- 6 hours ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:04I burned out my inner wolf to save his life.
00:10He tossed me aside the second Selena, a beta, faked a tear.
00:15It wasn't until my parents' bodies were dumped at our border that I understood.
00:19My fated mate was my executioner.
00:21Something in me died that night.
00:23What came back wanted blood.
00:25Selena screamed.
00:26The jazz stopped.
00:27She hit the marble floor of the Silvermoon Group's penthouse ballroom.
00:30Her white Marsesta gown soaked with wolf beak.
00:32Laura, I know you hate me because Grayson pays attention to me, but disfigure me?
00:37I almost laughed.
00:38I grabbed a glass of Moroto off a passing tray and threw it in her face.
00:42You want to frame me?
00:44At least let me earn it.
00:45Dead quiet.
00:46Then alpha pressure hit my chest.
00:48My lungs emptied.
00:49My knees buckled.
00:50Grayson cut through the crowd.
00:52My fated mate.
00:52CEO of the Silvermoon Group.
00:55Head of the most powerful syndicate on the eastern seaboard.
00:58He looked at me like I was dirt on his floor.
01:01What did you do?
01:02Grayson, it hurts so much.
01:05He crouched down.
01:06Wiped the wine off her cheek with his thumb.
01:08Gentle.
01:09Careful.
01:09The exact tenderness I hadn't felt in years.
01:11Three years ago, I swallowed a lethal dose of silver poison to keep him alive.
01:15It destroyed my inner wolf.
01:16I gave him everything.
01:21Apologize to her.
01:21Pull up the security footage.
01:23She did it to herself.
01:25No wolf.
01:26No rank.
01:27No value.
01:28Apologize.
01:29Now.
01:30Then the double doors blew open.
01:31An enforcer hit the floor.
01:33Sir.
01:34Rogue ambush.
01:35South perimeter.
01:36Alara's parents.
01:37Ripped apart.
01:38Gone.
01:39The enforcer raised a shaking hand.
01:40Between his fingers, a small glowing white stone slick with blood.
01:43My soothing crystal.
01:44The gem I wore every day to keep the pain of my destroyed wolf at bay.
01:48I had lost it two days ago.
01:49And sir, we found this at the breach point.
01:53The rogues used its energy signature to slip past our sensor grid.
01:57She led them in.
01:58The ballroom erupted.
02:00No.
02:00No.
02:01No.
02:01Those are my parents.
02:03I would never.
02:03I scrambled toward Grayson on my hands and knees.
02:06Grabbed his locks.
02:07Grayson, please.
02:08Look at the crystal.
02:09Someone took it from me.
02:10This is a setup.
02:11He looked down at me like something stuck to his shoe.
02:14His alpha command slammed me face first into the marble.
02:19Take her to the holding cells.
02:20Dawn.
02:21She answers for treason and murder.
02:24By sunrise, the tears for my dead parents hadn't dried.
02:28Two guards hauled me out of the cell and into the tribunal chamber.
02:31Underground.
02:32Beneath Silvermoon headquarters.
02:33The room reeked of damp concrete and the pheromones of wolves who'd already made up their minds.
02:37She murdered her own parents to create chaos and frame me.
02:41The senior council muttered in disgust.
02:43My soothing crystal sat under glass on the evidence table.
02:47The energy signature of my destroyed wolf still clinging to it.
02:50Smoking gun.
02:51A wolfless omega working with rogues.
02:54Lowest betrayal imaginable.
02:56Grayson, I destroyed my wolf to save your life.
02:58That crystal is the only thing keeping my body from shutting down.
03:02Doesn't that count for anything?
03:03Silence.
03:04He stepped down from the platform.
03:06You have disgraced the Silvermoon name.
03:08As Alpha, I reject you, Alara, as my destined mate.
03:11Matebond fractured white-hot right through the center of my chest.
03:13I screamed until my throat gave out.
03:15Consciousness faded before the agony did.
03:18Someone from the enforcement unit stepped forward.
03:20Handed him silver chains dripping with with bone.
03:22Grayson, stop!
03:24He didn't blink.
03:25Grabbed my shoulders.
03:26Shoved me to my knees.
03:27Drove the silver hooks into my collarbones himself.
03:31Sub-level isolation unit, 6U.
03:33Guards dragged my bleeding body down the concrete stairwell.
03:36Reinforced steel door was about to seal.
03:38Selena's face appeared in the observation.
03:40I killed them.
03:44Three words in the dark.
03:45I killed them.
03:46No soothing crystal.
03:48Every second was screaming hell.
03:49Body seizing on freezing concrete.
03:51I gave the guard my only possession.
03:53My father's moon amulet.
03:54Begged him to get it to Grayson.
03:56Some pathetic part of me still believed.
03:57Next day, steel door hissed open.
04:00Not Grayson.
04:00Mr. Ashford says your little trinket makes him sick.
04:03He gave the amulet to Mrs. Selena.
04:05She's wearing it on her wrist right now.
04:07Thinks it's hilarious.
04:08The rebar came down before the heartbreak landed.
04:13The enforcer laughed.
04:15He wrenched my head back by the hair.
