Chapter 7

Elara's POV

Kael was on his feet before Soren finished speaking, and something in the way his whole body went still and controlled, rather than tense with panic, told me this wasn't the first time he'd had to handle a furious Alpha showing up uninvited at his border.

"Define not politely," Kael said, and his voice had dropped into something colder than I'd heard from him yet, though it was aimed at the situation and not at me.

"He's got four warriors with him and a lot to say about a King who apparently thinks it's acceptable to steal an omega out of her own pack the night of her rejection ceremony." Soren's eyes flicked to me for half a second, something almost apologetic in them, like he hated being the one to say the next part out loud. "He's using words like kidnapping, my King. Loudly. In front of my own men."

My stomach dropped so fast I had to grip the edge of the table to steady myself, because kidnapping wasn't a word that stayed quiet, it was a word that spread through packs and kingdoms and turned into exactly the kind of story Nyra had warned me about the night before, the kind that made people start asking questions about who I really was and why a King had suddenly decided I was worth defending.

"I didn't steal anything," I said, my voice sharper than I meant it to come out, though it wasn't Soren I was angry at. "I walked into these woods on my own. Nobody dragged me anywhere."

"I know that," Soren said gently, "and honestly, so does Alpha Cross, probably, but that's not really what this is about, is it? A pack doesn't send its Alpha to another kingdom's border over one missing omega unless there's a reason he wants her back badly enough to make a scene about it."

Kael's jaw tightened, and I watched something click into place behind his eyes, some piece of the puzzle he'd clearly already been turning over since Nyra first said the word bloodline the night before. "He knows what she is."

"I don't think he does, not exactly," Soren said, "but I think he suspects something, or someone above him does, because Alpha Cross doesn't strike me as a man who chases down a rejected omega out of guilt. He strikes me as a man who's been told she's worth more than everyone let her believe."

The room felt smaller all of a sudden, all three of them looking at me like I was a puzzle they were trying to solve, and I hated how exposed that made me feel, like the girl who used to fold laundry in the corner of pack meetings had somehow become the center of a conversation between kings and warriors overnight.

"I want to go," I said, and everyone turned to look at me. "Not go with him, but go to the border. I want to hear whatever he has to say myself, instead of sitting here while everyone decides what to do about me."

"That's not safe," Kael said immediately.

"Neither was walking into these woods last night, and I did that too." I stood, smoothing down the plain gray dress like it might give me the same armor the wedding dress never had. "I spent my whole life letting other people decide what I was capable of handling. I'm not doing that again, not even for you."

Something shifted in Kael's expression, surprise maybe, or something closer to respect, and after a long moment he gave a small nod, like he'd decided arguing with me on this particular point wasn't a fight worth having.

"Fine," he said. "But you stay behind me, and you let me do the talking until I say otherwise. Not because I think you can't handle yourself, but because Alpha Cross doesn't know yet what he's dealing with, and I'd rather keep it that way until we understand it better ourselves."

The walk to the border took less time than I expected, and I could hear the shouting before we even reached the tree line, Alpha Cross's voice carrying loud and furious over the quiet morning air, the kind of voice that used to make me shrink smaller whenever he raised it at pack meetings.

He stood at the edge of Nightfall territory with four warriors flanking him, and the moment his eyes landed on me stepping out from the trees behind Kael, something in his expression flickered, surprise quickly smoothed back into anger.

"Elara." He said my name like an accusation. "Do you have any idea what you've done, disappearing like that? Your pack has been searching for you all night."

"My pack rejected me in front of everyone last night," I said, and I felt Kael go still beside me, like he hadn't expected me to speak first. "I wasn't aware anyone was still searching for something they'd already thrown away."

A ripple of surprise moved through the warriors behind Alpha Cross, and I watched the older man's face tighten, caught between the fury he'd arrived with and something else underneath it, something that looked almost like he was choosing his next words far more carefully than he wanted to.

"This isn't about the rejection," he said finally. "This is about you leaving Ashwood territory and ending up here, in his territory, with him. Do you understand what that looks like? Do you understand what people will say?"

"I understand exactly what it looks like," Kael said, stepping forward just enough to put himself between us without fully blocking me from view. "It looks like a woman who nearly died to a rogue attack last night, alone, in the woods her own pack let her walk into unescorted after publicly humiliating her. If you're here to discuss appearances, Alpha Cross, I'd start there."

Alpha Cross's eyes narrowed, moving between the two of us slowly, lingering just a moment too long on the sleeve covering my wrist, and my heart climbed into my throat as I watched something calculate behind his gaze, something that made me suddenly, deeply certain that Soren had been right.

He wasn't here for me.

He was here for whatever he already suspected I might be.