Chapter 17: Fractures in the Pack
447 Words
Respect is a fragile thing.
Elara had earned it in the ring.
But outside it?
That was another battle entirely.
⸻
They didn’t say it to her face.
But the tension was there.
The sideways glances. The muttered doubts.
“She’s not one of us.”
“Too soft.”
“Too broken.”
One wolf in particular — Kael, a second-ring enforcer — made his disdain very, very public.
“She’s not marked,” he said during a patrol briefing. “She’s not even from this territory. We’re supposed to just roll over and call her Luna?”
“She won the challenge,” someone argued.
Kael snorted. “That wasn’t a challenge. That was a performance.”
Elara had entered the room mid-sentence.
And she didn’t walk away.
“I don’t need your approval, Kael,” she said, voice like a blade. “Just your obedience.”
He stepped closer, towering.
“You think because the Alpha’s in your bed, you get to command us?”
Kade entered the room.
And the silence that followed could’ve split mountains.
“I think,” Kade growled, “you should be very careful about the next words out of your mouth.”
Kael backed off.
For now.
⸻
But the damage was already done.
Kael was stirring something. Something dangerous.
That night, a pup went missing.
Panic spread through the pack like wildfire.
Elara joined the search. She was the first to find the scent trail.
But she wasn’t the first to find the trap.
A wire. A stake. A snapped branch. A snare.
She heard the whistle of a dart before she could shift.
And then pain.
She dropped.
⸻
Kael appeared from the trees moments later, dragging the pup behind him.
Smirking.
“Oops,” he said. “Didn’t see you there.”
Elara’s blood ran cold as his claws flexed.
He wasn’t rescuing the pup.
He was using him.
Elara forced herself to her feet — swaying, vision blurred — and lunged.
Took the hit meant for the child.
Her scream echoed through the trees.
⸻
Kade was there seconds later.
And what he found was Elara, bloodied and on the ground…
…and Kael standing over her.
He didn’t ask questions.
He shifted mid-sprint.
And tore Kael apart.
⸻
Later, when she woke, wrapped in blankets and pain, Kade was at her side.
His hand gripped hers.
“You saved him,” he said.
“I had to,” she whispered.
“No,” he corrected. “You chose to. And they saw that.”
He kissed her hand, gently.
“You didn’t just become Luna,” he said. “You became their heart.”
- Writer
