Elara Thorne POV:

The frigid water of the creek soaked the hem of my dress, the biting cold a welcome shock that pierced through the numbness of my despair. It was real. This was happening.

I gripped the rough bark of a nearby birch tree, using it to haul myself to my feet. My legs felt like jelly, threatening to give out with every movement.

*Let’s go home… I’m cold…* Lyra’s plea was a child’s whimper in my head.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, the air burning my lungs. *No tears,* I commanded myself, the words a familiar, harsh echo of my father’s lifelong training. *A Silvermoon heir does not weep.*

I smoothed my damp, wrinkled dress and wiped the moisture from my face. Turning my back on the creek that had swallowed my death sentence, I started the long walk back to the Blackwood Packhouse.

Every step sent a jolt of pain through my body. It felt as though my very life force was a sandcastle, and the tide was relentlessly pulling it out to sea, grain by grain.

Halfway there, I saw a figure coming toward me. It was Leo Nash, a young Omega boy, his arms laden with a basket of fresh linens.

He saw me and immediately bowed his head in a gesture of respect. “Future Luna.”

Then he looked up, and his brow furrowed with concern as he took in my pale face and soaked dress. “Are you alright, Luna? You look…”

I forced a smile, the perfect, placid expression I had perfected over years of public appearances. “I’m fine, Leo. I was just taking a walk by the creek. I slipped.”

The smile was flawless, my voice steady. But I saw a flicker of something in his eyes. His wolf’s intuition was sensing something wrong, a scent not of sadness, but of… finality.

He hesitated, then spoke in a hushed tone. “If you need anything, please let me know. Alpha Ryker… he can be… please take care of yourself.”

His clumsy, genuine concern was a pinprick that threatened to burst the fragile bubble of my composure. I felt a hot sting behind my eyes.

I turned my head away quickly, keeping my voice even. “Thank you, Leo.”

I walked past him at a brisk pace, desperate to escape before my weakness was witnessed by anyone, especially the lowest-ranking member of the pack.

The Blackwood Packhouse loomed before me, a grand, imposing structure of stone and dark timber. It was Ryker’s seat of power, and every inch of it felt like a prison.

As I slipped inside through a side entrance, the sound of a woman’s laughter echoed from the great hall. Seraphina Vale. Ryker’s chosen love.

My feet froze. I shrank back behind a thick stone pillar, my body refusing to move forward. I didn’t have the strength to face her happiness right now.

I could hear her talking to one of the maids. “Ryker is just so sweet. He scoured the entire Northern Forest just to find me that moon-petal bloom.”

Another jolt of pain, sharp and cruel, lanced through my heart. Moon-petal blooms were for healing. For the gash Seraphina had received on her arm during the last rogue skirmish.

The irony was a bitter pill. The moon healed his chosen, while the moon condemned me to die.

I crept away from the sound of her voice, silent as a shadow, and made my way up the winding side staircase to my assigned room.

It was a large, opulent chamber, but it was cold and empty. Ryker had never once set foot in it.

I walked to the full-length mirror and stared at the stranger looking back at me. My eyes, once the color of a stormy sea, were now dull and lifeless.

I could smell it, too. My own scent—the scent of a forest after a summer rain—was fading. It was faint, almost undetectable.

Another sign. My wolf was withering.

I stripped off my damp clothes and stepped into the adjoining bathroom, turning the shower on as hot as I could stand it. Steam filled the small space, but it couldn't touch the chill that had settled deep in my bones, in my very soul.

I leaned against the cool tile wall, closing my eyes, letting the hot water sluice over me. How was I supposed to live out my last days in this hell?

Suddenly, a hard, impatient knock rattled my bedroom door.

“Elara,” a gruff voice called out. It was Kael, Ryker’s Beta. “The Alpha wants you. In the medical wing. Now.”

Elara Thorne POV:

I followed Kael down the long, cold marble corridor. The flickering torchlight cast dancing, monstrous shadows on the stone walls. I could feel his contempt rolling off him in waves. To him, I was just an obstacle, an unwanted complication in his Alpha’s life.

A cold emptiness resided where my connection to Ryker should have been. Since his rejection, the bond between us was a thread worn so thin it was nearly transparent. I couldn't feel his emotions, only a profound and chilling absence.

Kael pushed open the door to the medical wing, and the sharp, clean scent of antiseptic and healing herbs hit me.

And there he was.

Ryker Blackwood stood in the center of the room, his presence so immense it seemed to suck all the air out. He was dressed in black tactical pants and a simple grey t-shirt that did nothing to hide the powerful muscles of his chest and arms. A faint chill still clung to him, the last remnant of the Northern Forest he’d searched for Seraphina.

His eyes, the color of glacial ice, landed on me. He looked at me not as a person, but as an object. An inconvenience.

Across the room, Seraphina Vale was propped up on a bed, looking pale and delicate. A nasty, discolored wound marred the skin of her forearm—a silver wound. She met my gaze, a flash of triumph in her green eyes before it was quickly veiled by a mask of pained fragility.

Ryker didn't waste time with greetings. His voice was as harsh as the winter wind. “Seraphina needs a blood transfusion. The silver poisoning is preventing her from healing. A normal wolf’s blood won’t purify it.”

My stomach plummeted. I knew what was coming.

