Kaelen POV

Hours after condemning myself to a loveless union, I stood before the floor-length mirror in my private suite, adjusting the cuffs of my custom tailored suit. I looked like the powerful Alpha of the Black Moon Pack, but inside I felt like a hollowed out corpse.

Traitor! My inner wolf Draegan roared, his claws tearing at the edges of my consciousness. You commit a greater sin to atone for a mistake!

I gripped the edge of the mahogany vanity, my knuckles whitening. Before I could force Draegan into submission, the door clicked open. Cassondra swept into the room, her lavish gown rustling. Her suffocating, artificially floral perfume assaulted my senses, a pathetic attempt to mask her painfully mediocre wolf scent.

"The florist says winter roses will be perfect for the ceremony," she gushed, her eyes gleaming greedily as she admired my reflection. "Everyone at the gala tonight will know I am your future Luna."

My jaw tightened. I felt nothing at her joy. It disgusted me.

Alpha, the car is ready, an elder's voice echoed in my mind through the mind-link.

"We are leaving," I interrupted Cassondra, my voice like a cold blade. Without waiting for her response, I strode out of the room, leaving her to chase my shadow.

The ride to the Moon's Embrace Charity Gala in the armored SUV was suffocatingly tense. I kept my eyes closed, focusing on the rhythmic hum of the tires to block out Draegan's restless pacing in my mind.

"I cannot believe this year's guest list," my sister Vanessa sneered from the seat across from me. She swirled a glass of sparkling water, her lips twisting into a malicious smirk. "Imagine if that filthy Omega were still here. She would not even be worthy of shining shoes tonight. I bet she is cowering in some rogue infested slum right now, clutching that little bastard."

The words "Omega" and "bastard" drove into my chest like silver daggers.

My eyes snapped open. The temperature inside the SUV plummeted as my Alpha aura expanded violently, crushing the oxygen in the enclosed space. Vanessa gasped, her glass trembling as she shrank back against the leather seat, her eyes widening with sudden terror.

I did not defend Seraphina. My pride and the lies I had swallowed would not allow it. But the deadly promise in my gaze forced Vanessa to shut her mouth. I turned my head to stare out the tinted window, my stomach churning with a nauseating mixture of guilt, primal possessiveness, and a twisted anticipation of seeing Seraphina crumble, just to prove I had not destroyed my soul for nothing.

When we arrived at the gala, the paparazzi's flash bulbs blinded us. Cassondra immediately hooked her arm through mine, strategically angling her wrist to flaunt the heavy moonstone bracelet, the traditional symbol of my Pack's future Luna. She whispered trivial gossip in my ear, but I tuned her out completely.

She was a silent accessory. My senses stretched wide, cutting through the expensive champagne and the thick scents of high society wolves. But I had not come here tonight seeking an ally. My son Liam had less than a month left. The Silverwood Pack possessed an ancient healing secret, my last hope. Dominic Rhodes was the man I needed to convince. I wanted nothing else.

My thoughts drifted briefly to the surname. Rhodes. A common name, not uncommon in this circle. I had no reason to connect it to the Omega I had rejected five years ago. She was just an orphan with no family background, a pawn my mother had forced into the ceremony. I had never bothered to learn her full name. Seraphina was just Seraphina, an insignificant Omega, nothing more.

I shook off the thought and stepped into the magnificent Golden Ball. Crystal chandeliers cast warm starlight over the sea of elites. I endured another twenty minutes of Cassondra's clinginess until the Master of Ceremonies approached the grand microphone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Alpha of the Silverwood Pack, Sir Dominic Rhodes!"

I turned immediately toward the grand staircase, squaring my posture.

Then my entire world stopped spinning.

The air vanished from my lungs. A scent pierced through the crowded ballroom, devastatingly familiar and intoxicating, the mixed fragrance of honeysuckle after rain and pure moonlight. It slammed into my chest, a violent electric shock that traveled straight to my marrow. My heart pounded against my ribs, and the open, bleeding void in my soul suddenly screamed for the only thing that could fill it.

*Mine! *Draegan roared, the sound deafening, nearly driving me to my knees.

