Elara POV
The morning sun reflected off the large wooden board in the center of the village square.
The parchment nailed to the wood displayed the final scores of the warrior trials.
I stood at the back of the crowd, my eyes scanning the black ink until I found my name.
In the categories of herbology and tracking theory, I had achieved the highest honors, tying perfectly with Kaelen. My scores in the physical trials were barely passing—I had pushed my body far past its limits, collapsing twice during the endurance run—but the knowledge-based marks were enough to pull my overall ranking into the top tier.
A tiny spark of warmth flared in my chest, a quiet pride in the skills I had bled to learn in the dangerous Black Forest.
I turned and ran back to our stone cottage, pushing the door open with a rare smile on my face.
My parents and Thorne were sitting at the table, already looking at a copy of the results.
Their faces were not filled with joy or pride.
Instead, my father stood up, his face twisted in anger, and slammed his fist onto the wooden table.
"From which proper warrior did you steal these hunting trophies?" he demanded.
My mother crossed her arms, her eyes cold. "Seducing a proctor to pass your tests. Disgusting."
Thorne leaned back in his chair, a nasty smirk playing on his lips.
He held out his hand. "Hand over the hallucinogenic herbs, Elara. We know you cheated."
The words struck me like physical blows, turning my quiet pride into a burning, suffocating rage.
For eighteen years, I had bowed my head, accepted their insults, and played the role of the weak, submissive Omega.
But today, something inside me fractured.
A sudden, freezing pressure radiated from my body, making the temperature in the room drop instantly.
I slammed my own hands onto the table, leaning forward until I was face-to-face with my father.
"I earned every mark with my own blood!" I screamed, the glass in the windowpanes rattling in their frames. "While you sat in this rotting house and did nothing!"
My father's jaw dropped, his eyes fixed on me with a slack look of disbelief, as if the furniture itself had suddenly sprouted a mouth and spoken against him.
I did not wait for his answer.
I spun around, kicking the wooden door open so hard it cracked against the stone wall, and ran out into the cold air.
I did not see Kaelen, who had followed me from the square, standing just beyond the cottage window. His expression, which had been one of mild curiosity about my scores, hardened into something unreadable as he overheard the entire cruel exchange.
I ran past the village boundaries, ignoring the confused stares of the pack members, and plunged deep into the shadows of the Black Forest.
I ran until my lungs burned and my legs shook, finally collapsing against the trunk of a massive, dying oak tree.
I buried my face in my knees, trying to control the strange, freezing energy that was still pulsing through my veins.
Kaelen POV
I had been tracking a wounded elk through the underbrush when I stumbled upon something that stopped me cold. A young doe lay on the forest floor, its hind leg caught in a rusted iron trap—the kind left by human poachers. Beside it, half-buried in the mud, was a leather herb pouch. Elara's herb pouch. The doe's wound had been cleaned and packed with a poultice of silver-leaf and yarrow, and the bleeding had stopped.
I recognized her handiwork. I also knew that no other wolf in the Blood Moon Pack—not even the seasoned hunters—knew how to mix a silver-leaf poultice without killing the patient.
I stood there in the silent forest, staring at the proof of a skill I had never bothered to see, and I felt something I couldn't name.
Elara POV
A few minutes later, the sound of heavy boots crushing dry leaves reached my ears.
Kaelen, having used his Alpha speed to catch up, strode into the clearing. Before following me, he had stepped inside the cottage, his very presence silencing my parents with a single, dominant glare.
He stopped a few feet away. Without a word, he released a deliberate wave of his pheromones—the scent of rain and dark earth washing over me, a biological command meant to soothe a distressed mate into submission.
My breathing slowed against my will, and I hated him for having that kind of power over my body.
"I informed your family that you possess a natural gift for tracking," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "And that if I heard them question your honor again, I would see them exiled. I have cleared your name."
I kept my eyes fixed on the dirt, offering him no thanks.
He took a step closer, his boots sinking into the soft mud.
"Which legion are you writing on your blood pact tomorrow?" he asked.
I looked up at him, my face a mask of stone. "Which are you choosing?"
Kaelen looked away, staring at the dark canopy of the trees, and lied straight to my face.
"I'm staying true to our promise. The Royal Vanguard."
I knew he had already decided to go to the Border Guard to escape me, but I did not expose his lie.
I simply nodded, keeping my voice soft and agreeable.
"Me too," I said. "So we can be together."
The tension in his shoulders eased, a subtle but unmistakable sign of his relief. He thought his deception had worked, that his problem was solved.
He turned and walked back toward the village, leaving me alone in the shadows.
I watched his broad shoulders disappear into the trees, swallowing the words of a broken engagement.
I had made my decision.
Tomorrow, during the blood pact ceremony, I would alter my contract in secret.
I would let him have his freedom at the border, while I signed my soul away to the Wintermoon Pack, the most brutal, freezing outpost in the far North.
