Lila's POV

I ran through the Darkwood, my heart pounding in my chest, branches whipping at my face and tearing at my dress. The cool night air did nothing to calm the fire burning through me - a mixture of shame, anger, and the lingering sensation of the stranger's touch on my skin. I could still feel where his hands had gripped my waist, where his mouth had pressed against my breast.

Mother would be ashamed of me.

The thought echoed through my mind with every step. I had given away the one thing that made me valuable to my pack, to my family. The one thing a female wolf had to trade for security, for status, for a future. And

I'd given it to a dying stranger in the woods, a man I didn't even know.

The lights of our pack house appeared through the trees, casting long shadows across the clearing. My legs burned as I pushed myself harder, desperate to reach the safety of my room before anyone saw me. Maybe I could wash away the evidence, pretend none of it had happened. Maybe I could still find a way to fix this shattered night.

I burst through the front door, my chest heaving, hair wild and dress in disarray. But my hopes died as I saw who was waiting.

Father sat in his heavy wooden chair by the fireplace, his face a mask of barely contained rage. Beside him stood my stepmother, her lips twisted in judgment. And there, between them, was my stepsister Clara, wearing a dress barely disguised by a thin shawl, her hair mussed and cheeks flushed.

"There she is!" Clara pointed a manicured finger at me, her voice shrill with triumph. "The shameless whore returns!"

I froze in the doorway, my blood turning to ice.

"Father, I saw Lila," Clara continued, her eyes gleaming with malice. "In the Darkwood. She was... she was with a strange man." She lowered her voice to a scandalized whisper. "Having sex. Like a common animal in the woods!"

"Shameless!" my stepmother chimed in, her voice dripping with venom. "After everything we've done for you, after all the sacrifices..."

My father rose from his chair, his massive frame filling the room. I cowered back, knowing what was coming, but still the force of his hand against my face knocked me sideways. My cheek burned, tears springing to my eyes as I stumbled back against the wall.

"You stupid girl!" he roared, his face contorted with fury. "You've shamed our entire family! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I didn't!" I cried out, tears streaming down my face. "I swear, Father, I'm still a virgin! I didn't do anything!"

My stepsister let out a cruel laugh. "Liar! I saw you with my own eyes. I followed the scent of your perfume, thinking you were up to no good, and what did I find? You, rutting with some stranger in the woods like a bitch in heat!"

"No!" I shook my head frantically, my mind racing. "It's not like that! I found him injured, I was trying to help..."

"Don't lie to me!" My father stepped closer, his hand raised again. "Your stepsister tells me she saw everything. Saw you on top of him, heard your moans of pleasure."

"I wasn't -" I started, but he cut me off with a backhand that sent me sprawling to the floor.

"You'll speak when spoken to!" He loomed over me, his eyes burning with Alpha authority. "Do you know what this means? No respectable male will ever want you now. You're damaged goods, worthless to us, worthless to the pack."

Tears choked my throat as I looked up at him. "But Kael... Kael is my chosen mate. He'll still want me..."

Clara's laughter filled the room again. "Oh, you poor, stupid girl. Kael told my father everything. He and I are fated mates, true bonded by the Moon Goddess herself. You? You're just a placeholder, a mistake he was forced into by your father and his weak position in the pack."

My heart shattered all over again. "But... but he said he loved me. We've been preparing for the mating ceremony for years..."

"And now he's preparing for me," Clara gloated, stepping closer so I could smell Kael's scent still lingering on her skin. "He told me everything - how he's been counting down the days until he could be free of you. How he never wanted you, that you were nothing but a duty imposed on him by pack politics."

"No!" I scrambled to my feet, desperation clawing at my chest. "Father, you can't believe her! She's lying! I saw them together today - Kael and Clara - I saw them having sex in his cabin!"

My father's expression darkened, if that was even possible. "So you admit you were spying on them?

Violating their privacy, trying to catch them in some imagined wrongdoing to cover for your own indiscretions?"

"I wasn't spying! I went to bring him flowers for his birthday, and I heard them!" My voice cracked as I pleaded. "Please, Father, you have to believe me. Kael said terrible things about me, said I was nothing, that

Clara was his true mate..."

"And so she is," my father growled. "Kael came to me himself after he and Clara had... bonded. He told me how you've been pursuing him, how you've been throwing yourself at him despite his lack of interest. How you've been trying to seduce him away from his true mate."

"That's not true!" I cried. "I never -"

"Silence!" My father's hand came down again, striking me so hard I tasted blood. "Kael told me everything.

About how you've been obsessed with him for years, how you've been using every trick you could think of to get him to claim you. How you offered yourself to him, again and again, even when he made it clear he wanted someone else."

"Father, please..."

