The Wolfless Luna

Chapter Three — Nothing Is Free

The man by the window looked up from the document in his hand.

For one suspended second, neither of us moved.

My dress was torn at the shoulder, one shoe was missing, my wrists were red from the restraints, and blood had dried into the hair near my temple. My lungs still burned from running, but the pounding footsteps in the corridor reminded me I had no time to care how I appeared.

“Please,” I said. “Help me.”

His gaze moved over me with cool, deliberate attention. Not concern. Assessment.

There was something in his expression I recognised immediately: judgment already made.

Women who entered places like the Hollow, he seemed to think, knew exactly what they were doing.

“They’re coming,” I said.

“So I hear.”

“They kidnapped me downstairs. My friend and I were tricked into coming here for a potion. They put me in a cage and tried to auction me.”

His face did not change.

I stepped closer. “Please. Just don’t let them take me back.”

The door slammed open behind me.

The blond man entered first, followed by three guards.

“There you are.”

I moved farther into the room.

One of the guards reached for me, but the man by the window spoke before he touched me.

“What is this?”

The blond man’s posture changed at once.

“Alpha Caelum. Apologies for the interruption. She belongs downstairs.”

Caelum.

Alpha Caelum Thorne. Head of Greyhaven Pack and a candidate in the coming Council election. I had read about him.

I had never expected to meet him barefoot and bleeding in a black-market club.

“She does not belong to you,” I said.

The blond man ignored me. “She came voluntarily, caused damage, then disrupted a private sale.”

“That’s a lie.”

Caelum’s eyes shifted to mine.

“We came because we were told there was a potion that could strengthen a weak Wolf or awaken one that never appeared. It was bait. They grabbed Mia first. I helped her escape, so they took me instead.”

For a moment, I thought he might ask another question.

Instead, his expression hardened.

“Get her out of here.”

A guard seized my arm.

“No—wait.”

Another caught my other wrist and dragged it behind my back. Pain shot through my shoulder.

“You heard him,” the blond man said.

“I told you what happened.”

Caelum turned away as if I had already ceased to matter.

“You didn’t listen.”

“I listened.”

“Then you’re choosing to send me back.”

“You entered a black-market venue voluntarily.”

“I entered looking for a potion, not to be sold.”

The guard yanked my wrists together and wound a rough plastic tie around them. He pulled it so tight my fingers tingled.

“Hold still.”

“Take your hands off me.”

He shoved me forward.

The blond man laughed under his breath. “Still thinks she gets to make demands.”

One of the guards caught a fistful of my torn sleeve. “Begging him won’t help.”

His mouth twisted close to my ear.

“No one can save a low-life Wolfless piece of trash like you.”

The room went still.

Caelum turned back.

“She has no Wolf, Alpha,” the guard continued. “No shift, no strength, no Pack value. We’re just taking back what we paid for.”

Caelum set his glass down.

Carefully.

“What did you just say?”

The blond man stepped forward. “It’s handled. There’s no need—”

“Did I give you permission to speak?”

The guard holding me stiffened.

Too late.

Caelum crossed the space between us so quickly I barely saw him move. His fist struck the guard’s jaw with a crack that turned my stomach. The man hit the floor before he could shift.

The second guard lunged.

Caelum caught him by the throat and drove him into the wall. Framed artwork crashed to the floor. When the third man reached for a blade, Caelum twisted his wrist until the knife dropped, then slammed him across the table hard enough to split the wood.

There was nothing wild about it. That was what frightened me most.

He was furious, but every movement was controlled.

The blond man backed toward the door.

“Alpha, they were only following orders.”

Caelum looked at him.

“They insulted someone beneath my roof after I gave an order. They put their hands on her as though my room belonged to them. They challenged my authority in my own territory.”

The blond man swallowed.

“Take them and leave.”

No one argued.

Within seconds, the door shut behind them.

My shoulders sagged.

“Thank you.”

Caelum bent and picked up the hunting knife one of the guards had dropped.

Blood streaked the blade.

My relief vanished.

He walked toward me.

I backed into the edge of the table.

“What are you doing?”

He came close enough that I could see a faint scar through one eyebrow.

The bloody hunting knife rose.

Cold metal pressed against my carotid artery.

Every thought in my head emptied at once.

Caelum looked down at me without a trace of softness.

“In my territory, nothing is free. Do you want to die, or do you want to be my slave?”

I stared at him.

“Your slave?”

“Until your debt is paid.”

“You just beat three men for treating me like property.”

“And now I’m giving you a choice.”

“That is an extremely generous interpretation of the word choice.”

His eyes narrowed.

I forced myself to breathe shallowly.

“You weren’t trying to get my attention, were you?” he asked. “Otherwise, you’re just plain foolish.”

Disbelief almost made me laugh.

“You think I arranged to be drugged, caged and auctioned so I could meet you?”

His gaze flicked over my torn dress.

“I’ve seen worse attempts.”

There it was again, that cold assumption about women who came to places like this.

“If I wanted your attention,” I said, “I would have requested a meeting like a normal person.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I don’t particularly care what you believe. I care whether you remove that knife from my throat.”

Something shifted in his expression.

Then the room moved sideways.

Heat rolled beneath my skin, followed by a wave of dizziness so violent my knees softened.

Caelum noticed immediately.

His gaze sharpened. “What did they give you?”

“I don’t know.”

The knife lowered.

I reached for the table, but my hand missed the edge.

The drug had been sitting inside me all this time, waiting for the fear to stop carrying me.

My vision blurred.

“Don’t faint,” Caelum said.

“That wasn’t… part of the plan.”

My legs gave way.

The last thing I felt was his arm catching me around the waist before darkness finally took me.