CHAPTER ONE: SOLD TO THE ENEMY
929 Words
Seraphina Vale knew the moment she was dressed in white that she was no longer a daughter.
She was an offering.
The gown clung to her skin like a lie—soft silk, delicate lace, stitched with silver threads meant to symbolize purity. Her maids whispered that she looked beautiful, that any Alpha would be honored to claim her.
None of them met her eyes.
Because everyone in the Northern Hall knew the truth.
She was being sold.
The great council chamber roared with voices—Alphas from rival packs, generals, elders, warriors hardened by bloodshed. The air reeked of dominance and old violence. Power pressed against her lungs until breathing hurt.
At the center of it all stood her father.
Alpha Darius Vale.
Tall. Regal. Smiling.
A man who had taught her how to read by candlelight… and how to lie without blinking.
“Step forward, Seraphina,” he commanded.
Her feet moved before her heart could stop them.
Each step echoed like a countdown.
She didn’t look at the crowd. She didn’t look at the chains of silver laid ceremoniously at the altar. She looked only at the raised platform opposite her father’s throne.
The seat that had remained empty all evening.
The seat everyone feared.
The seat reserved for Alpha Kael Blackthorn.
The Butcher of Ashfall.
The Wolf Who Burned a Pack Alive.
The man whose family her father had destroyed.
A murmur rippled through the hall.
Heavy footsteps followed.
The temperature dropped.
Seraphina felt it before she saw him—the instinctive pull deep in her bones, sharp and terrifying, like something ancient waking up.
Then he stepped into the firelight.
Alpha Kael Blackthorn was not what the songs described.
He was worse.
Broad-shouldered, dressed in black armor etched with runes of dominance, his dark hair pulled back at his nape. A scar cut across his cheek, pale against bronze skin. His eyes—Gods—his eyes were not wild.
They were controlled.
Cold. Calculating. Deadly.
When his gaze landed on her, the room disappeared.
Something inside her snapped.
Her wolf—quiet her entire life—howled in panic.
Mate.
The word slammed into her chest like a curse.
No.
No, no, no—
Kael’s jaw tightened.
His nostrils flared.
For half a second—just half—his control fractured.
Then his expression hardened into stone.
Hatred filled his eyes.
The bond had struck them both.
And he despised her for it.
“Well,” Kael said slowly, his voice deep and lethal, echoing through the hall. “This is… poetic.”
Her father laughed nervously. “Alpha Blackthorn, I present my daughter, Seraphina Vale. As agreed—she is yours.”
The words sliced into her spine.
Yours.
Kael descended the steps with unhurried grace, like a predator that knew its prey could not escape. Every Alpha in the room straightened. No one breathed.
He stopped an arm’s length from her.
Up close, he smelled like smoke and winter and something ruinous.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
Her chin trembled—but she lifted her gaze.
Hatred met defiance.
“You don’t get to own me,” she said quietly.
A sharp inhale rippled through the crowd.
Kael smiled.
It was not a kind smile.
“You were bought,” he replied. “That makes you property.”
Her father cleared his throat. “This union is meant to ensure peace between our packs—”
Kael didn’t even look at him.
“This is not a union,” Kael said. “This is a transaction.”
He turned back to Seraphina, eyes darkening.
“And you,” he murmured so only she could hear, “are the price your father pays for the blood on his hands.”
Her chest burned. “I am not his crimes.”
Kael leaned closer.
“You share his blood,” he whispered. “That’s enough.”
His fingers closed around her wrist.
The bond exploded.
Pain. Heat. Awareness.
She gasped, knees buckling.
Kael stiffened, a growl ripping from his throat before he could stop it. His grip tightened—possessive, furious—as if her reaction offended him.
The moonlight flared through the high windows.
A symbol burned to life on her skin.
Gasps erupted.
“A mate mark—!”
“No—impossible—!”
Kael swore violently.
He released her as if she burned him.
“I reject this bond,” he snarled, voice shaking the hall. “The Moon Goddess has made a mistake.”
The words tore through her like glass.
Rejection wasn’t just emotional—it was physical. She cried out, collapsing to the marble floor as agony lanced through her chest.
Her father stepped back.
Kael looked down at her—at her tears, her shaking body—and something unreadable flickered across his face.
Then it vanished.
“Chain her,” he ordered coldly. “She comes with me tonight.”
Her heart shattered.
As silver restraints snapped around her wrists, Seraphina lifted her head and met his gaze one last time.
“If you think breaking me will avenge your dead,” she said hoarsely, “you’ll choke on your hatred.”
Kael crouched in front of her.
His voice dropped to a vow.
“I don’t want to break you,” he said.
“I want you to suffer.”
He stood.
The hall doors slammed open.
And Seraphina Vale—daughter of a traitor, rejected mate of the most dangerous Alpha alive—was dragged into the darkness.
- Writer
