Chapter Four

Elma

"Treason!"

"Stone her!"

"Tear her apart!"

My head throbbed with a blinding pain. I blinked, my vision swimming as the blurry shapes around me sharpened into terrifying focus.

I was lying on the floor of a steel cage.

"What... what am I doing here?"

"Please."

"She's finally awake," a deep, cruel voice sneered.

The cage door was yanked open. Rough, massive hands grabbed my arms, hauling me to my feet. My legs were numb, still paralyzed from whatever poison had been in that syringe. I stumbled, my bare feet dragging across the floor as two guards hauled me down a massive, torch-lit corridor.

Hundreds of massive, scarred Lycans filled the grand hall, their eyes glowing with raw, unfiltered hatred as they stared at me.

"Bring her here!"

"Alpha, I'd strongly advise you don't do that," a man argued, stepping into my line of sight. It was Zeb, the scarred Lycan from the woods. He glared at me with pure disgust. "She's still dangerous. For all we know, she's a Silver Moon spy sent to take us down from the inside."

"I gave an order, Zeb."

The guards dragged me up the steps of the dais and threw me hard onto my knees. I gasped, the rough stone biting into my bruised skin.

I slowly lifted my head. Sitting on a throne of dark iron was a man who looked like violence incarnate.

He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. His dark, silver-flecked eyes locked onto mine, completely devoid of mercy. The sheer power rolling off him was suffocating, wrapping around my throat and making it impossible to breathe.

"Why did you do that to him?" the man demanded, his voice dropping into a deadly, quiet register that silenced the entire hall.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me, Silver Moon spy," he snarled, standing up. He was massive, his broad chest rising and falling with barely contained fury.

"Why did you kill him?"

"Kill?" I screamed, my entire body is trembling. "I didn't kill anyone! I swear it!"

"Still lying through your teeth?" Zeb spat, stepping closer.

"We found Damien bleeding out in the dirt right after we left you with your little friend! You distracted him so she could strike!"

Damien. The Lycan who had held my arm. The one who had tried to listen to me.

A brutal wave of nausea hit me. The missing pieces of the night violently slammed into place. This is for ruining my plan. Nadia’s dead, cold eyes. The empty syringe. She hadn't just poisoned me. She had used me as bait to assassinate a Lycan, knowing I would take the fall. My best friend. The girl I had trusted with my life had set me up for a slaughter.

"No."

"Nadia... she injected me. I didn't know. Please, you have to believe me!"

"I suggest you throw her into the dungeon," Zeb told the Alpha, his hand resting on the hilt of a blade.

"Let the pack have her. She deserves to be torn limb from limb."

The Alpha walked slowly down the steps. He reached down, his large, calloused hand gripping my jaw in a vice. He forced my head up so I had no choice but to look into his lethal, silver-flecked eyes.

"Oh, a quick death in the dungeon would be far too good for her," he whispered darkly, his thumb pressing dangerously close to my windpipe. "I'm going to make you regret ever doing that to Damien. You murdered my brother. The man who was foolish enough to try and save you."

I stopped breathing.

His brother.

“Please Xander, let her get what she deserves.”

My eyes widened in absolute terror as the realization finally hit me. The dark, silver-flecked eyes. The suffocating aura of pure dominance.

King Xander.

The wealthiest, most ruthless Lycan in all the Northern territories. The man whose name made even Alpha Liam flinch. I remembered Mirabella laughing with her friends at the last Lunar festival, bragging about how she had tried to present herself to him at a border summit. He wouldn't even look at me, Mirabella had complained bitterly. He refuses all the pureblood wolves. He's completely heartless. A total savage.

And now, I was kneeling at his feet, accused of murdering his blood.

"You took my bloodline," Xander growled, his face inches from mine, his breath hot against my trembling lips.

"So you are going to replace it. You are going to be my breeder. And your only duty is to give me heirs every eclipse until I decide what to do with you next. That is your punishment."

The entire hall gasped. Zeb took a step back, his face paling. "Alpha, you cannot mate a Silver Moon pig"

"I did not ask for your opinion!" Xander roared.He released my jaw, looking down at me as if I were nothing but property. "Get the healer. Have her stripped, scrubbed, and ready in my chambers by tonight."

"No, please," I begged, reaching out for him, but the guards were already hauling me backward off the dais. "Xander, please!"

The guards dragged me out of the hall, pulling me through a maze of dark, freezing corridors until we reached a humid, stone-walled bathing room. An older woman with severe eyes was waiting.

"Hold her," the healer ordered.

I fought. I cried. I begged her to listen to me, but she didn't say a single word. She ripped the ruined remnants of my dress from my body, tossing the bloody silk into the fire. Rough sponges scrubbed away the mud, the blood, and the lingering scent of Liam’s betrayal. I was completely numb, a ghost trapped in a nightmare I couldn't wake up from.

When my skin was raw and glowing pink, the healer pulled a sheer, dangerously thin black silk slip over my head. It clung tightly to my curves, hiding absolutely nothing.

"Walk," the guard commanded, grabbing my arm.

They marched me up a spiral staircase. A door was pushed open. The guard shoved me inside and slammed the door.

The chamber was enormous, lit only by a roaring fire in the hearth. The heat in the room was stifling, wrapping around my trembling body.

I backed up against the far wall, crossing my arms over my chest in a desperate attempt to cover myself. My heart is beating fast. What was I going to do? He thought I was a murderer. He hated me.

The door opened, and all the air immediately vanished from the room.

Xander stepped inside. His dark, silver-flecked eyes immediately dropped, dragging over every single curve of my body trembling beneath the sheer black silk.

I gasped, my breath catching entirely in my throat.

He was shirtless. The firelight flickered across his heavily muscled chest, highlighting the dark tribal tattoos that wrapped around his thick biceps and trailed dangerously low, disappearing past the waistline of his loose, low-slung trousers. He was pure, lethal perfection.

Xander took a slow step toward me.

"Stop staring."

"And strip!"