Bound by Two Alphas

Chapter 4: The Luna's Cage

The next morning, I woke up to a wardrobe in my attic room that hadn't been there the night before.

It was massive. Dark mahogany, taller than me, filled with dresses in every shade of red, black, and gold. Silk. Velvet. Lace. Each one more elaborate than the last, each one chosen to make a statement: *the future Luna of the Blackwood Pack.*

I stared at it for a long time.

Then I put on my usual grey dress and went downstairs.

Mara was in the infirmary, as always. The old healer sat by the window grinding herbs, her gnarled hands moving with the practiced rhythm of someone who'd done this ten thousand times. She looked up when I entered, and her pale blue eyes narrowed.

"He gave you clothes," she said. Not a question.

"A whole wardrobe."

"Of course he did." Her mouth thinned. "A cage is still a cage, Elara. Even if the bars are silk."

I sat on the stool beside her. "Mara, I need to ask you something."

"You want to ask about the bond." She kept grinding. "About whether it can be refused."

Sometimes I forgot how well she knew me. "Can it?"

Mara was quiet for a moment. She set down the mortar and pestle and looked at me with an expression that was equal parts love and fear.

"The bond is sacred," she said carefully. "The Moon Goddess ties two souls together for a reason. But a reason is not the same as a command. You have free will, child. The bond will *want* you to accept — it will make acceptance feel like breathing, like water, like the most natural thing in the world. But it cannot *force* you."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then the bond breaks. And breaking it..." Her gaze drifted to the window, to the forest beyond. "It is like tearing a piece of your soul out. Some wolves recover. Some do not."

"Kael says he'll break it himself if I don't accept in thirty days."

Her eyes snapped back to me. "He wouldn't."

"He said he would."

"Then he's lying." Her voice went sharp — sharper than I'd heard it in years. "An Alpha cannot break a mate bond unilaterally, Elara. It requires *both* wolves to reject it. If Kael breaks the bond without your consent, he breaks himself in the process. He knows that." She paused. "He's bluffing. He's trying to frighten you into compliance."

My mind raced. If Kael was bluffing about breaking the bond, what else was he bluffing about? What else was just a lie designed to make me submit?

"Mara," I said slowly, "why would the Moon Goddess pair me with Kael Blackwood?"

The old healer went very still. Her hands, resting on the windowsill, trembled — just once — before going steady again.

"The Moon Goddess works in ways we cannot always understand," she said.

But her eyes wouldn't meet mine.

And that told me everything.

*She knows something. She's always known something.*

Before I could press her, the infirmary door swung open. Lina stood there, breathless, her face pale.

"Elara," she gasped. "The Alpha's looking for you. He's in the training yard, and he's..." She swallowed. "He's brought you a dress."

Of course he had.

---

I changed in the supply closet off the training yard. The dress was white this time — simple, elegant, and utterly impractical for a training yard. Kael was making a point: I was not a warrior. I was decoration.

He stood in the center of the yard, surrounded by his top warriors. Cassius was there too, arms crossed, watching me with those unblinking dark eyes. Kael beckoned me with a single finger.

One finger. Like I was a servant. Like I was a pet.

I pasted on my obedience face and went.

"Stand here," he said, positioning me at his side. "The pack needs to see us together. A united front."

"A united front for what?"

His grey eyes flicked to me. "For stability, Elara. My pack has been without a Luna for ten years. They need to see that their Alpha is strong, that he has claimed his mate, that the future is secure." He placed his hand on the small of my back. "Smile."

I smiled.

For the next two hours, I stood at Kael's side while he inspected warriors, reviewed drills, and issued orders with cold efficiency. He introduced me to every captain as "my future Luna." Every captain bowed. Every captain congratulated me.

Not one of them looked me in the eye.

I was used to being invisible. Apparently, I was going to have to get used to being furniture.

Cassius was the last to approach. He bowed — shallowly, deliberately — and said, "Congratulations, future Luna. I trust you'll bring honor to the pack."

"I'll do my best, General."

He smiled. His eyes dropped to my wrists — thin, scarred, barely visible under the white sleeves. He lingered there a moment too long. Then he straightened.

"I'm sure you will," he said. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask — where did you get that jacket? The one you were wearing three nights ago. Leather. Worn. Not from the pack stores."

My blood turned to ice.

*The jacket. Ryder's jacket. I left it in my room — someone must have—*

"I found it," I said. Steady voice. Eighteen years of practice. "In the supply room. It was old. I threw it away."

Cassius studied me for a long, suffocating moment. I felt like a mouse pinned under a hawk's stare, and I knew — I *knew* — he could hear my heartbeat, could smell the fear leaking out of my pores no matter how still I kept my face.

Then he nodded. "Of course. My mistake."

He walked away, and my knees nearly buckled.

Kael's hand tightened on my back. "Is there a problem?"

"No, Alpha."

"Good." He leaned down, his lips brushing my ear, and my skin crawled. "Twenty-six days, Elara. Don't do anything stupid."

*Too late,* I thought.

I'd already done the stupidest thing an Omega in the Blackwood Pack could do.

I'd made a friend across the border.