“But a mate’s blood will,” he continued, his tone flat and devoid of emotion. “Your blood, Elara. You may not be worthy of the title, but the power of the bond still exists in your veins.”

I stared at him, disbelief warring with a fresh wave of agony. He had cast me aside, sentenced me to a slow death, and now he wanted to use the very bond that was killing me to save another woman.

*He dares!* Lyra snarled in my mind, but her rage was a weak, sputtering thing.

“You rejected me,” I whispered, the words barely audible.

A cruel, humorless smile touched his lips. “Rejecting you doesn't mean I can’t make use of you. You owe me this. If it wasn’t for your family’s political scheming, Seraphina and I would have been blessed by the Goddess long ago.”

The pack doctor and a young Omega nurse, Clara Mills, stood off to the side, their heads bowed. I saw Clara dart a look at me, her eyes filled with a deep, helpless sympathy.

I remembered the first time I saw him. It was at a pack run, the full moon hanging in the sky like a silver medallion. His eyes had been bright then, and my wolf had screamed a single, joyful word in my mind: *Mine!*

His scent had been a heady mix of pine and winter storms. Now, all I could feel from him was the biting cold.

I didn’t fight. What was the point? It would only waste the precious little energy I had left. I walked silently to the collection chair and sat down, offering my arm.

My compliance seemed to surprise him for a second, but his expression quickly hardened back into one of disgust. He probably thought it was another one of my pathetic attempts to win his favor.

The Omega nurse, Clara, approached me, her hands trembling. She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I’m… I’m so sorry, Luna,” she murmured.

The needle slid into my vein. I didn’t flinch. I just watched as my life force drained out of me, filling the plastic bag. The blood was a deep crimson, but within it, I could see faint, shimmering flecks of gold—the power of the Mating Bond. My power.

A wave of dizziness washed over me, and the chill in my body intensified.

Lyra’s whimpers grew fainter and fainter in my mind.

Ryker never once looked at me. His gaze was fixed on Seraphina, his icy expression melting into one of tender concern. It was as if I wasn't even in the room.

The bag was full. Clara shakily removed the needle.

The world tilted, and the edges of my vision went dark. My body felt impossibly heavy as it started to slide from the chair.

The last thing I heard before consciousness fled was Seraphina’s weak, yet utterly satisfied voice.

“Ryker, I feel better already…”

Elara Thorne POV:

My body hit the cold stone floor with a dull, heavy thud.

The Omega nurse, Clara, gasped and started to move toward me, but a single, icy glare from Ryker stopped her in her tracks.

He scowled, his expression not one of concern, but of pure annoyance. He strode over and stood above me, his large frame casting a dark shadow over my prone form.

He crouched down, his fingers gripping my chin in a rough, bruising hold, forcing my head up. My face was completely drained of color, my lips a pale, bluish-white.

I felt a low, uneasy growl rumble in his chest—his wolf, Ragnar, protesting—but he ruthlessly suppressed it. He would blame the bond, the last vestiges of a connection he despised, for any flicker of concern.

“Ryker… is she… is she okay?” Seraphina’s voice was a frail, worried whisper from the bed.

He immediately released me, my head dropping back against the hard floor. He went to her side, his demeanor shifting instantly to one of gentle reassurance as he took her hand. “Don’t worry about her. She’s just putting on a show.”

He shot a look of utter contempt over his shoulder at me. “Losing a little blood and she faints? It’s just a pathetic attempt to get my sympathy. To make me regret rejecting her.”

His words, sharp and poisoned, pierced through the fog of my returning consciousness.

My eyes fluttered open. The first thing I saw was Ryker tenderly tucking the blankets around Seraphina and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.

That single, intimate gesture shattered my heart in a way the physical pain never could.

A toxic mix of jealousy and hatred coiled in my gut. I hated her for having what should have been mine, but I hated myself more. I hated myself for ever loving a man so capable of such profound cruelty.

He felt my stare and turned his head, his voice dripping with ice. “You’re awake? Good. Get out of my sight. Go back to your room.”

He gestured dismissively to the nurse. “Clara, escort her out.”

The young Omega approached me timidly. “Future Luna, let me help you…”

I pushed her gentle hand away. Using every last ounce of my strength, I pressed my palm against the cold floor and leveraged myself against the wall, staggering to my feet. An Alpha’s daughter does not accept pity.

I swayed, my body screaming in protest, but I held Ryker’s gaze with all the defiance I could muster.

He didn’t see my pain. He saw only what he wanted to see: a challenge. A silent, insolent rebellion.

His jaw tightened, the anger in his eyes deepening.

Without a word, I turned and began the slow, agonizing journey to the door. Each step felt like I was walking on shattered glass.

As I reached the threshold, I heard Seraphina’s voice, just loud enough for me to hear, as she snuggled into Ryker’s arms. “Thank you, Ryker. I knew it. No silly Mating Bond could ever keep us apart.”

My body went rigid. I quickened my pace, practically fleeing the room.

The door clicked shut behind me, sealing me in the empty hallway with my pain. I collapsed against the wall, my breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps.

*He hates us,* Lyra sobbed in my mind, her voice broken. *He truly, truly hates us.*

I closed my eyes, and a single, hot tear finally escaped, tracing a path down my cold cheek.

I wiped it away with a vicious swipe of my hand.

That was the last one. The very last tear I would ever shed for Ryker Blackwood. From this moment on, I would live for myself—however little time I had left.