Elara Thornfield

"Where is the report for the Moonstone Summit, Elara?" Willow Ashbourne asked without looking away from the mirror as she attached her false eyelashes. "You disappeared after dragging Alpha Ronan to his quarters last night. You did not answer my mind-link or my phone calls."

My heart slammed against my ribs, my wolf whimpering in the back of my mind from the lingering scent of smoke, heat, and raw Alpha power still coating my skin. I smoothed down my black suit jacket, praying my short, four-foot-five frame did not betray the violent tremble in my thighs. Being a Zeta—the absolute bottom of the pack hierarchy—meant I had no strength to fight off suspicions if she caught on.

"I came back late," I lied, my voice tight and small. "You were asleep, so I did not want to disturb your rest. I went back to Alpha Ronan's den early this morning because he demanded pack business papers."

Willow gave a lazy hum, completely unbothered. "Typical. The Alpha keeps you on a short leash."

I rushed into the bathroom, slamming the door and leaning against the cold tile. I pulled down the collar of my shirt, staring in horror at the dark, bruised bite marks on my neck and the raw friction burns on my hips. I was a Zeta, a nobody, and last night I had pinned Alpha Ronan Blackridge—the most feared, powerful Alpha of the Blackridge Alpha Dominion—to his bed by his leather strap, desperate and burning in heat.

My phone vibrated violently against my palm, making me jump.

Meet me in the break room now.

The message was brief, heavy with an explosive dark aura that made my wolf cower. I swallowed hard, washing my face in icy water before walking out toward the Moonstone Summit Lodge break room. My feet felt heavy, my four-foot-five body shaking inside my fitted clothes.

When I pushed the heavy oak door open, Alpha Ronan was standing by the window. His broad, five-foot-eight muscular frame blocked the morning light, his dark complexion sharp against the dark suit he wore. A half-lit cigarette sat loosely between his fingers, a trail of grey smoke curling up into the air. His lethal black eyes locked onto mine the second I stepped inside.

"Alpha Ronan," I whispered, keeping my head bowed in total submission as a Zeta. "How may I serve the Alpha Command?"

He did not speak. He took a slow drag of his cigarette, blow torching the tip red, before tossing a heavy silver angel pendant onto the glass table between us.

The metal clink sounded like a death sentence.

My blood ran completely cold. My hand instinctively flew to my bare collarbone. It was my mother's pendant—the only sacred relic from the crushed Thornfield Pack. I had dropped it in his sheets while his massive hands were digging into my waist, his heavy cock stretching me open on that blood-red velvet mattress.

"Find the owner of this pendant within twenty-four hours," Ronan growled, his deep, resonant Alpha voice vibrating right through the floorboards and rattling my spine.

I blinked, my jaw trembling as I stared at the silver angel. "Find... find the owner, Alpha?"

He held the cigarette between his lips, his dark eyes narrowing into dangerous slits as smoke drifted past his face. "Did I stutter, Zeta?"

He did not know. The powerful Alpha of the Blackridge Bloodline had no idea the female who took his virginity and rode him until dawn was his low-ranking Zeta assistant standing right in front of him.

"I... I can do it," I choked out, stepping forward with trembling hands to snatch the pendant off the table before he could spot the initials carved on the back. "I will handle it immediately, Alpha Ronan."

I turned on my heel, desperate to run before my heat scent betrayed me in the small room.

"Wait," Ronan's voice sliced through the silence, heavy and laced with absolute authority.

I froze at the threshold, my breath hitching in my chest. "Yes, Alpha?"

"When you track down the female who dared lay her hands on me," he drawled, taking the cigarette from his mouth and flicking the ash onto the table, "do not bring her to me. Bring her directly to Beta Kieran Stormfang."

My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit. Beta Kieran handled the Blackridge Pack's rogue executions and territorial banishments.

"Beta Kieran?" I whispered, my voice breaking.

"She touched what belongs to the Alpha Dominion without permission," Ronan said softly, his voice dripping with lethal promises. "She will be stripped of her pack status, broken, and tossed into the rogue wasteland outside Moonhaven Ridge to bleed out."

