Chapter 3 THE MORNING AFTER

Pain woke her,Katya opened her eyes to grey dawn light filtering through broken windows. Her head pounded like someone was hammering nails into her skull. Her mouth tasted like metal and something bitter she couldn't name.

Everything hurts.

She tried to sit up and gasped. Her body ached in places she'd never felt before deep, intimate places that made her freeze in confusion and growing horror.

Where was she?

The bell tower. She was still in the bell tower.

Katya pushed herself up slowly, her arms shaking. A man's coat slid off her shoulders heavy, black, smelling like pine and smoke and something else. Something masculine and familiar that made her stomach twist.

She looked down at herself.

Her silver dress was torn. The delicate fabric ripped along the side seam, hanging loose around her waist. Her stockings were gone. Her shoes were somewhere on the floor.

And there was blood.

Dark red stains on her inner thighs, dried and flaking.

Katya's breath caught in her throat. Her hands trembled as she touched the marks, confirming what her body was already telling her.

She wasn't a virgin anymore.

Her shoulder throbbed. She reached up and felt raised skin teeth marks, swollen and tender. A claiming bite.

No. No, no, no.

Fragments of memory flashed through her mind. Amber eyes. Strong hands gripping her hips. A deep voice growling her name like a prayer. The weight of a man's body covering hers. Pain that turned into something else, something overwhelming and terrifying .

She remembered begging him not to stop.

Katya pressed her hands over her face, trying to force the memories away. But they kept coming. The way he'd kissed her. The way he'd touched her like she was something precious. The way he'd whispered against her skin in a language she didn't understand but somehow felt in her bones.

And then... nothing.

She'd fallen asleep in his arms, warm and safe and complete.

Now she was alone.

Katya dropped her hands and looked around the empty tower. No note. No explanation. Just his coat and the evidence of what they'd done.

He'd left her.

Whoever he was, whatever he was to her he'd taken her virginity and disappeared like she meant nothing.

Shame burned through her chest, hot and suffocating. How could she have been so stupid? She didn't even know his name. Didn't know what pack he belonged to. Didn't know if he was married or promised to someone else.

All she knew was that he had amber eyes and he'd made her forget everything about the gala, Aleksei, her entire life for a few hours in the dark.

And now he is gone.

Katya forced herself to stand. Her legs wobbled, but she stayed upright. She couldn't fall apart. Not yet. Not here.

She found her shoes and pulled them on. The torn dress was impossible to fix, but she did her best to hold it together with one hand. She picked up the man's coat and stared at it for a long moment.

No identification. No pack insignia. Nothing.

Just the scent that made her wolf whimper in her chest.

Katya dropped the coat on the bench and turned toward the door. She couldn't take it with her. Couldn't risk anyone seeing it and asking questions.

She had to get back before anyone noticed she was missing.

The monastery grounds were quiet in the early dawn. Snow had stopped falling, leaving everything covered in a pristine white blanket. Katya's footprints from last night were already buried.

She kept to the shadows, moving as quickly as her aching body would allow. Most of the gala guests were either asleep or too drunk to notice one disheveled woman sneaking through the corridors.

Almost.

"Katerina."

Katya froze. That voice is disappointed, it was one she'd known her entire life.

She turned slowly.

Her mother stood at the end of the corridor, still dressed in her gala gown. But the elegant woman from last night was gone. Now she just looked furious.

"Where have you been?" Her mother's eyes traveled down Katya's body, taking in the torn dress, the messy hair, the marks on her skin. Her expression shifted from anger to something worse Disgust.

Katya's throat closed up. "I... I was-"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Her mother crossed the distance between them in three sharp strides. She grabbed Katya's arm, her fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. "The wedding is supposed to be today. *Today.* And you disappear all night looking like... like..."

She couldn't even say it.

"Mama, please-" Katya tried to pull away, but her mother's grip tightened.

"Your father is waiting. And Aleksei." Her mother's voice dropped to a hiss. "Pray for it yourself katya they're more understanding than I am."

She dragged Katya down the corridor, through a side door, into a small private room Katya recognized from childhood. This was where the pack elders held their meetings. Where decisions were made.

Where punishments were given.

Her father stood by the window, his back to the door. He didn't turn when they entered.

Aleksei was there too, leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed. His black suit from last night was rumpled. His hair is messy. He looked like he hadn't slept either.

But unlike Katya, he didn't look broken.

He looked *angry*.

"Sit down," her father said without turning around.

Katya's mother shoved her toward a chair. Katya sat, her legs grateful for the support. Her whole body was shaking now.

