The compound woke to rumors.
They spread like wildfire through the pack—whispered between warriors during training, exchanged between she-wolves at the washing pools, muttered over breakfast in the great hall. By mid-morning, everyone knew.
The Alpha had spent the night in the omega quarters.
Not in them, precisely—the more accurate version was that Kael had stood outside the human girl's building for hours, motionless as a statue, silver eyes fixed on her window until dawn broke over the mountains. But accuracy never stopped gossip.
"He's lost his mind," one warrior muttered to another as they passed Elara in the compound. "Obsessed with a human. A human."
"Maybe she's got witch blood. Seduced him somehow."
"Or maybe the rejection broke something in him. It happens sometimes, with mates who—" A sharp elbow silenced the speaker before they could finish.
Elara kept walking. Kept her head down. Kept her face blank.
But inside, her heart raced.
He stood outside all night?
She'd felt something—a warmth, a presence, a sense of safety that had let her sleep deeper than she had in weeks. She'd assumed it was her wolf, finally calming. But if Kael had been there...
He's watching over me. Like he promised.
The thought should have frightened her. Instead, it made her chest ache with something she refused to name.
---
The kitchens were buzzing.
Greta barked orders with extra sharpness, slamming pots and glaring at anyone who looked at Elara wrong. Marta shot her worried glances between tasks. Even the younger omega wolves—usually content to ignore her—stole curious looks when they thought she wasn't watching.
"You're famous," Dace's voice drawled from behind her.
Elara didn't turn around. She'd learned that much—never show interest in the predators. "Go away."
"Can't. Mother sent me for supplies. Again." He appeared at her elbow, reaching past her for a basket of dried meat. His proximity made her skin crawl—not because he was threatening, exactly, but because his eyes were too sharp. Too knowing. "Interesting night, from what I hear."
"I wouldn't know. I was asleep."
"While the Alpha stood guard outside your window?" Dace's lips curved. "How romantic."
"Go. Away."
He laughed, but there was something beneath the amusement—calculation, maybe. Assessment. "You're more than you seem, human. I figured that out yesterday. And now the Alpha's acting like a love-struck pup." He leaned closer. "Want to tell me what's really going on?"
Elara finally looked at him. Met his hazel eyes with all the nothing she'd perfected over eighteen years. "I'm an omega. He's an Alpha. He feels responsible for my safety because I was attacked on his territory. That's it."
Dace studied her for a long moment.
Then: "You're a terrible liar. But I'll play along." He straightened, grabbing his supplies. "For now."
He left.
Elara's hands shook as she returned to her pots.
---
That afternoon, everything changed.
Elara was scrubbing floors in the great hall—a punishment, apparently, for "drawing attention"—when the doors banged open and Kael strode in.
He wasn't alone.
Behind him came Cassian, expression carefully neutral. And behind Cassian, three wolves Elara didn't recognize—older, stern-faced, radiating the kind of authority that came from decades of power.
Elders. Pack elders.
Kael's silver eyes found her immediately. Something flickered in them—warning? reassurance?—before his face went blank.
"Human." His voice was cold. Official. Nothing like the man who'd touched her arm last night. "Approach."
Elara set down her rag. Stood. Walked toward them with her heart in her throat.
The elders watched her like she was something to be dissected.
"This is the girl?" The oldest elder—a woman with iron-grey hair and eyes like flint—circled Elara slowly. "She looks like nothing."
"She is nothing," Kael said flatly. "But she's become a liability. The rogues attacked our border because of her. They'll keep attacking until they get her. So the question is—what do we do with her?"
No. Elara's blood turned to ice. He's not protecting me. He's—
"Kill her," another elder said simply. "Problem solved."
Cassian shifted. "She's human. Killing her would bring the human authorities down on us. The town of Millbrook may tolerate our existence, but murder—"
"The humans wouldn't know. Rogues killed her. Rogues are already blamed for everything." The elder shrugged. "Simple."
Elara's marks burned.
Run, her wolf whispered. Run now.
But where? She was surrounded. Trapped. Completely at their mercy.
Kael's voice cut through her panic. "No."
The elders turned to him.