04:17And poured diluted wolf bat into my left eye.
04:20The poison ate through my optic nerve.
04:22Vision gone.
04:23For six years, every time I begged for water,
04:25they shoved my face in the puddles.
04:27Laughing.
04:28Grayson's orders.
04:29Mud was all I deserved.
04:30In that concrete box,
04:31the girl who loved Grayson bled out and died.
04:33What was left was crippled, hollow,
04:35and running on venom.
04:37Kept breathing by one thing only, payback.
04:39Sixth year.
04:40Steel door ground open.
04:41Grayson stood in the ward war.
04:42Tom Ford suit.
04:43Not a hair out of place.
04:44Selena beside him.
04:45Diamond chokler.
04:46He looked at my mangled body.
04:48Pressed two fingers to his nose.
04:49Six years goes by fast.
04:51Quit causing problems for Selena.
04:52I might let you push a mop around the compound.
04:54Consider it mercy.
04:55I grabbed my crutch metal rod off the ventilation grate
04:58and dragged myself upright.
04:59Before his security could twitch,
05:01backhanded Selena across her perfect face.
05:03His eyes flared gold.
05:05Hand around my throat.
05:06Lifted me off the ground.
05:08You suicidal bitch.
05:10You wanna die right here?
05:12I,
05:13Allura,
05:15reject you.
05:17I,
05:19Allura,
05:20Reject you.
05:24Sign them,
05:25before I rip her throat out myself.
05:31Grayson didn't sign.
05:33He tossed the papers,
05:34scooped up Selena,
05:35walked out.
05:36I dragged myself out of the sub-level corridor alone.
05:40I wasn't done.
05:41Silver moon compound,
05:43lit up,
05:44board members,
05:45enforcers,
05:45allied family heads,
05:47all there for Selena's birthday,
05:48until I limped in,
05:50half-blind,
05:51crippled,
05:52metal rod for a crunch,
05:53dissolution papers in my fist,
05:55music died table by table,
05:57heads turned,
05:59conversations choked off.
06:00Look at the murderer.
06:01Looks worse than something out of a storm drain.
06:04Sign it, Grayson.
06:06A half-blind cripple making demands?
06:09Cute.
06:10My one good eye caught tarnished silver on Selena's wrist.
06:13She stepped out behind him,
06:15fragile act,
06:16shaking hands.
06:18Then the light hit her wrist.
06:20My blood went cold.
06:21My father's moon emulet,
06:23tarnished,
06:24scratched to hell,
06:25strapped to her arm like it belonged there.
06:28Where did you get that?
06:31That's mine!
06:32Selena streaked,
06:33threw herself backward.
06:34She faked a fall against the marble bar top.
06:37A hidden blood capsule burst down her neck.
06:43Laura, stop!
06:44Grayson gave it to me!
06:45Don't hurt me!
06:46Grayson went feral,
06:47out of the chair,
06:50looped into my destroyed leg.
06:52Bone gave way,
06:53wet crack,
06:54face first into the rug,
06:55couldn't breathe.
06:59You want out?
07:00Take your garbage,
07:02get out.
07:06Teach her what happens
07:08when she shows up uninvited.
07:09Door shut,
07:10wolves closed in,
07:12ribs,
07:13stilettos,
07:14steel-toed boots,
07:15blind eye,
07:16over and over.
07:17I stopped being a person around the third kick to the skull.
07:20Just a broken thing bleeding into the carpet.
07:23They got bored.
07:25Left.
07:26Silence.
07:27Louboutins on marble.
07:29Selena strolled in,
07:30perfectly intact,
07:31wiping fake blood off her neck,
07:33crouched beside me,
07:35unbuckled the amulet,
07:36set it in front of my swollen eye,
07:38ground it under her wrist,
07:39zippo from her clutch,
07:41flicked it,
07:42yellow flame.
07:43You know,
07:43Alara,
07:44your parents didn't die right away when my rogues hit them.
07:47They had last words.
07:48For you.
07:49My eye blew wide.
07:51She dropped the zippo onto the vodka-soaked curtains.
07:53Want to know what they said?
07:54She laughed.
07:56The flames swallowed the room.
07:58Want to know what they said?
07:59I stared up from the floor,
08:01lungs seizing,
08:03black smoke rolling across the ceiling.
08:05They begged us to tell you they were so sorry they couldn't protect you.
08:10Then they told us the truth.
08:12That you were adopted.
08:14Oops.
08:15Did you think you were their real kid?
08:17You're nothing.
08:18A dirty stray from a rogue group home.
08:21No bloodline.
08:22No wolf.
08:23Not a single person on this planet who gives a damn about you.
08:27She blew me a kiss.
08:29Stepped over my body.
08:30Walked out.
08:31Sealed the reinforced doors behind her.
08:33I couldn't move.
08:34Not the bones.
08:35The truth.
08:36It hit harder than any boot or rebar.
08:38My whole life was a lie.
08:39Just a throwaway stray nobody wanted.
08:41Fire ate through the room fast.
08:43The heat was suffocating.
08:44Without my inner wolf,
08:45my body couldn't kickstart a basic healing response.
08:47I coughed up blood.
