Bought For The Alpha's Revenge

CHAPTER 3

LILA'S POV

I woke up screaming.

My whole body was on fire. Every nerve ending blazed with pain so intense I couldn't tell where it was coming from. My chest, my arms, my spine, everywhere.

"Hold her down!"

Hands grabbed me. Strong hands pinning my shoulders to something soft.

"Lila, you need to stay still!"

I thrashed against whoever was holding me, but my body wasn't responding right. Everything burned and twisted and broke inside me.

"What's happening to her?" That was Ethan's voice. Close. Strained.

"The wolfsbane is leaving her system," another voice answered. It was a female, and she was calm despite my screaming. "Her body is purging sixteen years of poison all at once."

"Make it stop!"

"I can't. This is the only way."

Something cool pressed against my forehead. The burning lessened fractionally.

My eyes finally focused. I was in a different room. Not the basement. Somewhere with actual light and a real bed and medical equipment.

A woman with kind eyes and silver-streaked hair leaned over me. "Lila, my name is Thea. I'm the pack healer. You're going through wolfsbane withdrawal. Can you hear me?"

I tried to speak, but only a groan came out.

"She's been poisoned since she was five years old," Thea said, and I realized she was talking to Ethan. "Her wolf should have emerged at thirteen. It's been trying to surface for eight years and couldn't. Now that the mate bond triggered it, everything is happening at once."

"Will she survive?" Ethan's voice was tight.

"I don't know."

The burning intensified. I screamed again, arching off the bed.

"Her heart rate is spiking," Thea said urgently. "Ethan, I need you to hold her. Your presence might calm her wolf."

"I can't touch her. The bond..."

"Will help! Your wolf recognizes hers. It might be the only thing that keeps her alive through this!"

I heard footsteps, then hands on my face. Warm hands that made the burning pause for just a second.

"Lila," Ethan's face swam into view above me. "Listen to me. You need to fight. Your wolf is trying to surface. Let it."

"Can't," I gasped. "Hurts."

"I know it hurts. But if you don't let your wolf through, you're going to die."

"Good."

His jaw clenched. "No. Not good. You don't get to die before I'm done with you."

Even through the pain, anger flared within me. "f**k you."

"That's better." Something that might have been approval flashed in his eyes. "Stay angry because anger will keep you alive."

Another wave of agony crashed through me. This time I felt something inside me respond. Something wild and desperate and clawing its way toward consciousness.

It was my wolf.

"That's it," Thea said. "Lila, your wolf is surfacing. Don't fight it. Let it come."

"I don't know how!"

"Yes you do," Ethan said, his hands still on my face. "Every wolf knows. Just stop thinking and just feel."

I closed my eyes and stopped trying to control the pain. Just let it wash over me. Let it burn through every barrier Helena had built inside me with her poison.

And something broke.

I felt it shatter like glass inside my chest. Felt something surge forward that had been trapped for twenty-one years.

My back arched and I felt my bones shifting.

"She's shifting!" Thea's voice was excited. "Ethan, move back!"

But he didn't move. His hands stayed on my face even as my body contorted and broke and reformed.

The pain reached a crescendo that made me pass out.

When I opened my eyes again, everything was different.

Colors were sharper. The sounds were louder and I could smell everything. The antiseptic in the medical room, Thea's herbal tea, Ethan's scent that made my wolf purr.

I tried to sit up and realized I couldn't. Because I wasn't in my human body anymore.

I had paws, fur and a tail.

"Oh my goddess," Thea breathed. "Ethan, look at her."

I turned my head and saw my reflection on a metal tray. A wolf stared back at me, not just any wolf. My fur was pure silver, almost white, gleaming under the lights. My eyes glowed the same grey as my human form.

"A silver wolf," Thea whispered. "I've only read about them in ancient texts. They're not supposed to exist anymore."

"What does that mean?" Ethan asked, his voice strange.