Elara Thornfield

"Why is your face so pale, Elara? Are you feeling unwell?" Willow Ashbourne asked, her brow furrowing with sudden concern as she stepped into the corridor of the Moonstone Summit Lodge.

My breath caught in my throat, my Zeta wolf shivering with pure terror as the scent of Alpha Ronan's heavy tobacco and scorched cedarwood still clung to the lining of my mouth. Willow had been my close ally since our young pack days in the Ashbourne Pack, but right now, looking into her eyes made my whole four-foot-five body shake.

Seeing the sheer panic on my face, Willow grabbed my arm, her ears perking as she scanned the grand hallway of Blackridge Pack Officials.

"In here, now," Willow muttered under her breath, pulling me inside the private sanitation washroom and throwing the heavy iron latch shut. "What happened in Alpha Command? Did Alpha Ronan threaten your life?"

I collapsed against the stone wall, sliding down until my knees hit the cold floor, tears spilling hot over my cheeks.

"Elara, talk to me!" Willow hissed, kneeling beside me with a hand on my trembling shoulder. "If the Alpha catches you breaking down like this, he will execute you! You know how ruthless the Blackridge Bloodline is."

Every wolf in Moonhaven Ridge knew Alpha Ronan Blackridge showed zero mercy to weak Zeta lower-castes. Just last month, he stripped a whole high-ranking warrior line of their titles and drove them into the rogue wasteland because a maiden cried during a territory briefing.

"I cannot lose my position in the Blackridge Alpha Dominion, Willow," I choked out, my chest heaving as I pressed my palms over my face. "If I am exiled from Moonhaven Ridge, the Thornfield Council will starve!"

"What did you do to anger him?" Willow asked, her voice tight with rising panic.

"I... I slept with him," I sobbed into my hands.

Willow froze. The silence in the stone room became deafening.

"What?" Willow whispered, her hand dropping from my shoulder as if my skin had caught fire. "What did you just say?"

"I stayed in his den last night," I forced out through my heavy breaths, the raw memory of his massive hands tearing my Zeta shirt open flooding my mind. "After the Summit feast."

Willow recoiled, backing away until her spine hit the heavy oak door three meters away. "You slept with Alpha Ronan? Are you insane? Female wolves who try to trap him with claims of carrying his bloodline end up in Beta Kieran's execution pit!"

"It was an accident!" I cried out, my hands trembling violently in my lap. "The pack elders kept filling his cup with moon-ale. I stepped in and drank three golden goblets to protect his honor, but the heat effect took over my Zeta blood! My wolf went crazy, and it went completely out of hand!"

"Out of hand?" Willow gasped, her eyes wide with total horror. "You threw your four-foot-five self onto the strongest Alpha in the Grand Alpha Council?"

"I do not know what to do," I wept, rubbing at the red bite marks hidden under my collar. "He gave me twenty-four hours to find the female who pinned him down, or he will have Beta Kieran hunt her down and snap her spine!"

Willow blinked, her panic suddenly stalling as her eyes narrowed. "Wait. He gave you twenty-four hours to find the culprit?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"He does not know it was you?" Willow demanded, taking a slow step forward.

"No," I admitted, shaking my head. "He did not see my face clearly in the dark when my heat flared."

Willow let out a sharp breath of relief, smoothing down her robes. "Good. Because if the Blackridge Bloodline linked this to you, the Ashbourne Pack would be wiped out for recommending you to his service."

She unbolted the door, glanced down the empty hall of the Moonstone Summit Lodge, and locked it again.

"There is only one way out of this," Willow whispered, leaning down close to my ear. "We wipe the Pack Sentinels' records before Beta Kieran inspects the den."

"Will that really work?" I asked, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"It has to," Willow gritted out, dragging me up by my arms. "Move fast."

Two hours later, Alpha Ronan finished addressing the Grand Alpha Council in the main hall.

I stepped into the Alpha Command break room right behind him, keeping my eyes locked on the floor and my submissive Zeta posture tight.

"Alpha Ronan," I reported, my voice synthetic and flat like a machine to hide the tremble in my lungs. "The investigation is complete."

