Chapter 3
1107 Words
PAEDYN NOVA
Sold!
I could barely stand.
Every part of me screamed in pain. My hands shook as I banged on the wooden doors of my uncle’s door, blood still soaking through the thin layer of cloth I’d wrapped around the gunshot wound. My vision blurred, and for a second, I thought I was going to pass out.
Then the door opened.
I wished I had not knocked.
My uncle's eyes scanned me like I was dirt on the bottom of his shoe. No concern. No surprise. Just that same cold stare I had seen a thousand times before.
“Took you long enough,” he said, stepping aside. “Thought you were dead.”
“I was shot,” I muttered, limping inside. “Cardan's guards…”
He turned and slapped me so hard my head whipped to the side.
“Useless,” he hissed. “I send you on one job. One job, Paedyn. And you come back like this?” He gestured to the blood, the torn clothes, the trembling in my bones I could no longer hide.
“I almost died,” I whispered.
“And yet you didn’t. Which means you failed. You should have died.”
I bit down hard, swallowing everything I wanted to scream. I couldn’t show weakness. Not now. Not here.
I took a breath. “I need help. The wound is deep. I need a healer or at least…”
“You think I’d waste resources on you?” He scoffed. “You’re lucky I haven’t killed you for failing.”
I looked up then, and that’s when I noticed. The smug look. The way he leaned back in the chair. Something was off.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
He smiled. And I hated that smile. That thin, cruel twist of lips that meant he was about to ruin whatever was left of me.
“You’ve been sold,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“You’ll be mated to Alpha Stefan by sunrise.”
I stared at him, heart dropping. “What do you mean sold?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Nora got a better offer. Some rich Alpha with lands near the river. She won’t be marrying Stefan anymore. But a deal’s a deal. Someone from the Nova bloodline has to take her place. And that someone... is you.”
“No,” I said quickly. “No, you can’t…”
“I can. And I have.” His voice was like ice. “You’ll go. You’ll smile. You’ll tie yourself to him, and if you're lucky, he might keep you alive.”
“I won’t do it.”
He stood up, walked around the table. Slapped me again. Harder this time.
“You don’t get a say, Paedyn. You lost that right the day your parents died.”
My heart twisted at the mention of them.
He wasn’t done. “Clean yourself up. Stitch that hole in your side. And for the love of the gods, try to look presentable. No Alpha wants a broken mate.”
He left me there. I was bleeding, broken, alone.
And so, I did what I always did. I survived.
I bit down on a rag and poured alcohol over the wound. Screamed into the silence. Stitched it shut with a rusted needle and trembling fingers.
By the time morning came, I was ready. Not because I wanted to be. But because I had no other choice.
They dressed me in white. Some sad excuse for a gown that clung to the dried blood still caked on my ribs. They put flowers in my hair like that would make me more appealing. Like it would hide the bruises on my face.
And then they took me to the mating ground.
Stefan wasn’t there.
I waited. And waited. Hours passed. The sun moved across the sky and dipped into the horizon. Guests who came out of obligation started leaving one by one, whispering behind cupped hands, eyes full of pity and disgust.
Still, he didn’t come.
A servant approached me awkwardly. “The Alpha shall not be with you today. But you must appear before him.”
I didn't speak. I didn’t move.
I just stood there, alone on the stone platform, as the last of the daylight disappeared.
It was only later I found out where he really was…
With a w***e…
In a tavern.
On the night we were meant to be mated, he chose to sleep with another woman.
And that was only the beginning.
Living in the Alpha’s house was worse than anything I’d imagined.
They called me Luna. But it was a title without meaning. A collar dressed in gold.
Stefan never spoke to me unless it was to mock me. He paraded w****s through the halls like it was his right. Sometimes he brought them into our room. And made me watch as he ficked them, making them scream his name in ecstasy.
The first time, I tried to leave.
“You walk out that door,” he said lazily, undoing his shirt, “I’ll make sure every unmated wolf knows what a whimpering little disappointment the Nova girl turned out to be. I'd have the men of my pack drill your little pussy.”
So I stayed.
And I watched.
He wanted to break me. And maybe, a part of me was already broken.
But not all of it.
Each night he touched someone else, my hate for him grew. But not just for him.
For her…
For Nora…
She was the one he wanted. He said her name sometimes when he was with the others. I’d hear it slip out of his mouth like a prayer.
He didn’t want me.
And I sure as hell didn’t want him.
But he owned me. At least, that’s what he believed.
I kept my head down. Did what I had to do.
But I listened. I watched.
Every shadow in the estate held secrets. And I was learning them, one by one.
Until one night, I overheard something I wasn’t supposed to.
Voices through the stone wall. Stefan and another Alpha. Talking in low, urgent tones.
“He doesn’t know she’s here?”
“No,” Stefan said. “Cardan thinks she’s dead. If he finds out I’ve got her…”
I didn’t hear the rest. My blood roared too loud in my ears.
Cardan.
He thought I was dead.
And Stefan... he was hiding me from him.
Why?
And more importantly…
What would Cardan do if he found out the truth?
- Writer