Walking down the stairs was Seraphina, her hand elegantly resting on a man's arm.

She was not rotting in a slum. She had not crumbled. She was draped in a gown woven like silver thread, her dark curls cascading over her shoulders, her skin radiating an ethereal, untouchable power. She looked like a goddess.

My gaze shifted to the broad shouldered man beside her. His face was the exact match to the photograph Vanessa had thrown onto her lap five years ago. The deep scent of cedar and earth finally registered in my consciousness, the scent of Dominic Rhodes. The man I had believed she chose to betray me. The man I had traveled thousands of miles to beg from to save my son.

Rhodes.

Seraphina Rhodes.

The name finally detonated in my mind like a slap to the face.

I should have known. Five years ago, I had personally presided over the ceremony rejecting her. I had looked at that photograph with my own eyes. I had smelled that man's scent. Yet in the five years since, I had never connected the Alpha of the Silverwood Pack to the man in the photograph. I had never investigated his background. I had never cross checked his appearance. I had arrived desperate, blundering into tonight's gala like a blind man.

The Moon Goddess must be laughing at me, Draegan growled in my mind, his voice dripping with sarcasm. You rejected her with your own hands, and now you crawl to beg for her mate's help. And you were not even smart enough to see it coming.

And now she stood beside him, radiating a noble elegance that shattered every lie I had ever believed

Seraphina POV

Descending the grand staircase of the Golden Ball, I held my head high, mustering every ounce of aristocratic elegance I possessed. The ballroom was a sea of expensive champagne, dazzling crystal chandeliers, and the suffocatingly thick scents of elite wolves. My hand rested lightly on Dominic's arm, his steady cedar and earth scent offering a small comfort to the phantom ache in my chest.

Five years ago, I could have asked my brother for help. But I was too proud, too ashamed. I had been rejected by my fated mate, cast out as an Omega with a weak wolf. Dominic had warned me not to accept that ceremony. He said Kaelen was not worthy of me. I did not listen to him. When I was driven out of the Black Moon Pack with my newborn daughter, I chose to scrape by on the margins rather than return to him in defeat and hear him say, "I told you so."

Until three months ago, when I held my feverish daughter in my arms with only a few coins left in my pocket. Only then did I finally dial the number I had been too afraid to call. Dominic did not ask why I had waited five years. He simply came.

I knew he was here. I could feel his presence in the electric hum that filled the air, but I refused to search the crowd for Kaelen Steele. That man had taken my son Liam, simply because he was the "future Alpha heir," and thrown me and my daughter out like trash. What right did he have to stand here and look at me now?

When Dominic was briefly pulled into a political conversation by an elder, I slipped away toward the marble bar to get a glass of water. I just needed a minute to breathe.

But peace was a luxury I had never been allowed.

A familiar, malicious scent drifted into my nostrils. I turned around, facing the coming confrontation head-on. I was no longer the pushover Omega I had been five years ago.

Vanessa Steele stopped before me, a venomous, false smile plastered on her face. But there was a tightness at the corner of her eyes, a slight tremor in her fingers. She was afraid. That gave me a small, cold satisfaction.

"I cannot believe a banished Omega slut has the nerve to crawl back," she hissed, her voice dripping with pure poison, but pitched low, as if she did not want to attract too much attention.

I stepped forward. The movement was so sudden that she instinctively took half a step back. "Why are you trembling, Vanessa?" My voice was eerily calm. "Is it because your brother nearly broke your neck last time, or because you finally realize that the woman standing before you now is no longer the Omega you used to bully?"

Her face flushed crimson. Anger overpowered her fear. She snatched a crystal goblet of red wine from a passing server's tray and hurled the liquid directly at me.

I did not dodge. The deep red liquid splashed violently against my silver woven gown, dripping down the bodice like fresh blood. The surrounding crowd gasped.

"Get out!" Vanessa shrieked, her voice cutting through the classical music and echoing through the air. "You do not belong here!"

But the moment the words left her mouth, a suffocating wave of winter pine and ozone swept through the room. Kaelen strode forward, but his gaze was not on Vanessa. It was fixed on me. Those obsidian eyes churned with something I could not name.

