Aric’s POV
Zeva moved through the Northern Packhouse like a shadow unsure of where she was allowed to exist. I watched her from the upper landing, unseen, arms folded behind my back as she followed Roxie down the main hall.
Her steps were soft. Careful.
Too careful.
Her shoulders tense, chin lifted only halfway—enough to show pride, but not enough to be considered a challenge. A fragile balance. A quiet rebellion. It annoyed me more than I cared to admit.
Garrick stopped beside me, leaning one shoulder against the rail. “She looks like she’s freezing in there.”
“She’ll adjust,” I said flatly.
“She’s not a soldier, Aric.”
“She will adapt or she won’t,” I responded. “Either way, she fulfills her purpose.”
Garrick exhaled sharply through his nose, his patience thinning. “Purpose,” he repeated. “Is that all she is to you?”
“That’s all she was sent here to be.”
He turned, studying my face. “You keep saying you don’t want a mate. Yet you act like you’re afraid of her.”
My jaw snapped tight. “I don’t fear her.”
Garrick raised a brow. “Then why are you so determined to break her spirit?”
“Because weakness from me,” I said, voice low and hard, “is an invitation for the East, the South, and every rogue clan in the region to strike. I take a Luna? They expect softness. I take a mate? They expect diplomacy. I cannot afford either.”
“So you’re punishing her for what she represents,” Garrick murmured.
“I’m controlling the threat before it grows teeth.”
Garrick’s silence was the kind that carried judgment. But he didn’t push further. He never pushed too far.
Below us, Zeva paused, steadying herself on the railing as if the cold or the weight of this place pressed on her bones.
The mate bond twitched—barely a spark, the faintest pull.
I crushed it instantly.
I had no intention of letting instincts dictate anything in my territory.
Later that night, I summoned her.
Not out of desire.
Not out of curiosity.
But because I needed to see what she was made of.
Roxie knocked before entering my office. “She’s here.”
“Send her in.”
Zeva stepped inside, posture stiff, hands clasped behind her back. She didn’t look at the floor, though. She met my gaze—wary, proud, hurting.
Good. Let her hurt.
Pain made people compliant.
Her voice was quiet but controlled. “You called for me, Alpha.”
I walked around her slowly, evaluating the tension in her shoulders, the tremor in her breathing, the heat of her humiliation still clinging to her from earlier.
“How are you adjusting?” I asked, tone empty of concern.
She swallowed. “I am managing.”
“Managing,” I echoed with a faint scoff. “You won’t last unless you learn discipline.”
“I follow the rules,” she replied.
“You follow them out of fear,” I corrected. “Fear fades. I need obedience.”
Her lips tightened. A spark. A challenge. However small.
I stepped closer. “What was that look?”
“No look,” she said. “Just… thought.”
“I didn’t ask you to think.”
Her breath hitched, but she didn’t lower her eyes. “With respect, Alpha, you cannot expect me to turn off my mind.”
“I expect you,” I said, voice slicing through her composure, “to do as you’re told. Without resistance. Without question.”
“And if the things I’m told strip me of dignity?” she asked quietly.
I stopped.
Because that was bold. Unwise. Unexpected.
“You misunderstand,” I said calmly. “Dignity is a luxury. One you forfeited the moment your Alpha traded you.”
Pain shot through her aura—sharp, sudden, easy to feel because of the damn bond. I shoved it out violently.
“Do not speak to me of dignity,” I continued. “You are here for one purpose.”
“For heirs,” she whispered, bitterness cracking the words.
“Yes.” I stepped even closer, forcing her to tilt her head back. “You exist here for my bloodline. Nothing else.”
Her eyes glimmered—not with tears, but with fury she dared to hide.
Good. Fury made people predictable.
“I understand,” she said tightly.
“No,” I corrected again. “You will.”
Roxie announced our entrance as the heavy doors opened. The elders and warriors rose automatically, everyone except Garrick, who watched me with an expression that bordered on disapproval.
I ignored him.
Zeva stepped inside behind me, small against the tall pillars and harsh torchlight. The room buzzed with whispers. Some were curious. Most cold.
I turned to her.
“Kneel.”
Her body froze.
Not out of confusion, out of disbelief.
“Alpha—” she began.
“Now,” I commanded.
The dominance in my voice cracked through the air like a whip. She sank to her knees, palms pressing onto the cold stone floor.
The council fell silent.
I faced them, letting my words cut through the hall.
“This woman is not our Luna.”
Gasps. Quiet murmurs.
“She was traded to us as a breeding vessel, nothing more. She holds no authority. No influence. No position in this pack.”
Every word was designed to sever the idea—the fantasy—that she might ascend beside me. To erase the mate bond’s claim before it took root.
Zeva didn’t cry.
That surprised me.
Her pain radiated through the bond, raw, suffocating, but she held her spine straight even from the floor. Pride shaking, but not collapsing.
It irritated me.
It impressed me.
I despised both reactions.
Garrick stepped forward, voice low. “Aric… she doesn’t need to be humiliated like this.”
“This is not humiliation,” I replied coolly. “This is clarity.”
He shot me a look that said You’re lying to yourself, but I turned away before he could say more.
I addressed the hall once more. “If any member of this pack acknowledges her as anything beyond her assigned role, they will answer to me directly.”
Silence swallowed the room whole.
I looked down at her—not as a mate, not as a woman—but as a tool I needed to fit into place.
“You may rise,” I said.
She stood slowly, hands shaking, expression blank—the blankness of someone trying desperately not to feel.
The bond yanked painfully at my chest.
I crushed it.
I stepped away from her as if she were poison. “You may go. Alone.”
Her throat bobbed, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t even glance at the warriors staring at her with a mixture of pity and disdain. She simply turned and walked out with the ghost of her pride dragging behind her.
The doors shut.
The hall exhaled.
And the bond pulsed again, sharp, accusing, wounded.
I shut it out brutally until the sensation quieted to nothing.
I would not feel. I would not bend. I would not break for a girl traded like a commodity. Mate or not—Zeva would not change me.
I left her in the corridor, surrounded by stares and silence, without a backward glance.
Because if I looked back, even for a second, something inside me might begin to crack.
And I would not allow that.
