Chapter 5

Elara Vance POV:

Half an hour later, I stood at the main entrance of the Packhouse. I had chosen my most unremarkable outfit: faded jeans and a plain grey t-shirt. My goal was to be invisible.

A sleek black car, Ryker's personal vehicle, was already idling by the curb.

Seraphina was waiting, leaning against the passenger door. She had changed into a chic designer dress that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. Her arm was linked through Ryker's.

He looked just as imposing in casual clothes as he did in his formal Alpha attire. When his stormy eyes met mine, something unreadable flickered within them, gone before I could decipher it.

Seraphina stood on her toes and pressed a light, proprietary kiss to his cheek before waving me over. "Come along, Elara. We don't want to be late."

I walked toward them with my head down, my eyes fixed on the gravel at my feet. I couldn't bear to watch them.

Ryker opened the front passenger door for Seraphina, a perfect picture of a doting fiancé. Once she was settled inside, she looked back at me. "You can sit in the back, Elara. There's more room."

The words were a casual, brutal declaration of my place. The front seat belonged to the Alpha's mate. The back seat was for children, for subordinates, for outsiders. I remembered long drives with my parents, curled up in the back seat, safe and loved. Now, this space felt like a cage.

I pulled open the rear door and slid inside without a word.

The car's interior was spacious, but the air felt thin, suffocating. The intermingled scents of Ryker's forest and Seraphina's roses were a cloying, painful assault on my senses.

Ryker's eyes met mine in the rearview mirror for a split second. I immediately dropped my gaze to my worn-out sneakers.

The car pulled away smoothly. Seraphina began to chat with Ryker about pack politics and alliances, her tone light and exclusive, as if I wasn't there. He gave short, clipped answers, and I could hear the distraction in his voice.

She deliberately steered the conversation to their shared past, reminiscing about a time they spent at her family's Volkov estate. It was a subtle, cruel way of reminding me that they had a history, a world to which I did not belong.

I rested my head against the cool glass of the window, watching the blur of trees rush by. I felt like I was being left behind by the entire world.

My wolf howled in my mind, a raw cry of jealousy and rage. It couldn't understand why its mate was allowing another female to be so close, to touch him, to claim him.

Desperate for a distraction, I pulled my phone and earbuds from my pocket, pretending to lose myself in music I wasn't actually playing.

Seraphina noticed immediately. She turned in her seat, her smile tight. "Listening to music in a moving car is bad for your ears, Elara. Why don't you join our conversation?"

I reluctantly removed the earbuds, forcing a stiff smile. "I'm sorry. I just... I get a little carsick."

At the word "carsick," I saw Ryker's hands tighten on the steering wheel. He knew. He remembered comforting me on long pack journeys when I was a child, a small detail of our shared past that Seraphina could never touch.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Seraphina was faster. She retrieved a bottle of water from the glove compartment and passed it back to me. "Here, drink some water. It might help. You poor thing." Her voice dripped with a pity that felt more like a dismissal.

The words Ryker had been about to speak died on his lips. He could only watch me in the mirror as I took the bottle, my face paler than before.

I didn't drink. I just clutched the cold plastic, a useless talisman against her condescending charity.

The silence that followed was heavy and strange. Seraphina, having made her point, said no more. She simply leaned her head against Ryker's shoulder, a gesture of casual, confident ownership.

I watched in the rearview mirror. He didn't push her away.

That single, passive act was a blade sliding cleanly between my ribs. It was then I understood. The Mate Bond, the sacred pull the Moon Goddess bestowed upon us, meant nothing. In the face of political alliances and the good of the pack, it was worthless. I was worthless.

When we finally arrived at the upscale boutique in town, I stepped out of the car on shaky legs. My knee joint ached from holding the same rigid posture for the entire ride, a dull, physical stiffness that was nothing compared to the gaping hole in my chest.