CHAPTER 2
1471 Words
Laughter. Loud and cruel.
“Did she just say Nicholas tried to…? Oh please!”
“Nicholas? That sweet boy?”
“She’s making up stories for attention!”
I wanted the ground to open and swallow me.
Gertrude, my stepmother, clapped her hands for attention.
“I think it’s time,” she said with a fake smile. “Time to throw this useless girl out of the Wolfhart Clan. We don’t keep traitors.”
My blood ran cold.
“No…” I wrote, dropping to my knees. “Please…”
I held her dress. Begging. Crying.
“She’s no Alpha’s daughter,” Gertrude said. “She’s just a mistake. She doesn’t even have her wolf. She doesn’t belong here.”
Guards came forward and grabbed me by the arms.
I quickly wrote and give my stepmother.
“No!” I tried to pull away. “Please, I don’t want to be a rogue. Please…”
She didn’t care.
They dragged me toward the gate. Toward the edge of the territory.
The rogue’s land. Wild. Dangerous. Death for a wolf without her shift.
I cried harder. I was shaking.
And then…
A deep, powerful voice stopped everyone.
“Let her go.”
The guards froze.
Everyone turned.
The moment I looked up.
It was him, the same man that saved me from Nicholas earlier today.
He said, “I am alpha hunter, Alpha of the silver pack.”
He stepped forward through the crowd. Tall. Broad shoulders. Black hair. Silver eyes.
He looked like power and danger. People whispered.
“ he's a beast…”
“What is he doing here?!”
He didn’t look at anyone.
He walked straight to me.
His hand brushed over my cheek, checking if I was hurt. His touch made me feel warm… safe.
Gertrude stepped forward with a fake laugh.
“If you're here for Anneliese, I'm afraid you're too late. She’s taken.”
He didn’t even glance at her.
“I’m not here for Anneliese,” he said coldly.
He looked down at me.
“I’m here for Wren. My mate.”
Gasps. Whispers.
“What?!”
“Her?”
“That can’t be true! She’s just a maid!”
“She was just banished!”
Everyone stared.
I stared too.
Did he just say I was his here for me…?
My heart raced. My knees shook.
Gertrude looked like she’d seen a ghost.
Anneliese’s mouth dropped open.
Alpha Hunter’s eyes never left mine.
“I came to claim what’s mine,” he said.
“I said,” Alpha Hunter’s deep voice rang out, “Wren Wolfhart is my mate. My Luna. The queen of the Silver Pack.”
The whispers started again, louder this time.
“Her? The maid?”
“No way…”
“So what if she’s your mate?” someone shouted. “You’re just a cursed Alpha anyway! A beast! We bet you don’t even have anything to offer her.”
The crowd laughed.
I looked at the ground, heart racing. Why did they always have to laugh at me?
But Alpha Hunter didn’t blink.
He raised one hand calmly and turned to his Beta.
“Hugo. Bring the gifts.”
The tall man nodded.
Seconds later, he returned with a group of warriors carrying boxes, big, heavy, glowing boxes.
Hunter opened the first one.
“Five million dollars. For my Luna, Wren.”
Gasps filled the air.
Another box opened.
“A ring… worth twelve million dollars. For her finger alone.”
People started murmuring.
“She’s just a maid…”
“She’s mute…”
“Why is he giving her all this?”
Hunter didn’t stop. He walked to the third and final gift.
“This one is worth seventy-four million dollars. Custom-made. From the bloodstone mines of Darkhorn territory. The most precious gem in all werewolf clans.”
He turned to me.
“Because you’re worth this much, Wren. And more.”
Gertrude stepped forward, face red like fire.
“Are you kidding us?!” she snapped. “You expect us to believe all this… all this is for WREN? That filthy little maid?”
Alpha Hunter looked at her like she was a bug under his boot.
“Yes,” he said slowly. “It’s all for my mate. My Luna. My queen. And now…”
He turned back to me.
