REJECTED BY THE ALPHA, MARKED BY AZRIEN

CHAPTER FIVE

ELISA'S POV

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked finally, my voice low, almost defeated.

“Because I need your help,” he said.

My heart jumped. “My help? I can’t help anyone. I can’t even help myself.”

“Yes, you can,” he said in a frustratingly calm voice. “Your power is stronger than you know. It’s not evil, despite what you might believe. It’s pure.”

I turned my face away, my eyes stinging, but I quickly blinked away the tears. I wasn’t letting them drop, not for anyone. Not even for the moon itself. “Even if it is… why should I help you? I’ve already ruined everything once by trying to save someone I was stupid enough to think was worth it. I thought I loved him and I stupidly gave everything up for him, and now look. Look where it landed me.” I was unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice as I spoke.

He paused, and for the first time, there was something softer in his eyes. “This is different,” he said. “I don’t ask you to love me. Only to help.”

“Help you do what?” My words came out flat and tired.

“To heal what the fall damaged,” he said. “My body looks whole now, but inside, there are wounds even I cannot mend.”

I stared at him, my mouth dry. “And how could I possibly do that?”

“I don’t know yet,” he admitted, surprising me with his honesty. “But I know your power called to me somehow. We must discover why and how.”

I pressed my palms into the cold stone floor, trying to steady myself. “You want me to use that magic again,” I said. “The magic that already cost me everything.”

“It was never meant to be used for him,” Azrien said, and there was something harder in his voice now. “The man you saved.”

I frowned. “What do you mean? You... you know about Alec?”

“I do,” he said. “I could hear your thoughts when I touched you. And I saw the truth in your heart.”

My chest tightened painfully. “Then you know how much I’ve lost.”

“Yes,” he said quietly again. “And you can choose, Elisa. Help me, and perhaps, in doing so, find a new purpose for your power. Or refuse, and stay here, waiting for them to destroy what’s left of you.”

My throat felt raw as I swallowed. “Why me?” I whispered again. “Why do I have to be the one to help you? Why not find someone else? Anyone else?”

“Because you were strong enough to use forbidden magic to save another,” he said. “That strength... even twisted by pain, is rare.”

I looked at him, the glow in his eyes still bright, burning away the darkness of the cell.

“You don’t know me,” I said. “Don’t talk like you know me, because you don’t. If you did, you’d know you’ve got the wrong person. I’m not strong anymore.”

“You’re here,” Azrien replied. “Alive. Breathing. Even after betrayal, pain, and loss. That is strength.”

For a moment, I hated him for those words, because they made something flicker inside me that I thought had died. Hope. A small, stubborn spark.

“What do you really want from me?” I asked, desperately needing the truth. “If I help you... what then?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “But I will not lie to you. My fall wasn’t an accident. There are gods who want me dead, and they might come for me again.”

“And if they do?” I asked.

“Then I will fight,” he said, his voice low but unshakable. “And I will protect you, too.”

My heart stuttered. No one had said those words to me in so long. Not truly meant them.

“Protect me?” I repeated, almost like I didn’t believe it. Because that was the simple truth. I didn’t.

“Yes,” he said. “Because you saved me tonight, Elisa. And because you will do it again. I need you.”

I looked down at my hands. Burn scars from the fire that killed my parents still traced my skin. They weren’t long faded, barely visible unless you knew what you were looking for. But they were still there, reminders of what my power had cost. I remembered Alec’s cold eyes, the way he’d turned his back on me without hesitation.

I was so tired of losing. So tired of being used and thrown aside. And yet every time someone asked me for help, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. It felt like a curse.

When I looked up again, Azrien’s gaze didn’t waver.

“I don’t know how to help you,” I said softly. “But... but if... if you could figure out how, then I... I’ll try. If I can.”

You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now after tonight’s events. But it seems I never would.

A slow breath escaped him, like a wind that had been held for too long. “That is enough,” he said.

Silence fell between us after that. It was a little awkward, but somehow less cold than before. Outside, smoke still floated in the air, and distant shouts echoed through the stone corridors. Soon, someone would come to see what had happened. What was I supposed to tell them when they arrived? How should I explain this to anyone? That a god crashed in through the window of my cell? Who would even believe me?