08:49Let my one eye fall shut.
08:50I'm so tired.
08:52Just let it end.
08:53The building shook.
08:54The tempered glass wall on the far side exploded inward.
08:56Shards rained down.
08:58A massive silhouette stepped through the fire without slowing.
09:01He didn't flinch.
09:02Flames licked his boots.
09:03He walked through them like they weren't there.
09:05Alpha Fenwar.
09:06King of the North.
09:07CEO of the Northflad Syndicate.
09:09Most feared name on the continent.
09:11He scooped me off the ground like I weighed nothing.
09:14His alpha aura rolled outward.
09:15The flames choked.
09:17Why?
09:18Why you?
09:19The man who should have torn this world apart to find you sooner.
09:25Sleep now, my queen.
09:27I opened my eye.
09:28No fire.
09:29No concrete walls.
09:30Sheets that cost more than a car.
09:32The room smelled of dark amber and cedar wood.
09:34Top tier alpha.
09:35You're awake.
09:36Fenog stepped out of the shadows.
09:37No tactical gear.
09:39Bare chested.
09:40His powerful build fully visible.
09:41He sat on the edge of my bed.
09:43Wiped the stook off my cheek with his scarred thumb.
09:45Medical team stabilized your fractures.
09:47You're in the Northfen compound, Alara.
09:49No one's touching you here.
09:50Grayson.
09:51The fire.
09:52You want to see your ex?
09:54Look.
09:54Live surveillance feed.
09:56Silver moon territory.
09:57The reception hall was a blacked shell.
09:59Center of the wreckage.
10:00Grayson.
10:01Unhinged.
10:01Suit shredded.
10:02Hands torn open.
10:03Clawing through smoldering debris with bare fingers.
10:05Howling like something inside him had snapped in half.
10:07What remained of the mate bond snapped the second you flatlined in that fire.
10:11He pulled your father's moon amulet out of the ash.
10:14He's been digging through the wreckage ever since.
10:16On screen, Grayson dropped to his knees.
10:19Pressed the blacked amulet to his chest, screaming my name.
10:23Six years ago, I would have given anything to see that in his eyes.
10:26Now it made my stomach turn.
10:28I handed the tablet back.
10:29Cold smile.
10:31Neither.
10:32Let him think I'm dead.
10:33I want him choking on regret every day of his miserable life.
10:36Dying is too easy for him.
10:38I handed the tablet back.
10:39And I turned away from Grayson as he crawled through the ash.
10:42Fenimore tossed the device onto the table.
10:44Sat closer.
10:45His scarred hand brushed a loop of silver hair behind my ear.
10:49Careful.
10:50Gentle.
10:50You said you would have burned the world down to find me sooner.
10:53Why?
10:54We've never crossed paths.
10:56Sadness flared in his golden eyes.
10:59We met twenty years ago, Alara, in the freezing cages of the Blackwood group home.
11:03A feral older kid was beating me nearly to death over a piece of moldy bread.
11:07You were the only one brave enough to throw a rock at his head and drag my bleeding body into
11:11the snow.
11:12My one good eye went wide.
11:13I remembered.
11:14We were both strays.
11:15He vanished into the blizzard one night.
11:17I got adopted by the couple Selina's rogues tore apart.
11:20I swore a blood oath that night.
11:22Promise the moon goddess I'd survive.
11:23Take down the most powerful syndicate on the east coast and come back for you.
11:26He cupped my ruined face.
11:28By the time I made it to the top of Northfield, Grayson had already marked you.
11:31And I was too much of a coward to risk ruining your life.
11:33A tear slit down my scarred cheek.
11:35The most feared name in the werewolf world crying over someone as broken blind as me.
11:39You didn't ruin anything.
11:41He tossed me away because I burned out my inner wolf.
11:44I'm broken, Fenric.
11:45I'm empty.
11:46You are not empty.
11:47And you will not stay broken.
11:49He leaned down, pressed his lips over my blinded left eye.
11:53The moment his skin met my deepest wound, raw alpha power shot into my bloodstream like an electric charge.
11:59The surge hit like a wave of light.
12:02Fenel wasn't just kissing my scars.
12:04He was channeling raw alpha essence from his own wolf into the wreckage of mine.
12:08Six years of agony vanished.
12:10Replaced by searing heat flooding every nerve I had left.
12:14The badly healed bone in my right leg slapped.
12:17Restet.
12:18Perfect alignment.
12:19Silver light blew outward from my chest.
12:22My shattered inner wolf wasn't just healing.
12:25It was evolving.
12:26The wolfbane rotting inside my left eye for six years was forced out through moak.
12:30Hissing.
12:31I blinked.
12:31Once.
12:32Twice.
12:33Darkness was gone.
12:34Where a brown iris should have been.
12:35A silver ring.
12:36Burning.
12:37I dropped back into the pillows.
12:38The pitiful omega was gone.
12:40Dead and buried.
12:40What replaced her was ancient and terrifyingly still.
12:42A power that didn't ask for submission.
12:44It simply claimed obedience.
12:45Fenrir just smiled.
12:46The Lunan Alpha.
12:47Rarest bloodline in werewolf history.
