Alessia POV:

I found refuge in a greasy spoon diner on the edge of town. It was run by a human named Sal. Humans were better than wolves sometimes. They didn't care about hierarchy or pheromones. They just cared if you could scrub a grill.

I was scrubbing the grease trap, the harsh chemicals burning my nose, but I preferred it to the smell of the manor.

"You okay, kid?" Sal asked, flipping a burger. "You look like you fought a lawnmower."

"I'm fine, Sal."

The bell above the door chimed.

The atmosphere in the diner changed instantly. The air became heavy, thick, and hard to breathe. The humans stopped eating, looking around nervously, sensing a predator even if they couldn't see one.

It was Alpha pressure.

I didn't turn around. I kept scrubbing.

"Alessia."

Dante's voice was right behind me.

I rinsed the sponge and turned. He was wearing a black trench coat that cost more than this entire building. He looked out of place among the vinyl seats and ketchup stains.

He placed a small white box on the counter.

"Coconut cake," he said. "From the bakery on 5th. It was your favorite when you were ten."

I looked at the box. I remembered that cake. I remembered saving my allowance for weeks to buy a slice for him when his father died.

"I'm not ten, Dante. And I don't eat sugar anymore. My stomach can't handle it."

"It's just a peace offering," he said, pushing the box toward me. "Chiara... she didn't mean to upset you yesterday. Her medication makes her emotional."

"Is that why you're here? To apologize for your mistress?"

"She's not my mistress," Dante growled. "She is my responsibility. I owe her my life."

I froze. My hands gripped the edge of the sink.

"You think you owe *her* your life?" I asked quietly.

"Seven years ago," Dante said, his eyes distant. "When I was poisoned with silver nitrate during the coup. I was dying. My kidneys were failing. Chiara gave me the transfusion. Her blood type is rare. She gave so much she damaged her spiritual core. That's why she's sick, Alessia. She sacrificed her wolf for me."

I wanted to laugh. I wanted to scream until my throat bled.

It wasn't Chiara.

I remembered that night. Chiara had fainted at the sight of blood. I was the one who dragged Dante into the safe house. I was the one who hooked up the tubes. I was the one who lay next to him for six hours, draining my own veins until I went into hypovolemic shock.

My blood healed him because I carry the White Wolf gene. My blood is potent.

My parents had come in when it was over. They saw me unconscious and Dante healing. They swapped us. They put Chiara in the bed and threw me in the cellar to recover. They told me if I ever spoke of it, they would kill Dante.

"Is that the story they told you?" I asked, looking at him with pity.

"It's the truth," he said firmly. "I smelled her scent on me when I woke up."

"Because she doused herself in your cologne while you slept," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing." I wiped my hands on a rag. "Take your cake, Dante. Go back to your castle."

His phone buzzed. He looked at the screen, and his face crumbled.

"I have to go," he said, panic edging his voice. "Chiara is on the roof of the West Tower. She says she's going to jump."

"Of course she is," I said dryly. "It's Tuesday. She always needs attention on Tuesdays."

Dante slammed his hand on the counter, denting the metal. "She is suicidal! Have you no heart?"

"I had one," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "But I left it in a silver cage."

He glared at me, torn between the pull of the Mate Bond that urged him to stay with me, and the guilt that tethered him to Chiara.

Guilt won.

He grabbed the cake box and threw it in the trash can as he stormed out.

I watched him go. The humans in the diner let out a collective breath.

I walked over to the trash can. I looked at the smashed cake.

That was us. Sweet, nostalgic, and garbage.

*

Alessia POV:

The next morning, I didn't wake up. I was woken up.

My door was kicked open. Giuliana stood there, flanked by two pack warriors.

"Get up," she barked. "Family meeting. Father demands your presence."

I didn't fight. I put on my worn-out jeans and followed them.

They took me to the Alpha's office in the manor. My parents were there. Dante was there, pacing by the fireplace. And Chiara was there, weeping into a silk handkerchief.

"Sit," my father commanded.

I remained standing. "I prefer to stand. The chairs in this house are slippery with lies."

My father slammed his fist on the desk. "Enough of your insolence! We have a crisis."

"Chiara's spiritual core is destabilizing," my mother sobbed. "The doctor says she needs... grounding."

I looked at Dante. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"And what does that have to do with me?" I asked.

"To stabilize her," Dante said, his voice hollow, "I need to give her a Temporary Mark. An Alpha's bite will share my strength with her and heal the cracks in her core."

A mark. Even a temporary one was intimate. It was a claim.

"Go ahead," I said. "Why tell me?"

"Because," Dante said, finally looking at me. His eyes were tortured. "I cannot mark her while I am betrothed to you. The Pack Law forbids an Alpha from marking another while engaged."

Ah. There it was.

"You want me to break the engagement," I stated.

"It is for her life!" Chiara wailed. "I don't want to steal him, Alessia! I just want to live!"

"We drafted the papers," my father said, sliding a document across the desk. "Sign it. Annul the childhood engagement. You were never fit to be Luna anyway."

