Rejected By Alpha, Wanted By His Enemies

Chapter 3: Three Days

LENA

The guarded quarters on the neutral Sacred Grounds felt more like a dungeon than a safe haven. The stone walls were thick and damp, sweating with moisture from the cold northern air outside. A single iron candle holder sat on a heavy wooden desk, casting long, flickering shadows across the room.

I sat on the edge of the small mattress, my hands buried in my lap. I was still wearing the torn black dress from the hall. The fabric was dusted with white ash and smelled of ozone, burnt wood, and Caleb’s fresh-rain scent. No matter how hard I tried to breathe through my mouth, that scent was stuck in my nose.

My wrist still throbbed where his fingers had clamped onto my skin. I pulled back my sleeve and looked at it in the dim candlelight. A faint, dark bruise was already forming, but that wasn't what caught my attention. Beneath the surface of my skin, the tiny silver veins of my Eclipse wolf were pulsing softly, trying to push through and heal the mark.

Fated, my inner wolf whispered again. She wasn't angry like I was. She was confused. She wanted her mate.

"Shut up," I muttered aloud to the empty room, pressing my palm against my chest. "He threw us away."

A knock rattled the wooden door, making me jump.

"Luna?" Marcus's voice called out from the other side. "The guards are letting me in for a quick status report. I have five minutes."

"Come in," I said, standing up quickly.

The iron lock clicked, and the door creaked open. Marcus stepped inside, his leather jacket still stained with the black soot from the attack. His old, lined face looked incredibly tired as he looked at me. He closed the door behind him, but I could see two stone-faced Council guards standing in the hallway, their arms crossed.

"Are you holding together, kid?" Marcus asked, keeping his voice low so the guards wouldn't hear.

"I’m alive," I said, walking over to him. "What is happening out there? Did Sebastian go back to the pack?"

Marcus shook his head. "Are you kidding? Sebastian isn't leaving this mountain without you. He’s pacing the eastern perimeter right now like a caged bear. If the Council didn't have the power to force a bond-severing ritual, he would have broken you out of here twenty minutes ago."

A small weight lifted from my chest, but it was quickly replaced by a cold dread. "And Caleb?"

Marcus’s expression hardened. "The boy Alpha is still at the main hall. He’s furious. His father is trying to pull him back to the Crescent Moon borders, but Caleb refuses to move. He’s invoking every old law he can find to force the Council’s hand early." Marcus stepped closer, his steel-gray eyes searching mine. "Lena... the bond. When he touched you... we all felt it. The windows didn't shatter by accident."

I looked down at the stone floor, unable to meet his gaze. "I know."

"Is it strong?"

"It felt like my blood was on fire," I whispered, the truth tasting like ash in my mouth. "For three years, it was just a dead space in my chest. But the second he touched me, it was like I never left. My wolf... she wants him, Marcus. I hate her for it, but she does."

Marcus sighed, placing a calloused hand on my shoulder. He had been the one to train me when I arrived at Iron Ridge. He had watched me fail, fall, bleed, and eventually stand back up with silver light in my eyes. He was the closest thing to a father I had left.

"A fated bond isn't a choice, Lena. The Moon Goddess doesn't care about your feelings," Marcus said softly. "But you are not the same weak girl who ran into the woods. You have choices now. Don't let the magic bully you into thinking you don't."

Before I could answer, the door swung open again. One of the Council guards cleared his throat. "Time is up, Beta Marcus. Leave the room."

Marcus gave my shoulder one last squeeze. "Three days, kid. Just stay alive for three days." He turned and walked out, the door slamming shut behind him with a loud, final click.

I paced the small room, my boots clicking softly against the stone. My mind was spinning. The Shadow Collective had found me. The pale man with the black eyes had mentioned 'The Archon.' They wanted my blood for my Eclipse lineage. If they attacked the Summit with six men tonight, what would stop them from bringing sixty next time? The neutral grounds weren't safe.

I stopped near the high, narrow window. The iron bars were thick, but the gap was wide enough for the cold mountain wind to blow through, lifting strands of my brown hair. I looked out into the darkness. The northern forest was a sea of black trees, moving slowly under the pale moonlight.