12:49The trauma didn't destroy you, Allura.
12:51It was just the crucible.
12:52I saw both legs off the bed.
12:54No pain.
12:54No wobble.
12:55Left the crutch against the wall.
12:57And I stood up.
12:57The ground felt different under my feet.
13:00Stronger.
13:00I walked to the mirror.
13:02Silver hair.
13:03Moonlight through the floor to scare windows.
13:04The scars on my collarbones where Grayson's hooks had burned through still there.
13:07But they didn't look like shame anymore.
13:08They looked like what they truly were.
13:10Battle scars.
13:10Something that had crawled out of hell and came back meaner.
13:14Lock down every border.
13:15Freeze all Northling accounts tied to Silver Moon.
13:17Cut their supply chains.
13:18Pull our investors from their sub-dairies.
13:20Full embargo.
13:21I want Grayson's empire strangled until he's on.
13:23But before he spoke, he stepped close.
13:25Tilted my chin up.
13:26Golden eyes asking a question his mouth didn't need to.
13:29His lips pressed to my collar's bone.
13:30Right above the faded scars from Grayson's hooks.
13:33Brief.
13:33Sharp.
13:33A claim mark.
13:34His scent flooded into my bloodstream.
13:36And something deep inside my chest locked into place like a deadbolt sliding home.
13:40Not a soul bond.
13:40Not yet.
13:41But a declaration.
13:42Mine.
13:43Publicly.
13:44Permanently.
13:44As you command, my queen.
13:46Let's burn it down.
13:47He delivered.
13:47With surgical precision.
13:49Slowly choking the life out of Grayson's empire.
13:52Operation center beneath the Northfield compound.
13:54Leather swivel chair.
13:55A glass of Chateau Margais turned slowly between my fingers.
13:58A wall of monitors streamed live feeds from Silver Moon headquarters in Grayson's residence.
14:02My queen.
14:03Embaro's choking them out.
14:04Silver Moon stock was down 80%.
14:06Grayson called an emergency board meeting 20 minutes ago, but doesn't seem too concerned
14:11about the money.
14:12I looked at the main feed, Grayson.
14:14He hadn't slept in a month.
14:16Bloodshot eyes.
14:17Hollow cheekbones.
14:19His alpha aura flickering.
14:21Unstable eating itself alive the way it does when a severed mate bond starts rotting
14:25through the host.
14:26He wasn't screaming at his financial team.
14:28It's been weeks!
14:30You combed every inch of that wreckage!
14:32How the hell is there not a single bone?
14:33Go back!
14:34Dig until your goddamn hands bleed!
14:38Sir, please.
14:39If we don't secure a bridge loan by close of business tonight, the entire organization
14:42goes under.
14:43We need to-
14:43I don't care about the organization!
14:46Find her!
14:47Find Alara!
14:48Losing his mind over my corpse.
14:51Good.
14:52Office doors swung open.
14:53Selina click-clocked in.
14:55Brand new diamond shoulder.
14:56Not a care in the world.
14:59Grayson!
15:00Babe!
15:01The bank declined my black card.
15:02How am I supposed to get my dress for the Winter Summit?
15:04Handle it.
15:07My mate is dead, Selina.
15:09My empire is collapsing.
15:11And you're throwing a fit over a dress?
15:13But I need to look perfect for you.
15:15I laughed out loud.
15:17Pathetic.
15:18Kale, give Mrs. Selina the spotlight she's been craving.
15:20Override her displays.
15:22Play the file.
15:23Kale cracked his knuckles.
15:24Grinned.
15:25Uploading.
15:27Grayson's office went black.
15:28Then a bank wire receipt filled every screen.
15:31Three million dollars.
15:32A shell account traced to Selina.
15:33Then an audio clip from a prepaid burner.
15:35Yes, I wired the three million.
15:36Just make sure the old couple is torn to pieces.
15:38Leave Alara's soothing crystal at the scene.
15:40I want that bitch to take the floor.
15:42Silence in Grayson's office.
15:44On my monitor, every drop of color drained from Selina's face.
15:47Advisors stumbled backward, putting distance between themselves and her.
15:53Grayson.
15:54Frozen behind his desk.
15:55Eyes moving from the wire receipt to the date stamp to the dollar amount to audio wavelength.
15:59Frequency by frequency.
16:00Matching it to the voice of the woman he'd shielded for six years.
16:04Grayson, it's a deepfake!
16:05Gritfake, someone hacked our servers!
16:07That's not me!
16:09Grayson didn't answer.
16:10His body started to shake.
16:12It hit him all at once.
16:13He had severed his mate bond.
16:15Driven wolf-lied hooks into my colopones with his own hands.
16:17Locked me in an underground cell for six years.
16:20Starved.
16:20Beaten.
16:21Wolf-hooks into my colomones with his own hands.
16:23Locked me in a underground cell for six years.
16:26Starved.
16:26Beaten.
16:26All to protect the woman who orchestrated everything.
16:29He doubled over.
16:30Vomited clotted blood onto his desk.
16:32Then he snapped.
16:34He let out a roar that blew out the office windows.
16:36Vaulted the desk.
