The Alpha's fall

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

My body throbbed with every breath I took, heavy and aching all over, and there was nothing left for me to do but weep in silence. I lay curled on my side, staring out through the open window at the same unchanging view that had greeted me when I first stepped into this room earlier that day.

“Win him over, Eloise. Persuade him. Make him agree to take the place of Alpha. I know he will listen to you—you are his mate, after all. Please, I beg you.”

I pressed my palm hard against my lips, biting back a sob that threatened to tear free from my throat. Luna Luella’s plea echoed clearly in my mind—the words she had spoken to me not long before, in the quiet of the pack kitchen.

This was not how it was supposed to happen.

It felt as though a sharp, cold blade had been driven deep into my chest and left there, twisting slowly with every beat of my heart. For I had finally seen the truth: everything Ralf had said was right. They had used me—used our bond, used what we meant to each other—to force Ralf into doing exactly what they wanted. And the worst, most crushing truth of all? My own mother had been part of the plan all along.

My eyelids felt as heavy as stone, as if every last drop of moisture in my eyes had finally dried up and run out.

Those thirty minutes that had passed since then were moments I would carry with me forever—an eternal mark upon my soul, the very second when the man I loved more than life itself had shattered every dream, every hope, and every piece of who I was.

When nearly an hour had passed, spent only in quiet tears beside the bed, I forced my limbs to move. I pushed myself slowly to my feet, and for a heartbeat, the world spun wildly around me, dizziness rising up to cloud my vision. Pain pulsed through every muscle and nerve, radiating sharp and deep from between my thighs, where faint traces of blood still stained my skin. When moonlight streamed through the window and fell upon my wrist, I saw the dark, angry mark his hand had left there—yet I did not see it. I no longer possessed the strength to care about such things, to grieve over what had been taken from me.

I did not even search for something to cover my naked body. I moved with no sense of urgency, and yet my knees trembled so violently that I felt as though I were walking not upon solid ground, but floating weightlessly through the air with every step I took.

The door that had been locked against me earlier stood open now, and I passed through it freely. When I reached the top of the staircase leading down, I saw them immediately—Luna Luella and my mother, standing at the bottom and looking up at me. Worry was written so clearly across their faces that it seemed to burn, and they hurried toward me without hesitation.

“Eloise!” Luna called out, her voice soft but sharp with alarm.

“My child,” my mother whispered, tears already spilling down her cheeks as she rushed up the stairs to take my arm and lead me down.

In the moments that followed, I found myself sitting in the warm water of a bathtub, and my mother was there beside me, her hands gentle as she washed and cleaned my wounded body. She cried openly, her sorrow so thick I could almost touch it, and yet I could not bring myself to comfort her. Even as I felt my own heart breaking into a thousand pieces, I had nothing left to give—all my tears had been shed already, wasted away in that room where I had been left to suffer alone.

“Forgive me, my sweet girl,” she murmured, her voice trembling like wind through dead branches. “Please, forgive me.”

I could feel the heavy weight of her guilt pressing down upon her, but the burden I carried inside my chest was far heavier—three times heavier, a stone that no amount of sorrow or regret could ever match. I did not know if I would ever find the strength to look at Ralf again, let alone face him, after everything that had passed between us that night.

This was the longest night of my existence.

Time moved like thick, heavy honey as I lay in the darkness, my mind trapped in a cycle of what-ifs and fears. I raged against myself, angry that I had been so weak, so foolish, that I had let this happen to me.

Soon, when the next full moon rises, my wolf will finally awaken. Until that time, I am nothing more than an ordinary woman—vulnerable, fragile, and powerless.

Ralf never claimed me. Our first night together was not the joining of two souls, but a disaster—one that brought me nothing but pain, and left me broken. I could not help but wonder, as I sat there in the silence, if there would ever come a day when he would choose me freely, when he would take me as his own without pressure or scheme, after all that had been done to us.

The following morning, Luna Luella summoned every member of our family and all the most important leaders of the pack to gather around the long dining table for breakfast.

