Chapter 3

Elara Vance POV:

That evening, a summons came. I was not asked, but ordered, to attend a private family dinner. I knew it was about the morning's disaster. There was no refusing the Alpha.

The four of us sat around the polished mahogany table in the Alpha's private dining room. The silence was so thick you could have sliced it with the steak knives we held. The clinking of silverware against porcelain was the only sound, each scrape and tap echoing the tension in the room.

Alpha Corbin tried to start a conversation about pack business, something about a border dispute, but the words fell into the silence and died. Ryker stared down at his plate, methodically cutting his steak into precise, angry little pieces, his face a mask of cold indifference. He had always used silence as a weapon and a shield, a trait he'd learned from his father.

I kept my eyes on my own plate, pushing a lone pea around with my fork, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me.

Luna Annelise, her kind face etched with worry, finally broke. She set her utensils down with a soft click. "The Mating Moon is next week," she said, her voice unnaturally bright. "This year's ceremony will be especially grand."

My heart gave a painful lurch. My grip on my fork tightened until my knuckles were white. The Mating Moon. The one night when the Moon Goddess herself was said to reveal the fated mates for all werewolves of age. It was the stuff of every she-wolf's dreams, a dream I had long ago buried under layers of harsh reality.

Ryker let out a soft, contemptuous snort.

The Luna ignored him, her warm blue eyes fixing on me. "Elara, you turn seventeen this year. Even though..." She trailed off, the unspoken words-*even though you have no wolf*-hanging in the air. "The Goddess's grace shines on everyone."

Her words were a lifeline, a tiny spark in my suffocating darkness. She was trying to give me hope. And despite everything, a wild, insane fantasy flickered to life in the deepest, most foolish corner of my heart.

*What if? What if the Goddess chose me for him?*

The thought was so absurd, so impossible, that it was almost painful. But it was also so alluring I couldn't push it away.

"Mother," Ryker's voice was like ice, shattering the fragile moment. "Stop with the old myths. I will choose my own mate. She will be a she-wolf worthy of standing beside the future Alpha."

His stormy eyes flickered towards me for a fraction of a second, and the message was clear. *And that will never be you.*

Alpha Corbin frowned, his authority reasserting itself. "Ryker. You will respect the will of the Goddess. It is the foundation of our pack."

"Strength is our foundation," Ryker shot back, his voice low and challenging. The air between father and son crackled with a power struggle that had been brewing for years.

The tiny flame of hope inside me was doused by his cold certainty, leaving nothing but a wisp of smoke. But the Luna's words had already done their work. They had planted a seed.

Ryker didn't have to believe. As long as the Goddess did.

It was my last chance. My final, desperate gamble on a love that had only ever brought me pain. If the Goddess herself declared me his, he couldn't deny it. He would have to see me. He would have to choose me.

The rest of the dinner passed in a blur of strained silence. As soon as it was over, I fled to my room. I walked to the window, staring up at the waxing moon, a silver sliver in the velvet black sky.

For the first time in my life, I prayed. I prayed to a Goddess I wasn't sure even listened to the likes of me. I prayed with every fiber of my being, pouring all my pain and all my hopeless love into the silent request.

I prayed for a miracle.

The hope was a fragile, terrifying thing, but it was enough. It was enough to make me forget, for a little while, the humiliation of the morning and the heartbreak of the night before.

I would go to the Mating Moon ceremony. I would stand before the pack and the Goddess. I would face my destiny, for better or for worse.

"Moon Goddess, if you can hear me... please. Just this once, let me be chosen."