Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Layla
The world became a boiling cauldron, and I stood at its center, seared by gazes sharp enough to burn through my soul.
Finn's body was draped with a hastily found black velvet cloth, carried out by two stone-faced guards. The fabric didn't quite cover him—one pale, skeletal hand dangled free, swaying with each step like a withered branch.
This isn't real. None of this is real.
"Quick! Someone get the healer!"
"Seal the area!"
"Moon Goddess, what's happened?"
Footsteps thundered from every direction. Pack members near the Sacred Ground heard the commotion and came running. Within moments, the preparation room was suffocating with bodies.
I rose mechanically, my torn hem dragging across the floor, disheveled hair falling across my face. My mind had gone blank. I could only stare numbly at the chaos unfolding before me.
"Move aside! Let me through!" The pack healer shouldered through the crowd—a gray-haired woman I'd seen a few times before. Always stern.
She knelt beside Finn's body, lifted his eyelids, examined his lips, and smelled his final breath. The room fell deathly quiet. Everyone held their breath, waiting.
I waited too. Waited for her to say he'd only fainted, that Finn could still be saved, that this nightmare would end.
"Silver poison." The healer rose, her voice heavy as stone. "High-grade silver poison. Lethal to werewolves. Death occurs within five minutes of ingestion. There's no antidote." She turned to Elder Drake, her tone absolute. "This was murder."
The word detonated through the crowd.
"Murder?"
"Impossible!"
"Who would do this?"
Elder Drake's face turned iron-gray. "Seal the Sacred Ground. No one leaves." He nodded to the guards. "Begin the investigation. I want answers."
The guards sprang into action. Two began questioning witnesses while several others rushed toward the room where I'd been staying.
"Wait." Someone spoke up. "Who was the last person to see Mr. Finn before his death?"
Every eye turned toward me.
My heart sank like a stone.
"Her." One of the guards—the same one who'd blocked my exit—pointed at me. "Miss Gray was the only person permitted to see Mr. Finn in the preparation room before the ceremony."
"That's right. Tradition demands the bride see the groom once before the ritual," another guard added.
"So..." Someone voiced the terrible conclusion. "She poisoned him?"
"No!" I finally found my voice, shaking my head violently. "It wasn't me! I didn't do anything. When I arrived, Finn was already—"
"Already what?" Elder Drake's gaze pinned me in place.
"Already... waiting for me." I stammered. "I didn't touch anything. I only wanted to leave..."
"Exactly!" The guard seized on this. "She tried to flee! The moment Mr. Finn collapsed, her first instinct was to escape! If we hadn't stopped her, she'd be gone!"
"That's not what happened!" I cried. "I was only trying to—"
The guards who'd searched my room returned.
"Elder Drake!" One held up a small glass vial, silver residue coating the inside. "We found this in Miss Gray's quarters! Hidden at the bottom of her trunk!"
Time stopped.
I stared at the vial as the world tilted.
"That's not mine." My voice came out hoarse, nearly breaking. "I've never seen that. I don't know how it got there..."
"There's more." Another guard produced a handkerchief—my handkerchief, embroidered with my initials, L.G. "Found on her vanity."
The healer took it and examined it carefully, pausing at one corner. She lifted it to her nose. Her expression darkened.
"Traces of silver poison." She announced. "Faint, but unmistakable. This handkerchief was used to wrap the vial, or... to deliver the poison directly."
"No! No, no, no!" I shook my head as tears spilled down my cheeks. "That's impossible! I never touched those things! Someone framed me—they must have!"
"Framed you?" Sophia's voice cut through the crowd, dripping with scorn. "Who do you think you are? Worth all this effort?"
Accusations crashed over me like waves. I stood at the center of the mob, a lamb led to slaughter, impaled by countless eyes, condemned by countless voices.
"I didn't..." My protest drowned in the noise. "I really didn't..."
