REJECTED BY THE ALPHA, MARKED BY AZRIEN

CHAPTER FOUR

ELISA'S POV

For a long time, I just sat there, staring at him.

The words he’d spoken still echoed loudly in my head, and it was impossible to ignore.

Azrien. The moon god. What moon god was he talking about? The one we all knew? The one I was aware of? Or was he talking about another moon god?...

I blinked again and again, still trying to properly process what I had just heard, but no matter how many times I replayed them in my head, his words remained the same, refusing to make sense. Because how could they?

A god. In my cell. Talking to me.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My heart pounded painfully in my chest, each beat making my body shake. Part of me wanted to laugh, and the sound would’ve been empty and cracked. But it felt as unreal as a story told by myth.

But I didn’t laugh. Because somehow it still wasn't funny. And..... my legs... I could really feel them. I could feel them after he touched me. Slowly, as if I were back to being a kid trying to walk for the first time, I carefully climbed to my feet. I didn’t fall. I could stand. I took a step forward and then back, and still I didn’t fall. I didn’t stop feeling my legs. I could actually walk.

Slowly my eyes shifted back to the strange man in front of me, and my mouth hung open as I stared at him. I didn’t know what to make of this. I was supposed to be crippled. I was supposed to have lost my ability to walk after... and yet here I was walking just fine. As if what happened hours ago never happened to begin with.

I looked down at my legs and then back up at the man who just called himself Azrien. I already knew no normal person could do this. But then...

Not really knowing how to proceed, I sat back down, leaning against the wall, and just continued to watch in silence.

I should probably run for my life now that I could walk again. But instead, I stayed where I was, my back pressed against the rough stone wall. Smoke was still coming in through the broken window, mixing with the cold air, making my eyes water. I could smell burnt iron from the shattered bars, and somewhere in that smell was fear.

I should’ve been terrified, and maybe I was. But the truth was… I felt numb. It was like I was having a hard time feeling anything at all.

Alec.

Even thinking his name hurt, like pressing down on a deep bruise. The man I had loved. The man I had saved, breaking every rule, sacrificing everything, including my parents. And yet, today, he’d looked at me as if I were filth. Worse, like I didn’t even exist at all.

I shook my head, letting out a humourless chuckle. How could I have been so stupid? What was I thinking giving everything up for a man whose heart already belonged to another? I should kill myself for this, and at this point, I actually wanted to. I wanted to strangle myself for being so stupid and allowing myself to be used this way.

I thought betrayal would feel like fire. But it was cold. So cold it froze something deep inside me.

And now, this… this man_ god_ had fallen out of the sky, landed in my cell, and spoke to me as if it was supposed to mean something to me. But then he had also healed me.

My voice felt small when it finally came out. “You’re really… a god?”

Azrien didn’t move. He was sitting now, one knee raised, watching me closely with eyes that glowed like blue flame. His chest, still bare, rose and fell steadily as he spoke. “Yes,” he said simply. But that single word sounded heavier than anything I’d ever heard.

“I... I don’t understand,” I whispered. “Why are you here? How did you end up crashing into this cell with me?”

His gaze didn’t soften, but it wasn’t cruel either. “I fell,” he said. “From my dwelling place. After a battle against other gods.”

“That was the war you said you lost?” The question slipped out before I could stop it.

“Yes.” His voice held no shame, only truth. “And falling to this realm left me wounded. Even divine power can’t heal everything.”

I swallowed, trying to make sense of it. “But why did you fall here? This prison, this cell…?”

His eyes stayed on mine, unblinking. “Because something about you drew me here, Elisa.”

I frowned. “Something about me?” My voice shook, part disbelief, part fear. “You must be mistaken. I’m nobody. You must have mistaken me for someone else.”

“You’re not nobody,” he said, his voice hardening a little, causing me to frown in confusion. “There is something inside of you, Elisa. Magic. Great power. It called to me when I was falling. It saved me from death.”

I shook my head, my hands curling into fists on the cold floor. “No. That magic you’re talking about destroyed everything in my life. It killed my parents… it burned my family’s home to ash. It ruined my life.”

His gaze stayed steady, like he didn’t even understand a single word I was saying. “That may be true. But it also saved me.”

I wanted to scream at him. Tell him to leave me alone. That I didn’t care. But my voice stuck in my throat. The numbness held me still, like ice in my veins.

I had lost so much. Alec. My parents. My home. Even my legs until moments ago. Now this... whoever he was spoke to me of power, power that had only ever brought me pain.