Claimed By Alpha

3.

I didn’t sleep properly after the council meeting.

Not because I was scared, but because I kept replaying their words in my head until they stopped sounding real. Rejected mate remains bound to the territory. It felt wrong the more I thought about it, like a rule that only existed because someone powerful needed it to.

When the guards came the next morning, I already knew it wasn’t optional. They didn’t knock. They didn’t explain anything. They just stood outside my door until I came out, and then told me I was being summoned to the council. That was all.

The walk there felt longer than usual. Maybe because I already had a feeling I wouldn’t like what I was going to hear. Or maybe because I was finally starting to understand that nothing about my life here happened with my agreement.

When I stepped into the council room, Kael was already there.

That shouldn’t have affected me, but it did.

He didn’t look at me immediately. He was sitting like he had been there long before anyone else, like he didn’t need to rush for anything. The elders were arranged around the room in their usual way, all calm faces and controlled expressions, like they had already decided everything before I even arrived.

I stopped in the center of the room because no one told me where to go. No one ever did. I wasn’t important enough to guide, only important enough to include when necessary.

The silence stretched for a few seconds before one of the elders finally spoke. He said my situation had been reviewed. He didn’t look at me when he said it, which somehow made it worse, like I wasn’t a person in the discussion—just a topic.

Another elder followed. He explained that a rejected mate couldn’t just leave the pack territory. That there were rules tied to status, stability, and something he called pack law. I tried to focus on the logic of it, but nothing about it felt logical to me.

Then he said it.

A union was required.

For a moment, I didn’t react at all. My mind needed time to catch up with the words because they didn’t immediately connect to anything I understood. Then they did, and everything inside me tightened at once.

I finally spoke before I could stop myself. “No.”

My voice came out sharper than I expected, but I didn’t take it back. Not when every pair of eyes turned slightly toward me. Not when I felt Kael’s gaze shift onto me properly for the first time since I entered.

He didn’t look surprised. That bothered me more than anything else.

One of the elders spoke again, calm and final, telling me this wasn’t a request. It was a resolution. Something already decided under pack law and political necessity.

I felt my fingers curl slightly at my sides.

That word again. Necessity.

I looked at Kael then, because I couldn’t help it.

“You rejected me,” I said quietly. “Why does it matter what happens to me now?”

For a second, something changed in his expression. Not much. Just enough for me to notice. A small tightening in his jaw, like even he didn’t like how this sounded out loud. But when he spoke, his voice stayed controlled.

“This is not permanent,” he said.

That should have meant something reassuring. It didn’t. Because he didn’t sound like someone explaining something to me. He sounded like someone accepting something he didn’t care enough to fight.

“So I’m just a problem being fixed,” I said before I could stop myself, mostly to myself more than anyone else.

He didn’t answer that.

The silence that followed felt heavier than everything else in the room combined.

Then the elder stood and announced it like it was already finished. A formal union would take place between Alpha Kael Draven and Selene Everhart under pack law. Objections were not accepted.

Just like that, it was done.

Outside the council hall, I didn’t move right away. The air felt different, like I had stepped out of one life and into another without being asked. I heard footsteps behind me before I turned, and I already knew who it was.

Kael stopped a few steps away.

We didn’t speak at first.

That silence felt different from before. Not distant anymore. Not neutral. Something between us had changed, even if neither of us had chosen it.

“Don’t misunderstand it,” he said finally.

I let out a small breath that didn’t feel like a laugh. “I feel like that’s all I’ve been doing lately.”

That made him pause slightly, just long enough for me to notice.

He looked at me properly then. “This is for pack stability.”

I nodded slowly. “Of course it is.”

A second passed before I added, quieter, “It’s always for something bigger than me.”

He didn’t respond.

And standing there, I finally understood something I didn’t want to understand.

This wasn’t just about rules or stability or pack law.

This was something neither of us actually knew how to deal with yet.