"Enough!" Elder Drake raised his hand for silence. He approached, looking down from his height. "Layla Gray. The evidence is damning. Poison found in your room. Poison traces on your handkerchief. And you were the last to see Mr. Finn alive. What do you have to say?"
"I was framed." Desperation colored my voice as tears blurred my vision. "Please believe me. I'm being framed..."
"Framed? Then tell us—by whom?" Drake demanded.
"I... I don't know..." My voice shrank. "But someone must have wanted..."
"You see? She can't even answer." Drake turned to the other Elders. "I propose immediate arrest of Layla Gray, pending formal trial."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
The Elders voted one by one. I looked at their faces—faces that had always shown me coldness, contempt. Now they wore the mask of judgment.
"No..." I retreated, shaking my head. "Please, let me explain. Please believe me..."
"Take her," Drake ordered the guards.
Two guards advanced. I backed away until my spine met the wall. Nowhere left to run.
Then the crowd stirred.
"Move."
That voice. That voice I knew too well, cutting through from outside. Everyone parted automatically. And then I saw him.
Kayden Blackwood stood in the doorway, backlit by moonlight, his tall frame cast in silhouette.
He wore black formal attire, collar perfect, cufflinks gleaming darkly. That face I'd dreamed of showed no expression. Silver eyes swept the room—Finn's body, the crowd, finally landing on me.
Our eyes met.
I saw coldness there. Distance. As if he were looking at a stranger.
But I still clung to hope.
He was Kayden. The Alpha heir. His word mattered most. And we... we were fated mates. Even if he denied it, even if he rejected it, the bond remained. He had to feel my desperation, my fear, my agony.
He would help me. He had to.
"Kayden!" I nearly screamed, stumbling toward him. "Kayden, tell them! Tell them I couldn't do this!"
My steps faltered. I caught my elaborate gown beneath my feet and nearly fell. Just before I hit the ground, a hand caught me.
Kayden's hand. Warm. Strong. Familiar.
I looked up, eyes brimming with hope and pleading. "Kayden, please..."
But the next second, that hand jerked away. As if he'd touched fire.
Kayden stepped back, face still expressionless. "Control yourself," he said, voice cold as winter water. "You are Finn's fiancée."
The words struck like ice water dumped over my head.
Fiancée. Finn's fiancée.
Not his.
Never his.
"But..." My voice trembled. "But we... we're..."
"Mr. Blackwood." Elder Drake approached with deference. "Your timing is fortunate. Regarding your brother's death, we've identified the killer. This woman, Layla Gray. The evidence is conclusive—"
"I didn't!" I cut him off, whirling toward Kayden, voice breaking with desperation. "Kayden, you know me. You know I would never kill anyone! Please, tell them..."
Kayden looked at me. Those silver eyes held not a flicker of warmth.
"I don't know you," he said. "Layla Gray. I know nothing about you."
Something shattered in my chest.
"How could you not know?" The thought that he alone could prove my innocence nearly crushed me. I screamed it out, the secret tearing free. "Kayden Blackwood! We're fated mates!"
The entire Sacred Ground fell silent.
Sharp intakes of breath rippled through the crowd—shock, disbelief, fury. Every eye turned to Kayden, waiting.
And I watched him too, heart hammering, suspended between hope and terror.
Kayden remained silent for several seconds. Those seconds stretched like centuries.
Then he spoke.
"Fated mates?" He repeated the words, mouth curving into something cruel. "A biological impulse?"
Scattered laughter broke out.
Kayden's gaze dropped to my face, cold enough to freeze blood.
"The Luna of Silver Moon Pack could never be someone like you," he said, each word precise as a blade. "Whatever existed between us was only ever a mistake."
"I, Kayden Blackwood, witnessed by the Moon Goddess and before all members of Silver Moon Pack, officially declare—I reject Layla Gray as my mate."
In that instant, I felt it.
Agony tore through my soul.