A heavy silence fell over the room the moment Ralf stepped through the door. He moved with easy grace, dressed in a crisp white polo shirt with the top buttons undone, revealing a strong, defined chest, and loose trousers the color of dark chocolate. I could not bring myself to meet his eyes; instead, I let my gaze fall lower, my head bowing until my hair fell forward to hide my face. Beneath the table, I clasped my hands so tightly together over my lap that my knuckles turned white.

“There you are. Please, sit,” Luna said, her voice clear and commanding, carrying all the authority of her position.

Ralf said nothing as he walked to his place, but from the corner of my eye I could see the confusion written plainly across his features—he looked around at the tense faces, sensing something was wrong, until finally he spoke to ask what it meant.

“What is happening here? Why does everyone look as though the sky is about to fall?” he asked, as if he had not been part of every plan, every scheme, that had led to this moment.

“Tell us, Ralf,” His uncle began, his voice cutting through the silence. “Will you accept the position, and become our Alpha?”

Ralf turned his head and looked straight at his uncle, who sat across the table from him.

“What are you saying, Uncle?” he replied, his tone firm and unyielding. “I made my intentions clear yesterday. Nothing will change my mind. My decision is final.”

One of the two older men seated nearby cleared his throat, his expression grave.

“If that is how you feel,” Emre said—one of Ralf’s elder cousins—“then what will become of Eloise? Will you take her back to the city with you when you leave?”

At those words, I lifted my head. I saw instantly how Ralf’s brow furrowed, how confusion deepened in his eyes, and then his gaze turned toward me—sitting at the far end of the table, three empty seats away from where he stood. I looked away at once, my eyes dropping back to the plate before me, which remained untouched and empty.

“I do not understand,” Ralf said, his voice sharp with uncertainty. “Why do you ask me these things?”

“Do not tell me you have forgotten,” Luna Luella said, her eyes narrowing.

“Forgotten what?” Ralf asked, and for a moment I thought he truly did not know.

“You spent the night together, Ralf!”

“W-What?”

The words left his lips as a broken whisper, and it felt as though a violent wind had swept through the room when he turned his eyes back to me.

He stared at me for what felt like hours, and I could not begin to guess what thoughts raced through his mind. At that moment, all I wanted was for the floor beneath my feet to split open and swallow me whole, to hide me away where no one could see my shame.

“Cousin,” Emer said, his voice heavy with judgment, “everyone in this pack knows Eloise is your mate. But we did not expect you to be so… forceful with her. You even… took her by force—”

The sound rang out like thunder, loud and sudden, as Ralf slammed both hands down upon the wooden table. The dishes and glasses trembled and rattled, and his cousin fell silent immediately, cut off mid-sentence by the force of his reaction.

“Damn it!” Ralf shouted, his voice raw with anger. “I told you all clearly yesterday that I would not take this position! I told you exactly what I wanted, and I made it plain to every single person here! And this is how you repay me?”

“Did you truly go to such lengths?” Ralf demanded, his voice rising with equal passion. “Did you really bend every rule and scheme behind my back just to tie me down and make me do exactly as you wish?

“Rafael!” she cried out, and now her voice was steady, strong, and unshakable as she stood her ground. “Are you saying you refuse to take responsibility for what happened between you two? Do you really intend to let this entire pack fall apart because of your own stubborn pride?”

Tears overflowed in my eyes as I listened to them argue, and I felt completely lost—without any idea what I should do, or if there was anything I could do at all.

“Please.”

Amidst the rising tension between mother and son, I heard my own mother’s soft voice, gentle but clear, cutting through the noise. She sat right beside me, and when I looked up, everyone had fallen silent, turning to listen to what she would say.

She sat perfectly still in her chair, her hands folded in her lap, and spoke with a weight that came only from deep sorrow and long-held regret.

“I have lost a film for this pack” she said, her voice trembling but steady. “And now… now even the honor of my only child has been taken from me. I only pray that this is the last time such a thing will ever happen.”

Her words felt like hands squeezing tight around my heart, and I wept again—tears that I had believed were gone forever, tears that flowed freely down my cheeks once more.