Chapter 3

Kaelen POV

I paced the dark expanse of my study, my blood boiling beneath my skin. The masquerade gala was supposed to be a brief distraction, but instead, the Moon Goddess had played a sick, twisted joke on me. My Fated Mate-the woman whose scent had brought me to my knees in that penthouse-was Aidan's discarded, wolfless Omega.

I had left her there, disgusted by the cruel irony. But now, my Inner Wolf, Ragnarok, was tearing at the edges of my sanity, furious that I had abandoned what was ours.

Suddenly, the air shifted.

A scent drifted through the heavy oak doors. Moonlit lilies and a whisper of vanilla.

*MATE! SHE IS HERE! FIND HER! TAKE WHAT IS OURS!* Ragnarok roared, his possessive fury echoing so violently in my skull that my vision blurred with red.

She was inside my fortress.

My Lycan instincts warred with my paranoia. Paul Knight must have sent her. He had finally figured out a way to infiltrate my territory, using the one weakness I couldn't ignore. I shoved the study doors open, following the intoxicating trail down the cavernous, minimalist halls toward the kitchen.

The kitchen was a sterile expanse of black marble and brushed stainless steel, smelling faintly of bleach. But standing in the center of it, looking small and fragile under the harsh spotlights, was her.

"Who let you out?" I snarled, my voice a lethal baritone that made the silverware rattle. The fact that Caleb had deposited her in the secured bedroom was irrelevant; her presence here, free and unsupervised, screamed sabotage.

She jumped, her violet eyes wide with terror, but she forced her chin up. "I... I got out myself. I was hungry," she stammered, her voice trembling but defiant. "I am Luna Knight. I was brought here."

The title sounded like a mocking lie on her lips. A spy sent to humiliate me.

In a blur of Lycan speed, I crossed the room. My hand clamped around her slender throat, lifting her off her feet and slamming her against the freezing marble wall.

"Tell me who sent you!" I commanded, lacing my voice with the heavy, suffocating weight of the `Alpha's Command`.

Any normal wolf would have dropped to their knees, their will crushed. But her eyes remained clear, filled only with panic and pain. The command bounced off her completely. *Wolfless.* She had no Inner Wolf to submit to me.

As she clawed desperately at my unyielding grip, her gaze locked onto my face. She inhaled sharply, recognizing the scent of pine needles and cold steel from the penthouse. The realization hit her like a physical blow.

"You're... Kaelen Knight..." she choked out, her voice trembling. "But you're supposed to be... a cripple."

The word *cripple* sliced through my control like a silver blade.

My greatest secret. The deception I had maintained for centuries to protect my mother and slaughter my enemies, exposed to a wolfless girl who had just waltzed into my home. The threat level instantly shifted. She wasn't just an intruder anymore; she was a liability that had to be erased.

I dropped her. She collapsed onto the marble floor, gasping for air.

*"Jax. Corbin,"* I snapped through the `Mind-Link`. *"Kitchen. Now."*

Within seconds, my two elite Gammas materialized in the doorway, their eyes darting between me and the coughing girl on the floor.

*"Take her to the Wolf Run. Let the patrol decide her fate,"* I ordered coldly.

Ragnarok howled in agony, clawing at my chest to protect our Mate, but centuries of survival demanded her silence. Seraphina screamed as Jax and Corbin hauled her to her feet, begging and promising to keep my secret.

I looked down at her, my expression devoid of any mercy. "If you survive until sunrise, I will acknowledge you as my Luna."

They dragged her thrashing body out of the kitchen. Her terrified screams faded down the corridor, leaving a hollow silence in their wake.

Before I could even process the phantom pain in my chest, Caleb burst into the kitchen, his usual composed demeanor shattered.

"My King, stop! This is a mistake! It was your mother!" Caleb shouted, risking my wrath as he stepped directly into my space. He shoved a heavy parchment into my chest.

I snatched it. It was a `Mating` contract from the Stonehaven Pack. At the bottom, stamped in dark red wax, was my mother's private seal.

The air left my lungs. It wasn't Paul. It wasn't an assassination plot. It was my mother, orchestrating my life from her confinement, forcing a bride upon me without my consent.

A new, blinding rage ignited in my veins. I crushed the parchment in my fist, glaring at my Beta.

"You let her bring another man's filth into my house?!" I roared, the Lycan aura exploding from me, cracking the marble beneath my boots. "A wolfless girl who knows everything?!"

"She sensed her bloodline, Kaelen! She thought she was helping-"

"I don't care!" I cut him off, my chest heaving. She was Aidan's leftovers. She knew I wasn't crippled. And she had been forced upon me.

I turned my back on Caleb, staring out the reinforced glass window toward the dark tree line of the fortress grounds. I didn't reach out to the Gammas. I didn't rescind the order.