest proclaimed me as Varkas’ wife. It was complete.

The party was chaotic, scents mixed with each other, chattering and laughter rang out but there was nothing exciting. 

I sat still like a wooden doll as Varkas spoke above my head to my father. Even while it was my wedding day, my father made it about himself, talking about land and political gain like I was some collaboration piece.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed air and fast.

I shifted my chair back and Varkas stopped the movement, I gasped in horror.

“And where do you think you’re going?” He commanded, his tone even more fiery than what I was used to hearing.

“Air,” I said monotonously and Varkas’ one eyebrow ticked upward.

“You better not run, little girl,” he said but it sounded more like a threat as I pushed past his force on the chair and stood up. The hall went silent as I gave him a death glare.

How dare he? 

I looked to my father, hoping he could see just how much his “leash” a mere excuse for his own greed was behaving but instead my father looked away.

As I was about leaving, suddenly something smacked me hard on the ass and I jerked. Anger twisted my gut as I did something without thinking. 

I took one of the glass jugs and smashed it on Varkas’ head in retailation. Instantly, the hall went dead. Swords had been unsheathed as my heart hammered in my chest. Varkas stood on his feet but I didn’t back down. 

My father stood up for the first time, the tension in the room cackled as we had a fierce stare off. 

And just when I thought he was going to hit me, he grabbed my face roughly and caressed my cheeks.

“Fiery, just the way I like it,” he said and I scrunched my face in disgust before he pushed me out of his hold. I didn’t fall, I staggered but regained my composure.

Hatred filled my eyes as I locked eyes with my father one last time before he turned his back on me and sat with a monster. 

I walked out of the hall, my dress flowing crazily as I ran. I didn’t stop till I got to my room where I angrily threw the veil out where it had been fixed on my head.

Where was Ana!? Didn’t she say I shouldn’t be here? Why wasn’t she here!?

I was pacing in my room now, biting my nails until my eyes caught a small bag. I rushed to the bag and found that it had been packed with clothes and supplies.

A small smile crept on my face.

Of course! Ana would never disappoint me. I started to undress into one of the clothes.

I had just gotten the dress off, taped my chest and waist to conceal my breasts and hips and was about wearing the male clothes when my door suddenly opened.

A smile was on my lips as I figured it must be Ana and turned only to gasp in horror.

“What are you doing here!?” I shrieked, my eyes moving from side to side as Varkas stood at my door, his eyes moving around every inch of my body and eating me up.

“What did I tell you about running?” He rasped slowly before stepping inside, I clutched the reminants of my wedding dress to my body like my life depended on it.

Varkas let out a sinful laugh as he locked the door. Instantly the temperature of the room dropped to its coldest. A strange realization dawned on me.

I didn’t wait for him to approach before I smashed one of my makeup bottles against the wall. I was a soldier, it was fight now, reason later.

If he was going to violate me then I was going to take him down with me. I knew I couldn’t beat him in a fight, I was smaller, weaker, petite, slower and inexperienced compared to him but I was no princess.

Before I could blink, he overpowered me. We struggled, I tried all the moves I knew but he threw me against the wall. A guttural groan escaped my lips as he held my hands. 

I managed to kick him in the shins, then sink the jaggard ends of the bottle into his shoulder. He screamed instantly and held me before I could run. 

My eyes were wide as he brought one of the bottle’s shards to my cheek and cut. I didn’t wince, my eyes were wide even as his hands held both of mine. 

“You’re mine,” he quietly rasped. My body struggled against his “And by the time you have my children, I will become the most powerful being in the universe” he confessed.

What was he talking about? How would my children make him powerful?

“Beg for your life,” he grinned but I kept my lips shut.

I would rather die than give him or anybody the pleasure of degrading me. I watched his good eye turn venomous when he realized that I was not going to degrad myself.

I closed my eyes, willing my soul to meet the moon goddess only for a huge primal groan to escape his lips.

Warm blood spluttered across my face and  forced my eyes open. His hold on me lessened and I pushed myself away from him as he collapsed.

His head hitting the sharp edge of a table.

I gasped in horror. Ana was standing behind him, an axe in hand as an ugly wound ran from the back of his head to the center of his spine. Blood pooled around him… Varkas was dead. 

I looked at her in despair and disbelief. 

What had she done.

“Take it!” She screamed and pressed a scroll in my hands.

I took the scroll from her hands but snatched the axe from her hands. I couldn’t let her be killled for me.

“Elara…” she gasped but it was too late. I let out a horrendous scream alerting everybody. 

I gave Ana one last look before I grabbed the bag and flew out of the window, leaving the axe on the floor.

I didn’t have a wolf but I have always been fast. I heard the guards give me a chase but I had a very good headstart. It was only when I hid that I unrolled the scroll and realized that Ana had even made preparations for a slave carriage that was passing by the school.

Soldiers were hot on my trail but I raced to the rendezvous point and discarded my clothes. I had specks of blood on my face but I was able to clean myself.

I stepped into the carriage in the midst of other people who also had secrets of their own. By the time I got to lupinemore, I was no more Elara Monroe, daughter of the bloodrage pack. A princess on the run.

I was clad in clothes I have never worn before as I walked with confidence to the school registration portal.

“Riven Mox?” The male register asked, his eyes scanning the document while casting me a look. 

I was trembling but I dared not show it.

“Yes” I answered and he stamped the document.

“Welcome to Lupinemore,” he said and I took the scroll back from him.

“Check your accommodations on the board over there,” he pointed and I stepped out of the line.

“A new Alpha?” Whispers started going off.

“This late in session?”

“Why is he scrawny like that?” 

“Where is he from?”

I ignored their voices even as they gathered around me to watch me trace who I was bunking with.

This was lupinemore school?what was so terrifying about it? It was no different from the war camps I’ve been at.

 I traced my name till I stopped. Why did this name seem familiar?

“Dorm 7?!” Someone behind me shrieked in fear  and slowly everyone shifted away from me.

I turned around confused that they knew something I didn’t.

“Ardent doesn’t play.”

“He’ll be dead in a week. Tops,”

Instantly, I frowned. I wasn’t here to help them bet on who was who, I was here to lay low and gather skills that I could use in defeating my father and brother.

If this Ardent didn’t play then neither did I.

I walked with my bags to the dorm, was about to knock when the door creaked open. I walked inside and gasped in panic.

Three pairs of eyes were zeroed in on me in an instant. A fiery amount of power radiated from them even as they straightened their backs.

It wasn’t until I caught their pack emblem on their arms that I genuinely shuddered in fear.

I knew that crest. Any day, Any time.

The Ardent Triplets. Terror of the west, my family’s biggest foe…

These were my roommates!?