I looked at the paper. It was my freedom.

I picked up the pen.

"Wait," Chiara said. Her voice changed. It wasn't weak anymore. It was sharp.

She stood up and walked over to me. She picked up a silver letter opener from the desk.

"She needs to mean it," Chiara said, smiling cruelly. She pressed the silver tip against my throat. "Kneel, Alessia. Kneel and swear you give him to me. Submit to your betters."

The silver burned my skin.

Dante stepped forward. "Chiara, that's not necessary-"

"It is!" she screamed. "She hates me! If she doesn't submit, the annulment is void in the eyes of the Moon Goddess!"

Dante looked at me. He took a deep breath. The air in the room grew heavy.

"Alessia," Dante said. His voice echoed with power. It was the Alpha's Command. It was a sonic weapon that forced wolves to obey or suffer immense pain. *"Kneel."*

The command hit me like a physical wave. My knees should have buckled. My head should have bowed.

But nothing happened.

I stood there, blinking.

The Alpha's Command only works on wolves of lower rank.

I looked at Dante. He looked confused. He tried again, harder. *"I command you to kneel!"*

I smiled. It was a cold, terrifying smile.

"No," I said.

I grabbed the silver letter opener from Chiara's hand. The silver sizzled against my palm, but something snapped inside me. A dormant energy surged from my core, rushing to my fingertips. I felt the bones in my hand crack under the strain, then instantly knit back together, stronger than before.

*Snap.*

The metal blade broke in half.

"You want me to cancel the engagement?" I asked. "Fine."

I signed the paper with a flourish.

"But I don't kneel to liars," I said. I looked at Chiara. "And I certainly don't kneel to thieves."

I felt a surge of power in my chest. For a second, just a split second, my aura leaked out. It wasn't the weak gray aura of an Omega.

It was blinding white.

The pressure in the room reversed. My father gasped, clutching his chest. Dante took a step back, his wolf whimpering in confusion. Chiara fell to the floor, terrified by the sheer weight of my presence.

"What... what are you?" Dante whispered.

I pulled my aura back in. I wasn't ready to reveal the White Wolf yet. Not until I was safe in Dominica.

"I'm the mistake you're glad to get rid of," I said.

I threw the broken silver blade at Dante's feet.

"She's all yours, Alpha. Good luck."

*

Alessia POV:

I was back in the attic, shoving my few clothes into a duffel bag. My hands were shaking, not from fear, but from adrenaline.

The Alpha Command hadn't worked. That confirmed it. My White Wolf blood had fully awakened during the confrontation. I was stronger than Dante.

My phone rang. It was Dante.

I debated ignoring it, but I needed closure. I swiped answer.

"How did you do that?" Dante asked. He sounded breathless. "You resisted a direct Command."

"Maybe you're just a weak Alpha," I said, zipping up my bag.

"Don't play games, Alessia. There was... power in that room. Was it you?"

"Does it matter? You have your annulment. Go bite your girlfriend."

"It's not like that," he groaned. "I'm trying to save a life. The life of the woman who saved mine."

I stopped. I sat on the edge of the cot.

"Dante," I said softly. "Look at the scar on your left side. Where the silver entered."

"What about it?"

"It's shaped like a crescent moon. And look at Chiara's arm. Does she have the donor scar?"

Silence.

"She had it laser removed," Dante said, but he sounded uncertain.

"You can't laser remove a spiritual scar from a blood rite," I said. "Check her arm, Dante. Really check it. And then remember the song the girl hummed to you while you were bleeding out. It was *'Clair de Lune'*. Chiara hates classical music. She only listens to pop."

"Stop it," he warned. "You are just jealous."

"And tell me," I continued, my voice trembling with the weight of the secret I had kept for seven years. "Why would an Omega be locked in a maximum-security prison for a traffic accident? Think, Dante. Use that Alpha brain. Why did the security footage vanish? Why was the witness list sealed?"

"To protect you from-"

"To shut me up!" I screamed. "My parents drained me dry to save you, gave the credit to Chiara so she could be Luna, and then threw me in a hole so I couldn't tell you the truth! They didn't protect me from the enemy pack. They protected their lie from *you*!"

"That's insane," Dante whispered. "Parents wouldn't do that to their own child."

"They would if that child was an Omega disappointment and the other was a star."

"I don't believe you," he said. But his voice cracked.

"I know," I said. Tears finally spilled down my cheeks. "You never believed in me. You only believed in what was easy."

"Alessia, wait-"

"Goodbye, Dante."

I hung up.

Then, I did something permanent. I reached into my mind, found the thick, golden rope that was the Mate Bond, and I built a wall of brick and mortar around my end of it.

I blocked him.

For the first time in my life, the constant hum of his existence in the back of my mind went silent.

It was lonely. It was terrifying.

But it was peaceful.

I lay down on the cot. Tomorrow, the boat would leave. Tomorrow, Alessia Salinas would die, and the White Phoenix would begin to rise.

I closed my eyes, and for the first time in seven years, I didn't dream of silver bars. I dreamed of running.

*