16:37Seized Selina by the throat.
16:38Lifted her off the ground.
16:39Slammed her into the wall.
16:39The drywall cratered.
16:41Cratered.
16:42I shattered her leg!
16:43For you!
16:44I poured poison.
16:45Into her eye because you cried!
16:46I let my mate burn!
16:48Please!
16:49I watched.
16:49Felt nothing.
16:50No pity.
16:51No grief.
16:52Just a loop closing.
16:53Sub-level unit.
16:54Same cell, same restraints.
16:56Break her leg.
16:57No sleep.
16:58I want her begging for death before the week is out.
17:00Selina screamed down the corridor as they dragged her away.
17:03Grayson collapsed.
17:04Curled in on himself.
17:06Weeping in a pool of his own blood.
17:07I pressed the comms key on Kale's console and patched into Grayson's office speakers through
17:11the back door we'd planted weeks ago.
17:14Pathetic, Grayson.
17:15His head jerked up.
17:17Bloodshark eyes searching the ceiling.
17:18The Northfront syndicate requires your presence at the Winter Summit.
17:22Come alone, or your organization gets erased.
17:24Feed killed.
17:26Screens black.
17:27Fenlar stood behind my chair, his thumbs working slow circles into my shoulders.
17:31He's going to lose what's left of his mind when he sees who's sitting next to me.
17:36A week later, Northfront Summit venue.
17:38The conference hall was packed with the most powerful alphas on the continent.
17:42I wasn't down there.
17:43I was standing behind the tinted glass of the private mesomelium, watching the entrance.
17:48Fenwyn was beside me, adjusting the collar of my blood-red Elisage.
17:54Ready to break his mind, my queen?
17:56Been ready for six years.
17:58Brushed steel double doors slid open.
18:00Grayson walked in alone, dark suit hanging off his wasted frame.
18:03His face was hollow and gray, and didn't look like the untouchable CEO of the South anymore.
18:08The other alphas shifted away from him.
18:11Low murmurs, about Silvermoon collapsing.
18:13He ignored all of it.
18:14Walked toward the center of the hall, ready to kneel and beg the head of Northfong to lift the embargo.
18:20Halfway across the polished concrete, he stopped dead.
18:23Heads snapped up.
18:24Dull eyes went wide, pulling air through his nose.
18:28He smelled me.
18:29The mate bond had already broken, but it didn't matter.
18:31My scent was seared into his nervous system.
18:34Allura?
18:34Allura!
18:35Where are you?
18:36You're alive!
18:37I know you're alive!
18:38The fire didn't take you!
18:39Silence!
18:41Every wolf in the hall dropped to their knees.
18:43Fenris stepped out from behind the tinted glass partition.
18:47Golden eyes locked and Gred Ocht on the wrecked Alpha below.
18:50You're raising your voice in my house, Grayson?
18:56King Fenlar!
18:59Please!
19:00Her scent is here!
19:01I brought her crystal back!
19:03I know the truth!
19:04Just give her back to me!
19:07Fenlickel laughed.
19:09Low.
19:10Dark.
19:10Even the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
19:13I didn't save your mate, Grayson.
19:15I saved my queen.
19:18I stepped out.
19:19Blood red dress trailing across the Maison floor.
19:21Silver hair caught the overhead light.
19:23But it was my left eye.
19:24The eye Grayson had ordered filled with wolf on every elite mid-breath.
19:27That stopped every ner-alpha.
19:28Burning.
19:30Allura.
19:31He stared at my legs.
19:32Both whole.
19:33Planted.
19:34He stared at my face.
19:35Clear.
19:36Radiant.
19:36Not a trace of the broken thing he'd left to rot.
19:39He stared at the authority rolling off me in waves.
19:42But what wrecked him?
19:43What buckled his knees before I even gave the order?
19:46Was the fresh claim mark on my colopane.
19:48Right above the faded scars from his hooks.
19:51Fenroy's mating mark.
19:52No.
19:52No, no, no.
19:53Allura, you're my mate.
19:55We belong together.
19:56I brought it back.
19:57Pulled it from evidence lockup myself.
19:59Threw Selina in the same cell.
20:00I made it right.
20:01Please!
20:02Your destroyed wolf needs this.
20:04Come back to me!
20:05I looked down at him.
20:06On his knees.
20:07Sobbing over a useless rock.
20:09Felt nothing.
20:10Kneel.
20:11Didn't raise my voice.
20:12Didn't shout.
20:13Lunan Alpha bloodline detonated outward from my chest.
20:15Both knees slammed into the concrete.
20:17Sound echoed off the rafters.
20:18The crystal jarred loose from his grip.
20:21Rolled across the floor.
20:22Bounced off the base of the Mia's on stairs.
20:24It was useless now.
20:25Just like him.
20:27Grayson coughed blood.
20:29Lowering his head in front of me.
20:31The CEO of Silver Moon couldn't lift his chin anymore.
20:34You shattered my leg.
20:36Burned out my eye.
20:38Locked me in a concrete hole for six years.
20:40Over a stolen rock and the word of a murderer.
20:43Voice carrying through the dead silent hall.
