Chapter 1 Help

Elinor POV

The air outside Doctor Elara's office always smelled the same-antiseptic paste, dried sage, and the metallic tang of disappointment. I clutched the paper bag containing yet another blend of "fertility herbs" to my chest, the crinkling sound echoing loudly in the silent corridor of the Silver Moon Pack's medical wing.

Seven years. For seven years, since the day my father betrothed me to Alpha Adrian Sharpe of the Black Creek Pack, I had tried to fulfill my only purpose: to provide an heir that would cement the merger of our two packs. But my womb remained as silent as my soul. I was *wolfless*-a defect, an Omega without an inner wolf to guide me or heal me.

"Poor thing," a hushed voice drifted from around the corner. I froze, pressing myself against the dark wood paneling. It was two of the cleaning staff.

"She still thinks the herbs will work?" the second voice scoffed, low and cruel. "Alpha Adrian has the patience of a saint, pretending to care. Everyone knows he'd never let a wolfless runt carry his pup. It would weaken the bloodline."

"I heard he was with Ariel again last night," the first one whispered. "That's who his wolf truly wants. Not the Ramsey girl."

Ariel.

The name struck me harder than a physical blow. The bag in my hands trembled. Adrian had always been kind, always telling me that my lack of a wolf didn't matter, that we would build a family regardless. Was it all a lie? A political performance to keep my father's loyalists in check until the merger was absolute?

By the time I returned to the Alpha's Wing that evening, the doubt had festered into a poisonous resolve.

The bedroom was bathed in the golden light of early summer, but I felt cold. On the mahogany table sat my nightly bowl of "tonic"-a dark, bitter sludge Adrian insisted I drink for my health. He had just left for his study to handle a pack dispute via Mind-Link, leaving his leather briefcase on the velvet sofa. He never let me touch it.

Trust is the foundation of a pack, he would say. But trust had shattered in that corridor today.

My hands shook as I undid the brass buckles. The leather creaked, a sound like a warning.

The first thing that hit me was a scent that wasn't mine. It was cloying and sweet, like sugared jasmine-a female wolf's scent. It clung to the lining of the bag. My stomach churned.

Digging deeper, my fingers brushed against cold glass. I pulled out a small, unlabeled vial filled with a viscous, dark liquid. I uncorked it and sniffed.

My heart stopped.

It smelled of earth, ash, and a distinct, acrid bitterness. It was the exact same smell that wafted from the bowl of tonic sitting on the table behind me.

This wasn't a fertility aid. I had spent enough time in the library to recognize the scent of concentrated Wolfsbane and suppressants. He wasn't trying to help me conceive. He was poisoning me. He was keeping me weak, keeping me wolfless.

A photograph slid out from a hidden pocket in the bag. It fluttered to the floor, landing face up. It was old, the edges frayed, but the image was clear: a younger Adrian, his arms wrapped possessively around a stunning female with wild curls. Ariel. They looked at each other with a hunger that devoured the world around them.

"What do you think you are doing?"

The voice was a thunderclap. I spun around. Adrian stood in the doorway, his phone in hand, his eyes darkening from hazel to the pitch black of his wolf.

The air in the room instantly grew heavy, crushing the breath from my lungs. It was the *Alpha's Command*-a force of nature that forced submission. As a wolfless Omega, I had no defense against it. My knees buckled, hitting the bear-skin rug with a thud.

"You..." I gasped, holding up the vial with a trembling hand. Tears blurred my vision, hot and stinging. "You've been poisoning me. All this time... the tonic... you made me this way."

Adrian didn't deny it. He didn't rush to explain. He stalked toward me, his presence suffocating. "You were never meant to look in there, Elinor."

"Why?" I screamed, the sound tearing at my throat. "Seven years, Adrian! You let me believe I was broken! You let me believe I was failing you!"

"You are broken," he snarled, his mask of the doting fiancé finally slipping to reveal the cold calculator beneath. "A wolfless Luna is a liability. I did what was necessary for the Pack."

The betrayal was a physical agony, sharper than any blade. He didn't love me. He didn't even respect me. I was just an obstacle he was managing until he could replace me with her. With Ariel.

A sudden, searing pain ripped through my abdomen-a reaction to the stress and the accumulated toxins in my blood. I clutched my stomach, curling into a ball as the room began to spin violently.

"Elinor?" Adrian's voice shifted. The oppressive weight of his Command lifted slightly.

Through the encroaching darkness, I saw his face. His eyes were wide, his expression twisting into something that looked like panic. But it wasn't love. It was the fear of a man whose carefully constructed plans were collapsing.

"Help..." I whispered, but the word died on my lips.

The last thing I saw before the blackness swallowed me was Adrian reaching out, not to hold me, but to grab the vial from my hand. Then, the world went silent.