Elara POV

We reached the second floor of the mansion.

The hallway was a wide, silent gallery of ancestral portraits, their painted eyes following my every move.

Kael stopped in front of a large wooden door.

He pushed it open.

The room beyond was a vision of comfort, scented with lavender and fresh linen.

It was beautiful, with a large bed draped in what looked like heavy ermine blankets.

Seraphina smiled at me.

It was a fake smile that did not reach her eyes.

"This room is for high-ranking wolves," Seraphina said sweetly. "You are very lucky."

I took a step forward, but Kael suddenly blocked the doorway.

He looked down at me with pure disgust.

“An Omega’s constitution is too weak for the energies on this floor,” Kael mocked.

He turned around and walked over to the large bed.

There was a pile of brand-new, warm clothes folded neatly on the mattress.

Kael grabbed the clothes with his large hands.

He hurled them with a casual violence onto the polished floorboards.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

Kael did not answer.

He raised his heavy boots and ground the clean clothes into the floor, smearing the dirt from his soles into the soft wool.

He was exercising a fraction of his Alpha’s destructive urge, a territorial marking of contempt.

Seraphina stood in the hallway and laughed loudly.

"Aren't you afraid the Elder will punish you with pack rules?" Seraphina teased him.

Kael let out a cold laugh.

“My grandmother will never punish the future Alpha for the sake of a broken Omega,” he said with absolute certainty.

He looked at me, expecting me to cry or beg.

I just stood there in silence.

I held the wooden box tightly, refusing to let my tears fall.

My silence made Kael angry.

His eyes locked onto the wooden box in my arms.

"What is that ugly thing?" Kael demanded.

Seraphina gasped in a fake, dramatic way.

“I wager it’s a box of charnel dust,” she squealed. “Take it from her, Kael!”

Kael lunged forward with incredible speed.

Before I could react, his strong hands gripped the wooden box.

"No!" I screamed, pulling back with all my weak strength.

He ripped the box easily from my arms.

He held it high in the air above his head.

He looked at my terrified face and smiled.

Then, he opened his hands.

The heavy wooden box tumbled toward the hard floor—taking with it the last piece of my family and the only safety I had left in this world.