Eliana POV:

Three weeks later, I was walking with a cane. The cast was off, but the limp was noticeable. The doctor said my dancing career was over.

I didn't believe him. I wouldn't let Jax take that from me, too.

Tonight was the Full Moon Party. Attendance was mandatory for all pack members. It was a time for the wolf spirit to revel in the moon's energy.

I wore a simple black dress that covered my brace. I stood in the corner of the great hall, watching the pack dance and drink.

The music stopped abruptly. The crowd parted.

Jax entered. He was wearing a tuxedo, looking every bit the future king. On his arm was Catalina, draped in red sequins, looking like a triumphant queen.

He reeked of her. He was marking her with his scent intentionally, masking her natural smell with his own to warn off other males.

It was the ultimate disrespect to a Fated Mate.

He scanned the room and locked eyes with me. He frowned when he saw the cane.

I felt a prod at my mental barrier. He was trying to Mind-Link me.

Open the link, Eliana, he pushed.

I kept the wall up. It was solid brick now.

Jax narrowed his eyes. He grabbed a microphone from the stage.

"Let's play a game!" he announced, his voice booming. The crowd cheered, drunk on moonshine and loyalty. "Truth or Dare."

The bottle spun on the large table in the center of the room. It landed on Catalina.

"Dare!" she squealed.

Jax smirked. "I dare you... to kiss the highest-ranking male in the room."

The room went silent. Everyone looked at me. I was the Mate. By law, I was the highest-ranking female. This dare was a direct challenge to my status.

Catalina pretended to look shy. She glanced at me, a mock apology in her eyes, before turning to Jax.

She grabbed his lapels and pulled him down.

Jax didn't pull away. He kissed her back. Deeply. Passionately. He tangled his hand in her hair, pulling her closer, making a show of it.

The crowd erupted in awkward cheers and nervous murmurs.

Look at her, they whispered. The Alpha prefers the mistress. The Mate is defective.

Jax broke the kiss and looked straight at me, wiping lipstick from his mouth.

"Some she-wolves are born to please," he said into the microphone, his eyes boring into mine. "And some are just... burdens."

The silence that followed was deafening.

I didn't cry. I didn't run.

I tapped my cane on the floor, the sound echoing in the quiet hall. I limped forward until I was standing in front of the stage.

I looked up at him. My face was completely void of emotion. No anger. No sadness. Just nothing.

"Are you finished?" I asked. My voice wasn't loud, but in the silence, it carried.

Jax blinked, confused by my lack of reaction. He wanted tears. He wanted me to beg.

"Eliana—"

"You are not a king, Jax," I said calmly. "You are just a male with a title your father gave you."

I looked at Catalina, then back at him.

"And you have poor taste."

I turned around.

"How dare you!" Jax roared. The Alpha Aura slammed into the room, making people drop to their knees.

But I didn't kneel.

The pain in my knee was blinding, but I locked my joints. I kept my spine straight.

"You are nothing to me," I said, not looking back. "Just a common male."

I walked out of the hall. The pressure of his aura pushed against my back, trying to crush me, but I used it as fuel.

I heard glass shattering behind me. Jax had thrown his drink against the wall.

He was angry. Good.

Because I was done being sad.

Eliana POV:

I was passing the Alpha's study on my way to the library when I heard my name.

My wolf hearing, usually dull due to my suppression, pricked up. I stopped, pressing myself against the oak paneling.

"...she's getting defiant, Jax. It's not a good look," said Mason, the pack Beta.

"Let her have her tantrums," Jax's voice replied, dismissive and arrogant. "She's weak, Mason. She needs to be broken down before she can be built up as a Luna."

My breath hitched. Broken down?

"Is that why you're parading Catalina around?" Mason asked.

"Exactly," Jax laughed. It was a cold, calculating sound. "I don't love Catalina. She's a toy. But Eliana... Eliana is too soft. Too proud. I need to tame her. I need to show her that she is nothing without me. Once she learns to submit, completely and utterly, then I'll mark her."

I covered my mouth to stifle a gasp.

It wasn't just cruelty. It was a strategy. He was using psychological warfare to turn me into a docile pet. He didn't want a partner. He wanted a slave.

A low growl vibrated in my chest.

I hurried back to my room, my hands shaking.

When I got there, Jax was leaning against my doorframe. He held a thick envelope in his hand.

The logo on the envelope was unmistakable: Empire Moon Academy, New York.

My heart stopped. Elder Sal had come through.

"Going somewhere?" Jax asked, waving the letter.

"Give that to me," I said, reaching for it.

He held it out of reach. "New York? Don't be ridiculous. You'd be eaten alive in the city. You're a country mouse, Eliana."