"He said you even threatened to kill yourself if he didn't choose you," my stepmother added, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "That you've been unstable for months, becoming increasingly desperate as your birthday approached."

"That's a lie!" I screamed. "I never said that! Kael never said anything to me about -"

"Enough!" My father grabbed me by the front of my dress, shaking me like a disobedient pup. "You're not only a whore, you're a liar. You shame our family, you shame our pack, and you dishonor the Moon Goddess with your behavior."

He released me, letting me fall to the floor in a heap of tears and broken pride. "I've spoken with Alpha Kael and his father. Tomorrow night, there's a mating dance for eligible unmated wolves. You will attend, and you will find someone - anyone - willing to take you despite your... indiscretions."

"What?" I stared up at him in horror. "But I thought Kael was..."

"Kael is with Clara now, as fate intended," my father spat. "And you need to be off my hands, before your disgrace spreads any further. You'll find a replacement mate tomorrow night, or I'll have no choice but to sentence you to death."

The blood drained from my face. "Death? Father, you can't be serious..."

"I am deadly serious," he said coldly. "A daughter who brings shame to her family, who refuses to accept her place, who can't even keep her legs closed for her chosen mate... such a daughter is worse than useless to me.

She's a liability."

He turned his back on me, dismissing me as easily as he would swat away a fly. "Go to your room. You're not to leave until tomorrow night's dance. And if I hear so much as a whisper of any more inappropriate behavior..."

He didn't need to finish the threat. I knew what he was capable of. Every wolf in the pack knew.

I scrambled to my feet and fled to my room, ignoring Clara's triumphant smirk and my stepmother's sneer.

Once inside, I locked the door and collapsed onto my bed, tears soaking my pillow as my world crumbled around me.

Outside my window, the moon hung full and bright, mocking me with its perfect silver light. The Moon

Goddess had supposedly destined Kael and Clara to be together, had supposedly crafted their perfect match while leaving me to be nothing more than an obstacle, a third wheel, a joke.

I curled into a ball, my body trembling, and for the first time in my life, I cursed the Moon Goddess. I cursed the pack, the traditions, the unfair expectations placed on me as a female wolf. And most of all, I cursed myself for believing that I could ever be worthy of love.

Tomorrow night, I would have to find a mate, or die. And as I drifted into an uneasy sleep, one face kept flashing through my mind - the dying stranger in the woods, with his piercing gray eyes and his hands that had held me with such desperate need.

The stranger whose touch still burned on my skin, whose scent still lingered in my memory. The stranger who had taken my virginity and perhaps, in that one brief moment, given me something real in exchange.

A stranger whose identity I might never know.

Lila's POV

The silk of my dress clung to my curves like a second skin, deep emerald green to catch the candlelight and distract from the hollow feeling in my chest. I had spent hours in front of the mirror, weaving flowers into my long, chestnut hair and applying kohl to my warm brown eyes, trying to paint over the heartbreak with a veneer of desirability. Tonight wasn't about love. It was about survival. My father had made the ultimatum clear: find a mate to claim me, or face the executioner's blade for shaming the family.

I walked into the great hall, the air thick with the scent of mulled wine, roasting meat, and the heavy musk of unmated wolves. The music thrummed, a low, primal beat that vibrated in my chest, reminding me of the rogue’s heartbeat in the woods. I swallowed the memory down. I couldn't afford to think about him, about the way his hands had felt, the way he had needed me. I needed to find someone who would look at me and see a future, not just a warm body for the night.

Almost immediately, a tall wolf with broad shoulders stepped into my path. His eyes raked over me, not with admiration, but with a hunger that made my skin crawl.

"You look lonely, little dove," he murmured, leaning in too close, his breath hot against my ear. "My room is quiet. We could... get to know each other."

"I'm looking for a mate," I said, keeping my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. "A bond. Not a tumble in the sheets."

He laughed, a short, dismissive sound. "Why buy the cow when the milk is free for the asking? Come on, don't play hard to get. I can smell the desperation on you."

I recoiled, stepping around him, but it was the same story wherever I turned. They saw a beautiful girl, soft curves and a gentle face, and they assumed I was easy prey. They wanted a one-night stand, a warm hole to fill, a fleeting pleasure. But I had already given away the one thing they valued most—my purity. I was ruined goods in their eyes, and yet, the irony was, the only thing I truly wanted was what they wouldn't give: someone to cherish me. Someone who would hold me through the night and stay when the sun rose, who wouldn't mind that I was broken, that I had given myself to a stranger in the dirt to save a life.

"You look pathetic, Lila."

