THE LAND NOBODY WANTED

Cressida’s POV

Dorian stared at the crisp paper resting on the stone altar. He looked at me like I had grown a second head.

The silence in the grand hall felt thick and heavy as no one dared to speak a single word. The pack members just watched us, waiting for someone to make a move.

"What is this nonsense?" Dorian snapped, slamming his fist down onto the stone table.

He took a large step toward me and released his Alpha aura. It was a heavy, invisible pressure that crashed into the room. The weight dropped directly onto my shoulders. It tried to force my body down. It tried to make my knees bend against my will.

My inner wolf whined loudly in my mind in deep submission. She wanted to drop to the floor and bare her neck to him. The biological instinct was incredibly strong.

But my human mind was much stronger.

I had faced ruthless billionaires in my past life who tried to ruin my company and destroy my reputation. A magical temper tantrum wouldn't work on me.

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek until the warm taste of copper blood coated my tongue. I stood tall and refused to kneel, wiping a small drop of blood from my bottom lip, and looked him in the eye.

"It's a legal contract," I said smoothly. I didn't let my voice shake. "Under the ancient pack laws of the Silver Moon, Section Four. A high-born mate who is rejected without cause is allowed to claim a piece of undeveloped pack territory before leaving."

The pack elders in the front row gasped loudly. They started whispering fast among themselves.

"She can't do that!" a grey-haired woman yelled from the back of the crowd.

"What is Section Four?" Dorian demanded. He turned away from me and looked at the oldest man in the front row. "What is she talking about, Elder Vance?"

Elder Vance stepped forward. He rubbed his wrinkled chin and looked very uncomfortable.

"Alpha, the law is very old. We haven't used it in over two hundred years. But she is right. The law states that a rejected high-born female can claim a piece of undeveloped land to ensure her survival."

Dorian's face turned a violent shade of red with anger. He turned back to me, his chest heaving up and down.

"You want land?" Dorian shouted. His voice echoed off the high walls. "You are leaving my pack, and you want to take my land on your way out?"

"I'm claiming what is mine," I corrected him.

I walked right up to the altar. I tapped my silver pen on the bottom line of the paper.

"I want the Northern Ridges. Sign the paper, and I will leave your territory today."

Dorian stared at me for a long moment. Then, he threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoed through the room. Behind him, the warriors in the crowd started laughing too. They pointed at me and shook their heads.

"The Northern Ridges?" Dorian asked, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "Did I hear you correctly?"

"You heard me," I answered.

"You must have hit your head on the floor," Dorian chuckled. "The Northern Ridges are completely dead. It's just endless rocks, freezing rain, and dead pine trees. Nothing grows there. No prey animals hunt there. The pack hasn't sent a patrol up that mountain in five years because it is totally worthless."

"That is my choice," I replied, keeping my hand steady on the table.

"You want to live on a frozen rock?" Elder Vance asked. He sneered at me. "You won't last three days up there, spoiled girl. You don't know how to hunt or build a fire."

"My survival isn't your concern anymore, Elder," I glanced at him briefly before looking back at Dorian. "Just give me the land. It's useless to you anyway. You just said so yourself."

Mia stepped away from the crowd and walked up to the altar. She placed her small hands flat on Dorian's chest and looked up at him with big, innocent eyes.

"Let her have it, Dorian," Mia said softly. Her voice carried easily in the quiet hall. "If she wants those ugly rocks, just give them to her. We don't need them. We have our love. That is all that matters."

I looked at Mia.

She wore a sweet smile, but something about the way she watched me made me suspicious. She seemed far too pleased with the thought of me leaving.

I didn't say a single word to her. She wasn't worth my breath.

"You are too kind, my sweet Luna.” Dorian sighed heavily, looking down at Mia with pure adoration. “You always show mercy."

He turned his glare back to me. He stopped laughing entirely. He snatched the silver pen out of my hand.

He leaned over the stone altar and pressed the pen hard against the paper. He signed his name with messy, angry letters at the very bottom of the page. 

He threw the pen back at my chest, but I caught it easily in my right hand.

"There," Dorian snarled, shoving the signed contract across the stone table toward me. "Take your dead rocks. You have exactly one hour to pack your bags and get out of my sight."

I picked up the paper. The ink was still wet.

"You will freeze to death in a week, Seraphina," Dorian continued, his voice full of venom. "When you are starving and shivering in the mud, don't come crawling back here to beg at my door. I won't let you in."

I blew gently on the wet ink to dry it. Then, I folded the thick paper neatly and slid it into the inside pocket of my coat.

A small smile spread across my face.

They thought they had just handed me a death sentence. They had no idea what they had given away.

I remembered the strange detail from the novel—the blue stones hidden beneath the roots of a dead oak in the Northern Ridges. It had caught my attention long before I ever imagined waking up in this world.

I didn't know everything about those mountains, but I wasn't going to dismiss an opportunity just because everyone else thought it was worthless.

I buttoned my coat and adjusted my collar. Then I looked at the man who thought he had just ruined my life.

"Don't worry, Alpha," I said, turning my back on him and facing the heavy wooden doors of the hall. "Enjoy your sweet love. I will enjoy my mountains."