A sudden rustle in the bushes directly below my window made me freeze.

I held my breath, my silver rings flaring to life in the dark. I leaned closer to the bars, my nose twitching as I caught a scent on the wind.

It wasn't the dead-iron smell of the assassins.

"Lena," a low, urgent voice whispered from the shadows of the stone wall.

My heart did a violent flip. "Caleb?" I hissed back, leaning my face against the cold iron bars. "What are you doing? The Council said if you come near me—"

"The Council can rot," he interrupted.

A shadow moved, and then Caleb was scaling the rough stone wall with the agility of a wild beast. His fingers dug into the small ridges of the masonry until his face appeared on the other side of my window bars. He was gripping the iron tightly, his knuckles white. The cut above his eye had stopped bleeding, but his face was smeared with dark dirt.

Up close, his ice-blue eyes looked absolutely desperate.

"You shouldn't be here," I said, taking a step back from the window. The pull of the bond was already tugging at my chest, trying to drag me back toward the glass. "If they catch you, they will sever the connection permanently."

"Let them try," Caleb growled softly, his eyes scanning my face like he was trying to memorize every line. "I spent three years thinking you were dead, Lena. Three years of my wolf clawing at my ribs, going feral because I listened to my father's lies. You think a few old men with laws can keep me away from you now?"

"You rejected me, Caleb," I said. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to create a barrier between us. "You stood in front of the entire pack and called me trash. You said I was too weak to be your Luna."

A look of pure agony crossed his face. He flinched like I had struck him with a silver blade. "I know. I know what I did. My father told me a weak mate would destroy our lineage. He said the pack would fall if an Omega took the throne. I was stupid. I was a coward."

He reached through the iron bars, his large hand open, begging me to take it.

"But the bond didn't die, Lena. You felt it tonight. I know you did," Caleb pleaded, his voice breaking. "When I touched you, Ash woke up for the first time in thirty-six months. Please. Just let me explain. Let me protect you from whatever those things were tonight."

"I don't need your protection anymore," I said, stepping even further back into the shadows of the room. "Iron Ridge protected me. Marcus protected me. While you were sitting in your high castle, I was bleeding in the dirt. I learned how to fight without you."

Caleb’s hand dropped slowly, his fingers wrapping around the iron bars instead. "The gray wolf," he muttered, his jaw tightening. "Alpha Sebastian. Is he... does he touch you?"

The jealousy radiating off him was so thick it made the air taste bitter.

"That is none of your business," I snapped.

"It is my business!" Caleb growled, his silver eyes flashing in the dark. "You are my fated mate, Lena! Your wolf belongs to mine! I can feel your anger, but I can also feel how much your body wants to come to this window right now!"

"Get out, Caleb," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Before I call the guards myself."

He stared at me through the bars for a long, silent moment. The wind howled between us, kicking up dust from the sill. He looked like he wanted to rip the iron bars right out of the stone wall, but something in my expression stopped him.

"I'm not giving you up," Caleb whispered fiercely, his grip loosening on the bars. "The Council has three days. I will spend every second of those three days making sure you come home to the Crescent Moon Pack. Where you belong."

Before I could reply, a loud shout echoed from the courtyard below.

"Hey! Who's over there by the western wall? Halt!"

Caleb looked down, his teeth bared in a snarl. He looked back at me one last time, his ice-blue eyes wild with a promise. Then, he let go. He dropped into the darkness, disappearing into the shadows of the courtyard just as three torches rounded the corner of the building.

I ran to the window, my heart pounding in my throat as I watched the guards search the bushes. But Caleb was gone.

I turned back to the room, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. My wrist was still warm from where he had touched me hours ago. I sank down onto the floor, my back against the cold stone wall, burying my face in my hands.

Three days. I just had to survive three days.

But as I sat there in the dark, a strange, creeping feeling washed over the skin of my neck. It wasn't the warmth of the fated bond, and it wasn't the familiar safety of Marcus's presence. It was a cold, prickly sensation, like someone was drawing a freezing blade down my spine.

I looked up at the ceiling.

Deep inside the stone framework of the roof, above the flickering candlelight, I heard a faint,

rhythmic scratching sound. Like long, sharp fingernails