Eliana POV:
I didn't die.
An Omega named Ben, who cleaned the park grounds, found me. He dragged me out and pumped the water from my lungs. He smelled like compost and kindness.
I spent the night shivering in my bed, coughing up pond water. My parents wanted to burn the Alpha house down. I told them no.
"We leave with dignity," I croaked. "We leave tonight."
But there was one final obligation. The Alpha's Farewell Banquet for the graduates. My parents, as high-ranking council members, had to officially resign in person. I had to go to show I wasn't broken.
I wore a dress the color of steel. I covered the bruises with concealer. I walked into the banquet hall like a ghost.
The hall was opulent. Crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling, shimmering with a thousand lights.
Jax sat at the head table. Catalina was next to him, wearing a white dress that looked like a wedding gown. She saw me and paled. She thought I was dead.
I didn't look at them. I stood by the exit, waiting for my parents to hand over their resignation papers to Alpha Marcus, Jax's father.
Alpha Marcus looked grim. Losing my father, his best financial strategist, was a blow. Losing my mother, the pack's head archivist, was a tragedy.
"Is this because of the boy?" Alpha Marcus asked quietly.
"It is because this pack has lost its way," my father said stiffly.
Suddenly, a groan of metal echoed from above.
I looked up. The massive central chandelier, directly above the head table, was swaying. The chain was snapping.
"Jax!" Luna Maria screamed.
Time seemed to slow down.
The chain gave way. Two tons of crystal and silver-plated metal plummeted.
Silver.
To humans, silver is jewelry. To wolves, it is acid. It burns on contact, preventing healing, searing the flesh deep to the bone.
Jax looked up. He had a split second. He could have rolled away. He could have saved himself.
Instead, he threw his body over Catalina.
*CRASH.*
The sound was deafening. Shards of crystal exploded like shrapnel. Dust billowed up.
Screams erupted. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh filled the air instantly.
"My son!" Alpha Marcus roared, shifting into his massive grey wolf mid-leap.
Warriors rushed forward, heaving the twisted metal off the Alpha Heir.
Jax lay on the floor. His back was a ruin. The silver plating of the chandelier had seared into his skin, smoke rising from the blackened wounds. He was unconscious, his face twisted in agony.
Beneath him, Catalina crawled out. She was untouched. Not a scratch.
She looked at Jax's broken body, and for a second, I saw annoyance in her eyes. Her shield was damaged.
The pack medics swarmed them.
I stood perfectly still.
A week ago, I would have been the first one running to him. I would have offered my own blood to help him heal. I would have taken his pain into myself through the bond.
Now?
I felt... nothing.
It was a terrifying, beautiful emptiness.
I watched them load him onto a stretcher. I watched his mother weeping.
I turned to my parents.
"Are we done?" I asked.
My dad looked at me, then at the chaos. He nodded.
"We're done."
I walked out of the banquet hall. I didn't look back at the boy who had just sacrificed his body for a lie.
The cool night air hit my face.
I got into the car.
"Goodbye, Jax," I whispered.
And I drove away.
*
