Chapter 4

Elinor POV

Father Shawn's hands trembled so violently that the holy text nearly slipped from his grasp. He was a human priest who had served the packs for thirty years, but standing before the Lycan King, he looked like cornered prey.

Kaelen's obsidian eyes were devoid of warmth as he recited the ancient vows. His voice, a subterranean rumble, offered no love, only a binding contract. He slid a heavy moonstone ring onto my finger. The metal was freezing, settling against my skin less like a romantic promise and more like an iron shackle claiming ownership.

I forced the words of acceptance past the terror lodged in my throat. When the final blessing was spoken, there was no kiss. Kaelen simply turned his massive frame to face the hundreds of powerful Alphas in the pews, silently declaring the transaction complete.

I was no longer a Thorne. I was Elinor Blackwood, Luna to the Lycan King, and stepmother to the coward who had abandoned me.

The transition to the Alpha's Wing was a blur of shadowed corridors and bowing warriors. Kaelen's private quarters were a cavernous den of dark mahogany, heavy animal pelts, and ancient weapons mounted on the stone walls. The air was thick with his scent-sharp cedar, expensive bourbon, and raw, suffocating danger.

He didn't touch me. He stood by the door, his broad shoulders blocking my only exit.

"You are in my den now, little wolf," Kaelen said, his tone flat and chilling. "Do not mistake the silence of my warriors for safety. They smell a stranger on their King, and they are loyal only to strength."

I swallowed hard. My wolfless instincts screamed at me to lower my eyes, to submit to the apex predator in the room, but I forced myself to hold his golden-ringed gaze.

"I have pack business," he continued, his jaw tightening with barely suppressed fury. "I must discipline my disappointing whelp and clean up the mess he left behind."

Without another word, he turned and walked out, the heavy oak door clicking shut behind him.

The silence he left behind was crushing. I was alone in the beast's lair, a fragile human-like girl surrounded by monsters. But before the panic could fully set in, the door opened again.

A maid in a severe black uniform stepped inside, carrying a silver tray with a glass of water. It was Elena, the Dowager Luna's personal servant. She set the tray down on a side table with a sharp clatter, not bothering to bow.

"You've brought a massive headache to the Blackwood family," Elena sneered, her eyes raking over my white lace gown with undisguised contempt. "A wolfless Omega from a rotting pack. You don't belong in this room."

The sheer audacity of her disrespect snapped me out of my terror. If I let a servant speak to me this way on my first night, I would be dead by morning. I straightened my spine, channeling every ounce of the white-hot pride that had fueled me at the altar.

I closed the distance between us, my voice dropping to a deadly, icy calm.

"I may have been a pawn in your family's game, but the Moon Goddess just witnessed me become your Queen. It was my choice that saved the Blackwood name today." I stepped closer, forcing her to look up at me. "You will address me as Luna."

For a second, Elena looked ready to argue. But the ancient laws of the pack were absolute. Even without an inner wolf to project an aura, the sheer weight of my new title and my unyielding command slammed into her. Her Omega wolf instinctively recognized the hierarchy.

Her shoulders slumped. She reluctantly lowered her head, her voice tight with forced submission. "Yes... Luna Blackwood."

She practically fled the room.

I stood alone, my heart hammering against my ribs. I had won my first battle, but as I looked at the empty, cavernous four-poster bed, a new, terrifying realization hit me.

Kaelen had left to deal with Braden. But if the King did not return to sleep in this room tonight, the entire pack would know it. It would be a silent rejection, painting a target on my back for every ambitious wolf in the territory.

If I was going to survive in this den, I had to make my husband stay.