The bond—the bond I'd believed would connect us forever—convulsed violently. It screamed, wailed, and clawed desperately at the other end. But the other end offered only icy rejection, merciless denial.
"Ahh—!"
A scream ripped from my throat. I clutched my chest, feeling as if someone had torn it open with bare hands, ripped out my heart, hurled it to the ground, and ground it to dust.
I collapsed, body wracked with tremors.
Pain.
Such unbearable pain.
Not physical—this came from the deepest core of my soul. Every cell shrieked. Every inch of skin burned. Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.
When a mate bond was severed by rejection, the rejected party suffered catastrophic backlash.
And I was suffering now.
"No..." I crumpled on the ground, voice barely audible. "No... please..."
But Kayden only stood there. I couldn't read a single emotion on his face.
"Layla Gray." Elder Drake's voice drifted from somewhere distant. "Given the conclusive evidence, on behalf of the Elder Council, I hereby place you under arrest for the murder of Finn Blackwood. Pending formal trial, you will be confined to the dungeons..."
"Murderer!"
"Hybrids can't be trusted!"
"She tried to seduce Mr. Kayden—shameless!"
Insults rained down from all sides, each more vicious than the last, but I'd stopped hearing them.
I knelt there, Kayden's words playing on endless repeat in my mind.
"A mistake."
"Could never be."
"I reject."
The soul-deep pain came in relentless waves. I was drowning, drowning in endless agony.
The bouquet I'd crafted with such care was trampled to pulp. The engagement I'd awaited with such hope became a cruel farce. The man I loved had cast me into the abyss with his own hands. These ten years felt like an elaborate joke. I'd never known him at all.
And that jacket.
Kayden would never know how much that day had meant to me. He'd probably forgotten entirely. I'd loved him. Even before we became fated mates, I'd loved him with helpless devotion.
And now, I would carry this secret...
"Take her." Elder Drake's impatient voice cut through my thoughts.
Two guards gripped my arms from either side.
I had no strength left to resist. I let them drag me past the pointing crowd, past the hateful stares.
We passed Kayden.
Instinctively, I turned for one last glimpse of the man I'd loved for ten years.
He stood rigid, profile sharp, hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides. Those fists were wound so tight the veins stood out beneath his skin.
What was he restraining?
His revulsion? His loathing?
After all, even he believed I'd murdered his brother.
The guards hauled me from the preparation room, across the Sacred Ground. Moonlight spilled across my path, illuminating torn silk, tangled hair, and endless tears.
I lifted my face to the full moon.
A month ago, moonlight had looked like this. Kayden and I were beside the lake. He'd kissed me, held me, claimed me. I'd thought I'd found my home, found love.
It had all been a beautiful lie.
A lie I'd paid everything to believe.
Ahead loomed a high wall. No—a cliff.
The Sacred Ground perched at the highest point of pack territory, forest on one side, sheer cliff on the other. The path to the dungeons skirted the cliff's edge.
I stared at that precipice, at the churning sea below frothing white in the moonlight, heard waves crashing against stone.
Let it end.
I couldn't bear this pain anymore. Couldn't face Kayden's cold eyes, the pack's hatred, my soul being shredded piece by piece.
"Wait." The word scraped from my throat, raw as broken strings.
The guards halted. "What?"
"Can I... look at the moon one more time?" I whispered, voice splintering. "Just once more."
The guards exchanged glances. "You'll be in the dungeons soon enough. Look all you want," one shrugged.
They released me.
In that heartbeat, I lunged for the cliff's edge and threw myself over.
"Layla!" A voice tore through the air behind me.
Kayden?
For the first time, he seemed to show raw emotion for my sake. Shock. Terror. Something else I had no time left to decipher.
But it no longer mattered.
My body hit the freezing water. The impact made every bone scream.
But before the sea swallowed my last thread of consciousness, Diana—silent for so long—whimpered out one final, devastating secret.
Layla. You're pregnant.