"Father, I can explain-"

"Explain what?" Now he turned. His face was carved from stone hard, cold, unforgiving. "Explain why my daughter, the future Luna of the Baranov pack, spent the night gods know where gods know what?"

"I was drugged," Katya whispered. "Someone put something in my drink. I didn't mean-"

"Didn't mean to what?" Aleksei's voice cut across hers like a knife. He pushed off the wall and stalked toward her. "Didn't mean to spread your legs for another Alpha ?"

Katya flinched like he'd hit her.

Aleksei stopped in front of her chair. His nostrils flared. His eyes, those cold steel-blue eyes she'd known since childhood, widened slightly.

He could smell it. Smell *him* on her.

"You reek of another Alpha ." Aleksei's voice shook with barely controlled rage. "I can smell him all over you. On your skin. In your hair." He leaned down, his face inches from hers. "You let someone else touch you. The night before our wedding."

"Aleksei, please-" Tears burned behind Katya's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "I didn't know what was happening. Someone drugged me, and I got lost, and-"

"I don't care." He straightened, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I don't care if you were drugged or drunk or possessed by the moon goddess herself. You're *ruined*, Katerina. Ruined."

The word hit her like a physical blow.

"I won't have a whore as my Luna," Aleksei continued, his voice cold now. Detached. "I won't bind myself to a woman who couldn't even make it to her wedding night without betraying me."

"I didn't betray you," Katya said, her voice breaking. "We're not even mated yet. We're not-"

"We're nothing now." Aleksei looked at her father. "The wedding is off. Tell the packs whatever you want. I don't care. But I won't marry her."

Katya's father said nothing. Did nothing. Just stood there with his jaw clenched and his eyes hard.

Her mother looked away.

No one defended her. No one asked what really happened. No one cared that she'd been drugged and left alone and taken advantage of by a man whose name she didn't even know.

They just cared that she'd ruined their political alliance.

"Come," Aleksei said, walking toward the door. "You'll face the pack. Tell them yourself."

Katya's stomach dropped. "No. Please-"

"Now, Katerina."

It wasn't a request.

Katya stood on shaking legs and followed him out of the room. Her mother walked behind her, a silent guard making sure she didn't run.

The main hall was still full of wolves. Some were sleeping in chairs. Others were drinking coffee and picking at leftover food. A few were dancing to music that had turned slow and tired.

They all stopped when Aleksei walked in with Katya behind him.

The whispers started immediately.

Aleksei climbed the steps to the raised platform where the pack leaders sat during ceremonies. He didn't wait for permission. Didn't ask for silence.

He just spoke.

"The wedding is off," he announced, his voice carrying across the hall. "Katerina Morozova is no longer my intended mate. Our packs will not unite."

Shocked silence. Then chaos.

Wolves stood up, talking over each other. Her father's allies looked furious. Aleksei's family looked confused. Everyone else just looked *interested* like this was the most entertaining thing to happen all night.

Someone asked, "Why? What happened?"

Aleksei didn't answer. He didn't have to.

One look at Katya's torn dress, messy hair, marked skin told them everything.

The whispers exploded into shouts.

"She was with someone else!"

"The night before her wedding!"

"Shameful!"

"Whore!"

Katya stood in the center of it all, alone, her chin trembling but held high. She wouldn't cry. Wouldn't break. Not in front of them.

Across the room, she saw Svetlana standing near the windows. Her sister's expression was unreadable, not happy, not sad. Just... blank.

Katya looked away.

Aleksei was already leaving the platform, already walking away from her like she was nothing. Her father followed him, no doubt trying to salvage what he could from this disaster.

Her mother gripped her arm again. "Come. We're leaving."

"No," Katya said quietly.

Her mother's fingers tightened. "What?"

"I said no." Katya pulled her arm free. She looked at her mother, this woman who'd raised her, taught her, prepared her for a life she no longer had and felt nothing but emptiness.

"I'm leaving," Katya said. "Not with you. Not with Father. I'm leaving Velgorod."

"You can't-"

"Watch me."

Katya turned and walked toward the doors.Running With every ounce of dignity she had left.

Behind her, the whispers turned to shouts. Someone called her name. Someone laughed.

She didn't look back.

She pushed through the heavy wooden doors and stepped out into the morning snow. The cold air hit her face, sharp and clean, washing away the stuffiness of the hall.

Katya kept walking.

She had nothing. No mate. No family. No future.

But she had herself.

And right now, that would have to be enough.