Chapter 5: The Blood Oath

I slammed the heavy oak door of the omega quarters behind me, throwing the iron bolt into place with trembling, frantic hands. My back slid down the rough wood until I hit the packed dirt floor, pulling my knees up tight against my chest as if a physical barrier could protect me from what was coming.

Idiot. Absolute, unforgivable idiot.

I had survived the gallows. I had crawled back through the suffocating gates of death, handed a second chance at life by the cruel, twisting whims of fate. And what did I do on day one? I snapped at the most dangerous, bloodthirsty Alpha in the kingdom. I had practically screamed ‘I hate you because you executed me in another life!’ right into his face without ever actually saying the words aloud.

My wolf whimpered low inside my head, exhausted and terrified by the close proximity of its alpha counterpart, while my human mind raced in an absolute panic.

Running away across the borderlands wasn’t going to be enough anymore. Ronan was already looking at me like a man dying of endless thirst who had just stumbled across a mirage in a barren desert. The mating bond, amplified by the haunting, fractured memories bleeding through the ether into his own mind, had locked onto me with teeth of iron. If I stayed hidden in Willow Creek, he would tear this entire pack apart stone by stone just to find me, and everyone around me would pay the price.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The heavy, authoritative rap against the outer door made my heart leap violently into my throat, choking off my breath.

"Open the door, Selena," a voice commanded from the other side, flat and commanding.

It wasn't Ronan. It was Beta Kael, his second-in-command the exact same man who had handed me my official execution warrant five years from now, wearing the exact same expression of cold, unyielding duty.

Before I could even find my voice to refuse, the wooden door didn't just open. It splintered inward, the heavy iron bolt snapping like a dry twig under a devastating surge of alpha-level force that sent wood chips flying across the tiny room.

Kael stepped into the cramped space, looking grim, steady, and entirely unapologetic. But it was the massive, towering shadow looming directly behind him that made the air freeze instantly in my lungs.

Ronan.

He didn't look like a visiting dignitary or a formal guest anymore. His dark hair was slightly tousled from the ride, his broad chest heaving beneath his tunic, and his silver-gray eyes burned with a dark, primal fury that brooked zero argument. The air in the tiny, miserable room instantly saturated with the suffocating, heavy scent of ozone, frost, and dark cedar.

"You don't run from me," Ronan said, his voice a low, dangerous growl that rattled the cheap glass pane in the tiny window.

I scrambled backward on the floor until my shoulders hit the cold stone hearth of the unused fireplace, lifting my chin with every last drop of defiant pride I had left in my battered body. "I am an omega of the Silver Moon Pack," I spat, my voice shaking despite my best efforts. "I am not your subject, and I am certainly not your property. What right do you have to break into—"

"Every right," Ronan interrupted, cutting across my words with absolute, terrifying finality.

He crossed the room in two long, lethal strides, dropping to one knee right in front of me so our eyes were level. Before I could pull my hands away, his large, warm hand clamped firmly around my wrist. The moment his skin touched mine, a violent, blinding shockwave of heat surged through every vein in my body. A sharp gasp tore from my lips, and my rebellious wolf melted instantly inside my chest, purring traitorously against my ribs as if it had finally found home.

Ronan stared down intensely at our joined hands, his breathing ragged and uneven, as if the physical touch burned him just as much as it electrified me.

"I don't know what kind of ghost you're fighting," Ronan whispered, his voice cracking with a raw, agonizing vulnerability that chilled me straight to the bone. "I don't know why your eyes look at me like I've murdered you in cold blood."

He slowly looked up, his pale silver eyes locking onto mine with a terrifying, absolute intensity that made it impossible to look away.

" I know this: My soul recognizes yours. And I am not leaving Willow Creek without you."

I stopped breathing entirely, the blood rushing in my ears like a rising tide.

"What?" I choked out, the word barely escaping my constricted throat.

"Pack laws regarding unclaimed omegas in border territories give visiting high Alphas the right to claim a direct attendant," Kael stated coldly from the doorway, reading off pack statutes like a mental scroll. "Alpha Ronan has just invoked that right for you, Selena. Effective immediately."

My world tilted violently on its axis, spinning out of control.

I had tried to hide. I had spent days plotting how to escape my horrific fate, how to disappear into the human towns as a faceless seamstress. But by sparking his curiosity, by letting my hatred show, and by awakening the mating bond early, I had walked straight into a cage of my own making.

Ronan’s thumb gently brushed over the sensitive pulse point on my wrist, a dark, possessive promise burning deep within the silver depths of his eyes.

"You think you can hide from me, little ghost?" Ronan murmured, his voice dropping into a dark, mesmerizing hum as the final trap clicked shut around us, sealing my destiny. "Welcome to the capital."