Chapter 4
The pack gathers before dawn.
I know because they come for me while the sky is still bruised purple, while sleep clings to my lashes and the bond aches like an open wound. Guards haul me from the room without explanation, fingers tight around my arms—not chains this time, but it might as well be.
The corridors are alive.
Whispers crawl along the stone walls. Eyes follow me from shadows. Every step feels like walking deeper into a trap I can't see but already feel tightening around my throat.
The courtyard is packed.
Wolves stand shoulder to shoulder, ranks tight and expectant, their breath fogging the cold air. Torches burn low, flames snapping in the early wind. At the centre rises the stone platform—the place of judgement.
Lucien waits there.
Impossibly still. Impossibly distant.
He doesn't look at me as I'm shoved forward. Doesn't acknowledge the way the bond thrums violently in my chest the closer I get. His face is carved from ice, jaw set, eyes forward like he's already decided the ending.
Selene stands at his right hand.
She's dressed in white.
The contrast makes my stomach churn.
I'm forced to my knees.
Stone bites into my skin. Cold seeps through thin fabric, grounding me in the worst way. Murmurs ripple through the pack when the glow beneath my skin flickers—faint but visible now, silver veins pulsing just under the surface.
I hear the word 'mate' hissed again and again.
Lucien raises a hand.
Silence falls.
"The bond has been acknowledged," he says, voice carrying effortlessly. "But it will not be honoured."
My heart slams.
Lucien finally looks at me.
There's something brutal in his gaze—not hatred, not exactly. Resolve. The kind that doesn't bend even when it should.
"She is not my Luna," he continues. "She will never rule beside me."
A sharp pain lances through my chest.
"This bond", he says, colder now, "was a mistake of blood. One that will be corrected."
The pack stirs. Uneasy. Curious.
I find my voice. "You don't get to erase me."
Lucien's eyes flicker—but he doesn't stop.
"By Alpha law," he declares, "I reject Arielle Vale as my mate."
The words hit harder the second time.
Something inside me cracks.
It's not loud. Not dramatic. Just a quiet, shattering sound in my chest as the bond screams in protest, pain ripping through me so violently my vision whites out.
I gasp, collapsing forward, hands slamming into stone.
The pack gasps.
I feel it—feel him—pushing back, forcing the bond down, suppressing it with sheer will and Alpha authority. It's suffocating, like drowning slowly while someone holds your head under and tells you it's for your own good.
My body betrays me.
A sob tears free before I can stop it.
Lucien's jaw tightens.
"For her safety," he continues, "she will remain under my control."
Laughter ripples through the crowd.
Not kind.
Not sympathetic.
Selene steps forward then, voice smooth as silk. "This is mercy," she says. "An unclaimed mate wandering free would invite chaos."
Her eyes meet mine.
Triumphant.
I push myself upright, shaking but unbroken. "You're afraid," I say hoarsely. "All of you."
The laughter falters.
Lucien's gaze sharpens. "Of what?"
"Of a bond you can't control."
A murmur spreads—uncertain now.
Lucien steps closer, lowering his voice so only I can hear. "You don't know when to stop."
"Neither do you," I whisper back.
His eyes darken.
"Enough," Magnus Blackfang's voice booms.
The crowd parts as an older Alpha strides forward—Lucien's father. Power radiates from him in heavy waves, crushing and absolute. His gaze flicks over me like I'm something stuck to his boot.
"This half-blood is an insult," Magnus says. "End this."
Lucien doesn't hesitate.
"Take her," he orders.
Hands grab me again.
"No," I snarl, twisting, fury igniting where humiliation burns. "You don't get to parade me like a warning!"
Lucien's voice cuts through the chaos. "Then don't act like one."
The bond flares—angry, desperate.
Pain rips through me, but beneath it, something else stirs.
Power.
Raw. Untrained. Furious.
The air shifts.
Torches flicker violently. Wolves stumble back as a pressure wave ripples outward from where I kneel.
Lucien stiffens.
Magnus's eyes narrow.
Selene's smile vanishes.
I gasp, clutching my chest as the surge fades as quickly as it came. The courtyard falls deathly silent.
Lucien stares at me like he's seeing me for the first time.
"Take her to the fortress," he snaps sharply. "Now."
I'm dragged away as whispers explode behind me—fear threaded through curiosity.
As the doors slam shut behind us, the bond pulses again, tight and furious.
Lucien didn't just reject me.
He made me a threat.
And the pack felt it.
In the dim corridor, as guards shove me forward, a terrible certainty settles deep in my bones—
This wasn't the end of my humiliation.
It was the moment everything shifted.
Because power like that doesn't stay buried.
And Lucien Blackfang just declared war on something he doesn't understand.