20:45Every Alpha felt it land in their chest.
20:48I leaned against the menisium railing.
20:50Looked down at what was left of Grayson Ashfield.
20:52I don't need a crystal anymore.
20:53And you don't have a mate, Grayson.
20:55You have a queen.
20:57Address me as your superior.
20:58Dead silent in the hall.
21:00The most powerful elites on the continent stared at Grayson Ashfield,
21:04former CEO of Silver Moon,
21:06kneeling in his own blood on the concrete.
21:08Grayson didn't see any of them.
21:10Bloodshot eyes locked on my face like it was the only thing left.
21:14Alara, my mate.
21:15He fumbled inside his jacket.
21:17Pulled out a blood-crusted silver chain.
21:19The same silver restraints he'd driven into my colis bones six years ago.
21:23Look what I did for you!
21:25I threw Selina in your cell!
21:27Used this chain on her until she screamed.
21:30I destroyed the woman who did this to you!
21:33Held the bloody metal up like a peace offering,
21:35expecting me to fall into his arms.
21:38I avenged you, Alara!
21:39Cleared your name!
21:41I'll sign over half of Silver Moon's holdings.
21:43Have Selina publicly executed.
21:45We can start over.
21:46Please, just come back to me.
21:48I looked down at him.
21:50The man I'd once loved enough to burn my career to ash for.
21:53Not a trace of pity.
21:55You avenged me?
21:56I descended the Mia's on stairs, dress trailing across the concrete.
22:02You think whipping Selina undoes the bones you shattered in my leg?
22:05You think a dark room gives me back six years?
22:08You're not doing this for me.
22:11You tortured Selina because your ego couldn't handle being played by a beta.
22:15Don't dress up wounded pride as love.
22:18I was blind!
22:19I was a monster!
22:21Just give me one chance to-
22:23You had your chance.
22:25You locked it in a concrete box for six years.
22:28Grayson screamed.
22:29Grief and the scent of my mating mark broke what was left of his sanity.
22:33He launched not to hurt me.
22:35Just to reach me.
22:36To drag me away from Fenra.
22:38A drowning man clawing for a rope.
22:40A scarred hand stopped him.
22:41Inhuman speed.
22:43Locked around Grayson's throat.
22:44Fennec lifted the CEO of Silver Moon off the ground with one arm.
22:47Grayson gagged.
22:48Legs swinging.
22:49Face turning purple.
22:50Touch my queen again.
22:52I'll pull your spine out through your chest.
22:55The gap in power was obscene.
22:57Grayson and Alpha who terrorized the eastern sea door dangling like a stray kitten in a fist.
23:02Fenrock.
23:03He opened his hand.
23:04Grayson dropped.
23:05Hit the concrete.
23:06Crumpled.
23:06Blood smeared the floor.
23:08Fenra stepped back behind me.
23:09Grayson wheezed.
23:10Bloodshot eyes lifting to mine.
23:12This isn't a negotiation.
23:14And it isn't a peace summit.
23:16I looked down at him.
23:17Silver Moon's unconditional surrender.
23:19Full delotion of your board.
23:20Every asset.
23:21Every subsidiary.
23:22Every account.
23:23Signed over to Northford.
23:25Then go back to what's left of your operation.
23:27Wait.
23:27Galera.
23:28Why?
23:29Just kill me.
23:30Please.
23:31Dying is a mercy you haven't earned.
23:33I'm gonna shut down every revenue stream you have.
23:35Watch your people walk away one by one.
23:37Take apart everything you built while you stand there.
23:40Then I'm paying Selina a visit.
23:42I turned pressing my palm to Fenrock's chest.
23:45Throw him out.
23:46Three days later.
23:48A convoy of Northfond SUVs pulled up to the gates.
23:51No fight.
23:52Nothing left to fight for.
23:54My lunar alpha aura hit them.
23:56Backed by Fenrock's dominance like an invisible wall and inevitability.
24:00Grayson.
24:01Alone and in the empty courtyard.
24:02Didn't look like a CEO anymore.
24:04His clothes wrinkled and stained.
24:05Hair matted.
24:06He dropped to his knees on the pavement the moment I stepped out of the lead vehicle.
24:10Shaking, bloody hands held up a silver signet ring.
24:13Symbol of his alpha bloodline and Silver Moon's legacy.
24:15It's yours.
24:16All of it.
24:17I surrender everything.
24:19Just let me stay rogue.
24:21Guard.
24:21Janitor.
24:22I don't care.
24:22Just let me be near you, Alara.
24:24Please.
24:25I walked up to him.
24:26Boots inches from his knees.
24:28Took the ring from his bleeding palms.
24:30Dropped it on the pavement.
24:31Grounded under my feel.
24:33He buried his face in his filthy hands as the last symbol of his family's legacy broke apart on the
24:37concrete.
24:38Fenwick stepped up behind me.
24:40Scarred hand on my lower back.
24:41Possessive.
24:42Deliberate.
24:43Every defeated wolf in the courtyard got the message.
24:45I don't want your company, Grayson.
24:48I'm the queen of Northband.
24:49Your empire is dust to me.
24:51I stepped over his kneeling body.
