Chapter 5 5

Elara POV

The heavy door of the Maybach sealed shut, trapping me in a luxurious, soundproof vault. The air instantly thickened with Kaelen's scent-that suffocating storm of wet earth and sharp cedar. It wrapped around my throat, a constant reminder of the mark burning beneath my sweater.

As the armored car glided smoothly out of the garage, the silence between us stretched, taut and dangerous. Then, Kaelen reached beside him and tossed a thick, leather-bound folder onto my lap. It was sealed with the ancient silver crest of the Blackwood Pack.

"Read it," he commanded softly.

My trembling fingers broke the seal. It was a Mate Contract. My eyes skimmed the dense legal jargon, catching phrases that made my stomach churn. *Unrestricted access to Pack accounts. Full security detail. The title of future Luna.* It wasn't a proposal; it was a purchase agreement. He was buying me with unimaginable wealth and power, treating my life like a corporate acquisition.

A surge of hot, desperate anger pierced through my fear. I slammed the folder shut and threw it back at his chest. "I don't want your money," I shouted, my voice shaking. "I just want my life back!"

The heavy folder hit him and fell to the floorboards. Kaelen didn't flinch. He slowly picked it up, his stormy gray eyes devoid of any emotion, looking at me as if I were a child throwing a tantrum. His silence was infinitely more terrifying than a roar. It meant he hadn't even begun to play his real hand.

The rest of the ride was a suffocating blur. When we finally arrived at the 45th floor, I was marched into his office-the Alpha's Command Center. The heavy mahogany doors clicked shut, sealing me inside his domain.

I backed away until my hips hit the edge of a leather sofa. "You can't force me to sign that," I breathed.

Kaelen walked slowly to his massive desk, leaning against it. He crossed his arms, his massive frame blocking the sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows. "I don't need to force you, Elara. You will sign it willingly."

"Never."

He tilted his head, a cruel, calculated smile playing on his lips. "Not even to find out what really happened to Sarah Vance?"

My blood turned to ice. The name of my dead mother hung in the air, freezing the breath in my lungs.

"Or perhaps," Kaelen continued, his voice dropping to a lethal purr, "you'd prefer to discuss Alaric Thorne?"

My knees buckled, and I sank onto the sofa. *No. How could he know?*

Kaelen began to recite facts like he was reading from a dossier. "Every Tuesday during your lunch break, you visit the human public library in Queens to scour microfilms of fifteen-year-old newspapers. Three weeks ago, you tried to bypass the Pack's encrypted historical database using a proxy server. You are hunting a ghost, little wolf. And you are hunting a monster."

Every word was a scalpel, peeling back my skin, exposing my most guarded secrets to his predatory gaze. I felt entirely naked, my soul stripped bare. The illusion that I was just an invisible, wolfless Omega shattered completely.

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered, tears of absolute defeat blurring my vision.

He pushed off the desk and closed the distance between us, crouching before me. His large, calloused hands gripped my knees, the heat of his touch searing through my slacks.

"Because you are mine," he said, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that resonated in my chest. "Sign the contract, Elara. Become my Luna. It is the only way you will ever sit at the same table as Alaric Thorne. It is your weapon. Your ticket in."

I stared into his golden-flecked eyes, seeing the raw, possessive hunger of his Inner Wolf. He wasn't just offering me a title; he was offering me the revenge I had craved my entire life. The devil was handing me a sword, and all I had to do was chain myself to him.

"Why me?" I choked out.

He leaned in, his lips brushing my jawline, sending a violent jolt of electricity down my spine. "Because an Alpha," he whispered against my skin, "always marks what belongs to him."

I squeezed my eyes shut, the fight draining out of me. I didn't say yes, but my silence was the surrender he was waiting for.

Sensing his victory, Kaelen stood up. "Your phone," he demanded, holding out his hand.

I numbly reached into my purse and handed over my cracked device. He didn't even look at it before tossing it into a desk drawer and locking it. From his pocket, he produced a sleek, brand-new phone and placed it in my palm.

"For your safety. From now on, you only use this."

I woke up the screen. There were only two contacts: *Kaelen Blackwood* and *Elias Vance*.

Panic flared again. "I need to contact Julian," I pleaded, a pathetic last attempt to cling to my old life. "I need to end things properly."

The temperature in the room plummeted. Kaelen's eyes darkened to the color of a violent storm. The *Alpha's Command* crashed down on me, heavy and absolute. "You will not see him again. That is an order, not a suggestion."

I clutched the new phone, the cold metal biting into my palm. The trap had snapped shut. As Kaelen turned to his desk to finalize the paperwork of my captivity, a sudden, violent wave of nausea rolled through my stomach, a sickening mix of terror, adrenaline, and the harsh chemical burn of the Plan B pill I had swallowed hours ago.