Hated By The Alpha Bound To Me

Chapter 2 - What it Changes

“The bond is witnessed. It stands under council law.”

The elder’s voice carried across the clearing, cutting through the restless noise surrounding the mating grounds. His words settled heavily over the gathered wolves, final enough to make the reality of the night impossible to ignore.

For a moment, silence held before the atmosphere shifted completely.

Restraint vanished as attention turned fully toward Elara. Eyes followed her openly now, stripped of the courtesy shown beneath council scrutiny. Judgment pressed in from every direction, thick enough to crawl beneath her skin.

“That’s her?” someone muttered without bothering to lower their voice. “That’s who they expect to stand beside him?”

“They pulled her out of a pack that’s barely surviving,” another voice replied. “And now we’re supposed to call her Luna?”

Quiet laughter spread through the crowd.

Calmness stayed fixed across Elara’s expression, although irritation burned steadily beneath the surface. Her wolf stirred at the sound of their voices, reacting to the challenge hidden beneath every stare and the way the crowd seemed to close around her inch by inch.

Suddenly, a shoulder slammed hard against hers as one of the wolves brushed past.

Enough force sat behind the hit to make its purpose obvious.

Heat flared through Elara’s chest as instinct surged forward, demanding a response, but she forced herself to keep walking because looking back would only satisfy them.

Another scoff rose behind her.

“Weak.”

Mockery spread quickly through the crowd, feeding the hostility already hanging over the clearing.

Instead of reacting, Elara focused ahead where Thorne stood beyond the mating circle, untouched by the tension surrounding everyone else. Wolves shifted around him automatically, opening space without needing instruction because authority clung to him as naturally as breathing.

Once his gaze landed on her, the murmuring around the clearing faded almost immediately.

Cold grey eyes moved over her slowly, studying rather than admiring, and irritation twisted low in her stomach at the disappointment resting across his face, as though the reality standing before him had already failed to match whatever expectation he carried into tonight.

Determination hardened inside Elara, refusing to let her look away.

Awareness of him remained impossible to ignore, woven tightly beneath her skin in a way that felt invasive and wrong. Every movement he made pulled at her attention whether she welcomed it or not.

“The council wants to see you.”

His voice carried easily through the clearing, calm enough to silence the remaining whispers nearby.

Without waiting for a response, Thorne turned and walked away.

Immediately, the wolves parted to clear a path for him.

Seconds later, Elara followed, ignoring the stares tracking her every step as she crossed beyond the mating circle. The instant her feet left the carved stone, the air felt different somehow, heavier with unfamiliar scents and the presence of wolves who already viewed her as an outsider.

Narrow pathways stretched ahead while packed earth replaced stone beneath her feet. Torchlight flickered weakly against the trees surrounding them, and scattered whispers lingered behind her, quiet enough to avoid direct confrontation yet loud enough for every word to reach her clearly.

“If this is strength, then the council’s getting desperate.”

“Desperate or calculating,” another answered. “They wouldn’t force this unless they expected something out of it.”

Soft laughter followed.

“She won’t survive long enough to matter.”

Frustration tightened Elara’s jaw, though she kept her pace even.

The whispers scraped against wounds she had spent years trying to bury. Draegon wolves had already taken enough from Valamere.

Including Draven.

Her brother’s face flashed through her mind alongside the memory of blood staining snow near the borderlands and the silence that followed when his patrol never returned home.

Nobody had ever proven who was responsible.

Still, every trail had eventually led back toward Draegon territory.

Back toward him.

Elara’s gaze lifted toward Thorne’s back as he walked ahead of her through the torchlit pathway, untouched by the unease surrounding the night.

The council called this peace.

Elara called it walking beside the wolf who might have destroyed what remained of her family.

Ahead of her, Thorne continued walking without slowing once.

Distance stretched between them, yet awareness of him remained constant enough that she noticed every subtle shift in his movement without meaning to. Somehow, he always seemed aware of where she was without ever looking back.

Then his pace changed.

The shift was subtle, yet Elara caught it immediately as he slowed before stopping completely.

Instantly, the atmosphere around him changed. Conversations faded while wolves near the pathway straightened instinctively as silence spread through the trees.

Slowly, Thorne turned his attention toward the forest.

Pain flickered through Elara’s chest as her pulse stumbled hard.

Darkness stretched between the trees beyond the reach of the torches. To everyone else, the forest looked empty, but Elara knew Nyra remained hidden somewhere within the shadows.

Several long seconds passed while Thorne stood motionless, his gaze sweeping carefully through the darkness. Focus sharpened around him almost tangibly, every instinct locked onto whatever had caught his attention.

Carefully, Elara forced herself to remain calm. Her breathing stayed steady while she stared ahead, resisting every urge to glance toward the trees.

Recognition flickered briefly across Thorne’s face as though he understood someone had been there moments earlier and disappeared before he could find them.

Relief moved quietly through Elara at the realization that even Thorne had failed to uncover Nyra completely.

Eventually, he turned away and continued walking as though nothing had happened.

Deeper into Draegon territory they went while the surroundings gradually changed around them. Fewer wolves lingered here, and those who did stepped aside immediately the moment Thorne approached because nobody questioned his authority.

Unease tightened inside Elara as towering stone walls emerged through the darkness ahead. Firelight burned along the outer edges of the structure while armed guards stood beside the entrance, their attention following her openly as she approached.

Ancient and territorial, the place felt like stepping willingly into the den of a predator.

Near the entrance, Thorne finally stopped before turning toward her again.

“This is where you learn your place,” he said quietly.

Certainty sat behind the words strongly enough to unsettle her more than open cruelty would have.

Despite the frustration clawing beneath her skin, Elara lifted her chin. Stories about mating bonds growing through trust, instinct, and belonging felt painfully distant now. Councils on both sides had forced this arrangement together out of desperation, gambling with lives neither territory truly cared about.

Even so, she refused to let him see uncertainty.

Answers existed somewhere inside Draegon territory.

The war.

Her selection.

Thorne himself.

Another second passed beneath the shifting firelight before he turned toward the council doors once more.

Close behind him, Elara followed, fully aware that whatever waited beyond those walls would decide far more than her place within the pack.