In front of the entire crowd, in front of the pack that rejected me, he knelt down on one knee.
He opened the twelve-million-dollar ring.
“Wren Wolfhart, you are my mate. My Luna. My one and only. Will you marry me?”
My heart stopped.
Everyone stared.
Even Anneliese looked like she forgot how to breathe.
I looked down at him, A powerful Alpha, kneeling just for me.
I whispered to myself, “Maybe… I could have a real family again.”
I nodded, smiling through tears. “Yes.”
The crowd gasped.
Anneliese stomped her foot. “Gosh! She doesn’t deserve ANY of this! She can’t even speak!”
Alpha Hunter stood and smiled coldly at her. “Trust me. She deserves all of it. And I’m not done.”
He turned to face Nicholas.
And without warning, punched him straight in the face.
Crack.
Nicholas dropped to the ground with a bloodied nose.
“WHAT THE HELL?!” Anneliese screamed, running to him.
Gertrude shouted, “Alpha Hunter, you may be powerful, but this is still my home, and my territory! You can’t…!”
Hunter growled low in his throat.
“It is my right. For what he tried to do to my mate. He tried to rape my Luna.”
Gasps again. People turned and stared at Nicholas, who was groaning on the floor.
Anneliese screamed louder, “That’s a lie! Nicholas would never do that!”
Hunter’s voice was calm but dangerous. “I was there. I was the one who stopped him. I beat him up, And he ran like a coward.”
Hugo, his Beta, stepped forward. “I saw it too. Nicholas ran when Alpha Hunter beat him.”
Someone in the crowd mumbled, “He does have that black eye... and he refused to say how he got it...”
Another said, “So the mute girl… wasn’t lying.”
I felt my heart swell.
For the first time in my life… they believed me.
I smiled to myself.
Finally, Someone is on my side.
Then Hunter spoke again, his voice cold and sharp like a blade.
“Nicholas must pay for what he did. I challenge him… to ritual combat.”
Everyone froze.
Nicholas’s head snapped up, eyes wide with fear.
Anneliese screamed, “No! You can’t do that!”
Everyone was waiting for Nicholas to answer Alpha Hunter’s challenge. He stood up slowly, holding his broken nose. Blood was running down his face. He looked around, but no one stepped forward to defend him. Not even Anneliese.
And then… he dropped to his knees.
“I…I surrender,” Nicholas muttered, his voice shaking. “I don’t want to fight. I give up.”
Gasps filled the air again. I heard someone whisper, “He’s the next Alpha? What a shame.”
Another voice said, “I can’t believe we chose him to lead us one day. Look at him now.”
Alpha Hunter didn’t speak. He was only staring, eyes burning.
Nicholas looked up at him, desperate. “I didn’t know she was your mate! She…she came onto me! Yes! That’s it! She seduced me! She stripped for me first!”
My hands shook.
I quickly grabbed a notebook and a pen from the table and started writing fast. I gave it to Alpha Hunter. He read it slowly. His jaw tightened with every word.
“I went to the outdoor bath area,” I wrote. “Because I was not allowed to shower inside the pack house. I was alone, trying to wash. Nicholas followed me. I didn’t even know he was there.”
Alpha Hunter looked up.
His eyes were no longer just eyes, they were glowing silver.
He took a step forward.
Someone screamed.
His skin rippled. His breath came out in sharp growls. I saw something behind his eyes. Something ancient.
People backed away quickly, tripping over themselves.
“No,” someone whispered. “He’s shifting.”
“Get back! He’s going to kill him!”
But I ran forward, stepping in front of Hunter.
I placed my small hand on his chest. I looked into his silver eyes and slowly shook my head.
“Please,” I whispered in my heart. “Don’t become a monster for me.”
He blinked once.
Then twice.
And slowly… he came back.
His claws retracted. His breathing slowed. Fenris went quiet inside him.
He turned to Nicholas, eyes still dangerous,
- Writer
