THE ROGUE KING'S WOLFLESS OMEGA

Chapter 3: The Golden Daughter

Elara did not sleep.

By dawn, exhaustion burned behind her eyes, but her father’s order remained unchanged. Garrick wanted her to stay with him. Mariel wanted to examine the silver light that had appeared beneath her skin.

Elara wanted answers.

Instead, she was sent to polish goblets.

The Moon Hall occupied the oldest wing of the packhouse. Its white marble walls were carved with the names of Silvercrest’s former Alphas, including Garrick’s. At the center stood a circular altar where the pack’s annual offerings would be placed before sunset.

Each family offered something representing their service to Silvercrest.

Farmers brought grain. Hunters offered the finest portion of their first kill. Warriors laid down weapons.

House Vale presented moonwater gathered from the sacred spring.

The offering carried particular importance this year. Cassian hoped the Moon Goddess would bless Silvercrest with victory in the coming territorial trials.

Selene had been chosen to carry the moonwater.

Elara had been chosen to clean the room.

“Not that cloth,” Selene said from across the hall.

Elara looked down at the cloth in her hand. “What’s wrong with it?”

“It leaves fibers on the silver.”

“It’s the cloth you gave me.”

“Then you should have known better than to use it.”

Elara resumed polishing.

Arguing would only make the morning longer.

Selene stood before a tall mirror while two attendants braided pearls into her hair. She wore a silver ceremonial gown, its flowing sleeves embroidered with wolves. The outfit had belonged to their grandmother.

It should have passed to the eldest daughter.

No one had asked whether Elara wanted it.

“You look beautiful,” one attendant said.

Selene smiled. “Thank you, Lysa.”

“The whole pack will be watching you.”

“As long as the Goddess is pleased, that is all that matters.”

Elara nearly dropped the goblet.

Selene caught her expression in the mirror. “Something amusing?”

“No.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“I was remembering how you complained for two hours because the pearls were slightly different sizes.”

The attendants looked down quickly.

Selene dismissed them with a wave.

When the doors closed, her pleasant expression vanished.

“You should be grateful I’m willing to perform the ceremony after what you did last night.”

“I didn’t do anything to you.”

“You humiliated our family.”

“By failing to turn into a wolf?”

“By making a spectacle of yourself.”

“I didn’t ask the altar to break.”

“Things seem to break whenever you’re near them.”

Elara placed the goblet on the table. “What do you want, Selene?”

“To help you understand your place.”

“My place seems to change depending on where you need someone to blame.”

Selene walked toward her.

“You are jealous of me.”

Elara laughed. “Of your personality? Constantly.”

Selene ignored the insult. “I awakened one of the strongest wolves in Silvercrest. I will carry our family’s offering. Soon, I will stand beside Caelan as his Luna.”

The unfinished mate bond inside Elara tightened.

Selene noticed her reaction.

“There it is,” she whispered. “You felt something with him last night, didn’t you?”

Elara returned to polishing the goblets.

“Ask Caelan.”

“I did.”

Her hand stopped.

Selene smiled.

“He said you were confused after the ceremony.”

“He lied.”

“He was embarrassed.”

“You don’t know him.”

“I know him better than you do now.”

The words found their mark.

Selene leaned against the table.

“He visits me.”

Elara looked up.

“For training discussions,” Selene added innocently. “Pack business. Future plans. Things an Alpha heir cannot discuss with a servant.”

“I’m not a servant.”

“Aren’t you?”

“No matter how much you hate me, I am still Father’s daughter.”

“Are you?”

Elara went still.

Selene’s smile widened.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

“You asked if I was really Father’s daughter.”

“I asked if being his daughter mattered when you could contribute nothing to his pack.”

“That isn’t what you meant.”

Selene reached for a silver goblet. “You are exhausted. It is making you paranoid.”

She turned away.

As she did, a small object slipped from her sleeve and struck the floor.

Black stone.

Elara’s pulse stopped.

The fragment was smaller than the one Mariel had found beneath the altar, but the carved symbols were identical.

Selene snatched it up.

Too late.

“What is that?”

“A piece of jewelry.”

“It looks like the binding stone.”

For the first time that morning, true panic flashed across Selene’s face.

Then it disappeared.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Elara moved around the table. “Give it to me.”

“No.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Stay away from me.”

“Selene.”

Her sister backed toward the altar.

Elara followed.

“If you had one of those stones,” she said, “then you knew what was under the ceremonial circle.”

“I knew nothing.”

“You were watching me before the ceremony started. You kept looking at the ground.”

“You’re imagining things.”

“Give me the stone.”

Elara grabbed Selene’s wrist.

Selene shoved her.

They collided with the offering table.

The crystal vessel of moonwater tipped.

Elara reached for it, but Selene caught the vessel first.

For one suspended moment, both sisters held it.

Selene looked toward the opening doors.

Then she smiled.

And let go.

The crystal shattered.

Moonwater spilled across the marble.

The doors opened fully.

Cassian, Helena, Caelan, and several council members entered in time to see Elara standing above the broken vessel.

Selene fell to her knees.

“What have you done?” she cried.

Elara stared at her.

“No.”

Selene clutched the black shard against her chest, hidden beneath her sleeve.

“I only asked you to be careful.”

“You dropped it.”

Cassian crossed the hall. His face drained of color when he saw the moonwater spreading across the floor.

The pack’s sacred offering.

Gathered once each year during the first moon of winter.

Irreplaceable.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Selene lowered her head. “Elara was upset with me. She said if she could not receive the Goddess’s blessing, then none of us deserved it.”

“That’s a lie.”

Caelan’s gaze moved between them.

Elara looked directly at him.