"It means her bloodline is old. Older than modern packs." Thea moved closer, examining me. "Silver wolves were the first shifters. Before territories and hierarchies. They were direct descendants of the Moon Goddess herself."

"That's a myth."

"Is it?" Thea gestured at me. "Then explain to her."

I tried to shift back to human, but my wolf didn't want to. It was finally free after twenty-one years of suppression, and it wasn't going back into its cage easily.

"Lila, you need to shift back," Ethan said.

I growled at him. My wolf didn't like being ordered around.

His eyes flashed gold. "That wasn't a request."

My wolf bristled. Ethan's Alpha command might work on other wolves, but apparently silver wolves didn't recognize modern hierarchy.

We stared at each other. Alpha and ancient wolf. Neither were willing to submit.

"This is a problem," Thea muttered.

"She needs to shift back now," Ethan said. "Before anyone else sees her."

"Why?" I asked, and it came out as a series of growls and barks that somehow they both understood.

"Because if my pack sees a silver wolf, word will spread," Ethan said. "Every Alpha in the region will want you. Either to claim you or kill you to prevent someone else from having you."

"Let them try."

"Don't be stupid. You just woke up an hour ago. You don't know how to fight. You don't know how to control your wolf. You'd be dead in a day."

He was right and I hated it.

"Fine." I focused inward, trying to find my human form. My wolf resisted, clinging to this freedom, but eventually I felt the shift begin.

The shift was painful but less than before.

When I opened my eyes again, I was human. And naked.

"Thea!" Ethan spun around, his face flushed. "Clothes!"

Thea threw a blanket over me, amusement in her eyes. "First shift is always naked, Alpha. You should know that."

"Just... get her dressed."

He left the room quickly, the door slamming behind him.

Thea helped me sit up. My whole body ached like I'd been hit by a truck.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

"Like I died and came back wrong."

"Not wrong. Different." Thea smiled. "Your wolf is strong, Lila. Stronger than most wolves I've seen. And that silver fur... you're something special."

"Special means target," I said bitterly.

"Sometimes," Thea handed me a simple dress. "But it can also mean being powerful. Silver wolves in the old stories could do things modern wolves can't."

"Like what?"

"No one knows. The bloodline died out centuries ago." She paused. "Or so we thought."

I pulled the dress on slowly, every muscle protesting. "What happens now?"

"Now you learn to control your wolf. Learn to shift at will. Learn to fight." Thea's expression turned serious. "Because Ethan is right. If word gets out about what you are, you'll have every Alpha in the region trying to either claim you or kill you."

"Great." I ran my hands through my hair. "So I went from being poisoned and enslaved to being hunted?"

"Your life has gotten considerably more complicated, yes."

The door opened. Ethan stepped back in, his eyes carefully averted until Thea confirmed I was dressed.

"She needs to stay here for now," Thea said. "The medical wing is more secure than the basement."

"Fine," Ethan said. "But no one else sees her, especially not in wolf form."

"Understood."

Ethan looked at me then, really looked at me. Something flickered in his eyes. The mate bond hummed between us, stronger now that my wolf was awake.

"Your father," he said quietly. "Did he know? About your bloodline?"

"I don't know. Maybe." I thought about it. "My mother died when I was five. Maybe she knew. Maybe that's why Helena poisoned me to hide what I was."

"If your mother knew, she would have told your father."

"So?"

"So maybe that's why my father wanted her." Ethan's voice was hollow. "Not because he loved her but because he knew what she carried in her bloodline."

The implications hit me like cold water. "You think your father was using my mother?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Ethan rubbed his face. "The timing fits. He met your mother twenty-two years ago and started pursuing her. Then she got pregnant with you and married your father instead."

"My mother loved your father," I said, though I didn't know why I was defending her. "The letters said so."

"Letters can lie."

"You sound like you don't believe in love at all."

"I don't." Ethan met my eyes. "Love makes people weak and makes them do stupid things. My father destroyed himself chasing a woman who chose someone else. I won't make that mistake."