"No?" The grey-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "Explain."
Kael's jaw tightened. "She's useful."
"Useful how?"
Think, Kael. Think.
"She attracts rogues. Draws them out. We've been trying to locate their main camp for months—they're like shadows, impossible to track. But they'll keep coming for her." His silver eyes were cold, calculating, utterly Alpha. "We use her as bait. Set a trap. Destroy them permanently."
The elders exchanged glances.
"Bait," the woman repeated slowly. "You want to use a human girl as bait for rogue wolves."
"Yes."
"And if she dies in the process?"
Kael's expression didn't flicker. "Then she dies. She's human. Expendable."
Each word was a knife in Elara's chest.
He's lying, she told herself. He has to be lying. Last night—
But last night felt like a dream now. This—this cold, ruthless Alpha discussing her death like it was nothing—this was real.
The grey-haired woman studied Kael for a long moment. Then her lips curved. "Interesting. You've never been willing to use bait before. Too honorable. Too protective of even the weakest pack members." She stepped closer to him. "What changed?"
Don't look at me, Elara begged silently. Don't give anything away.
"She's not pack," Kael said. "She's not even wolf. She's a problem I intend to solve."
The lie was perfect. Flawless. Not a single crack in his mask.
The elders bought it.
"Very well." The woman nodded. "Set your trap. But if it fails—if more pack wolves die because of this human—we'll have another conversation. And that conversation will end with her blood on the snow."
Kael inclined his head. "Understood."
The elders left.
Elara stood frozen, heart hammering, marks blazing beneath her sleeves.
Kael watched the doors close behind them. Counted to ten. Then turned to Cassian. "Leave us."
Cassian's eyes moved from Kael to Elara and back. "Alpha—"
"Now."
Cassian left.
The great hall was empty. Just Kael and Elara and the echo of his terrible words.
She couldn't breathe.
Kael crossed to her in three strides. Grabbed her arm—gently, despite everything—and pulled her toward a side door. "Come with me. Quickly."
"Where—"
"No questions. Move."
He pulled her through the door, down a narrow corridor, into a small room Elara had never seen—clearly private, clearly his. Maps covered the walls. A desk sat in the corner. A bed dominated the far end.
His quarters.
Kael closed the door. Leaned against it. Finally, finally, let his mask drop.
"I'm sorry." His voice was rough. Raw. "I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm sorry I had to say it. But it was the only way to keep you alive."
Elara's throat worked. "They wanted to kill me."
"They wanted to kill you. The elders have been looking for an excuse to remove you since the Moon Ceremony. You're a complication. An unknown. Wolves like them hate unknowns." He pushed off the door, approached her slowly. "If I'd shown any sign of caring, any softness, they would have pushed for your death immediately. They can't have their Alpha distracted by a human."
"So you pretended I was bait."
"I pretended you were expendable." He stopped inches away. "You're not. You're the opposite of expendable. But they can't know that. No one can know that."
No one can know.
Including Kael himself, really. He didn't know the truth. Didn't know she was his mate. Didn't know she was royal.
But he was protecting her anyway.
"Why?" The word came out broken. "Why do you care? You rejected me. You said I was nothing. You—"
"I was wrong."
The admission hung between them.
Kael's silver eyes burned. "I was wrong about you. About everything. I don't know what you are, but I know you're not nothing. I know I can't stop thinking about you. I know my wolf screams when you're in danger. I know I stood outside your building all night because I couldn't bear to be far from you." He touched his chest. "Right here—it hurts when you're not near. Physically hurts. Like something's tearing."
The bond. He's describing the bond.
Elara's eyes burned. "Kael—"
"I know you're hiding something." His voice dropped. "I know the marks mean something. I know you're not human. And I know—somehow, impossibly—that you're mine. Not pack. Not responsibility. Mine."
The word hit her like lightning.
Mine.
"I don't understand it," Kael continued. "I don't understand any of it. But I know I'll burn this pack to the ground before I let those elders touch you. I'll kill anyone who threatens you. I'll—"
"Stop." Elara pressed her hand to his chest—right over the bond mark, right where it burned hottest. "Stop talking before you say something you can't take back."