Alpha Ronan sat on the dark leather couch, his broad shoulders casting a shadow across the room. He held a freshly lit cigarette between his thick fingers, blowing a slow plume of grey smoke toward the ceiling. His piercing black eyes settled on me, colder than frozen iron.

I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat, forcing my voice to remain steady.

"I accessed the Pack Sentinels' room and reviewed every record," I lied, holding out the blank parchment. "No wolf entered your private quarters after I left you last night. The silver pendant must belong to a Wandering Rogue from the previous moon cycle."

Ronan took a slow, deep drag of his cigarette, the tip glowing a harsh ember red in the dim light. He did not move. He did not blink.

"A Wandering Rogue," Ronan drawled softly, his deep Alpha voice vibrating straight through the floorboards and making my core ache with remembered heat.

He leaned forward, setting his cigarette in the tray, and pulled a piece of thick parchment from his inner jacket, sliding it across the table.

"Then explain why Beta Kieran just found your Thornfield Pack scent printed all over the velvet sheets," he said.

Elara Thornfield

My heart slammed against my ribs as Alpha Ronan Blackridge stared down at the sheet of parchment, his dark complexion unreadable in the dim break room.

"A Wandering Rogue," Ronan drawled, his voice low, thick, and laced with absolute Alpha authority that made my Zeta wolf quiver in submission. "Are you absolutely certain, Elara?"

"Yes, Alpha," I lied, keeping my tone deadpan and holding my hands firmly behind my back so he would not see them shaking. "The Pack Sentinels verified the entry runes. No female crossed your threshold after I deposited you into your quarters."

The silence stretched so thin I could hear the slow, rhythmic burn of the cigarette between his fingers.

"Good," Ronan said, taking a quiet drag and letting the smoke drift between us. "Bring me the Seaward Territory proposal for the Grand Alpha Council."

I bowed my head, stepping backward out of Alpha Command before my trembling legs gave out.

For the next four weeks, we traveled across rival territories on pack business. I moved like a ghost, keeping my short, four-foot-five body as far from his suffocating Alpha presence as possible, hiding the thick scent of heat that still tried to bloom in my skin whenever he walked past.

When we finally returned to the Blackridge Alpha Fortress in Moonhaven Ridge, I sank into the chair in the Ashbourne Pack quarters, my body entirely exhausted.

"Did Alpha Ronan bring it up again during the entire journey?" Willow Ashbourne whispered, locking the heavy timber door behind her.

"No," I replied, tracing the worn pattern on my sleeve, my heart racing at the sheer memory of his dark eyes. "He believes it was a rogue. He moved on to pack business immediately."

"Good," Willow sighed, pulling out a chair across from me. "Because the last female who tried to claim a mate bond with Alpha Ronan was stripped of her mark and banished to the silver mines by Beta Kieran. You got lucky, Elara."

I swallowed hard, reaching into my bag for my silver ledger. "I need to go to the Moonhaven Treasury before the sun sets."

"Is your brother demanding more pack resources again?" Willow asked, her tone turning sharp with disgust. "He is an adult wolf. Why is he still bleeding your Zeta stipend dry?"

"He has not been assigned a duty by the Thornfield Council yet," I whispered, keeping my gaze locked on the floor.

"Because your mother shields him while you work yourself to the bone for the Blackridge Bloodline," Willow spat. "She never gave you a single copper after your father died."

My phone vibrated violently against the wooden table, the glowing screen revealing my half-brother's mark. I swiped the screen to reject it, but it immediately began buzzing again in my palm.

I snapped the line open, bringing the device to my ear. "Use the time you spend harassing me to petition the Thornfield Council for a duty post."

"Watch your mouth, Zeta," my brother's harsh voice barked through the speaker. "Mother needs five hundred silver coins for the pack tribute today, or she will tell Beta Kieran that you sold your virginity to a Wandering Rogue."

My breath caught in my throat, my wolf freezing in absolute terror. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," he sneered into the line. "Mother found the blood-stained linens you hid in the trunk. Bring the money to the Moonstone Lodge within the hour, or the whole Blackridge Alpha Dominion will hear about your dirty little secret."