Chapter 1

My Coming of Age ceremony was supposed to be a coronation. Instead, it was a funeral for my heart.

I stood shivering as Catalina, the woman trying to steal my place, pushed me into the stone pool. My heavy silk dress pulled me down like an anchor. I waited for Jax, the Alpha Heir and my Fated Mate, to save me. He did dive in-but not for me.

He scooped up Catalina, who was standing in waist-deep water, treating her like a porcelain doll while I choked on the water.

His voice exploded in my head, not with concern, but with disgust.

"Stop embarrassing me, Eliana. You look pathetic."

Things only got worse. When I confronted them later, Catalina shoved me down the grand staircase. My knee-my dancer's knee-snapped with a sickening sound. Jax didn't call a doctor. He used the Alpha Command to force me to drag my broken body out of the room so I wouldn't "upset" his mistress.

I thought he was just blinded by love, until I overheard him laughing with his Beta. He admitted he didn't love Catalina. He was just using her to break my spirit, to "tame" me into a submissive pet before finally marking me.

He thought I was weak. He thought I would stay in the mud forever.

He was wrong.

I took a silver knife and scraped our carved initials off the Sacred Oak until my skin sizzled. I packed my bags for New York, severing the pack link that bound us.

"Sleep well, Jax. Because when I come back, I won't be the girl you broke. I will be the nightmare you created."

Chapter 1

Eliana POV:

The Coming of Age ceremony was supposed to be a coronation. For me, it was a funeral.

I stood on the periphery of the stone basin, gripping a plastic cup of lukewarm punch until it cracked. My dress, a repurposed silk number from a cousin who married down, felt tight across the ribs.

"You look like a stray dog wrapped in silk, Eliana."

Catalina Manning. Of course.

She stood before me, flanked by two other she-wolves who giggled at her cruelty. Catalina was beautiful in the way a poisonous flower is beautiful. She wasn't high-born, but she had clawed her way up the social ladder using her body and her ambition.

"Leave me alone, Catalina," I whispered, stepping back.

"Or what?" she sneered. "You'll cry to your daddy? Oh wait, your father is just a glorified accountant for the Alpha. He has no teeth."

She stepped closer. Vanilla and rot-that was her scent. A cloying sweetness trying to hide the smell of ambition. She released a wave of pheromones, a challenging scent meant to provoke.

I tried to turn away, but she was faster. She didn't just shove me; she checked me with her shoulder, hard.

My heels skidded on the wet limestone.

Splash.

The water was a shock to the system, filling my nose before I could even gasp. I thrashed, my heavy dress pulling me down like an anchor. Panic flared in my chest. Not because I couldn't swim, but because of the humiliation.

Through the churning surface, I saw a shadow dive in.

My heart leaped. Jax.

Jax Little, the Alpha Heir. The man whose scent of storm and pine had haunted my dreams since I turned eighteen. My fated mate.

He hadn't marked me yet. He said I wasn't "ready," that I needed to learn how to be a proper Luna first. But surely, he would save me.

I reached out, my hand breaking the surface.

But strong arms didn't grab me.

Instead, I watched through the splashing water as Jax grabbed Catalina, who was standing in waist-deep water, barely wet.

He lifted her out of the water with the tenderness one would show a porcelain doll.

Stop embarrassing me, Eliana.

The voice exploded in my head. The Mind-Link. It tasted like iron.

I froze, treading water, gasping for air as I wiped the hair from my eyes.

Jax stood on the edge of the pool. He was magnificent and cruel, his dark hair perfectly styled, his jaw set in a line of irritation. He wasn't looking at me with concern. He was looking at me with disgust.

Get out of the water. You look pathetic, he linked again.

I dragged myself to the stone rim, shivering violently. My dress clung to my body, exposing everything, heavy and ruined.

"Oh, my poor ankle!" Catalina wailed, clinging to Jax's bicep. She wasn't hurt. I knew it. He knew it.

Jax took off his suit jacket. It was a custom piece, worth more than my father's car. He draped it over Catalina's shoulders.

The scent of him-his Alpha pheromones-wafted over to me. It felt like a physical slap.

Giving a female your jacket is a primal signal in our world. It means protection. It means claim.

The pack watched in silence. They knew I was his mate. They could smell the bond between us. But they also knew the hierarchy. Power respects power.

I stood up, water pooling around my feet. My teeth chattered.

The silver thread connecting our souls vibrated, snapping tight against my ribs. My inner wolf, usually quiet and dormant, let out a low, mournful whimper.

Jax turned his back on me, guiding Catalina toward the warmth of the Pack House.

I shut my eyes. I reached into the mental space of the Mind-Link and found the channel that connected me to Jax.

I slammed the door. Hard.

It was a small rebellion, but it was all I had.

I turned and ran toward the shadows, away from the lights, away from the laughter. I didn't go to my room. I went to the old servant quarters behind the kitchens.

I pulled out a burner phone I had hidden under a loose floorboard. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely dial.

"Hello?" A raspy voice answered.

"Elder Sal," I choked out. "It's Eliana. You owe my mother a blood debt."

Silence stretched on the line. Blood debts are sacred. They bind a wolf's honor to their very life force.

"I remember, child," the old wolf replied.

"I need a transfer," I said, my voice hardening. "Get me out of the Iron Claw territory. Get me into the Empire Moon Academy in New York."

"That is... difficult. The Alpha Heir will not like it."

"The Alpha Heir doesn't care if I live or die," I said, looking down at my shivering, soaked body. "Do it, Sal. Or the debt is forfeit."

"Done," he whispered. "Pack your bags."

I hung up. The chill in my bones had nothing to do with the water.