Chapter 2
1022 Words
"Give me your necklace."
Caleb stood in the doorway of the archive room. Selena stood behind him with red-rimmed eyes.
I was still holding an ancient text in my hands.
On the yellowed page, it said that black magic could be used to fake a high-ranking bloodline. All it required was mercury grass ash and the feeding of living blood.
When Selena passed by the door earlier, I had caught the faintest trace of rot beneath her scent.
It was buried under that so-called silver wolf fragrance of hers, like spoiled meat hidden under honey.
I closed the book and asked, "What necklace?"
Selena gave a soft, broken sob. "Elara, I know you don't like me. But Caleb gave me that blue moonstone brooch at the ball. How could you steal it just because you were jealous?"
There was a thin cut on her arm, a bead of blood clinging to her skin.
The cut was so shallow that it barely hurt.
Caleb's gaze swept over my desk. "She said the brooch is here."
I shot back, "And you believe her?"
His voice turned cold. "She has no reason to lie."
I let out a quiet laugh. "And I do?"
"You've always been hostile toward Selena."
Caleb stepped forward, his Alpha aura pressing down hard enough to make the shelves tremble.
"After what happened in the side hall last night, you made that very clear."
Selena instantly caught his arm and said, "Don't blame her, Caleb.
"She grew up without parents. It's pitiful that she can't tell the difference between a mate fantasy and real feelings."
Hearing that, the students gathered outside the archive room went silent.
Then they snickered and started to gossip.
"So she's been fantasizing that the Alpha is her mate?"
"No wonder she always walks around with her head down, acting all helpless and tempting."
"Is she in heat or something?"
I looked straight at Selena. "You said I stole your brooch. Do you have proof?"
She bit her lip and lifted her injured arm for Caleb to see. "When she grabbed me, I smelled blue moonstone on her.
"Elara, give it back now, and I can pretend none of this happened."
Caleb didn't ask another question.
His eyes dropped to the thin chain around my neck.
The necklace was hidden beneath my collar. It was the only thing I had from my parents.
It was a tiny silver moon pendant, with my name engraved on the back.
He reached for it, but I jerked back and snapped, "No."
Caleb's expression turned icy. "You dare refuse your Alpha?"
I insisted, "It belonged to my parents."
He said firmly, "Selena is hurt."
I almost couldn't understand him.
I asked, "So?"
"So you gotta pay the price." His Alpha Command dropped over me again.
He ordered, "Kneel."
My knees slammed into the floor with a dull sound.
Pain shot up my legs, but I clutched the necklace with all the might I had.
Caleb bent down and pried my fingers open.
Sparks shot through me from his touch.
They should have made two mates tremble. But now, that tiny current felt like embers falling into an open wound. All it left behind was humiliation.
"Don't touch it." My voice shook.
His movements paused for a second.
Selena immediately burst into tears. "Caleb, forget it. I don't want you two fighting over a brooch.
"If Elara needs that little bit of comfort so badly, let her keep it."
Her tears fell at the perfect moment.
Caleb lost the last of his patience.
He ripped the necklace from my throat.
The thin chain cut across the back of my neck, leaving a burning sting behind.
The silver moon pendant lay in his palm.
I reached for it, but his aura forced me back down against the floor.
He said, "From today on, it belongs to Selena."
My heart skipped a beat.
I shot back, "You have no right to do that."
Caleb looked down at me. "I am the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack. Every resource here is mine to distribute.
"The Pack raised you. That means everything you have belongs to the Pack."
Selena took the necklace from him and ran her fingertips over the pendant.
She said, "It's so beautiful."
She put it on right in front of me, then lowered her head with a sweet smile. "Thank you, Elara. When I become Luna, I'll still let you stay in the archive room.
"After all, with a bloodline like yours, you'd be torn apart by Rogues the second you left the Pack."
Someone outside quickly agreed.
"Selena is really generous."
"If I were her, I would have thrown her out."
I knelt on the floor and suddenly remembered the day I was brought back to the Pack House.
Caleb's father had patted my head and told me this place would be my home from then on.
Later, the old Alpha died in battle, and Caleb inherited his title.
Once, he had handed me a piece of roasted meat beside the training field and said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here."
Turned out some promises wouldn't shatter. They were simply taken and used to cheer someone else up.
As Selena turned to leave, a drop of blood slid from the cut on her arm.
It fell onto the edge of the carpet.
While everyone was looking at her, I pressed my sleeve over the stain.
The stench of rot grew sharper.
It was indeed the mercury grass ash. The ancient book hadn't lied.
That night, I curled up on the small bed in the archive room and hid the bloodstained handkerchief between the pages of an old book.
The collar around my neck suddenly burned so fiercely.
A c***k spread from the inside, so thin that it was almost invisible.
Then a thread of unfamiliar scent leaked into the air.
For one single second, every canine in the Pack House whimpered at once.
Deep in the distant forest, a low wolf howl answered.
I clutched the collar as a patrol wolf shouted in terror outside my door, "What was that scent?"
- Writer
