Chapter Four

Aliya

I left the dining room as fast as I could without outright running, my pulse pounding in my ears. Nelima’s words clung to me like wet chains, heavy and suffocating. 

Every step up the stairs felt like it was pulling me deeper into something cold and dark.

By the time I reached my room, my hands were shaking.

I pushed the door open, stepped inside, and leaned against it for a moment, my eyes closed, my chest tight.

I thought I was alone. But then I heard voices.

Not loud. Not clear.

Just faint, muffled arguing coming from down the hall.

I shouldn’t listen. I knew I shouldn’t.

But my feet moved on their own, carrying me back into the hallway.

The voices grew louder and I could fully recognize them alpha Kai’s and Nelima’s.

I pressed myself gently against the wall just beside the slightly ajar door across from mine, holding my breath.

“Are you insane?” Nelima hissed. “You can’t be serious about this, Kai.”

Kai’s voice came next, deep, controlled, but irritated.

“I already told you, it’s done.”

“It can’t be done.” Her voice shook with anger. “You married her. A human. A nobody. Do you understand how humiliating that is for me?”

“For you?” he repeated slowly.

“Yes!” she snapped. “Everyone knows you and I”

“There is no you and I, you broke up with me remember?” Kai cut in.

Nelima let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, please. I know you, Kai. I know the way you touch me. I know the way you look at me. You don’t feel that way about her. And besides we never stay broken up for long.”

Then Kai exhaled sharply.

“I don’t feel anything for her, she means nothing to me, she is just part of a business transaction .”

My fingers curled into trembling fists, hearing those words. And the way he said them fully detached. 

“She’s just a transaction,” Kai continued, voice low and hard. “A way to fix what her father owes.”

My entire body froze.

I wasn’t a wife. I wasn’t a Luna. I was a debt payment. 

Nelima scoffed. “So you dragged a powerless girl into your home just to clear a ledger?”

“It’s business,” he said. 

“But you didn’t need to marry her,” Nelima shot back. “You could have taken land. Money. Anything else.”

“Her father insisted,” Kai replied. “And I agreed because it benefits the pack. And because she is convenient.”

Convenient. 

Convenient.

Convenient.

The word echoed inside me like someone banging on hollow metal.

Nelima laughed again. “Convenient? She can barely look anyone in the eye. She is fragile. She is plain. She is nothing, Kai.”

My throat burned up with both sadness and anger. 

“She means nothing to me,” he said in that same emotionless tone.

I swallowed a sound, half gasp, half sob and pressed my back harder against the wall. My vision blurred instantly.

“Good,” Nelima snapped. “Because you promised me”

“I promised nothing,” Kai cut in. “Not to you. Not to anyone.”

“You promised with your actions,” she shot back, voice cracking. “You promised when you touched me. When you chose me. When you told me”

Kai’s aura flared out suddenly, heavy enough that I felt it even through the wall.

“That conversation is over Nelima and I think you should go home.”

There was silence, deafening silence, Then a shaky breath from Nelima.

“You will regret this,” she whispered. “One day, you will see exactly what kind of mistake you just brought into your home.”

Her heels clacked sharply as she stormed away. Kai didn’t follow her. He didn’t call after her either.

The door slammed and I flinched.

I waited, counted each breath until Kai’s footsteps moved in the opposite direction. Only when they faded completely did I slip quietly back into my room.

The moment the door shut behind me, everything inside me simply collapsed.

I slid down to the floor, my knees pulling up to my chest as the first sob ripped out of me. I tried to stop it. Tried to smother the sound with my hands.

But once it started, I couldn’t control it.

I cried hard ugly, desperate, painful sobs that shook my entire body. Sobs that came from years of hurt, years of being unwanted, years of never being enough.

I cried for my old home, the hell I never thought I would escape.

I cried for this new home, this beautiful cage wrapped in gold.

And I cried for myself.

Because deep down, I knew the truth:

I had traded one place where I didn’t matter for another place where I didn’t belong.

The room felt too big. Too empty. Too cold.

I crawled onto the bed and curled up, burying my face into the pillow.

My arm throbbed from how tightly I held myself.

My chest hurt from the crying.

And my throat felt raw.

I didn’t know how long I stayed like that.

Minutes. Hours. Time was blurry.

At some point, exhaustion dragged my body toward sleep, but my tears wouldn’t stop. Every time I closed my eyes, I heard their voices again.

“She means nothing to me.”

“A business transaction.”

“She is just convenient.”

I sucked in a shaky breath, wiping my face, but more tears kept falling. There was no stopping them.