Claimed, Then cast aside.

The Mating Bond Unveiled

Elara's POV

“You are pregnant, Elara.” Elder Mira said.

The word came to me like a fist.

"Pregnant."

It was Elder Mira's typical calm, practiced way that one must have to use at least a hundred times a day; but in my ears, it was thunder. I could not breathe, could not move.

The sterile white walls seemed to lean a little closer, the scent of antiseptic turning sharp in my nose. Pregnant. The syllables echoed and drowned out everything else she said—hormones, options, steps forward. The pulse hammered so hard within me, it felt in my throat.

Beside me, Finn's hand tightened over mine. I turned, searching for a solid expression in his face. The shock was evident as his mouth was clamped tight, but his eyes stayed on me, steady, worried. A flicker of anger crossed his features, but not at me. Never at me.

"Come on," he said gently, though his voice trembled. His grip anchored me, tugged me up from the fog. "Let's get you home."

I nodded vacantly. My body obeyed while my mind was still musing that one word: Pregnant. Pregnant.

-

The homeward journey bled into silence; the moment we stepped into the house, it became unbearable.

The echo of footsteps on the marble made it seem like the silence made itself all the louder. Father was out tonight; Selene was also away. No staff was there. It was just me and Finn with the burden of the truth hanging over us.

Finn wouldn't sit down. He was pacing. Like a caged storm, back and forth, sneakers squeaking against the polished floor before furious and sudden spinning around to face me.

"Talk," he snapped then added more softly, pleading, "Elara, please. What happened?"

I found it hard to breathe. My fingers twisted in my lap until my knuckles hurt. The shame was suffocating but Finn's eyes were demanding the truth.

"It was... that night," my voice was barely audible. "The Blackthorn gathering."

His shoulders stiffened. "Elara. Who?"

The name burned on my lips, but holding it inside was going to eat me alive.

"Darius."

Finn froze like he'd been hit. His mouth opened then closed, before letting out an oddly humorless laugh. "Darius Blackthorn? Are you serious? Elara—of all wolves—him?"

"I know," I whispered, tears stinging my eyes. "I wasn't thinking. He was drunk. I just—" I broke off, shaking my head. "I just wanted to matter for once."

Those sound pathetic even to my own ears.

Finn raked both his hands through his hair, tugging hard at the strands. He was about to start pacing again with quick angry breaths rising and falling in his chest. "Mattered? Elara, Darius Blackthorn doesn't care about anyone but himself. He is a playboy, a—God, he's practically toxic waste. And now—" He stopped and looked at me, his voice dropping, breaking. "Now you are carrying his pup. You dumb f*****g b***h! You are carrying his pup, tell me the truth, does this make you feel like you matter? Being an easy bed warmer for the one wolf who would never search for you even if the packs announced that you were missing!”

I could not hold it in: the sob snatched itself from my throat as I smothered my face in my palms. Never have I felt smaller, weaker, or more frightened.

That was when the front door clicked open.

Finn's head bounced up. My body tightened, in every muscle.

The sharp staccato sound of her heels scuttling across the marble floor sliced their way through the house. Selene.

There she was at the door covering her figure in silk beneath narrow, calculating eyes cast on me. "What the hell is going on here?"

My breath constricted. Finn cast me a sharp look, silently begging me not to give in. But Selene's glare impaled me, similar to the way she would have scolded. She always saw too much.

I could not stop the truth from tumbling out. "I... I am pregnant."

The silence remaining was deafening.

Selene's painted lips curved into the slow smile—not soft, not maternal, but victorious. Not much like a stepmother to me, more like a queen who'd just won a war.

"Well," she purred, her voice as smooth as glass, "that changes everything."

-

Happen before me faster than I could breathe.

She was out with that howl-link at her precise claws falling into a bond that was calling my father, the Blackthorns, or anyone with power enough to matter. Within hours, I was again uncomfortably lodged in the Blackthorn den for the harsh glare of glittering moon-crystals cast at the ugliest moment of my life.

Power consumed my room, and I couldn't hold out anymore.

To the left of Selene was my sire, white but composed, jaw tight. Across from us stood Alpha Thorne and Luna Ravenna Blackthorn, a two-legged wall of pack dominance and influence, faces a mass of unreadable masks. And Darius—that was sprawled in his chair, legs out and did everything to make it appear that he didn't care. But I caught the panic in his eyes when they flicked to me.

Selene did not waste time. "My stepdaughter is carrying your son's pup," she immediately announced, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. "This matter will be brushed aside do not."

Darius shifted, rubbing his jaw, his voice defensive. "It was a mistake. I didn't—"

"Enough." Alpha Thorne's voice cracked across the circle like a whip. His eyes pinned Darius with cold fury. "This isn't about mistakes. This is about responsibility. About the pack's honor. Do you understand me?"

Darius swallowed hard, and a little less bravado remained. He quite simply chose not to answer.

My sire cleared his throat, low, tense. "We can't allow scandal to stain either pack. The other clans would destroy us. Whispers would soon be circling."

Selene leaned back, smug and composed, claws tapping the armrest of her chair. "Then we do what packs like ours have always done. We control the narrative."

She cast an icy glance in my direction that dropped and settled back on the Blackthorns. "A betrothal bond. Announce it straight away. Mate fully, and I think Elara matures from the Academy soon, hence the pup will be legitimate. The packs benefit from it appearing unified. Our reputations remain intact."

Pitiful messages sank lead-like in my insides: betrothal, full mating, a life shackled to connections with DARIUS BLACKTHORN, whom, before this atrocity, never even seemed to take a look at me.

Darius straightened immediately up, disbelieving as his voice turned into an incredulous whisper. "What? You can't be really serious with that."

"Watch us," Luna Ravenna says unemotionally, her voice punctuated by quiet steel. Her narrowed eyes landed on him. "You will do what's required. For the pack. For show. You've already humiliated us enough."

Then the room became a still picture.

I froze in that moment, trembling hands in my laps as elders shaped my future into what looked like a shrewd pack alliance. Proposal. Mating. Control. But never love. Never.