24:53Access codes.
24:55Two months since I crawled out of this place.
24:57Returning as a queen, I felt different.
24:59The smell was the same.
25:00Damp concrete, old blood, wolf bone.
25:02But this time I wasn't the prey.
25:04Scream if you need to tear her apart.
25:06I'll clean up the blood.
25:08Won't take long.
25:10I went down the stairs alone.
25:11My boots clicking against wet concrete.
25:13Echoing like a death clone.
25:15End of the corridor.
25:16Same cell.
25:17Same walls.
25:18The same cell where I'd rotted for six years.
25:20A figure chained to the wall.
25:21Grayson.
25:22Grayson, please.
25:23I'm sorry.
25:24It hurts.
25:25The silver is burning my bones.
25:27I stepped into the light.
25:29Selina's eyes went wide, frozen.
25:31She stared at my healed face.
25:32The aura radiating off me.
25:34Forced her face into the concrete floor.
25:37You're dead.
25:38I watched you burn.
25:39I raised my hand.
25:40The reinforced steel door runged.
25:42Its lock shattering under the force of my loon and power.
25:44I stepped into her cell.
25:47You stole my wolf, my parents, and six years of my life, Selina.
25:52Let's see how much of yours I can take in one night.
25:55No, Alara, please.
25:57Sister!
25:58Her face was caked in grime and festering burns.
26:01The wolf's bane restraints Grayson had locked onto her were eating into her skin.
26:05Don't call me sister.
26:07I drove the silver blade through her right thigh.
26:10Selina screamed, raw, shredded, not human eyes rolling back as toxic silver hit her bloodstream.
26:15That's from my leg.
26:17You poured wolfbine into my eye and left me in the dark for six years.
26:21It's only fair you get the same view.
26:23I pulled the blade away.
26:24Her left eye was a ruined, milky-white mess.
26:26Perfect mirror of what mine used to look like.
26:28She sagged in the restraints.
26:30Broken.
26:31Disfigured.
26:31The beta who had pupplet an entire organization gone.
26:34What was left barely looked like a person.
26:36Help me, just kill me, please.
26:37Kill you?
26:38Too quick.
26:39The Northfern medical team will keep you alive indefinitely.
26:41This cell until you die of old age.
26:43Blind.
26:43Crippled.
26:44Alone with the ghosts of my parents.
26:45I turned.
26:46Walked out.
26:47The reinforced steel door sealed shut behind me.
26:49I stepped out of the sublevel corridor.
26:52Afternoon sun cut hard across the empty courtyard.
26:55Grayson was still on his knees on the pavement exactly where I'd left him.
26:58Shaking like a sick dog.
26:59Eyes flat and voiklent.
27:01Trash taken care of, my queen?
27:02She'll rot in the dark.
27:04I walked up to Grayson.
27:07Allura, I deserve to die.
27:09Let Fenrock do it.
27:10I want the last thing I see to be your face.
27:12Dying is a mercy you haven't earned.
27:13You took everything.
27:14My family.
27:15My wolf.
27:16My dignity.
27:17My home.
27:17Now I'm taking yours.
27:18I turned to Fenock.
27:19Single nod.
27:20Fenock stepped forward.
27:21Claws out.
27:22Fast.
27:22Brutal.
27:23Surgical.
27:23With only two strikes, he severed the tendions in Grayson's arms and legs before anyone hit
27:27the pavement face first, screaming.
27:29A raw, shredded sound that didn't stop.
27:31Permanently crippled.
27:32You are no longer an alpha.
27:33No longer a werewolf.
27:34Stripped of your rank.
27:35Your assets.
27:36Your name.
27:37Expelled from every syndicate territory on the continent.
27:39You will survive in the margins of the human world as a crippled, nameless rogue.
27:42Until you starve, freeze, or simply stop mattering.
27:45Get him out of here.
27:45Elia, please don't leave.
27:47Deep breath.
27:48Clean air.
27:48No smoke.
27:49No blood.
27:49No concrete walls.
27:51The chains were off.
27:52Fenland tilted my face toward his.
27:53Golden eyes steady and warm for the first time since I'd known him.
27:56Ready to go home, my queen?
27:57I smiled.
27:58Silver eye, catching sunlight.
28:00Yeah.
28:00Let's go home.
28:02Northfold's home territory was nothing like the south.
28:04A sleek heiserer in the heart of the city.
28:05Tinted glass, gunmetal steel, low profile of every other building.
28:08From the outside, it looked like a billionaire's tech headquarters.
28:10But inside, you felt the ancient alpha territory sunk through empty of the central building.
28:14Fenneker's SUV pulled up under the portico of the central building.
28:16Northfold personnel lined both sides of the walkway.
28:18Enforcers, analysts, coordinators dropping to a knee as their alpha stepped out.
28:22Fenneker didn't look at any of them.
28:23He came around to my side, opened the door, and held out his scarred hand.
28:26Welcome to your empire, my queen.
28:36Not everyone was ready to kneel.
28:38Fenric walked me through the main corridor toward the executive boardroom.
28:41A cluster of older, battle-scarred senior council members stood blocking the entrance.
28:45Old guard.
