Claimed by the Ruthless Alpha Prince

Chapter13

Elara's POV

I’m trapped.

Hours pass in numb silence. I can’t even cry. I feel so empty. I try to sleep but keep startling awake at every sound outside. Around midnight, exhaustion finally takes over, and I doze fitfully on the couch with Luna curled against my chest.

I wake to the soft creak of my front door opening.

My eyes snap open, my heart hammering. Luna tenses in my arms, but she doesn’t hiss or run—which means whoever is entering isn’t a threat to her.

Two figures slip into my home like shadows. In the dim moonlight filtering through the windows, I can just make out their shapes.

“Selene?” I whisper.

“Shh,” comes Daciana’s voice. “The guards are out cold, but we don’t have long.”

I sit up carefully, still holding Luna.

“What are you doing here?”

Selene moves to my front window and peeks through the curtains.

“Daciana drugged their water. They’ll be unconscious for maybe an hour, if we’re lucky.”

“We’re getting you out of here,” Daciana says, her voice tight with urgency. “Now.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you—”

“Because I know what my uncle is really planning,” Daciana cuts me off. “This isn’t just about saving Harper.”

She moves closer, and in the moonlight, I can see the fear in her dark eyes.

“Alpha Blackwood wants a war with the Blue Crest Pack,” she continues. “He’s been planning it for months. But he needs justification—something that will make the other packs support him.”

I blink at her.

“What are you saying?”

“He’s sending you to die, Elara. He knows they’ll torture and kill you. And when they do, he’ll have his excuse to attack them.” Daciana’s voice breaks slightly. “He’s using your death as a pretense for war.”

The room spins around me.

“But Harper—”

“They devised this plan right after you asked to be released from the pack,” Selene whispers from her position by the window. “They’re going to pretend that you are more powerful than Harper and send you.”

I stare at them, my mind reeling.

“So, when Harper begged me to take her place...”

“She doesn’t know. She thought they really were going to send her. Evil b***h. She had no problem sending you to your death.” Daciana looks like she wants to shed the woman’s blood.

“Take this.” Selene thrusts a vial into my hands. “There are seven doses. You need to ingest one drop per day. It’s going to obscure your scent. I stole it from Healer Morrigan. We’re going to take you to the edge of the territory line in the Wyvern Woods, where you will ingest one drop. Then, we’ll get you away from there as fast as possible. This potion will make everyone believe that you went into the forest. Nobody will chase after you there. Not even Alpha Blackwood.”

“But they’ll track me down to Turnville—”

“Does anyone know any details about your human?” Daciana replies.

I shake my head silently. I even gave these two only sparse details about Andrew and his proposal.

My friend gives me a grim smile.

“Then they’ll be chasing their tails. That is, if any of them figures out you didn’t actually go into the Wyvern Woods. Here.” Daciana hands me a bag of coins. “It’s not a lot, but we both had some savings, and we pooled them for you.”

Tears flow from my eyes as I throw my arms around the two of them.

“Thank you.”

They hug me back, but only briefly.

“Let’s go.”

Selene takes Luna from me and puts her in the basket as I grab my small knapsack and my herbs.

“Go to the human town,” Daciana says hurriedly. “Find your boyfriend. I live there. Disappear.”

“Daciana,” Selene whispers urgently. “Now!”

Daciana pulls me toward the door, then stops, gripping my shoulders.

“Elara, listen to me. Don’t ever come back here. Ever. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

“Come on,” Selene whispers.

We slip out into the night, stepping carefully over the comatose forms of Henrik and George. They’re slumped against the cottage wall, breathing deeply.

“How long do I have?” I ask.

“Don’t count on more than half an hour before they wake up and raise the alarm,” Daciana says. “Now, get on.”

She shifts into a large, brown wolf, and I realize she means to carry me to the woods. I don’t protest, even though it strikes me as odd; wolf shifters don’t ride on each other’s backs unless they are mates. Selene follows us in her wolf form; her brown fur has streaks of white in the tail.

We enter the Wyvern Woods and reach the markers at the edge of the territory. I quickly take a sip from the vial, and then Daciana shifts back as Selene’s wolf approaches. I climb onto her back, and she begins running down the mountain. The trees that grow here are thick, and once we are a good distance out, she stops.

This is where we have to part ways, I realize.

“Thank you,” I tell her when she shifts back, my voice thick with emotion. “Both of you. You’re risking everything for me.”

“You’re our friend,” Selene says simply. “Friends protect each other.”

Daciana didn’t follow us. I don’t know what their plan is, but I’m grateful to them.

“You won’t get in trouble?”

“We know how to cover our tracks.” Selene cups my cheeks, tears in her eyes. “Be safe. Be happy. Forget this place ever existed.”

I try to memorize her face in the moonlight. I will never forget these two women—the only ones who ever showed me true kindness.

I hug Selene again, and then I slip into the forest with Luna in the basket and my bag on my back, leaving behind the only life I’ve ever known. Behind me, my friend melts back into the shadows, returning to her and Daciana’s dangerous game of pretending they had nothing to do with my escape.

The woods are full of night sounds: owls hooting, small creatures rustling through the underbrush, and somewhere in the distance, the howl of a creature that could be a wolf or perhaps something worse.

But for the first time in my life, the darkness doesn’t feel like the most dangerous thing around me. That honor belongs to the pack I’m leaving behind.