"Vanessa," Kaelen spoke, his voice low and dangerous. "Go to the car. Now."

Vanessa's face went pale. She opened her mouth, but Kaelen did not even look at her. His eyes never left mine. Vanessa bit her lip and turned to flee in disgrace as the crowd whispered among themselves.

I waited for Kaelen to speak. To mention Liam. Our son. The child he was supposed to be desperately trying to save.

But he just stood there looking at me.

Something cold settled in my chest. "You have nothing to say to me, Alpha?" My voice was calmer than I expected.

Kaelen's jaw tightened. I saw his throat bob as he swallowed, but he said nothing.

Then a low, floor-shaking growl rumbled from the side. Dominic appeared beside me, his powerful frame blocking my ruined gown from the crowd's view. His Alpha aura exploded outward, a heavy, suffocating pressure that forced nearby wolves to bow their heads.

"Kaelen Steele," Dominic's voice was like a winter blade. "You humiliated my sister five years ago. Tonight, your sister attacked her in public. You should be grateful I have not yet decided to treat this as an act of war against the Silverwood Pack."

Kaelen's gaze finally left my face and met Dominic's. The air crackled between the two Alphas.

"I have no intention of offending the Silverwood Pack," Kaelen said at last, his voice low and restrained. He turned to me, something flickering in his eyes before he suppressed it. "Seraphina. We need to talk."

Liam. Was he thinking about Liam? Or did he just want to talk about an "alliance"?

I looked at him, said nothing, then turned and took Dominic's arm. "Let's go."

Dominic gave me a reassuring nod and led me through the crowd, away from that man.

Twenty minutes later, the ruined silver gown lay discarded on the floor of a private dressing room. I stared at my pale reflection in the vanity mirror. Dominic leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, his face expressionless.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"He needs something from me," I said, my fingers smoothing the fabric of the备用礼服. "Otherwise, he would not have looked at me like that. He did not even look back when he threw me away five years ago."

"The Silverwood Pack's intelligence network is not just for show," Dominic said. "I can find out."

I thought of Liam. My son, whom I had not seen in five years. He had been kept by the man who threw me out like garbage. Would he even recognize me now? Did he even know I existed?

"Find out," I said, my voice steadier than I expected. "But before that, I need to see him. Not like just now, staring at each other across a crowd. I need to speak with him face to face."

Dominic frowned. "That is dangerous."

"I do not care." I stood up and smoothed my skirt. "He owes me an explanation. About Liam. About everything five years ago. I will not hide like a frightened mouse again before I get my answers."

Dominic was silent for a long moment, then finally nodded. "I will arrange guards."

"No," I said. "I am going alone."

His frown deepened. "Seraphina."

"I have been hiding for five years, brother." I looked at myself in the mirror. The pushover Omega who used to let herself be bullied was gone. "Now it is his turn to face me."

Dominic sighed but did not stop me. He knew that when I used that tone, no amount of persuasion would work.

I walked out of the dressing room, crossed the bustling Golden Ball without checking whether Kaelen was still there, and headed toward the corridor leading to the private terrace. It was quiet there. A good place to think. And a good place to wait for a man to come to me.

If he really wanted to "talk," he would come. If he did not, then I would know that he had never cared about me or our son.

He only cared about his own interests.

Seraphina POV

The dimly lit corridor was a stark contrast to the dazzling Golden Ball. The thick crimson carpet muffled my footsteps as stern portraits of past Black Moon Alphas glared down at me from shadowed walls. I just needed a moment to breathe, away from the suffocating politics and prying eyes.

But I didn't even have time to exhale before a violent surge of winter pine and ozone hit me.

A large hand clamped down on my upper arm, the touch sending a traitorous electric current straight to my marrow. Before I could react, I was shoved roughly against the wall, trapped between the expensive vintage wallpaper and Kaelen's towering frame.

His obsidian eyes were wild, burning with a toxic mixture of rage, betrayal, and primal possessiveness. But I knew his anger wasn't because he had just discovered who I was. He had seen me standing beside Dominic at the ball. He had already understood the meaning of the surname. His anger was because I dared to come back, because his world was falling apart at this moment, and he didn't know how to handle it.