He caught her hand. Held it against his heart.
"I don't want to take it back." His voice was barely a whisper. "I want to understand. I want to know what this is. I want—"
He broke off. Swallowed.
"What?" she asked softly.
"You." The word was tortured. "I want you. And I don't even know what that means."
Elara looked at him—this fierce, broken Alpha who'd rejected her publicly, who'd wished her dead, who'd stood outside her window all night and lied to his elders to save her life. Who was holding her hand like it was the only real thing in the world.
He's trying, her wolf whispered. He's choosing.
But was it enough? Was it choice, or just instinct? Was he acting because the bond demanded it, or because he did?
She didn't know.
But she knew one thing.
"I want to tell you," she whispered. "I want to tell you everything. But I can't. Not yet."
"Why?"
"Because—" She struggled against the seal, against the magic that wouldn't let the words form. "Because there are things you have to do first. Things you have to choose. And until you do—" She shook her head. "I can't explain. I'm sorry. I can't."
Kael's jaw tightened. For a terrible moment, she thought he'd push. Demand. Use his Alpha authority to force the truth.
Instead, he lifted her hand to his lips. Pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
"Then I'll wait." His eyes met hers. "I'll wait, and I'll protect you, and I'll figure out what I have to do. Whatever it takes. However long."
Elara's heart cracked open.
He's choosing, she realized. He doesn't understand, doesn't know the stakes, doesn't have any idea what he's agreeing to—but he's choosing. Me.
The marks on her arms blazed.
Kael's eyes dropped to them. "They're brighter when you're emotional."
"I know."
"They're beautiful."
The word surprised her. "Beautiful?"
"Like moonlight on snow. Like silver in candlelight." He traced one with his fingertip, feather-light. "They're part of you. Of course they're beautiful."
Elara couldn't breathe.
This man, her wolf whispered. This man is ours.
But the seal held firm.
Not yet. Not worthy. Not yet.
---
They stayed like that for minutes—hours—she couldn't tell. Kael holding her hand, tracing her marks, looking at her like she was something precious. Elara letting herself, for the first time in eighteen years, feel seen.
Finally, Kael spoke.
"The elders will watch you now. After today, they'll be looking for evidence that you matter to me." He released her hand reluctantly. "We can't meet like this. Can't be seen together. It's too dangerous."
"I know."
"But I'll be watching. Always. If anything happens—if anyone threatens you—I'll know." He touched his chest again. "I feel you. All the time now. Like a second heartbeat."
Because I'm your mate, she thought. Because we're connected. Because you're mine and I'm yours, even if you don't know it yet.
"Be careful," she said instead. "The elders—"
"Can be managed." His eyes hardened. "I've been managing them since I became Alpha at eighteen. They want power. They want control. They want a puppet they can manipulate." A cold smile crossed his face. "They'll never have it."
Elara believed him.
"Go," he said softly. "Back to the omega quarters. Keep your head down. Let them think I've forgotten you."
"And if you haven't?"
His silver eyes burned. "I haven't. I won't. Ever."
She left.
The walk back to the omega quarters was a blur. Wolves passed her—some curious, some hostile, most indifferent. She didn't see them. Didn't hear them. Didn't care.
Her mind was full of silver eyes and whispered promises and the feeling of his lips on her knuckles.
He's choosing me.
He doesn't know why, but he's choosing me.
Is that enough?
The seal didn't answer.
But deep in her chest, her wolf stirred. And for the first time, Elara felt something other than fear.
Hope.
---
That night, alone in her cot, Elara touched the marks on her arms.
They were brighter now—not just silver, but luminous. Like they held their own light. Like they were responding to something.
To him.
He's getting closer, she thought. The bond is getting stronger.
But so was the danger.
The elders wanted her dead. The rogues wanted her captured. The master wanted her blood. And in three weeks, the Blood Moon would rise.
What if he's not ready by then?
The question haunted her into restless sleep.
And in her dreams, the silver wolf chained in the cave lifted its head. Looked at her with Kael's eyes.
Soon, it whispered. Soon we'll be free.
Both of us.
---
End of Chapter 7🐺