Chapter 1

Elara pov

​The Blackwood Estate didn't just loom; it exhaled.

​It was a fortress of glass and ancient stone, perched on a cliff that overlooked the churning grey Atlantic. Tonight, the air was thick with the scent of ozone and the heavy, intoxicating pheromones of several hundred high-ranking Lycans. It was the night of the Blood Moon—the night every unmated wolf lived for.

​I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in my small room, my hands trembling as I smoothed the white silk of my dress. It was a simple thing, bought with three months of waitressing tips, but tonight, I hoped it was enough.

​"You look like a lamb playing dress-up, Elara."

​I flinched as my stepmother, Sarah, leaned against the doorframe. She was a Beta-born, sharp-featured and radiating a scent of bitter citrus. She didn't look at me with pride; she looked at me like a stain on the pack's reputation.

​"Julian asked for me to be there tonight," I whispered, pinning a small, silver wolf-brooch to my chest. It was a gift from him, ten years ago.

​Sarah let out a harsh, dry laugh. "Julian is the Alpha of a multi-billion dollar tech syndicate now. He has the Silver-Vane merger to think about. If I were you, I’d stay in this room. The Blood Moon doesn't favor Omegas who can’t even growl."

​I didn't answer. I couldn't. The truth was, she was right. I was twenty-one, and my wolf was silent. No shift, no scent, nothing but a dull ache in my chest where a spirit was supposed to be. But Julian… Julian had always been my anchor. He’d promised me, under the old oak tree when we were kids, that it didn't matter.

​“You’re my mate, Elara. Scent or no scent.”

​I held onto those words like a lifeline as I walked down the grand staircase.

​The ballroom was a sea of power. Men in five-thousand-dollar suits with eyes that glowed amber in the dim light; women in diamonds who could tear a throat out without smearing their lipstick. At the center of the vortex stood Julian Blackwood.

​He was breathtaking. His dark hair was perfectly styled, his presence so dominant it felt like the oxygen in the room belonged to him. Beside him stood Isabella Silver-Vane. She was a True-Blood—gorgeous, lethal, and currently whispering something into Julian’s ear that made him smirk.

​My heart did a painful somersault. I made my way through the crowd, the wolves parting for me not out of respect, but out of a mocking sort of pity.

​"Julian?" I said, my voice barely audible over the cello music.

​He froze. I felt the bond—that thin, golden thread connecting our souls—thrum with a sudden, violent energy. He turned slowly. For a heartbeat, I saw the boy who used to hide chocolates in my pockets. His blue eyes softened, his nostrils flaring as he searched for my scent.

​But then, his gaze shifted to the High-Alpha Silver-Vane standing behind him. He saw the reporters. He saw the board members of Blackwood Global.

​The warmth in his eyes died, replaced by a wall of icy blue glass.

​"Elara," he said. His voice wasn't a caress. It was a dismissal. "You shouldn't be here."

​"The moon is at its peak, Julian," I said, my voice trembling. "The bond… it’s opening. Can’t you feel it?"

​The room went deathly silent. Isabella stepped forward, her hand sliding possessively around Julian’s arm. Her scent—heavy jasmine and raw power—hit me like a wave of nausea.

​"The bond?" Isabella laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "Sweetheart, Julian is an Alpha. He needs a Luna who can hold a territory, not a human girl who needs a map to find the kitchen."

​"Julian, please," I whispered, reaching for his hand.

​He pulled away as if my touch were acid.

​"Enough," Julian growled. The sound was a physical weight, a psychic blow that forced my head down. "The Blackwood Pack is moving into a new era. We are merging with the Silver-Vane Group to secure our future. A future that requires strength, lineage, and power."

​He stepped closer, leaning down so only I could hear the coldness in his soul. "I knew this day would come, Elara. I hoped you’d be smart enough to leave on your own. But since you won't..."

​He turned to the crowd, his voice booming with the authority that made every wolf in the room bow their heads.

​"I, Julian Blackwood, Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, find Elara Vance unworthy. I reject the fated bond. I reject you as my mate. I reject you as my Luna."

​CRACK.

​It was the sound of my life ending.

​The bond didn't just snap; it shattered into a million jagged shards of ice that tore through my veins. I gasped, my lungs seizing as I collapsed onto the marble floor. It felt like my heart was being physically extracted from my chest without anesthesia.

​I looked up through a blur of tears. Julian wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Isabella.

​"Julian… why?" I choked out, blood trickling from my nose—the physical manifestation of a broken soul-bond.

​"You are a glitch in the system, Elara," he said, looking down at me with a detached cruelty that was worse than anger. "And I’ve just cleared the cache. Guards, remove her. She is no longer of this pack. She is a rogue. If she’s found on Blackwood land after sunrise, she is to be hunted."

​The Enforcers grabbed my arms. I didn't fight. I couldn't. I was dragged across the floor, past the sneering faces of people I had known my entire life.

​As they threw me out into the pouring rain, onto the gravel driveway, I heard the music start up again. The celebration of my death had already begun.

​I lay in the mud, the rain washing the blood from my face. The pain in my chest was so intense I wanted to die. I prayed for the darkness to take me.

​But then, deep in the hollow space where the bond used to be, something happened. It wasn't a wolf’s growl. It was a hum. A high-frequency vibration that started in my marrow and radiated outward.

​I looked at my hands. The silver wolf-brooch Julian had given me was crushed in my palm, the pin drawing blood.

​I didn't feel weak anymore. The pain was still there, but it was being wrapped in something new. Something cold. Something binary.

​You want strength, Julian? I thought, my fingers curling into the wet earth. You want a merger?

​I stood up, my legs steady despite the agony. I didn't look back at the lights of the estate. I looked toward the city, where the lights of the human world hummed with a different kind of power.

​"I'm not a glitch," I whispered into the storm. "I'm the virus that's going to delete everything you love."

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