CHAPTER 5
The feast had long ended, but the weight of the night clung to the pack house. Shadows stretched across the stone walls as Daniel sat in his room, silent, a glass of whiskey untouched before him. His golden eyes glowed faintly in the dim light, fixed on nothing.
Vanilla. The scent seared his chest, both intoxicating and maddening. His wolf within him snarled, restless and untamed, feeding on the chaos of emotions swirling in the air.
The creak of the door broke the silence, and Adrian slipped in, his swagger muted. A smirk tugged at his lips, though he struggled to maintain it as he approached. "Alpha Daniel," he said, bowing with exaggerated deference. "The rejection was a masterstroke. The girl is—"
Daniel's gaze snapped up, piercing as a shard of ice. The air thickened, charged with an unspoken threat. Adrian faltered mid-sentence, feeling the prickling of fear at the back of his mind as his wolf whimpered inside him.
"Choose your next words carefully," Daniel warned, his voice smooth yet edged with a lethal undertone.
Adrian lowered his head quickly, the smirk vanishing. "Of course. Forgive me. I only meant... she knows her place now."
Daniel rose from his chair, each movement calculated, deliberate. The floor seemed to tremble beneath him as he stepped closer. Adrian stiffened, the air charge rattling his nerves, a primal instinct screaming at him to retreat.
"No one touches her," Daniel growled, each word a dangerous promise. "Not you. No one."
Adrian nodded swiftly, heart racing. "Understood, Alpha."
Daniel's lips curled into a cold smile. "She comes with me. To my pack."
Adrian hesitated, confusion flickering across his face, but he quickly masked it. "To... serve you, Alpha?" His voice was thin, testing the waters laced with caution.
Daniel's eyes gleamed with a predatory glint, his smirk a cruel twist of fate. "As my slave."
The word split the air like a whip crack. Adrian bowed deeply, not daring to meet his gaze. "Yes, Alpha. As you command."
Daniel brushed past him, his steps heavy with finality. Inside, his wolf roared in discontent, pacing in fury. Slave. He told himself that was all she would ever be. Nothing more. Nothing less.
But even as the thought settled, his chest still burned with the memory of her trembling lips, her wide, innocent eyes, her bloodied fingers.
Liar, his wolf growled. She is not a slave. She is ours.
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The echo of their rejection lingered in Mia's mind. The kitchens were quiet, the laughter and noise of the feast long gone. With the droning sound of water dripped into the basin and the soft scrape of cloth against stone, she fought to scrub the remnants of the night's humiliation from the floor.
As she knelt, her hands raw and blistered from the effort, the weight of her rejection gnawed at her soul, each thought dragging her deeper into despair. She refused to crumble. Work was the only wall holding back her pain.
She didn't hear him approach, his presence slipping into the room like a consuming shadow. The air crackled with an energy that made her skin prickle. Her rag fell from her hand as her breath caught in her throat.
Turning slowly, she found him standing in the doorway, his golden eyes smoldering like molten metal in the dark. His presence filled the space, pressing down on her chest until she felt light-headed.
"Alpha," she whispered, heart hammering in her chest.
For long moments, he said nothing, his stormy gaze devouring her, until she lowered her eyes, unable to withstand the weight of his stare.
"Pack your things," Daniel commanded, his voice as sharp as a blade.
Her head jerked up, shock racing through her. "W-what?"
"You're leaving with me," he said, stepping into the kitchen with deliberate grace. Each step echoed with an authority that filled the air with dread. "From this night forward, you belong to me."
Belong. His. The very air from her lungs felt squeezed out. She staggered back, her mouth opening but no words emerged.
His gaze darkened, unreadable. "Not as my Luna. Not as my mate." His voice dropped, becoming colder, more unforgiving. "You will serve me. Obey me. In my pack, you will be nothing more than my slave."
The word slashed through her like a knife. Slave. That's what she was worth to him. The reality struck her painfully: not even fate could make him see her as anything more.
Hands trembling at her sides, she lowered her gaze once again, swallowing back the throbbing ache in her throat. "Yes, Alpha," she whispered, voice barely above a breath.
For a heartbeat, Daniel froze, the quiet submission in her tone igniting a burn within him that he had fought to dismiss. His wolf roared in fury, demanding he take the words back, demanding he claim her properly.
Yet he forced his expression into stone as he turned sharply, his cloak sweeping behind him like a dark promise. "Be ready at dawn," he ordered without a backward glance. "You leave with me."
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The kitchen felt colder after he left. His words still hung in the air, heavy and sharp, cutting her deeper than any blade.
Pack your things.
You belong to me.
Slave.
Mia stood frozen, her hands limp at her sides.
She wanted to laugh, but the sound caught in her throat like broken glass.
Pack her things? What things? She owned nothing.
No clothes beyond the threadbare dress on her back.
No trinkets. No books. Not even a single item to call hers.
Everything had been taken long ago - her home, her family, her place in the pack.
She looked around the empty kitchen, her gaze tracing the cracked stone walls, the scarred wooden counters, the old broom in the corner. This was the only space she had known, the cage where she worked herself numb every day. And now she was leaving it. Not for freedom. Not for a better life.
Simply to become a slave in another pack.
Her throat tightened, but no tears came. She had learned long ago that tears solved nothing.
There was no one to hug her goodbye. No one to whisper that they would miss her. No mother to hold her. No father to tell her to be brave. Adrian and Marcus wouldn't care if she disappeared. In truth, they would likely celebrate. One less burden. One less reminder of what the pack had lost.
She had no one.
Her fingers curled into fists. The realization hit her with cruel clarity; she wasn't just unwanted as a mate. She was unwanted in this world.
Mia turned back to the floor, picking up the rag she had dropped. If Daniel expected her to "pack," she would have nothing but her own silence to carry.
As she scrubbed, her heart whispered the bitter truth she refused to voice.
It didn't matter where she went.
Here or there, she was nothing more than a slave.
And yet, deep inside, a dangerous spark smoldered. Because no matter how much she told herself she felt nothing, her body betrayed her. The memory of his grip on her wrist, his voice low and rough against her skin, haunted her.
He had rejected her. He had called her a slave.
But in that moment, when his eyes had burned into hers, it had felt like something else.
Something she wasn't allowed to hope for.