The voice cut through the noise like a knife. I froze, turning slowly to see Clara standing there with Kael by her side. Clara was dressed in shimmering silver, her smile sharp enough to draw blood. Kael looked bored, his arm possessively wrapped around Clara's waist, but his eyes flicked over me with a sneer.

"Clara," I said, my voice tight.

"Did you think dressing like a gaudy prostitute would make you forget that no one wants you?" Clara stepped closer, lowering her voice so only the three of us could hear. "We all know you're damaged. We can smell it.

You're loose, Lila. Used."

Kael chuckled darkly. "She's right. You look desperate. It’s embarrassing. I’m glad I saw the truth in time.

Imagine being tied to you for life, knowing you let some random rogue defile you in the woods."

"Shut up, Kael," I hissed, tears stinging my eyes. "You don't know anything about it. You were too busy fucking my sister to care about me."

"And it was the best night of my life," Clara shot back, her eyes dancing with malice. "He's a real Alpha, Lila.

Not that weakling you probably spread your legs for in the Darkwood. Did he even knot you? Or was he too busy dying?"

The humiliation washed over me, hot and suffocating. I felt the eyes of the pack on me, the whispers starting as people pointed. I turned to flee, to run out of the hall and take my chances with the forest, but suddenly, the heavy oak doors at the end of the hall slammed open with a crash that shook the floorboards.

The music died instantly. The chatter stopped. A silence so absolute it rang in my ears fell over the room.

A man stood in the doorway. He was colossal, towering over every other wolf present, his frame filling the entrance with a terrifying, magnetic presence. He had dark, wind-swept hair and a jawline cut from granite, but it was his eyes that pinned me to the spot—icy, pale gray, glowing with a power that made the air in the room feel thin.

He wore the leathers of a traveler, but the aura radiating from him was undeniable. The sheer dominance, the command, the terrifying pressure of an Alpha hierarchy. It was the Alpha King. The ruler of all packs. He wasn't supposed to be here, not in our territory, not at a provincial mating dance.

He strode into the room, parting the crowd like the sea. Every wolf bowed their head in submission, including my father, who had gone pale near the dais. The King ignored them all, his head swiveling as he scanned the faces, his nose flaring as if he were hunting a specific scent.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I knew that scent. I knew the tension in his shoulders, the way he moved with a predator's grace.

He stopped in the center of the floor. "I am not here for politics," his voice boomed, deep and rough, silencing the remaining gasps. "I am here for the one who saved my life."

My breath hitched in my throat. No.

"The night of the full moon," he continued, his gray eyes sweeping the room, locking onto the crowd of trembling females. "I was dying in the Darkwood. Silver poisoning. A woman found me. She gave me her...

essence when I was at death's door. She healed me with a bond."

He took a step forward, the intensity of his gaze making my knees weak. "She is my fated mate. The Moon

Goddess has shown me her face in my dreams, but I need to see her in the flesh. I will find the woman who saved me, and I will claim her as my Queen."

A ripple of shock went through the room. Whispers exploded. The Alpha King? Looking for a mate in the

North? And she had saved him?

I shrank back against the wall, praying the shadows would hide me. I had saved him, yes. I had given him my virginity to burn out the poison. But I couldn't be his Queen. I was a disgrace, a traitor to my pack's honor.

And he was a King. He would hate me when he found out I was the daughter of a lower Alpha, that I was the one Kael had discarded.

"I know you are here," the King growled, his voice low and dangerous, vibrating in my chest. "I can smell you.

Wild daisies and rain."

My scent. My stomach dropped. I closed my eyes, terrified he would see me.

Suddenly, a gasp went up from the crowd. I opened my eyes to see Clara pushing through the mass of bodies, her face flushed, her eyes wide with calculated awe. She smoothed her silver dress and stepped forward, right into the Alpha King's path.

She reached into her bodice and pulled out a long, tattered strip of white cloth.

My blood turned to ice.

It was the blindfold. The strip of cloth I had used to tie around his eyes in the woods. The one I had left behind when I fled.

Clara held it up, her hand shaking just enough to look theatrical. "My King," she said, dropping into a curtsy that looked practiced and perfect. "I... I was so afraid you wouldn't find me."

The King’s gaze snapped to her, then to the cloth in her hand.

Clara looked up at him, tears shimmering in her eyes. "It was me. I found you in the woods that night. I saved you. I didn't want to tell anyone because... because I didn't know who you were. But this... this fell from your eyes when I left."

Liar. The word screamed in my mind, but my voice was gone.

Beside me, Kael stiffened, his eyes widening as he looked at Clara, then at the King. He looked completely blindsided, his mouth falling open in shock. He had no idea she had the blindfold. He had no idea she was planning this.

The Alpha King stared at Clara, his expression unreadable, while I stood frozen in the shadows, my heart shattering all over again.