Chapter 3

ELARA’S POV

The entire sacred ground went still again.

Kaelen’s eyes narrowed slowly as if he could not believe I had actually spoken against him. Against an Alpha. Against the future ruler of Silvercrest.

My chest heaved painfully while I pushed myself shakily to my feet.

Every part of my body still hurt from the rejection bond snapping apart, but fear had finally burned through enough of the pain for desperation to take over.

“I won’t go,” I whispered. Kaelen’s expression darkened immediately.

“What did you say?”

My pulse pounded violently beneath my skin, but this time I forced myself not to lower my eyes. “I said I won’t go,” I repeated, my voice trembling harder now. “Please… anything else.”

Murmurs spread through the crowd instantly. Shock. Disbelief. Disapproval. An omega refusing an Alpha publicly was already dangerous enough.

Refusing the future Alpha? That was practically suicidal.

Kaelen stepped toward me slowly, and the pressure of his Alpha aura slammed heavily into the clearing.

My weak wolf shrank instinctively inside me. “Are you refusing an order from your Alpha?” he asked quietly.

The softness in his voice terrified me more than shouting would have. My throat tightened painfully.

“Yes.”

Gasps erupted around us. Someone cursed under their breath. Another wolf muttered that I had officially lost my mind.

But I barely heard any of them anymore because panic had fully swallowed me whole.

“I’ll leave Silvercrest,” I said quickly before Kaelen could speak again. “I’ll go anywhere else. I’ll disappear if you want me to. I’ll accept banishment, punishment, anything—”

My voice cracked. “Please don’t send me there.”

For one horrible second, something flickered across Kaelen’s face. It was not pity but guilt. Then it vanished so quickly I wondered if I imagined it.

“You don’t get to negotiate this,” he said coldly.

My stomach dropped. “I’m not a trade agreement,” I whispered.

“No,” he replied flatly. “You’re an omega.”

The words hit exactly the way he intended them to. Around us, nobody protested. Nobody defended me.

Because in Silvercrest, omegas were useful when convenient and disposable when they were not. And I had stopped being convenient the moment the Moon Goddess marked me.

A soft sigh suddenly sounded beside me. “Elara…” I froze immediately. Lyra. She moved gracefully through the crowd toward me, her expression carefully arranged into something almost sympathetic.

Anyone else might have believed it. I knew better.

Her hand touched my arm gently. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be,” she murmured softly.

I stared at her in disbelief. Harder? My entire life had just been destroyed in front of the whole pack.

“You want me to go with him?” I whispered shakily.

Lyra’s expression softened further, false concern dripping from every word. “Elara… look at your life here.”

Something cold slid down my spine. “You’ve never been happy in Silvercrest anyway,” she continued quietly. “Maybe this is better.”

Better. My chest hurt so badly I could barely breathe. “You’re my sister,” I said weakly. Something flickered in her eyes then.

Annoyance. Not love, not guilt and not hesitation. Just pure irritation that I was still speaking. Lyra leaned closer. “You should be grateful Kaelen found a use for you at all.”

The world inside me cracked completely. Not because of Kaelen. Not even because of the rejection. Because suddenly, painfully, terribly, I understood the truth.

Lyra had never loved me. Not once.Every humiliation. Every cruel little comment. Every invitation she had designed to embarrass me.

She had enjoyed all of it.

I stepped backward slowly, staring at her like I was seeing her clearly for the first time in my life. And maybe I was.

Something in my expression must have changed because Lyra’s smile faltered briefly. Then fear took over me completely. I turned and ran.

Gasps erupted behind me immediately. “Elara!” I barely heard who shouted. My legs moved desperately across the sacred grounds while panic clawed violently through my chest.

I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t let them hand me over like an offering to some monster waiting beyond the mountains.

Tears blurred my vision as branches scraped against my skin once I reached the edge of the forest.

My breathing came in ragged gasps. Run. Run faster. But I had always been weak. And strong wolves caught weak things easily.

Heavy footsteps thundered behind me. Then arms grabbed me violently. I screamed immediately, thrashing against the guards holding me.

“No—let me go!” One of them tightened his grip painfully around my wrists.

“Stop fighting.”

“I said let me go!” My wolf panicked wildly beneath my skin while tears streamed uncontrollably down my face now.

I hated this. I hated all of them. The guards dragged me back toward the sacred grounds while wolves stared openly.

Some looked uncomfortable. Most looked relieved it wasn’t happening to them instead. Kaelen watched my struggle with a hard unreadable expression.

“Lock her in the east tower,” he ordered coldly. Then he turned away. Like I was already gone. That hurt more than anything else.

The room they locked me in smelled like dust and old stone. I curled against the corner of the small bed once the door slammed shut behind me.

Then finally, I broke. The sob tore out of my chest so violently it physically hurt. I buried my face into my shaking hands while everything inside me collapsed completely.

All my life, I had endured. Because somewhere deep down, some stupid childish part of me believed eventually someone would love me anyway.

That maybe the Moon Goddess would give me one thing that belonged only to me. A mate.

Someone who looked at me and saw worth.

Instead, even fate itself had rejected me. I laughed bitterly through tears. Of course. Of course this would happen to me.

Outside the small window, night slowly swallowed Silvercrest whole. And alone inside the tower room, I realized something quietly devastating.

Nobody was coming for me.

Not my parents. Not my sister. Not even the man the Goddess herself had chosen for me. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself.

If death truly waited for me inside Bloodreaver Fortress, maybe I should stop fighting it.

The next morning came too quickly. No one spoke much while preparing me for departure. Servants brushed my hair roughly. They pinned dark fabric over my body and avoided my eyes completely.

I stayed silent through all of it. What was the point anymore? Outside the estate, a black carriage waited beneath the gray morning sky. I searched the crowd once while the guards escorted me forward.

No one was there. The realization should have hurt. Instead, I just felt numb. Whispers followed me anyway.

“She won’t survive the month.”

“I heard Bloodreaver skins enemies alive.”

“Poor thing.”

Poor thing.

I climbed into the carriage without resistance. The door slammed shut behind me. Then Silvercrest disappeared slowly behind dark forest roads while silence filled the space around me.

I rested my head against the carriage wall and closed my eyes. Maybe they were right. Maybe this was simply where unwanted things ended up.

Hours passed before the carriage finally slowed.

The air itself felt different here. Colder. Heavier. I lifted my head slowly as massive black gates appeared through the carriage window.

Bloodreaver Fortress loomed beyond them like something torn out of a nightmare. Dark stone walls stretched toward the sky.

It was like no warmth touched the place at all. Fear curled violently inside my stomach. This was it. The carriage stopped completely.

For one horrible moment, I couldn’t move. Then the carriage door creaked open slowly. A large hand appeared first. Scarred knuckles. Long fingers. Dangerous strength.

And then a deep rough voice rumbled from outside.

“Are you my little wolf?”