Elara Thorne POV:
The bathroom was larger than the entire cabin my brother and I called home. Marble tiles, a glass-walled shower, a tub deep enough to drown in. I stared at my reflection in the vast, gold-framed mirror. A stranger stared back—a gaunt, wild-eyed creature with mud in her hair and desperation etched into every line of her face. It was absurd.
I turned the silver knob in the shower, and a moment later, steaming hot water cascaded from the showerhead. I stepped under the spray, a low sigh of pleasure escaping my lips. It had been years since I'd felt such a luxury. Since our pack was destroyed, a hot bath was a forgotten dream. The simple comfort felt so alien, so undeserved, it was almost painful.
As the water washed away the grime, a faint, silvery scar on my forearm became visible. I traced it with my finger. A rogue had given me that wound three years ago, when I’d thrown myself in front of Ethan to protect him.
The scar pulled me back, tumbling through time. I was thirteen again, small and awkward at my first cross-pack Full Moon Run. I’d been struggling to keep up, my young wolf clumsy in her own paws. A hulking, bad-tempered warrior from another pack had been about to barrel right over me.
Suddenly, a flash of black fur had intercepted him. A younger, leaner Ryker, only eighteen himself, had placed his powerful form between us, letting out a low, authoritative growl that sent the other wolf slinking away with its tail between its legs.
Later, under the silver light of the moon, he’d shifted back. He didn’t say a word, just draped his own jacket over my shivering human shoulders. The moment his scent—that intoxicating mix of pine and frost—had enveloped me, my own wolf had awakened for the first time, screaming a single, possessive word in my mind. *Mine!*
I knew then. He was my fated mate. But I had also seen the look in his father’s eyes—the reigning Alpha King—as he glanced at me, the heir to a small, insignificant pack. I heard the snickers from the other high-born wolves. The chasm between us was too wide to cross. So I had buried that love, that fierce, primal connection, deep in my heart where no one could see it.
The hiss of the shower brought me back to the present. I turned off the water and wrapped myself in a towel so soft it felt like a cloud. In a small adjoining closet, a single garment hung waiting for me: a slip of a nightgown made of black silk. It was beautiful, expensive, and clearly meant for seduction.
Slipping it on, the cool, smooth fabric felt like a costume, a lie against my skin. I walked out of the bathroom into the bedroom. A massive king-sized bed dominated the space, the pristine white sheets turned down invitingly. It looked less like a bed and more like an altar, prepared for a sacrifice.
*He will take us, but he will not see us,* Lyra whimpered, her pain a sharp echo of my own. We were about to give our body to our mate in a loveless, transactional coupling.
*It's for Ethan,* I reminded her, my voice in my head firm, betraying none of the heartbreak I felt. *And it’s to end this. After tonight, he and I are finished. We will be even.*
I walked to the window. The rain had stopped, leaving the forest outside looking clean and freshly washed. A new scent began to permeate the air, growing stronger by the second. Pine and frost. He was coming.
My heart hammered against my ribs. My palms grew slick with sweat. *It’s just a deal. It’s just a deal,* I chanted to myself, a desperate mantra.
The bedroom door opened without a sound. Ryker stepped inside. He’d changed into a simple black t-shirt and dark lounge pants. The casual clothes did nothing to soften his powerful frame; if anything, they made him seem more dangerous, more predatorily male.
His gaze landed on me, and for a fraction of a second, his stoic mask slipped. His breathing hitched, his grey eyes darkening to the color of a stormy sea. The clean scent of my body, mixed with the faint floral notes of the soap and my own unique, earthy fragrance, was clearly affecting him.
I saw the struggle in the tense line of his jaw. His inner wolf was roaring, demanding he claim me, possess me, mark me as his. But the Alpha King fought it back.
He walked to the bed and sat on the edge, the mattress dipping under his weight. He patted the space beside him, his voice a low command that allowed no argument. "Come here."
It was an Alpha's Command. My body, my very wolf essence, screamed to obey. I took a deep breath, pushing down the tidal wave of eight years of secret love and longing. I walked toward him. Each step felt like I was walking to my own execution. This was it. The grand, tragic ceremony to sacrifice the last vestiges of my girlhood dreams.
I sat stiffly on the edge of the bed, my muscles rigid, my eyes fixed on my hands clasped in my lap. I couldn't look at him.
A warm hand cupped my jaw, gentler this time, tilting my face up. He leaned in, his own face just inches from mine, his warm breath ghosting across my lips.
"Don't disappoint me."
