Elara Blackwood POV:
Miles Grant stood frozen in the doorway, his authority rendered useless against the shield of my insanity. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, utterly at a loss. Finally, he did the only thing he could: he reached for his Alpha.
A split second later, a force like a physical blow slammed into my mind. It was Ryker. His mind-link was no longer a lover's whisper; it was the roar of a king, filled with ice and fire.
*Elara. What is the meaning of this?*
The voice of Stellan Maris went silent, retreating into the shadows of my consciousness. It was content to watch, to see how the Alpha would handle his broken toy.
I let out a soft, whimpering sound in my mind, projecting the image of a lost, frightened child. *Ryker? Is that you? Oh, Ryker, I've missed you so much. They've locked me in. They won't let me see you.* I completely ignored the moonstone, the auction, the entire point of his rage.
*Do not play games with me!* His anger flared, so hot it felt like it was scorching my synapses. *The auction. Take it down. NOW. You are embarrassing this pack. You are embarrassing me!*
In that last command, he infused his voice with the barest trace of his Alpha's Command, the innate power that forces lesser wolves to obey.
Nyx cried out, a primal instinct to submit warring with my own will. I fought it. I poured every ounce of my soul's strength into a single point of resistance, refusing to bend.
The effort was immense. My body began to tremble uncontrollably, a fine sheen of cold sweat breaking out on my forehead. To Miles, watching from the doorway, it must have looked as though the Alpha's mere anger was causing me to have a seizure.
*You're angry with me,* I whimpered down the link, my thoughts laced with pain and confusion. *Why? What did I do wrong? I just wanted to see you... They said... they said there was someone else...*
I had him. I had turned his own accusation back on him, wrapping myself in the unimpeachable cloak of the victim. What could he say? He *had* betrayed me. My madness was, by all appearances, a monster of his own making.
He was momentarily speechless, his fury checked by a sudden, inconvenient wave of guilt. Before he could recover, I heard the chime of Miles's communicator. He answered it, and the color drained from his face. He immediately opened a frantic, secondary link to Ryker.
*Alpha, it's an urgent message from the border patrol. Rowan Blackwood has just crossed into our territory. He's back.*
I felt the shift in Ryker's mind as clearly as if he'd shouted it. His anger at me was instantly eclipsed by a surge of alarm and pure, undiluted animosity for another. Rowan. His cousin. His bitterest rival for the Alpha seat, long thought to be exiled for good.
This was my chance. An internal crisis—a mad, embarrassing Luna. An external threat—a power-hungry, popular challenger. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.
My strategy was simple: be the rock. Be the most inconvenient, unpredictable, and sanity-draining problem he had, so that he would have no mental energy left to look for the truth behind the madness.
Ryker's mental voice returned, the hot rage cooled into a deadly, arctic calm. *I don't care what you have to do. I don't want to hear another word about you, or from you, until I have dealt with Rowan. Stay in your room. Be quiet. If you cause one more scandal, Elara, I swear by the Goddess, you will learn there are things far more painful than a broken bond.*
The threat was a gift. It was proof, for any listening ears, of his cruelty and my tragic state. Then, the link was severed. His presence vanished from my mind, leaving a deafening silence.
The strength fled my body. Resisting an Alpha's Command, even a weak one, had shredded my nerves. I collapsed onto the sofa, gasping for air.
Miles stared at me, his expression a tangled mess of duty, disgust, and a sliver of pity. He opened his mouth to order me to cancel the auction again, but I just looked at him with wide, vacant eyes.
"He's going to hurt me," I whispered to the empty air. "He promised to make it more painful..."
Miles let out a frustrated sigh. He knew it was hopeless. His Alpha's orders were to keep me quiet until the Rowan situation was handled. That meant, for now, I had won. I had bought myself time.
"Do as you will, Luna," he said, his voice flat with defeat. He turned and left, the guards following him, their footsteps hurrying toward a more pressing threat.
The room was silent once more. My eyes, no longer vacant, sharpened with crystalline clarity.
Rowan Blackwood. In the future I remembered, he was a key player. A pawn, destined to fail. But in this new game, on this new board... perhaps he could be a knight. Or even a king.
"Rowan Blackwood. I repeated the name in my mind, a slow, predatory smile finally touching my lips. 'Welcome home, cousin. I do hope you'll enjoy the welcome party I've arranged.'"
