CHAPTER 3

Elara's POV

I snapped awake, my eyes flying open in the pitch-black darkness of the cellar.

For a moment, I lay perfectly still, my heart thundering against my ribs like a trapped bird desperate to escape its cage.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump-thump.

The rhythm was frantic, but for the first time in years, it wasn’t driven by fear. 

It was fueled by a wild, intoxicating adrenaline.

I reached up, my fingers brushing my cheeks, and realized I was smiling so hard it actually ached.

The two weeks were over.

I sat up on my thin cot, ignoring the familiar damp chill of the stone walls.

Today was the Blood Moon.

Today, I was eighteen.

“Finally,” I whispered, the word tasting like a prayer on my tongue.

The misery of the last fourteen days, the extra beatings, the endless mountains of laundry, the sting of boiling water on my hand, felt like a lifetime ago. 

Today, the cosmic tether would snap into place. 

Today, the Moon Goddess would reveal the soul bound to mine.

I closed my eyes, pressing my palms together over my heart.

“Please, Great Mother,” I breathed into the silence of the cellar. “Don’t make me wait. Let him be there tonight. Let the bond be so strong they can’t deny it. Just let me find him quickly, so I can leave this place before the sun rises.”

I didn’t care if he was a warrior from a neighboring pack or a simple scout from a distant territory. 

All that mattered was the bond.

The mate bond was sacred, an unbreakable law of our kind. 

Once it was found, my father couldn’t keep me here. He couldn’t force me into slavery if my mate claimed me.

I would finally leave Silver Ridge. 

I would leave the shadows of my parents’ disappointment and the suffocating perfection of Kaelith.

I would walk out the front gates and never look back.

I scrambled off the bed, my movements light and energetic despite the lack of sleep. I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was radiant. 

I could feel it, an unfamiliar glow beneath my skin, a spark of life that had been dormant for years.

“You can’t hide me anymore,” I told the dark, empty room.

I pulled on my cleanest set of rags, a faded gray tunic, and leggings, and tied my hair back. I just had to get through one more day of work. 

One more day of being the glitch. Then, when the moon reached its peak at the ceremony tonight, I would be free.

I took a deep breath, centered myself, and pushed open the cellar door.

The hallway was silent, but I could already smell the preparations beginning upstairs.

Tonight was a celebration for the pack, a night of dancing and drinking beneath the Blood Moon.

They thought they were celebrating the pack’s strength.

I knew better.

They were unknowingly celebrating my departure.

I made my way to the kitchen, my footsteps lighter than they had been in years. 

Since the sun was barely up, the heavy cooking for the ceremony hadn’t started yet, giving me a rare chance to scavenge a scrap of bread for myself.

I was leaning against the counter, chewing slowly and lost in a daydream of a life far away from this place, when the head maid, Martha, bustled in. 

She stopped dead when she saw me, her eyes narrowing as she flinched back slightly.

“What is wrong with you?” she demanded, suspicion lacing her voice. “Why are you beaming like that? It’s unsettling.”

I quickly wiped the expression from my face, lowering my gaze to the floor. 

“It’s nothing, Martha. I just slept well.” I cleared my throat, forcing myself to sound small, as usual. “Is there something you want me to do?”

She huffed, smoothing her apron. 

“Nothing yet. The reinforcements from the lower village are handling the heavy prep. But don’t go wandering off. Just because you turned eighteen today doesn’t mean your mate is going to pop out of the woodwork and whisk you away. Stay on the grounds where we can find you when you’re needed. Don’t make us hunt for you.”

“Yes, Martha,” I said quietly, hiding the surge of hope her words couldn’t dampen.

Before she could bark another order, the kitchen door swung open, and Beta Thomas entered, Margaret trailing behind him.

The air instantly grew cold. 

Margaret still wore that cruel glint in her eyes, the same one she’d had when she whipped me in the training hall.

Thomas didn’t say a word. He simply tossed a bundle of fabric at my chest. 

I caught it, the material surprisingly soft against my calloused palms. 

When I unfurled it, I found a dress of deep forest green. 

It was far better than the rags I wore now, though the frayed hem and faint scent of cedar told me it was a hand-me-down, likely one of Kaelith’s old cast-offs.

“Wear that today,” Thomas ordered, his voice flat and devoid of warmth, despite being my father’s closest friend.

I looked up, a small spark of surprise breaking through. “Thank you, Beta.”

He stepped closer, his shadow swallowing me whole, and his next words smothered my fleeting joy.

“Don’t think this means anything, Elara,” he sneered, his lip curling. “You’re only wearing it so you don’t embarrass the Alpha during the ceremony. Even dressed up, you’re still a useless Omega. A pig in silk is still a pig. Remember your place.”

Margaret laughed sharply, her hand resting on the hilt of the small dagger at her waist.

“Exactly. Don’t get ideas, girl. Clean yourself up, put on the dress, and get back to work. The Moon Goddess isn’t wasting a miracle on someone like you.”

They turned and left, abandoning me in the center of the kitchen, clutching the green fabric until my knuckles went white.

‘Just a few more hours,’ I whispered to myself, forcing their words aside. ‘Just wait until tonight.’

***

The sun dipped below the horizon, and the Blood Moon rose, staining the world a bruised, eerie crimson.

The ceremonial clearing was packed with wolves from both branches of Silver Ridge. 

While my father, Alpha Vance, ruled our branch, the High Alpha, the one who held power over the entire region, stood upon the raised dais with his family.

I lingered at the edge of the crowd, the forest-green dress itching against my skin. 

I watched as several teenagers collapsed into one another’s arms, the joy of the mate bond radiating through the clearing. 

But as the minutes passed, no one came for me.

The hopeful spark in my chest flickered.

‘Please,’ I begged silently. ‘Don’t let them be right. Don’t let me be alone.’

And then, it hit me.

It wasn’t a spark. It was a forest fire.

A scent of dark chocolate, rain-soaked earth, and crackling ozone slammed into my senses, sending my knees buckling. 

My wolf, usually silent and trembling, howled in the back of my mind.

Mate.

My head snapped to the right, my heart nearly leaping out of my chest.

Emerging from the inner circle of the elite was a young man, breathtakingly handsome, with a jawline sharp enough to cut glass and eyes burning with sudden, fierce hunger.

My breath hitched.

This wasn’t just a warrior.

This was Ryker Voss, the son of the High Alpha.

In our pack hierarchy, my father was only a branch Alpha.

A subordinate. 

Ryker was the heir to the entire sovereign pack.

If he were my mate, I wouldn’t just be leaving.

I would outrank every single person who had ever laid a hand on me.

The crowd parted as if sensing the seismic shift in the air. Ryker moved toward me with dazed, magnetic focus. 

When he reached me, he didn’t hesitate; his large, warm hands cupped my face.

The instant his skin touched mine, a jolt of pure electricity surged through me, vibrating down to my bones. 

This was the spark from the stories, only a thousand times stronger. 

My skin tingled everywhere he touched, and for one suspended heartbeat, the world ceased to exist.

There was only him.

“Mate,” he breathed, his voice a low, gravelly rumble that wrapped around my soul.

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the clearing.

I saw my father frozen in place, his expression warping from confusion into pure horror.

Beside him, the High Alpha stared at me as though I were a venomous snake slithering at his feet.

My father stepped forward, eyes darting between me and Ryker, his face twisted with shame and fury. 

He turned to the High Alpha, his voice trembling as he spat the words like poison.

“It seems… my daughter has been mated to your son.”

I stood there, my heart hammering beneath Ryker’s palms, a single dazed thought echoing through my mind.

What? Am I going to be the next Luna?

Not just a Luna… the High Luna.