CHAPTER TWO: The Witness
2211 Words
Elara’s POV
I didn’t hear him approach.
One moment I was on my knees in the clearing, tearing apart inside, and the next a pair of boots appeared in my blurry line of vision. Black leather. Scuffed at the toes. Familiar.
I looked up.
Alpha Dorian stood over me, his face unreadable. The moonlight caught the sharp angles of his jaw, the silver at his temples, the hard set of his mouth. He had been the one watching from the pines. Had he followed me? Had he heard everything?
“How long were you standing there?” My voice came out raw, broken.
“Long enough.”
His answer told me nothing. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, stupid, because more tears kept coming. I couldn’t stop them. The rejection had torn something loose inside me, and now everything was leaking out.
“You should go,” I said. “There’s nothing to see here.”
“I disagree.”
Dorian crouched down in front of me, just as he had done earlier during the ceremony. But this time there was no pack around. No whispers. No judgment. Just him and me and the cold grass beneath my knees.
“What my brother did” He stopped, jaw tightening. “It was wrong.”
“Wrong?” A laugh bubbled up my throat, bitter and hollow. “He rejected me before the bond could even settle. That’s not wrong. That’s cruel.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” I looked at him then, really looked. “He’s your brother. You probably think he’s justified. A weak mate would drag him down. That’s what everyone’s thinking, isn’t it? That I’m not good enough for the Alpha’s brother.”
Dorian’s blue eyes didn’t waver. “I don’t think that.”
“Then you’re the only one.”
I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn’t hold me. The rejection had sapped my strength, left me trembling and hollow. Dorian’s hand shot out, steadying me by the elbow. His grip was firm but gentle, and when I was upright, he didn’t let go.
“Let me walk you home,” he said.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Humor me.”
There was no point arguing. I was too exhausted, too raw. I nodded once, and he fell into step beside me as we left the clearing. The forest was dark around us, the only light the moon filtering through the canopy. I kept my eyes on the ground, watching my feet stumble over roots and rocks.
Neither of us spoke for a long time.
---
We were halfway to my cottage when I heard it.
Voices. Low and hurried, coming from the direction of Kael’s cabin. Dorian heard them too, I saw his shoulders tense, his head tilt slightly. He held up a hand, signaling me to stop.
“Stay here,” he whispered.
“I’m not a child.”
“Then don’t act like one. Stay.”
He melted into the trees before I could argue. I stood frozen, straining my ears. The voices grew clearer.
“…can’t believe you actually did it.” That was Sera. My Sera. Her voice was breathless, almost giddy. “In the clearing? Right after her shift?”
“She was pathetic.” Kael’s voice, dripping with scorn. “On her knees, begging. Like I would ever want that.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth. The world tilted.
“You did the right thing,” Sera said. “Everyone knows she’s weak. Her wolf is barely a wolf. You deserve someone strong. Someone worthy.”
“And I’ve found her.”
A pause. Then the sound of movement, fabric rustling, someone shifting closer.
“I’ve been waiting for you to see it,” Sera murmured. “I’ve always been here, Kael. Always.”
“I know.”
Another pause. Longer this time. Then the unmistakable sound of a kiss.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Sera, my best friend since we were five was in Kael’s arms. Had she known? Had she planned this? The rejection, the betrayal, all of it?
How long?
I stumbled backward, and a twig snapped beneath my foot.
The voices stopped.
“Someone’s there,” Kael said sharply.
I ran.
Branches whipped my face. Thorns tore at my dress. I didn’t care. I ran until my lungs burned and my legs gave out, collapsing behind the old supply shed near the pack’s eastern border. I curled into a ball, my back against the rotting wood, and let the sobs come.
My wolf whimpered inside me. She was small, yes. Weak, yes. But she felt everything I felt, the rejection, the betrayal, the crushing weight of being unwanted.
We’re alone, I thought. Truly alone.
---
I don’t know how long I stayed there.
Eventually, the tears stopped. Not because I felt better, but because there was nothing left. I was empty. Scraped clean.
The moon had moved across the sky when I finally stood up. My dress was ruined. My hair was matted with dirt and leaves. I probably looked like something the rogues dragged in.
I walked home on autopilot. My mother was waiting at the door. Her face crumpled when she saw me.
“Oh, baby.”
She didn’t ask questions. She just pulled me inside, wrapped me in a blanket, and held me while I stared at the wall. My father stood in the doorway of the kitchen, his arms crossed, his expression hard.
“He rejected you,” he said. Not a question.
“Yes.”
“And Sera?”
I closed my eyes. “You heard?”
“The whole pack will hear by morning.” He turned away, and I caught the disappointment in his voice, not for me, for once, but for them. “Kael made a spectacle of himself. Dorian won’t let this slide.”
“Dorian has nothing to do with it.”
My father snorted. “You’d be surprised.”
He walked out of the room, leaving me with my mother and the suffocating silence.
---
I didn’t sleep that night.
I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, replaying every moment. The ceremony. The shift. The tiny, pathetic wolf that had emerged from my body. Kael’s smirk. Sera’s lies. Dorian’s steady hand on my elbow.
Why did he follow me?
