Chapter 2

Elara Silvermoon POV:

The footsteps were an earthquake in the silent corridor. Heavy, angry, and coming straight for my door. They held the unmistakable weight of an Alpha on the warpath. I didn't even flinch when the door was thrown open, slamming against the interior wall with a crack that vibrated through the floor.

Ryker filled the doorway, a storm of fury contained in a towering frame. The cold night air clung to him, but it couldn't mask the faint, lingering scent of jasmine. It was a second slap in the face, a deliberate insult.

His stormy grey eyes scanned the room, searching for the chaos he expected. Tears. Shouting. Broken objects. He found none of it. He only found me, sitting calmly on the chaise lounge, dressed in my formal silver gown, as if I were waiting to receive a foreign dignitary.

A flicker of unease crossed his face. This quiet, cold composure was not the Elara he knew. He was more comfortable with my hurt, my resentful silence. This was different. This was dangerous.

"Explain this, Elara," he growled, his voice laced with the Alpha's Command, a tone meant to compel obedience. "Why are my supply lines cut?"

I took my time, lifting the now-cold teacup from the table beside me and taking a delicate sip. I let the silence stretch, forcing him to stand there, simmering in his own rage.

"Your residence," I said finally, my voice as smooth and cool as river stone. "My resources. The arrangement no longer suits me."

His fury ignited. He stalked into the room, his powerful presence sucking the air from it. The sheer force of his aura was a physical blow, meant to intimidate, to dominate. "We are mates, Elara! What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. That is the bond!"

A laugh escaped my lips, a dry, brittle sound devoid of any humor. "Mates? Is that what you were doing with Brielle in the garden, Alpha? Exploring the nuances of the mate bond?"

His jaw tightened. He hadn't expected the scent to cling so stubbornly-he had washed, but the jasmine had sunk into his skin during the long hours in her quarters. A careless oversight, born of arrogance. He had assumed I would be too consumed by my own grief to notice, or too cowed to challenge him. For a second, a flicker of something almost like guilt crossed his face, but it vanished as quickly as it came, replaced by dismissive impatience. "That was nothing. She's new, she was distressed. I was calming her."

"Your 'calming,'" I said, rising to my feet to face him, my height still leaving me looking up at his formidable stature, "smells like betrayal. It makes me sick."

He waved a hand, cutting off the argument. He hadn't come here to dissect his infidelity. He had a more pressing agenda. "Enough of this. We can deal with our issues later." He closed the distance between us, his hands reaching for me. "The council is pressing for an heir. They've been patient, but my position weakens every moon that passes without a child. Tonight, at least, we fulfill the appearance of trying."

It was a calculated admission. He hadn't touched me in months-not since the miscarriage that had nearly killed me, the one he had barely acknowledged. The council's pressure was real, but his timing was no coincidence. He needed to reassert control, to remind me and the pack that I was still his, still useful. The fertility cycle was a convenient excuse, not a genuine desire.

His fingers were about to brush my arm, but I recoiled as if he were a venomous snake. I took a sharp step back, the revulsion on my face undeniable.

The sudden, violent rejection stopped him cold. He stared at me, genuinely thrown by the intensity of my response.

My hand flew to my lower abdomen, a purely instinctual gesture to guard the source of my deepest pain. His touch, his intention, it was all a brutal reminder of what I had lost for him. What I could never give him.

"Don't touch me," I whispered, my voice trembling not with fear of him, but with the agony of memory.

His eyes narrowed. He saw the tremor, the sweat beading on my brow, the way my hand pressed against the old wound as if it were fresh. But he was too consumed by his own agenda to read the signs for what they were. He saw only defiance-a wife refusing her duty, a Luna embarrassing him before the pack. "Elara, do not be childish. It is your duty as Luna to bear this pack an heir!"

"Duty?" The word was acid on my tongue. My eyes, I'm sure, were swimming with a sorrow so deep it was an ocean. "My duty is to lie here and be a vessel for your child while you comfort other she-wolves in my garden?"

A flash of memory, unbidden and sharp. The glint of a silver dagger. The searing, cold agony as it plunged into my side during a rogue attack years ago, an attack meant for him. I had thrown myself in front of him. The healers had saved my life, but they couldn't save everything.

My face went white, a cold sweat breaking out on my skin. My body was shaking, remembering the trauma my mind tried so hard to forget.

Ryker's expression flickered-uncertainty, perhaps, or the first stirrings of a memory he had buried. But he was an Alpha, and Alphas did not admit they had forgotten the cost of their own survival. He shoved the doubt aside. "I don't have time for these theatrics, Elara. I will not be denied."

He lunged for me again, his intent clear. He would take me, by force if necessary, to get what he wanted.

Something inside me snapped. "I said, DON'T TOUCH ME!" I shoved him with all my strength, a surge of adrenaline and wolf-fueled power behind the push.

Get away from her, you traitor! Lyra roared in my head.

He stumbled back a step, shock and incandescent rage warring in his eyes. A Luna. His Luna. Physically defying him. It was unthinkable.

I stared at him, the last embers of love for him finally turning to ash. "You want an heir, Ryker Blackwood. You want a broodmare, a womb to secure your legacy." I took a shaky breath, the secret I'd held for so long burning on my tongue. I almost said it. I almost told him everything. But I caught myself, twisting the words into a different, but no less cutting, weapon.

"But I'm afraid that's no longer possible." I paused, letting the words hang in the air between us. "Because that's not who I am anymore."