Chapter 3: Not Welcome Here

Word spread fast that the Alpha had taken in a rogue, and not everyone was pleased about it. Elena felt the weight of suspicious stares everywhere she went during her first week at Ashford territory — in the dining hall, along the training grounds, even in the quiet corridors of the pack house late at night.

She'd expected the hostility. What she hadn't expected was the particular venom in Sabrina Blackwood's eyes the first time their paths crossed.

"You don't belong here," Sabrina said, the words dropping like ice into the space between them. She'd cornered Elena in the training yard on the fourth day, her golden eyes sharp with disdain, her posture radiating the kind of confidence that came from a lifetime of privilege and power. Daughter of the Blackwood Alpha, betrothed to Kane since childhood, Sabrina wore her status like armor, like a weapon she wielded without hesitation.

"I haven't done anything to you," Elena said evenly, refusing to let her voice betray the unease coiling in her stomach.

"Rogues are dangerous," Sabrina continued as if Elena hadn't spoken, circling her slowly, predatory. "Unpredictable. Feral, really, without proper pack structure to civilize you. You could turn on this pack the moment it's convenient for you, and no one would be surprised."

"That's quite a lot of assumptions about someone you just met."

Sabrina's smile turned sharp, all teeth and false sweetness. "Not assumptions, sweetheart. Facts. I've studied rogue behavior extensively — comes with the territory of being an Alpha's intended. But let me give you some free advice, since you're clearly new here." She leaned in close, voice dropping to something almost gentle, which made it more menacing somehow. "I see the way Kane looks at you. Like you're some kind of charity case worth fussing over, some interesting new pet. Careful, rogue girl — I don't share what's mine, and Kane has been mine since before either of us could shift."

Elena held her ground despite the fear coiling tight in her chest. Years of survival had taught her not to show weakness, even when she felt it clawing at her insides. "I haven't asked for anything that's yours."

"See that it stays that way." Sabrina's eyes flashed dangerously, wolf simmering just beneath the surface of her carefully composed exterior. "This pact between our families has kept peace between two powerful packs for over a decade. I won't let some parentless stray unravel that because Kane has a temporary lapse in judgment."

She turned and walked away with the fluid grace of someone born to power, leaving Elena standing alone in the training yard, unease curling tight in her gut like a living thing.

Elena watched her retreat, jaw clenched, wolf restless beneath her skin. She'd survived rival packs who'd murdered her parents. She'd survived hunters who'd tracked her for sport. She'd survived seven years of starvation, isolation, and grief that threatened to swallow her whole.

She could survive one jealous she-wolf's threats.

She didn't yet understand how deep Sabrina's cruelty could run, or how far the woman would go to protect what she considered rightfully hers.