"You think you can just show up like this?" he growled, his voice a deadly whisper that vibrated against my skin. "With his scent on you, wearing his clothes, and just walk away unscathed?"

My inner wolf, Selene, bared her teeth, her silver fur bristling at the disrespect. I forced my chin up, refusing to yield to the heavy Alpha aura he was trying to crush me with.

"Let me go, Kaelen."

His grip tightened, the severed mate-bond humming painfully beneath our skin. "Is this the example you're setting for my daughter?" he spat, his gaze dropping to my lips before snapping back to my eyes. "Five years. You disappeared for five years, hiding her somewhere I couldn't find. What have you been teaching her? How to run away like you?"

A blazing fury ignited in my chest. "You have no right to speak her name," I hissed, pushing my hands against his solid chest. "You drove us out, Kaelen. You kept Liam and threw us away like garbage. What right do you have to accuse me of anything?"

Something flickered across his face, something that looked like pain, or confusion. "I—"

Before he could finish, the cloying mixture of artificial flowers, vanilla, and sharp mint invaded the narrow space.

"There you are, Kae." Cassondra cooed, emerging from the shadows with Vanessa and Elara flanking her like a pack of hounds. Cassondra immediately latched onto Kaelen's free arm, her eyes gleaming with malicious jealousy when she noticed our proximity.

Vanessa visibly froze when she saw me. Her gaze flickered away, unable to meet my eyes, let alone her brother's. She had already been publicly humiliated once tonight at the ball, and now her face was etched with tension and unease, completely devoid of the arrogant spite she had shown when throwing her wine.

Elara, Kaelen's mother, stepped forward, her face carved from ice. "Some stains can never be washed away," she said coldly.

"Not now," Kaelen growled at them. Yet his hand remained wrapped around my arm, his knuckles white. He was torn between the excuses he had woven for his cruel actions and the mate-bond that made his inner wolf, Draegan, scream at him not to let go.

The combined hostility of their scents was suffocating. Drawing on Selene's strength, I wrenched my arm free from Kaelen's grasp and stepped out of his shadow.

"Stay away from her."

The low, earth-shaking command penetrated the floor. Dominic strode down the corridor, his tall frame immediately blocking me from the Black Moon wolves. His rich cedar and earth scent dispelled the toxic air and grounded me.

"Lord Rhodes," Kaelen said quickly, his Alpha mask snapping back into place. "We still have matters of alliance to discuss. Your—"

"Sister," Dominic interrupted, his voice calm but edged with steel. "My sister, Steele. You should have understood that from what I said at the ball. Or did you not bother to check her surname when you rejected her five years ago?"

Kaelen froze. He stared at Dominic, then at me, the color draining from his handsome face. Rhodes. The name detonated in his mind, not for the first time. He had already realized it at the ball. But now it landed with a new, heavier weight. He realized that the woman he had rejected with his own hands five years ago was not a backgroundless orphan, but the sister of the Silverwood Pack's Alpha.

He realized that the ally he had been desperately seeking, his only hope of saving his son, was the brother of the woman he had humiliated and cast out.

He realized that every lie he had ever believed about her being unworthy of him had, at this moment, turned into a blade aimed at his own throat.

Dominic's Alpha aura exploded outward, that overwhelming pressure causing several nearby wolves to stumble and bare their necks. "Any alliance is built on respect," Dominic continued, his voice echoing in the sudden silence of the corridor. "And you, five years ago you humiliated my sister, and tonight you allowed your people to attack her in public. Perhaps I should reconsider whether you and your pack are still worth a chance."

The power dynamic shattered in an instant, only to be rebuilt in my hands. Kaelen stared at me, humiliated and cornered by his desperate need for Silverwood's military support against the Rogue threat, not to mention the impending death of his son Liam. For the first time in five years, I was no longer the victim. I held the blade.

Kaelen clenched his jaw so hard I thought his teeth might crack. He swallowed his pride and stiffly pointed toward the glass doors leading outside.

"Then let us talk privately on the terrace."

I did not flinch. I met his gaze and walked into the night.