Chapter 2: The Perfect Trap
1312 Words
The celebration was brought to an end by the thick metallic stench of blood filling the grand banquet hall.
Elena knelt on the stone floor, the cold biting at the bare skin of her torn tunic. Every muscle of her body quaked, not just from the harrowing flight through the forest, but from the sheer, paralyzing horror of the scene before her.
Chloe sobbed weakly on the plush velvet sofa, the sound ricocheting off the high rafters.
"Please... keep her away from me, Asher," Chloe wept, her voice trembling, expertly blending fragility and terror. She grabbed her stomach, her pale fingers covered with the red that was pooling on her white silk dress.
"She... she was like a lunatic. I went to the western border to gather late-blooming moon-lilies for your victory wreath... and she emerged from the shadows. She looked at me with so much hate..."
"Chloe, don’t push it," Asher murmured, his voice a low, vibrating rumble of controlled fury as he moved closer to the sofa. He turned no backward look at Elena, his back a wall of iron. "The pack doctors are coming. Conserve your strength."
"No, you misunderstand!" Chloe gasped, tears running down her pale cheeks as she looked to the gathered elders, ensuring they all heard her next words.
"She screamed she'd never be the real Luna of this pack as long as I drew breath! She pushed me, Asher! She pushed me down the rocky bank by the ravine. The moment I hit the stones, I felt the pack's true heir leave me. She killed our baby!"
The pack warriors and elders erupted in a collective roar of outrage.
"Death to the traitor!" someone shouted from the back.
"An eye for an eye! She killed Alpha's kid!"
Elder Thomas, a stalwart defender of Chloe's family, stepped forward, his face a mask of righteous fury. "Alpha Asher, the laws of the Darkwood Pack are absolute. Treason, and the murder of royal blood, must be punished by death!"
"No! That is not true!" Elena screamed, her voice breaking as she tried to sit up.
But the after-effects of Asher's Alpha command still hung heavily over her shoulders, keeping her pinned to the stone.
"Asher, look at me! Look at the clothes I’m wearing! On my way back from the town clinic, I was ambushed by black wolves! They rent my tunic, they wanted to kill me! I haven't been anywhere near the west border today!"
Finally, Asher turned around.
Elena’s breath caught in her throat at the icy coldness that radiated from his grey eyes. There was no heat left in him, no sign of the man who had whispered quiet promises to her in the privacy of their chambers. He looked at her like she was a parasite on his throne.
"An ambush, Elena?" Asher’s voice was dangerously calm, like the quiet hiss before a thunderstorm. "In the Whispering Woods? Our best sentries keep a very close watch on that forest. No rogue border crossings reported tonight."
He stepped closer, his shadow engulfing her.
"But do you know what they found in the ravine to the west where Chloe was attacked?"
He made a sharp gesture towards his lead enforcer, Beta Caleb. Caleb stepped forward with a silver tray.
Elena’s broken silver heirloom necklace lay on it, encrusted with dried mud and fresh blood. Next to it was a piece of parchment, written in Elena’s distinctive, elegant handwriting, detailing the castle’s western guard shifts.
"We found your Luna crest in Chloe's hand. She ripped it from your neck when you shoved her," Asher said, each word landing on Elena like a physical blow. "And our trackers found footprints at the lip of the ravine. The exact size and tread of your favorite leather boots. The ones you have on now, all caked with western mud."
Elena glanced down at her boots. They were caked with dark, thick mud, sure enough—But those were left when I rolled into a muddy depression while fleeing the black wolf! How did those footprints end up in the canyon to the west?
It's a trap... Elena whispered as the awful truth dawned on her.
Looking past Asher’s broad shoulders, she saw Chloe staring at her. For a fraction of a second, the sorrow left Chloe's face. Behind the veil of her tears, her eyes gleamed with venomous triumph.
She'd got it all worked out. Chloe knew Elena's shortcut. She knew Elena's wardrobe. She knew Elena's handwriting. She knew Elena's tracking signature. Chloe had sacrificed her own pregnancy—or the lie she'd been spinning for months—just to make damn sure Elena was forever shattered.
"Asher, please, hear your bond! Sense the mate bond!" Elena begged, crawling forward on her knees, ignoring the sharp pain of the stones slicing into her skin.
"I would never harm a child! Why should I do that? Asher... I have my own reason to defend life now. I’m pregnant!"
She took a ragged breath, shouting over the rising murmurs.
"I went to the clinic today because I haven’t been feeling well, and the doctor confirmed it!"
Again, the hall was deathly quiet. A few of the pack members murmured in surprise, but Elder Thomas’s scoff quickly drowned out the whispers.
"A pitiful scheme to avoid execution!" cried the elder. "Suddenly, the barren Omega claims a miracle when she faces the chopping block? Don't let her manipulate you, Alpha!"
"I am not lying!" Elena’s heart thumped wildly against her ribs as she reached into the hidden, torn pocket of her tattered tunic.
Her fingers ran over the crumpled, folded paper. The clinic paper. Her proof. Her shield.
She pulled it out, hands shaking, holding it up like a lifeline.
"Look! I've got the official diagnostic report right here! It's twins, Asher! I'm carrying your babies! Twins! Look at the seal, feel my pulse, call the town doctor—"
Asher looked down at the crumpled paper in her hand. For a moment, a shadow of doubt passed across his stern features, his eyes catching the bold words printed on the page.
There was a spark of hope in Elena's chest. He’s going to check it out. He’s going to save us.
But before the spark could catch fire, Chloe screamed another agonizing, theatrical cry behind him, coughing up a small splatter of blood.
"Ah! The pain... Asher, it burns... our poor baby..."
The sound broke something inside Asher. The hesitation fell away from his face, replaced by a dark, impenetrable mask of absolute ruthlessness. The pack's honor, the loss of his supposed heir, and the mountain of false evidence all blended into a single hard conviction: his mate was a traitor.
Asher took a heavy step towards Elena. The surrounding air grew thick and cold, suffocatingly heavy with the scent of an Alpha's rage.
Elena recoiled, her golden eyes huge with fright, but she still pushed the paper towards him, her hands trembling violently. "Asher... please..."
He stood over her, a god of vengeance dominating her broken, bleeding body. Without a word, he stooped down. His big, callused hand closed over the certificate of pregnancy.
Elena gave a small sigh of relief, believing he would read it.
Instead, Asher’s grip tightened, his knuckles turning white. He didn't bother to look at the text. With a swift, brutal motion of his powerful hands, he ripped the paper in half.
Riiip.
The sound tore Elena’s heart apart.
"No!" she screeched, lunging to catch the pieces as they fell.
But Asher ripped them again and again with merciless accuracy, until the official confirmation of her children's existence was nothing but a flurry of white confetti, falling into the pool of mud and blood on the banquet floor.
Asher looked down at her, his face as cold as a grave in winter.
"Tonight, your lies end, Elena."
- Writer
