Chapter 4: Fate’s Cruel Joke

Thalia's POV

The transition from pack royalty to literal wolfless trash took roughly three seconds. It’s truly amazing how fast your social standing can plummet. One minute you’re prepping your coronation, and the next, you’re being hauled through the dirt.

Someone actually spat on me as the guards dragged me away. I didn't even blink. My eyes stayed locked entirely on Adonis at the top of the pulpit steps. 

Maybe any second now, I’ll wake up, I thought desperately. Eris will be complaining about the zipper of her dress, and this will just be a really horrible dream. 

But the sky stayed dark, the moon stayed full, and Adonis just watched me get dragged away with the blank, bored expression of a man watching paint dry. When the iron gates of the courtyard finally vanished from view, something inside me broke. I stopped kicking. I stopped fighting. I simply let myself go numb. 

The guards threw me into a dilapidated storage hut located well outside the main hall, the wooden door slamming shut in my face.

Trapped in the dark and surrounded by rusted tools and thick cobwebs, I instinctively reached for my wolf, desperately hoping she was just hiding. But there was nothing there, only that same hollow, freezing ache.

And that’s when the worst part of the realization set in: I had willingly handed her over on a silver platter, and Adonis was right.

I was naive and stupid.

Meanwhile, the gossip easily filtered through the cracks in the rotting wooden walls. Adonis had officially stripped me of my noble status, then issued a pack-wide decree that no one was to aid me, completely dismissing my sacrifice as nothing more than a weakness.

Days passed in that miserable hut; I couldn't tell where the mornings ended and the nights began. Mostly, I just kept passing out, my mind unable to process the scale of the horror.

Then one fateful day, the wooden door suddenly creaked open.

Light flooded the damp room, forcing me to shield my eyes as a tiny, pathetic spark of hope shifted in my chest. 

Was it a guard coming to execute me? Or maybe... Adonis? Maybe he finally realized he made a mistake?

But it wasn't Adonis.

Standing in the doorway was a man, a completely, unreasonably handsome man. He definitely didn't look like he belonged to our pack; he was wearing clean traveling clothes, and he was striking in a way that made my exhausted brain momentarily go blank.

I kept my thoughts entirely to myself, pulling my knees tight against my chest as I sat in the dirt corner, watching him in silence.

He took a few hesitant steps toward me, and instinctively, I flinched, bracing for a blow or a harsh word. But the stranger immediately stopped and raised his hands. “I'm not going to hurt you,” he said gently, “I just want to help.”

He dropped to his knees in front of me. Up close, his beauty was honestly a bit much to take in, especially considering I currently smelled like a swamp and looked like a corpse.

But as he hovered there, I felt an undeniable pull between us that I honestly did not have the emotional bandwidth to handle right now, so I quickly shoved the feeling aside.

“What do you want?” I asked, my voice sounding like gravel rubbing together.

“To help,” he repeated softly.

“Why?”

He was silent, carefully unfolding a leather medical bag he had brought with him.

“You know the Alpha's declaration,” I reminded him, my mind spiraling into panic for this total stranger. Does this guy have a death wish? 

“If anyone helps me, he'll put their head on a stake. Do you want your head on a stake?”

The man paused, looking up at me through a fringe of silver-white hair. “Caspian,” he said quietly. “My name is Caspian. And I'm a doctor. Or, well... I was a doctor.” He went back to his bag, pulling out clean clothes and a soothing salve. “I travel a lot, and I happened to be passing through the territory when I heard the news.” 

Before I could protest, Caspian gently took my hand, his touch incredibly warm, sending shivers round my body as he began meticulously cleaning the dirt and the ugly purple bruises left by the guards. 

After a while, he packed up his supplies and rose to leave. Before he could set foot outside into the sunlight, a question escaped my lips.

“When… when am I going to see you again?”

He paused at the threshold and looked back over his shoulder, a genuine smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Every time I get the chance to,” he said softly.

And then he left, but not before leaving a neatly wrapped, warm piece of bread sitting on the wooden crate beside me. 

Day after day, Caspian kept his word.

His visits became something I actually looked forward to, and even better? He never showed up empty-handed. One day it was a pocketful of sweet berries, the next a warm, flaky pastry that tasted like actual heaven.

My internal clock completely synchronized to his arrival. Knock, knock, and my heart skipped a beat.

I got to know him better with every conversation. He was funny, incredibly patient, and possessed the kind of presence that made me forget, if only for an hour, that I was a pack outcast.

One night, as we sat close together on the dirty floor, the silence between us felt heavier than usual. I watched him carefully wrap a clean bandage around my scraped ankle, and the question just slipped out.

“Why are you doing this, Caspian?”

He paused, his hands staying still against my skin.

“I mean it,” I pressed, because there are a million dying wolves in the world. Why did a handsome, rogue doctor decide to play savior to a wolfless nobody in a shed? “It has to be more than the vague 'I was just passing through' explanation you gave me the first day.”

Caspian slowly let go of my ankle and looked up at me through dark, intense eyes. “I’m drawn to you, Thalia. Don't you feel it, too?”

My breath hitched.

Feel it? 

Of course I felt it! It felt like a massive cosmic tractor beam pulling me toward him every single second of the day!

But I was terrified… I was broken. I had just been brutally discarded by the universe's first choice for me. I couldn't handle whatever this was. 

“I don't know what you're talking about,” I lied, pulling my legs back. 

He didn't look fooled as he moved closer and reached up to gently cup my face in his palm. The exact moment his skin met mine, an electric thrill shot straight down my spine, melting the void in my chest.

He leaned in, his voice barely a whisper. “Don't you feel it? Mate.”

Mate?

I blinked, the word echoing in my ears. 

“What?” I gasped, jerking away from his touch. “If… if this is a joke, Caspian, it’s sick. It’s not funny!” 

But he didn't laugh or say anything; he just knelt there, looking at me with heartbreaking seriousness. And the worst part? The most terrifying part? The thundering drumbeat in my own chest was confirming every single word he said to be true.

My soul recognized him, even if my traumatized brain wanted to scream. 

“It can't be,” I whispered, wide-eyed, my hands shaking against my knees. “It literally cannot be. I just... Adonis…”

“It can be,” Caspian insisted, reaching out again. “And that's why I couldn't stay away from this territory, Thalia. The moment I smelled your scent in the wind, I—”

“No!” Before he could finish the sentence, panic blinded me as my hand connected with his cheek in a stinging slap. I scrambled to my feet, my chest heaving as I pointed a trembling finger at the door. “Leave! Get out right now!”

Caspian looked up at me from the floor, a mixture of shock and sorrow flashing across his beautiful face as he held up his hands, trying to soothe me. “Thalia, please, just listen to me for a second—”

“No! I don't want to listen to you!” I shrieked, tears of frustration and fear blurring my vision. “Leave, or I swear to the Goddess I will scream at the top of my lungs and call the guards!”

It was an empty threat, obviously; the guards would probably just kill us both, but it was the only weapon I had left to protect my battered heart. 

“But, Thalia—”

“But nothing!” I barked, a fresh flow of tears spilling over my eyelashes. “You’re not welcome here anymore. I don't ever want to see you again!” 

Slowly, he got up from the floor, gave me one long, heartbroken look before turning and walking out into the cool night air.

The instant the latch caught, the strength drained completely from my legs as I leaned my back against the wood and slid slowly down to the floor, pulling my knees to my chin.

Bitter tears bubbled up from my chest. “It can’t be true,” I sobbed into the dark, empty room, wrapping my arms around myself.

“It can't be true. I can't have another mate… not now and definitely not like this.”