Chapter Two: The Poison
823 Words
Kaelan
Morning came too fast.
Kaelan hadn't slept. He'd spent the night reviewing pack patrols, signing off on supply routes, anything to avoid thinking about the woman who would soon be his wife. By dawn, his eyes were bloodshot and his knuckles white where he gripped the edge of his desk.
Silas entered with a tablet in his hand. His face was carefully blank—too blank.
"What?" Kaelan demanded.
"Something came through last night. Anonymous." Silas placed the tablet on the desk. "Photos of Elara Vance. I thought you should see them before you meet her."
Kaelan looked down.
The first photo showed a dark-haired woman—beautiful, he noted distantly—with her lips on a man's neck. Her eyes were half-closed, her hand buried in his shirt. The second was worse: a crowded room, a bottle in her hand, a different man's arm around her waist. The third. The fourth. Each one more incriminating than the last. Men. Parties. Skin.
His wolf snarled.
"They could be old," Silas said carefully. "Or doctored. We don't know the source."
"They could be true." Kaelan's voice was ice. "My father made a blood oath to a family that produces this." He pushed the tablet away. "She arrives in three hours. I'll meet her. I'll marry her. But she will never touch me. Is that understood?"
Silas nodded slowly. But his eyes lingered on the photos, doubt flickering in their depths.
The next three hours passed in a blur. Kaelan showered, dressed in black, and drove to the private airfield with Silas beside him and two warriors in the back. His wolf was a storm. His heart was a cold, hard stone.
Then the plane landed.
A woman descended the steps. Elara Vance.
She was smaller than the photos suggested. Pale skin, dark hair twisted into a messy knot, a simple grey dress that had clearly been mended more than once. She looked exhausted. Fragile. Nothing like the party girl from the images.
But Kaelan's wolf didn't care about logic. The moment her feet touched the tarmac, his beast roared inside his chest.
Mate.
The word hit him like a physical blow. No. Not her. Not this woman who had been passed around, photographed in the arms of strangers, sent to him as a political obligation. The Moon Goddess couldn't be this cruel.
Then he saw the man.
A tall, handsome male stepped off the plane behind her. He touched Elara's elbow, leaned down, and whispered something in her ear. She laughed—a real, warm sound—and reached up to touch his face. The man kissed her forehead, slow and intimate, and wiped a tear from her cheek.
Kaelan saw red.
The lover. She brought him with her.
His wolf howled. Betrayal, jealousy, fury—they crashed through him like a tidal wave. He didn't think. He didn't pause. He crossed the tarmac in six long strides and grabbed Elara's arm before she even saw him coming.
She gasped, stumbling. Her eyes—deep brown, flecked with gold—met his. Confusion. Then a flash of something else. Recognition? Her lips parted.
"Who—"
"Alpha Kaelan Blackwood," he snarled. His grip tightened. "Your fiancé. Your mate, apparently." He spat the word like a curse. Behind Elara, the tall man tensed, stepping forward. Kaelan's warriors blocked him.
Elara's face went white. "Mate? I don't—I didn't know—"
"No," Kaelan cut her off. His voice was loud enough for everyone on the tarmac to hear. "You didn't know. Because you were too busy spreading your legs for half the men in your pack to pay attention to the bond."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Elara's eyes filled with tears, but she didn't cry. Her chin lifted. Her spine straightened. And in that moment, Kaelan saw not a fragile woman, but steel wrapped in skin.
"You don't know me," she said quietly. "You don't know anything about me."
"You're right." He released her arm as if it burned him. "And I don't want to. I, Alpha Kaelan Blackwood, reject you as my mate and my wife."
The words left his mouth before he could stop them. The bond—invisible, precious, sacred—snapped like a dry twig between them.
Elara made a sound. Not a scream. Not a cry. A small, broken exhale, as if someone had stabbed her and she couldn't find the breath to scream. Her knees buckled. The tall man broke free from the warriors and caught her before she hit the ground.
"Elara! Elara, stay with me!"
Kaelan stood frozen. The mate bond was gone, and in its place was a hollow ache that spread from his chest to his fingertips. His wolf whimpered. Then snarled. Then fell silent.
Silas appeared at his side, his face pale. "Kaelan. What did you just do?"
Kaelan didn't answer. He couldn't.
He was already walking away.
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