The question gnawed at me. Dorian was the Alpha. He had better things to do than babysit the pack’s weakest member. And yet he had been there, watching from the shadows. Had he known what Kael was going to do? Had he come to stop it?
I rolled onto my side and punched my pillow.
None of it mattered. I was mate-less. Betrayed. Humiliated. The only wolf in Silver Creek who had been rejected on the same day her wolf emerged. There was no coming back from that.
---
Morning came anyway.
Sunlight stabbed through my window, and I groaned, pulling the blanket over my head. A knock on my door. My mother’s voice.
“Elara? Alpha Dorian is here. He wants to speak with you.”
My heart stopped.
“Now?”
I scrambled out of bed, yanked a brush through my tangled hair, and pulled on the first clean dress I could find. When I opened the door, Dorian was standing in our small living room, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked like he hadn’t slept either.
My mother hovered near the kitchen, pretending to wipe down the counter. My father was conspicuously absent.
“Walk with me,” Dorian said. It wasn’t a request.
I followed him outside.
The morning was crisp, the sky a pale blue streaked with clouds. Birds sang in the pines, oblivious to the fact that my life had ended the night before. Dorian led me away from the cottages, toward the training grounds. His pace was slow, measured, as if he was giving me time to prepare for whatever he was about to say.
“You heard what Sera said,” I finally spoke. “Last night. In the woods.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to punish her? She’s your pack member. She conspired with your brother to…”
“She’s not my concern right now.” He stopped walking and turned to face me. “You are.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Kael rejected you. Publicly. Cruelly. That’s a violation of pack law. Rejection is allowed, but it must be done through proper channels, with witnesses and a cooling-off period. He didn’t do that. He acted out of arrogance and spite.”
“So? What does that change?”
Dorian’s blue eyes held mine. “It means the rejection might not be final.”
The words hung in the air between us.
“What are you saying?” My voice came out barely a whisper.
“I’m saying there’s a process. An appeal. You can challenge the rejection before the pack elders. If they find that Kael acted improperly, which he did, the bond could be suspended. Not restored, but suspended. You wouldn’t be tied to him. You’d be free.”
“Free to do what? Be rejected again?”
“Free to find another mate.” His jaw tightened. “Or to choose one.”
I stared at him. “You’re talking about the choice bond. The old law. The one no one’s used in decades.”
“I’m talking about giving you options.” He stepped closer, and suddenly the space between us felt very small. “You’re not weak, Elara. Your wolf is small now, but that doesn’t mean she’ll stay that way. Wolves grow. Wolves adapt. And sometimes…” He paused, as if weighing his next words. “Sometimes the moon makes mistakes.”
“The moon doesn’t make mistakes.”
“Then explain Kael.”
I had no answer for that.
Dorian sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Look. I didn’t come here to overwhelm you. I came to tell you that you have choices. You don’t have to accept what my brother did. You don’t have to disappear into the background and live as the pack’s cautionary tale. You can fight.”
“Fight how?”
“Stay in Silver Creek. Train with me. Let me help you become what you’re meant to be.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. “Train with you? The Alpha?”
“There’s no one better.”
I almost laughed. Almost. “You barely know me.”
“I know that you got back up after falling during the ceremony. I know that you followed the mate pull even though you were terrified. I know that you ran when you heard Sera’s voice, not because you were afraid of her, but because you were afraid of what you might do if you stayed.” He tilted his head. “That’s not weakness. That’s restraint.”
I didn’t know what to say. My mind was a storm of confusion and exhaustion and something else, something that felt dangerously close to hope.
“I need time to think,” I said.
“Take it.” He stepped back, giving me space. “But don’t take too long. Kael won’t wait. Neither will Sera. They’ll try to push you out. Make you feel like you don’t belong.”
“They’ve already started.”
“Then prove them wrong.”
He turned and walked away, leaving me standing alone in the middle of the training grounds. The morning sun warmed my face. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled.
My wolf stirred.
“Maybe”, she whispered, the first clear thought she had ever given me. Maybe we’re not done yet.
I closed my eyes and let the sun burn away the last of my tears.
---
When I opened them again, Sera was standing at the edge of the training grounds. Her blonde hair was perfect. Her blue eyes were cold. She smiled, but it didn’t reach her face.
“Heard you had a rough night,” she called out.
I didn’t move.
“Kael told me everything. How you begged. How you cried.” She walked closer, her boots crunching on the gravel. “It’s embarrassing, really. The whole pack is talking about it.”
“Are you here to gloat?” My voice was steady. I surprised myself.
“I’m here to warn you.” She stopped a few feet away, arms crossed. “Stay away from Kael. He’s mine now. And stay away from Dorian, too. He’s just being nice because he feels sorry for you. But we both know the truth, don’t we?”
“And what’s that?”
She leaned in, her breath warm against my ear. “You’re nothing. Your wolf is nothing. And nothing is exactly what you’ll always be.”
She pulled back, smiled again, and walked away. I stood there, frozen, as her footsteps faded. My wolf growled. Not a whimper this time. A growl. Low and deep and full of something I hadn’t felt in years.
Anger.
I looked down at my hands. They were trembling.
But not from fear.
- Writer