"It's my life, Jax."

"It's my life!" he shouted, stepping closer. "You belong to the Iron Claw. You belong to me. I've decided you're going to the West Coast branch. It's a smaller school. Easier. And I have men there who can keep an eye on you."

"I'm not going to the West Coast," I said firmly.

"You will go where I tell you to go!"

Suddenly, his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen.

"It's Catalina," he muttered. "She says she hears a Rogue near the perimeter."

I scoffed. "We live in a gated compound, Jax. There are no Rogues here. She just wants attention."

"You don't know that," he snapped. "I have to go."

He looked at the letter in his hand, then at me.

"This is the last warning, Eliana. Stop dreaming."

He tossed the letter onto his desk, not bothering to destroy it—he was that confident I wouldn't disobey. Then he turned and ran down the hall, rushing to save the girl who was crying wolf.

I stared at the letter.

He chose a lie over my future. Again. But he made a mistake. He assumed I was still the girl who asked for permission.

I bent down and picked up the envelope.

"You're right, Jax," I whispered to the empty hallway. "I won't survive a week."

I opened the door to my room and pulled out my suitcase.

"Not if I stay the girl you think I am."

Eliana POV:

Dawn was breaking, painting the sky in bruises of purple and grey.

I had packed everything I owned into two suitcases. My car was waiting at the back gate.

But there was one last thing I had to do.

I walked to the edge of the forest, to the Sacred Oak. It was a massive tree, centuries old, where pack lovers carved their initials. It was a superstition: carve your names, and the Moon Goddess blesses the union.

Years ago, when I was sixteen and stupidly in love, I had carved J.L. + E.C. into the rough bark.

I stood before it now. The letters were weathered but deep.

I pulled a small knife from my pocket. The handle was leather, but the blade... the blade was pure silver.

Silver is poison to us. It burns the skin like acid. But it was the only thing that could kill the magic of the carving.

I gripped the knife. My hand sizzled where my skin brushed the metal guard. I hissed in pain but didn't let go.

I started to scrape.

Scrape.

Wood chips flew.

Scrape.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't turn. I knew the voice. Jax. And the giggle behind him—Catalina.

"Erasing a mistake," I said, gouging the wood. The 'J' was gone.

Jax grabbed my wrist. "Stop it! That's silver! You're hurting yourself!"

"Let go!" I screamed, slashing the knife through the air.

He recoiled, shocked by my aggression.

We were standing near the edge of the bog, a muddy patch of land that separated the sacred grounds from the wild forest.

Catalina stepped forward. "She's crazy, Jax. Look at her eyes."

I looked at them. Really looked at them. A boy who thought he was a god, and a girl who would sell her soul for a crown.

"I'm leaving," I said. "I removed you from my emergency contacts. I blocked your number. I am done."

"You can't leave," Jax said, his voice dropping to that dangerous Alpha pitch. "I forbid it."

"Try and stop me."

Catalina saw an opening. She didn't push me this time. She stomped on my bad foot, grinding her heel into my toes.

Reflexively, I jerked back. My bad knee buckled.

I fell backward, sliding down the embankment.

I landed with a wet, squelching thud in the bog. The mud was thick, smelling of rot and decay. It coated my hair, my face, my clothes. It was cold and filthy.

I looked up. They were standing on the high ground, looking down at me.

Jax looked at me covered in filth. He wrinkled his nose.

"Look at yourself, Eliana," he sneered. "You belong in the mud. Stay there and cool off. I don't want a dirty mate."

He turned around. He took Catalina's hand. And he walked away.

He left me in the swamp.

I lay there for a moment, letting the cold seep into my skin. The mud felt heavy, like a grave.

But then, I felt it.

A drumbeat in my chest.

Get up.

The voice in my head wasn't mine. It was ancient. It was regal.

Get. Up.

I dug my fingers into the mud. I pushed myself up. My knee screamed, but I ignored it. I crawled up the bank, clawing at the roots of the Sacred Oak.

I stood up, dripping with slime.

I looked at the tree. The initials were destroyed. Only a jagged scar remained on the bark.

I looked at my hand. The silver burn was blistering, red and angry.

"Good," I whispered.

I limped toward my car. I didn't look back at the Pack House. I didn't look back at the life I was leaving.

I started the engine. As I drove through the gates, leaving the Iron Claw territory, I felt a snap in my chest.

It wasn't painful.

It felt like a chain breaking.

Goodbye, Jax, I thought. Pray we never meet again. Because the next time you see me, I won't be the girl in the mud.

I hit the gas, speeding toward New York, toward the unknown, toward the wolf that was waiting to be born.