CH3

Chapter 3

Tanya's POV

“What did you just say, Tanya?”

Tovar’s voice lost its lazy arrogance as he disengaged from Zhuri. He dragged himself off the bed hastily, grabbing a satin cloth to cover his nakedness from the guards still inside the chambers. The cloth barely concealed him.

Zhuri turned her head toward me, her eyes flashing with disbelief. The guards did too.

This was the first time I had ever acted on my own.

Before now, I had never spoken before Tovar without permission. Submission was a she-wolf’s duty, and I had played that role perfectly. Hoping that if I bent and humbled myself enough, he would finally see me as worthy.

But before he could stand properly on his feet, the pain of the rejection struck him.

He staggered, his body jerking as if something invisible had pierced through him. He fell to the floor, clutching his stomach tightly, a strangled sound escaping his throat. For a second, I thought he would cough up blood, but he swallowed it down, refusing to show weakness before the warriors present.

The guards stiffened.

Without a word, they turned and left the chamber. I could feel the faint flicker of the mind link shift — he had dismissed them.

Silence settled heavily between us.

It was strange.

For three years, I had endured the pain of his rejection. The severed bond hanging between us like a blade over my head. I had endured it without collapsing or trembling.

Why was he reacting like this now?

“How dare you reject me, Tanya?” he snapped once he regained his footing, though he still looked pale. “Do you think a wolfless half-blood like you will be able to live through the pain of a total bond severance? How dare you?”

His anger filled the room, but I did not flinch.

“I merely accepted your rejection from three years ago, Tovar,” I replied steadily. “Why do you appear so pained by that?”

His jaw tightened.

“Stop being so bitter, Tanya,” Zhuri cut in sharply. “It’s not Tovar’s fault that you are barren for three years or that you were unable to get him to fall in love with you. This cheap trick you’re pulling is not going to help.”

Our gazes locked.

For the first time, I did not look away.

“I just did you a favour by accepting his rejection, Zhuri. Shouldn’t you be thanking me for that?” I asked calmly.

Her lips parted in outrage.

“I am an Alpha, Tanya,” Tovar interrupted, pulling my attention back to him. “I can last days through rejection without feeling pain. But you’re not. And you won’t. If you want me to forgive you for this disrespect before the pack hears about it and orders your execution, go on your knees and beg me.”

I scoffed.

Even now and after everything, he still expected me to kneel.

“I, Tanya, will never go on my knees for a manipulative and incompetent Alpha like you,” I said, my voice rising for the first time. “I wonder how the pack will end up if someone like you is who they’ll have to coronate as the new Fang Father.”

His eyes darkened dangerously.

“Oh, stop it, Tanya!” Zhuri snapped, stepping forward. “He doesn’t want you! Do you honestly think those petty words of yours are going to make him feel bad?”

She placed a possessive hand on her stomach, her chin lifting proudly.

“I am pregnant with his twin heirs. And after the crowning tonight, he will soon become the father of powerful pups. It’s a shame that some people are barren and couldn’t provide him with the one thing he needed in order to assume his Fang Father title.”

“Exactly, Zhuri, and that is why I have rejected him for you!” I said, my voice trembling but loud enough to cut through the thick air in the chamber.

“Like you’ve always been good at picking up my trash, you can have him like you’ve always wanted. But let no one stop me from leaving this pack!”

I stepped back and turned toward the open door.

For a fleeting second, I saw the triumphant look on Zhuri’s face. As if she had finally conquered the one obstacle that had stood between her and the throne she believed was hers by birthright.

But her triumph was short-lived.

Tovar grabbed my wrist and yanked me back.

“Do you think life outside this pack is going to be kind to you?” he demanded, his fingers digging painfully into my skin. “Outside the Raki Horde Pack, you’ll encounter the cursed lycans who are our enemies. There are rogues. And worse, the filthy Igutus who are the condemned species born of lycan and werewolf blood. Do you know the amount of harm they can cause? You’re weak, and worse, an omega. If you—”

“Tovar, why are you holding her back?” Zhuri cut in sharply, reaching for his other arm and tugging him away from me. “If she wants to leave, then let her go! Going out there and being killed is a better way to be rid of her than having her imprisoned here as the slave she is.”

Tovar shoved her hand away, his eyes flashing with frustration.

“Do you not understand, Zhuri? I need her!” he snapped. “She is my fated mate. I can’t stay too far from her or my wolf will grow weak!”

“But we agreed on sending her away before, Tovar! What changed?” Zhuri demanded, disbelief written all over her face.

“I only planned to have her locked up in the cold arctic quarters as my abandoned Luna, not as a proclaimed rogue!” he growled.

“Without her, this pack will suffer. Do you think you’re capable of handling the financial businesses she manages for the pack? The trade agreements? The grain supplies?”

My breath caught in my throat.

To imagine that only minutes ago, I had been walking toward his chambers to beg him to reconsider mating Zhuri.

Who knew that he had never intended to let me leave after marking Zhuri as his Fang Mother? Who knew he had been planning this all along? And I had secretly believed that he would consider my sacrifice of taking the Lunawryn herb to awaken my wolf, thinking perhaps my failure to conceive had been my own weakness.

“Let me go, Tovar!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, struggling against his grip.

He held tighter.

If this had been before I discovered everything, I would have been overjoyed that he didn’t want me to leave. I would have mistaken it for love.

How foolish I had been.

He didn’t want me but wanted what I could do.

He wanted the prosperity I brought.

The mind behind the wealth.

The silent shield that absorbed his crimes.

When I kept pulling and insisting on leaving, and he kept resisting, his grip tightening painfully around my wrist, something shifted.

His hand suddenly came off and he stared at me.

Zhuri, who had been behind him, took several steps back.

The guards who had rushed in froze where they stood.

Confused by their reactions, I looked down at myself.

Blood was dripping from my wrist where his nails had scratched through my skin.

But it wasn’t the blood that stunned everyone into silence.

It was the color as it was Purple.

My heart stopped because it was a crime.

An abomination. The worst halfblood to be.

A trait known only to belong to the Igutus — the halfborns born of lycan and werewolf blood. The cursed hybrids of the Ashborn pack. The very species Tovar had just condemned moments ago.

To be one meant instant execution.

To be one and yet live among wolves for years without being discovered meant something worse, betrayal and treason at the highest level.

The chamber felt colder as Zhuri’s face drained of color.

The guards instinctively reached for their weapons.

And I stood there, frozen, staring at the purple blood dripping onto the polished floor.

My father had been executed for sleeping with a human.

So how…?

A terrifying thought slithered into my mind.

Could it be that my father had not slept with a human at all?

Could it be that he had slept with a lycan?

Or worse…

Had the truth been buried deeper than I ever imagined?