"What about the mate bond?"

"The mate bond is biology. Not love." His voice was flat. "Just because we're mated doesn't mean I feel anything for you besides obligation."

The words hurt more than they should have.

"Good," I said, lifting my chin. "Because I hate you."

"Good," Ethan echoed. "Then we understand each other."

But even as he said it, the mate bond pulsed between us, calling us liars.

Footsteps in the hallway outside made us both tense.

"Alpha?" Marcus's voice called through the door. "There's a situation. You need to come now."

Ethan cursed under his breath. "What kind of situation?"

"Your father's old pack. The Shadow Ridge wolves. They're at the border, and they're demanding to see Daniel Harper's daughter."

My blood ran cold.

"How do they even know she's here?" Ethan demanded.

"Someone told them," Marcus paused. "Alpha, they're saying she's promised to their Alpha. Some kind of arrangement was made years ago between him and Daniel Harper."

"What?" I stood up despite my shaking legs. "I was never promised to anyone!"

"Apparently you were," Marcus said. "Alpha Kade of Shadow Ridge says Daniel Harper promised him a daughter in exchange for protection twenty years ago. He's here to collect."

Ethan's face went hard. "Tell him no."

"He has fifty warriors with him, Alpha, and he's within his rights. If Daniel made a bargain..."

"I don't care what bargain Daniel made!" Ethan's voice rose. "She's mine, and she’s not going anywhere."

"Mine meaning what, exactly?" Marcus asked carefully.

Ethan's jaw worked. He couldn't say mate or reveal the bond.

"Mine means I bought her," he said finally. "Legal purchase trumps old bargains."

"Alpha Kade disagrees. He's demanding you hand her over, or he'll take her by force."

"Then we'll have war," Ethan said flatly.

"Over a slave?" Marcus sounded confused. "Alpha, is there something you're not telling me?"

Before Ethan could answer, alarms started blaring throughout the pack house.

"They're attacking!" someone screamed from upstairs. "Shadow Ridge is attacking!"

Ethan cursed and ran for the door.

"Stay here," he threw over his shoulder at me. "Thea, lock this door. Don't open it for anyone but me."

Then he was gone, the door slamming behind him.

Thea immediately moved to lock it, but before she could, it burst open again.

Not Ethan. This time it was Marcus.

Addison stood in the doorway, her face twisted with rage. Behind her were three wolves I didn't recognize.

"So it's true," Addison said, stepping inside. "Ethan's keeping the slave in the medical wing. How interesting."

"Addison, you need to leave," Thea said firmly. "Now."

"Why? So you can keep hiding whatever's really going on?" Addison's eyes fixed on me. "I heard the alarms. Heard that an Alpha is willing to go to war over this girl. That's not normal. That's not revenge. So I'm going to ask once. What is she to Ethan?"

"None of your business," I said.

"Everything about Ethan is my business," Addison snarled. "I'm going to be Luna of this pack. So tell me what I want to know, or I'll make you tell me."

The wolves behind her growled, moving closer.

My brand-new wolf stirred inside me, rising to the threat.

"Addison, don't do this," Thea warned.

But Addison wasn't listening. She nodded to the wolves behind her.

"Take her," she ordered. "Alpha Kade is looking for Daniel Harper's daughter. Let's give her to him. Maybe that will end this war before it starts."

The wolves lunged.

My wolf exploded forward without conscious thought.

One second, I was human. The next I was silver fur and rage and ancient instinct.

I caught the first wolf by the throat. The second I threw into the wall. The third I pinned under my paws, snarling.

Addison screamed and stumbled backward.

My wolf stood over the three whimpering wolves and howled. A sound that made the walls shake and the alarms cut off and every wolf in the pack house froze.

It wasn't a normal howl. It was a command. Old and powerful and absolute.

The three wolves under me instantly submitted, showing their throats.

Addison was on her knees, her face white with terror.

Because she'd just seen what I really was and there was no hiding it anymore.