Chapter 8 8

Elyse POV

My bags were packed. Freedom was just a car ride away.

Then, my encrypted burner phone rang.

I stared at the unknown number flashing on the screen, a cold dread pooling in my stomach. I answered it, pressing the speaker to my ear.

"Luna Elyse," a voice rasped. It was Silas, Hilda Blackwood's Beta. His tone was devoid of any warmth. "The Matriarch noted your failure to RSVP to tonight's Winter Solstice Conclave. She assumes it was a clerical error."

"Silas, I-"

"Let me be clear," he cut me off, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "The Matriarch is assessing her alliances tonight. If you and Alpha Jace do not walk through the doors of the Blackwood Keep by seven o'clock, she will consider the Silvermoon Pack an enemy. And she will summon you back to the dungeons for *The Correction*."

My blood turned to ice. The room spun. *The Correction.* Just hearing the words made phantom silver burn against my skin, a visceral memory of agonizing torture that could shatter a werewolf's soul.

"We will be there," I choked out, my voice trembling. The line went dead.

My escape was over. If I ran now, Hilda's trackers would hunt me down before I crossed the state line. I had to survive tonight first.

I closed my eyes and forced my consciousness into the Pack's network, reaching out to Jace.

*Jace,* I pleaded through the mind-link. *I need you to come with me to the Blackwood Conclave tonight.*

A wave of static and irritation hit me before his voice echoed in my head. *Are you insane, Elyse? Elder Marcus froze my accounts! I am dealing with a financial crisis, I don't have time for your grandmother's pretentious parties!*

*Hilda will see your absence as an act of war!* I projected my raw, unfiltered terror through the bond. *She will drag me back to the Blackwood dungeons, Jace! This isn't a request. It's for my survival!*

Silence stretched across the link. Even through his arrogance, Jace's Alpha instincts recognized the genuine, primal fear radiating from me. He feared the Blackwood Pack's military might, even if he wouldn't admit it.

*Fine,* he snapped finally. *But we arrive at seven, and we leave at nine. Not a minute longer.*

The connection severed. I exhaled a shaky breath, praying we could just make an appearance and leave unscathed.

By 6:50 PM, I was standing in the freezing, cavernous foyer of the Pack House. I wore a thin, formal black gown, shivering as the draft from the heavy front door seeped into my bones. Outside, a brutal blizzard was tearing through the territory, the wind howling like a dying beast.

I checked my watch. Ten minutes until we had to be there.

Suddenly, Ciera's voice drifted down from the second-floor landing. She wasn't using the mind-link; she was speaking loudly, making sure her voice carried.

"Oh, a date tonight? With Dr. Evans?" Ciera giggled, the sound dripping with fake innocence. "I'd love to. It's been so lonely here..."

A deafening roar shook the floorboards. Jace's bedroom door slammed open upstairs.

"You are not going anywhere with that damn Pack Doctor!" Jace bellowed, his Alpha aura exploding through the house, heavy and suffocating.

"You can't tell me what to do, Jace!" Ciera cried out, her voice trembling with perfectly calculated tears. "You have a Luna! I can't just wait around forever! I need a Mate who will mark me, someone who puts me first!"

"I said no!" Jace used his *Alpha's Command*, the sheer force of it making my own knees buckle slightly downstairs. "You are staying right here with me."

The Pack House fell dead silent. The only sound was the violent rattling of the windows against the storm.

My mind-link crackled.

*Elyse,* Jace's voice was flat, devoid of any guilt. *The Elders just called an emergency meeting. I can't make it tonight.*

A bitter, hollow laugh escaped my lips. The Elders never held meetings on the night of the Winter Solstice. It was a pathetic, transparent lie. He had chosen her tears over my life.

I looked at the mahogany console table beside me. Jace's black leather briefcase sat exactly where I had left it, the blood-stained Rejection envelope resting silently inside.

I didn't argue. I didn't beg. The last shred of whatever bond tied me to Jace Silvermoon withered and died in my chest, leaving nothing but cold, hard clarity.

I pulled my thin shawl tighter around my shoulders and pushed open the heavy front door. The freezing wind instantly bit into my skin, but I didn't stop. I walked out into the blinding white snow, got into my Audi, and drove toward the Blackwood Keep alone.