GO TO HELL, ALPHA!

ELENA'S POV

Even now, he could not understand.

He could acknowledge my usefulness. He could acknowledge my work.

But he could not acknowledge me.

“Good night, Alpha Kaiden.”

The door closed behind him.

I stood motionless until I heard his footsteps disappear down the corridor.

Only then did I allow myself to sit on the edge of the bed.

My wolf lay curled inside me, silent except for the occasional soft whimper.

I pressed a hand against my chest.

“I know,” I whispered. “I know he is our mate.”

My eyes burned.

“But we cannot spend our lives begging someone to want us.”

The words hurt as much as the rejection itself.

Perhaps more.

Because some part of me still loved him. Some part of me still wanted him to return, pull me into his arms, and tell me that everything he had said was a mistake.

But love could not force someone to choose you.

And a bond could not make someone cherish what they believed was beneath them.

I wiped my face and stood.

There was no reason to remain here until morning.

I finished packing, wrapped my mother’s pendant around my neck, and pulled on a thick coat. Then I extinguished the lamp and took one last look at the room.

I had entered it as a girl who dreamed of finding her mate.

I would leave it as a woman who had learned that finding your mate and finding happiness were not necessarily the same thing.

Outside, the night was quiet.

Most of the pack members were still at the ceremony, celebrating the future of their Alpha and the alliances he hoped to secure.

I walked through the empty corridors and descended the back staircase, keeping my head lowered whenever I passed a window.

No one stopped me.

No one asked where I was going.

By the time I reached the outer gates, the eastern horizon had begun to pale.

The guards recognized me and stepped aside.

“Leaving so early, Elena?”

I adjusted the strap of my bag. “I have some traveling to do.”

One of them hesitated. “Does the Alpha know?”

I thought of Kaiden standing in my room, telling me that the distinction between his desire and his council’s wishes did not matter.

“Yes,” I replied.

It was not entirely a lie.

I stepped beyond the gates.

The moment my feet crossed the boundary, a sharp ache passed through my chest as the damaged mate bond reacted to the distance.

I stopped and pressed a hand against my heart.

My wolf stirred painfully.

Kaiden.

I swallowed.

“Not anymore.”

I forced myself to continue walking.

Behind me, the Blackthorn territory slowly disappeared beneath the morning mist.

I did not look back.

***

AUTHOR’S POV

High above the courtyard, in the eastern wing of the estate, Kaiden Blackthorn stood before his office window.

He had not slept.

He had spent the remaining hours of the night reviewing reports from his warriors and listening to the council discuss the advantages of a formal union with the Thorne family.

Yet every time he tried to concentrate, he remembered the look on Elena’s face when he rejected her.

He remembered the tears she had fought so hard to hold back.

And he remembered the question she had asked him.

If I had been born into a powerful family, would you have chosen me?

Kaiden’s jaw tightened.

He turned away from the window, intending to return to his desk.

Then something made him look outside again.

A lone figure was moving along the road beyond the gates, carrying a travel bag.

Even from a distance, he recognized her.

Elena.

She was leaving.

For several seconds he stood perfectly still.

His wolf stirred uneasily beneath his skin.

Stop her.

Kaiden’s fingers curled against the windowsill.

He could call for a warrior to bring her back. He could order the gates closed. He could cross the courtyard and reach her before she disappeared beyond the road.

He was the Alpha.

There was nothing stopping him from doing any of those things.

Except that he had already made his decision.

Elena was not the Luna he needed.

The Thornes would strengthen his pack. Their alliance would protect his borders and secure resources for the coming winter. His council would support the arrangement, and his warriors would benefit from the additional military power.

He could not sacrifice the future of thousands of wolves for the sake of a bond he had never asked for.

That was what he told himself.

That was what he needed to believe.

His wolf growled low in his mind.

She is leaving us.

Kaiden’s expression hardened.

“She will be fine,” he muttered.

But he continued watching until Elena became nothing more than a distant shadow against the morning light.

And when she finally disappeared from sight, the office seemed strangely empty.

Kaiden looked down at his hand.

For one brief moment during the ceremony, when the mate bond had snapped into place, he had felt something he had never experienced before.

A sense of recognition so profound that it had unsettled him.

He had felt Elena’s happiness.

And then, when he rejected her, he had felt her pain.

He closed his hand into a fist.

He had made the right decision.

He had to believe that.

Because if he admitted that he had made a mistake, he would have to confront the possibility that the woman he had just sent away was the one person he could never replace.

And Kaiden Blackthorn had built his entire life around never making a decision he could not live with.

He turned from the window.

“Prepare the documents for the Thorne alliance,” he ordered when his Beta entered the office moments later.

“Yes, Alpha.”

The Beta hesitated before leaving.

“One more thing, Alpha. Elena Voss has crossed the territory boundary.”

Kaiden did not turn around.

“I know.”

“Should we send someone to escort her? The roads beyond our territory aren’t entirely safe.”

For a moment Kaiden said nothing.

His wolf pressed restlessly against his consciousness.

Then he answered.

“No. Let her go.”

The Beta bowed his head and left.

Kaiden remained alone in his office.

Outside, the sun rose over the Blackthorn Pack, illuminating the land he had sworn to protect.

He had chosen his pack.

He had chosen its future.

And he had chosen to let his mate walk away.

He did not yet know that three years later, when the world descended into chaos and the strongest packs began to fall, he would remember this morning as the moment he lost the one woman who might have changed everything.