“She dropped the vessel on purpose.”

Selene’s shoulders shook.

“She tried to take it from me. I begged her to stop.”

“You have a binding stone,” Elara said.

Selene went rigid.

Cassian frowned. “A what?”

“In her sleeve. Search her.”

Selene recoiled. “Father, she has lost her mind.”

“She was carrying a piece of the same stone found beneath the awakening altar.”

Cassian’s eyes sharpened.

For the first time, doubt entered his expression.

Selene saw it.

Then she moved faster than Elara expected.

She pulled the black shard from her sleeve and threw it across the floor.

It landed beside Elara’s foot.

The hall erupted.

Elara stared at the stone.

Selene gasped as though seeing it for the first time.

“It was her,” she whispered. “She must have used it to sabotage her own awakening.”

“What?”

“She knew she had no wolf.” Selene’s tears returned. “She buried that thing beneath the altar so everyone would believe something was suppressing her power.”

Elara could barely comprehend the lie.

“That stone was in your sleeve.”

“You put it there when you grabbed me.”

“Why would I expose something I planted myself?”

“To blame me.”

Helena rushed to Selene and drew her away.

Cassian bent to inspect the shard but did not touch it.

One of the councilmen stepped back.

“Alpha, if that object carries forbidden magic, the hall may be contaminated.”

“It does,” Elara said. “High Priestess Mariel found another piece.”

Cassian rose.

“Summon her.”

A guard hurried from the room.

Elara turned to Caelan.

He had not spoken.

He stood near the broken offering, his eyes fixed on her.

“You saw us last night,” Elara said. “You know Selene lied about me pushing her.”

Caelan’s face tightened.

Selene stopped crying.

Everyone waited.

Elara’s heart pounded as she watched the battle unfold in his expression. She could feel the fragile mate bond pulling between them, begging him to choose truth over comfort.

“Tell them,” she whispered.

Caelan looked at Selene.

Then at Cassian.

“I arrived after she fell,” he said.

It was not a lie.

It was worse.

It was cowardice shaped carefully around the truth.

Elara nodded slowly.

“Of course.”

The doors opened again.

High Priestess Mariel entered with two temple guards. Her gaze moved from the shattered vessel to the black stone.

“What happened?”

“My daughter destroyed the moonwater,” Cassian said. “And it appears she may have planted the binding stone beneath last night’s altar.”

“I did neither.”

Mariel approached the fragment.

Before she reached it, the stone began to smoke.

The symbols across its surface glowed red.

Elara’s chest tightened.

“Move away from it,” Mariel ordered.

The stone cracked.

A black mist exploded through the Moon Hall.

The councilmen shouted. Helena dragged Selene backward. Guards drew their swords as the mist spread across the floor like living shadows.

It curled around Elara’s ankles.

Pain shot through her.

The wall inside her mind shook.

Chains rattled violently.

Run, the hidden voice growled.

Elara tried.

Her legs would not move.

The shadows climbed to her knees, then her waist, winding around her body like serpents.

“Elara!” Caelan shouted.

He lunged toward her, but Mariel threw out one arm.

“Do not touch it!”

The darkness reached Elara’s throat.

Cold invaded her veins.

Images burst through her mind—an unfamiliar woman running through snow, blood covering her white dress. A wolf howling beneath a black moon. Garrick standing before a cradle while someone carved symbols into the walls.

Then Selene appeared within the vision.

Not the woman Selene was now.

A child.

She stood beside Elara’s cradle with blood on her small hands.

Why does the moon love her? the child whispered.

Elara’s eyes flew open.

Across the hall, Selene stared at her in horror.

She had seen it too.

The darkness tightened.

Something deep inside Elara rose to meet it.

Not gently.

Not patiently.

The presence behind the wall slammed forward.

Once.

The entire hall trembled.

Twice.

The marble beneath Elara cracked.

On the third impact, one of the chains broke.

A howl erupted inside her mind.

Power burst from her body.

Silver-white light swept through the hall, tearing the shadows apart. Windows shattered. Guards were thrown backward. Every candle ignited with white flame.

Cassian dropped to one knee.

Caelan’s wolf whimpered.

Selene screamed.

Elara remained standing at the center of the destruction.

Her hair lifted around her as though caught in an invisible storm. Silver markings glowed across both arms, winding from her fingertips to her shoulders.

For one heartbeat, no one spoke.

Then High Priestess Mariel bowed.

Not her head.

Her entire body.

The temple guards followed.

Elara stared at them.

“What are you doing?”

Mariel looked up, awe and terror mingling in her eyes.

“That stone did not suppress your wolf.”

The silver markings began to fade.

Elara’s knees nearly gave way, but she forced herself to remain upright.

“What did it do?”

“It suppressed your blood.”

Selene backed toward the door.

Mariel turned toward her.

“And whoever carried that fragment into this hall already knew exactly what Elara was.”

Every face shifted to Selene.

Her hand closed around the door handle.

Then a thunderous growl shook the windows.

It did not come from Elara.

Something enormous struck the other side of the Moon Hall doors.

Once.

Twice.

The wood splintered.

Warriors shifted as the third blow tore the doors from their hinges.

A blood-covered wolf collapsed inside.

Three silver arrows protruded from his back.

Cassian stared at the crest burned into the wolf’s shoulder.

The mark of the northern crown.

The injured wolf shifted into a dying soldier.

His terrified eyes found the Alpha.

“The rogues,” he gasped. “The Rogue King crossed the border.”

The temperature in the hall seemed to plummet.

Cassian drew his sword.

“Darius Veyr?”

The soldier coughed blood onto the marble.

“He is coming for the white wolf.”