The Wolfless Crown

Chapter Two : The night everything fell apart

(Sophie’s POV)

My eyes went blank, but the noise faded first. The shouting and the way my name was being twisted into something ugly slowly faded from my ears as the pain dulled.

And suddenly… a memory came rushing in.

⸻

I was standing in the hallway outside the council chamber. I knew I shouldn’t have been there, but I had been sent to deliver documents for Nathan. Apparently, Luna training included errands now. “small duties fit for a wolfless girl,” they liked to say.

“We can’t keep delaying this,” one of the elders snapped. “The threats are getting bolder.”

Another voice scoffed. “We need this alliance with Alpha Kael and his pack.”

“He is the only one strong enough to help us. Moonvalley will fall if he doesn’t.”

My fingers tightened around the papers.

Alpha Kael? I had heard about him. People said he was ruthless and powerful, that his presence alone could make wolves submit. Was Moonvalley under attack?

Footsteps approached, and I panicked, stepping back quickly as the door opened wider.

Several men exited the room; elders, warriors, pack leaders and their eyes flicked toward me coldly.

“Why is she here?”

“Useless wolf.” Another murmured.

I lowered my head and stepped aside, and their gazes slid off me like I was nothing. Nathan came out last and stopped when he saw me.

“Sophie,” he said softly.

I clutched the papers. “I—I was told to bring these.”

He took them but didn’t look at them. His eyes were on my face and on my hands and the way they shook.

“They don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said quietly.

I swallowed hard, bitterness burning my throat.

He stepped closer and lowered his voice.

“After the ceremony,” he said, more firmly now. “I’m certain everything will change.”

I looked up at him.

“No one will hurt you,” he promised. “I won’t let them.”

His hand closed around mine and he pulled me in.

“I’ll protect you always,” he said, and I melted into his kiss.

⸻

“Wake her up!”

Cold water slammed into my face, and I gasped violently, sucking in air as the memory shattered.

The pack square came back into focus, this ugly reality I had wished would disappear. Hundreds of faces stared at me, and my knees hurt from the stone beneath them.

“She’s awake.”

“Good. Now, say what you saw,” I heard Sasha order.

My heart paced faster as I looked up in panic.

A woman stepped forward, and I recognized her immediately, it was Eliza, one of the maids. My favorite one.

“I saw her,” Eliza said loudly, pointing at me.

“She was in bed with another man who had the Blackpawn mark on his hand.”

The square exploded with voices.

“Let’s kill her now!” a beta shouted.

“Wolfless b***h!”

“That’s a lie!” I yelled. “Eliza, look at me!”

Eliza looked at my face, and I saw guilt wash over her for a second before she looked away and continued.

“She threatened me,” she said with a shaky voice. “She said if I spoke, she’d kill me.”

My breath left my body.

“No,” I cried out. “No, that’s not true!”

She looked at me again, her eyes flicking past me to Sasha. I saw Sasha give a slight nod in response.

“And she said she could do it,” the maid added quickly, “because she was the Alpha’s mate.”

The crowd roared in anger.

“Cheater!”

“Slut!”

“Wolfless trash who thinks she’s untouchable!”

I shook my head violently. “I didn’t—I swear—”

My gaze locked onto Nathan beside Sasha, and my heart shattered.

“Nathan,” my voice cracked. “You know me, I wouldn’t ever do that. You promised you would protect me.”

He didn’t answer and just turned his face away.

I crawled forward on my knees. “You know me,” I whispered. “Please.”

I felt my hair being pulled so hard my neck snapped to the side.

“Don’t ever say my man’s name with your filthy mouth,” Sasha said.

“Kill her!” Sasha screamed at the top of her lungs, and the chant spread through the crowd.

“No. She will be banished to the farthest places, where she will die,” Nathan said to Sasha.

“She turned out to be just like her traitor parents,” an elder scoffed.

I looked at Nathan through tears and pain, and he looked away again.

“No! You can’t do that!” a familiar voice shouted.

I saw my uncle Luca pushing through the crowd. His face was pale and his gray hair looked disheveled.

“This is madness!” he shouted. “She would never do that!”

He reached for me and dropped to the ground, holding my face.

My Uncle Luca, was the only person who ever looked at me like I wasn’t broken. When the pack called me wolfless, he always said, “Power isn’t always loud, Sophie.”

“You can’t banish her, let her stay,” he pleaded. “I’ll take responsibility, I’ll watch her myself. I swear by it.”

Nathan walked over, grabbed Uncle Luca by the arm, and shoved him away.

“No!” I screamed.

“She’s a conniving b***h!” Nathan shouted. “She will trick you like she tricked me.”

He turned to me and said the words I never thought I’d hear from his mouth.

“You’re a wolfless disgrace!”

I watched him raise his hand at me, a gesture I had seen too many times today to know that a stinging pain on my cheeks would follow.

I closed my eyes as tears rolled down my cheeks, pain ripping through me from the betrayal even before the hit landed.

I waited but the slap never came.

Instead, gasps echoed through the square.

I opened my eyes and gasped too. Standing between Nathan and me was someone I had never seen before.

“Enough,” he said quietly, holding Nathan’s wrist mid-air.

The entire pack fell silent as the air changed, pressing down on everyone.

This man was tall—taller than Nathan, even taller than anyone around him. His broad shoulders stretched the black suit he wore, and his stance was relaxed, almost careless, like nothing here could threaten him.

Black curls fell over his forehead in a messy but deliberate way. His face was sharp and calm, and his grey eyes stole the breath from my lungs.

“This wolf,” he said with his eyes on me, “is under my protection.”

Wolves staggered back. Some lowered their heads and even the elders stiffened.

Nathan’s jaw tightened. “Unhand me.”

The man didn’t look at him. Instead his grip tightened and Nathan sucked in a breath of pain.

That was when I realized Nathan couldn’t move, even if he tried.

“You will not touch her,” the stranger said.

His voice wasn’t loud. I don’t think it needed to be.

His voice rolled through the square, heavy and commanding, settling deep into my bones.

Someone gasped and an elder stepped forward, his face pale.

“A-Alpha Kael…” he stammered.

The name rippled through the crowd as whispers of fear spread.

“The Silvercreek Alpha?”

“That’s him. He really came.”

I shivered on the ground where I knelt.

Alpha Kael? The Alpha spoken of in hushed tones. The one Moonvalley desperately wanted an alliance with?

Alpha Kael released Nathan’s wrist and stepped closer to me. The pressure on me intensified, and I struggled to breathe.

He crouched to meet my eyes. He didn’t look at me with pity but with something unreadable, as if he sensed something he didn’t yet understand.

Then he straightened up and turned to the elders.

“She is under my protection,” he said.

Gasps erupted throughout the square, and his lips curved into an almost dangerous smirk as he added, “And anyone who dares to touch her again will lose both their arms.”