28:46Wolves who'd fought alongside Fenric's father and believed that earned them permanent seats at the table.
28:50Elder Thorne was massive, with a gray beard and a missing ear.
28:53He looked me up and down, his lip curling in disgust.
28:56My king.
28:56Word is you dismantled Silver Moon.
28:59Congratulations.
29:00But why'd you drag their trash back with you?
29:01A rejected baron Omega from the south has no business sitting at the head of Northfand.
29:05Fenric went studded.
29:06A snar built in his chest.
29:08His claws slid out.
29:09One twitch from taking Thorne's head off.
29:11I got this.
29:12I didn't need a king to fight my battles.
29:14Not anymore.
29:15Not the broken girl from the south.
29:17I stepped in front of Fenmon.
29:20Garbage?
29:23You reek of another Alpha's leftovers, girl.
29:27Northfand respects power.
29:28We answer to the man who built this organization.
29:31We don't answer to some broken toy from the-
29:34He didn't get to finish.
29:35I didn't hit him.
29:36Didn't raise a hand.
29:37Just opened my left eye.
29:39The silver light of the Lunan Alpha detonated from my iris.
29:42Crushing dominance slammed down on every wolf in the boardroom.
29:46Reinforced glass panels along the corridor wall spider webbed.
29:50Thorn choked.
29:51Eyes rolling.
29:52Legs buckling.
29:53Hit the floor.
29:54Hands and knees.
29:54Gasping.
29:55He couldn't lift his skull an inch.
29:56Behind him the remaining five council members dropped.
29:59Shaking so hard their teeth chapped.
30:00I am not an Omega.
30:02And I am no one's leftovers.
30:05I walk toward Thorn.
30:06Boots clicking on concrete stopped in front of his face as he lay pressed flat to the floor.
30:11A position he probably hadn't been in since the day he was born.
30:14The Northfand king answers to the North, but the North answers to its Lunar Queen.
30:19Clear, Elder?
30:20Yes, my queen.
30:21Forgive me, please.
30:23I pulled the arrow back.
30:25Let them breathe.
30:26When I turned, Fenwag was leaning against the boardroom table.
30:30Arms folded.
30:31A smirk.
30:31He loved it when I was terrifying.
30:33Anyone else?
30:34Every wolf in the room pressed their forehead to the floor.
30:38Long live the Lunar Queen.
30:40Hundreds of miles away.
30:41Temperatures in the single digits.
30:43Winter storms were rolling in fast.
30:45Grayson just Grayson now.
30:46No title, no owl, nothing.
30:47Dragged his crippled body along the shoulder of a dead county road in rural upstate.
30:50Sooch fingers blackened and split from frostbite.
30:53Pink smears on the frozen asphalt every time he pulled himself forward.
30:56Every inch was agony.
30:58Fenrud had severed his tendons clean.
31:00Couldn't stand.
31:01Couldn't walk.
31:01Could only crawl.
31:03Already dead, but still moving.
31:05Hilara, I'm sorry.
31:06I'm so sorry.
31:09Hallucinating.
31:10Hunger and hypothermia eating away at his mind.
31:13Seeing my face in the snow drifts along the road.
31:16Hearing me set a bowl of hot soup on his desk during late nights at the office.
31:21Back when I still thought he was worth saving.
31:24Then a filthy boot came down on his bleeding hand.
31:27Grinding his fingers into the ice-covered pavement.
31:29Grayson screamed with missing up through matted hair.
31:31Five massive scarred rogue wolves stood over him.
31:34Ferals.
31:34The kind of wolves mainstream syndicates pretended didn't exist.
31:37The kind that survived on the fringes of human society doing things nobody talked about.
31:41Well, well, well.
31:43Look what the storm dragged in.
31:45The big bad Alpha Granson.
31:48CEO of Silvermoon.
31:49King of the eastern seaboard.
31:51He recognized them.
31:53Five years ago, he'd ordered these men beaten and expelled for skimming from Silvermoon's accounts.
31:57He sat behind his desk watching the security feed while Enforced broke their ribs one by one.
32:01I remember you in that corner office.
32:03Laughing while your boys worked us over.
32:04Please, don't.
32:05I have nothing left.
32:06We know.
32:07Word travels fast out here.
32:09Northland's king cut your strings and threw you out with the trash.
32:13We don't want your money, Grayson.
32:14We just want to hear you scream.
32:16Deep beneath the abandoned Silvermoon compound.
32:19Sub-level isolation unit.
32:21Pitch black.
32:22Grayson?
32:22Is someone there?
32:23Selina's voice.
32:24Wrecked.
32:25Sand proper.
32:25It bounced off the concrete walls and came.
32:26Her body was a mess.
32:27Frustering burns.
32:28Crusted blood.
32:29Skin peeling where the wolfane restraints nod into her collar bops around the clock.
32:32Every breath a fresh jolt of agony.
32:34Her destroyed left eye leaked black fluid.
32:36The gash in her thigh throbbed with a toxic pulse that never let up.
32:40Wolf bait venom frestered in the wounds.
32:42Somebody let me out.
32:43I can't.
32:44I can't do the dark.
32:45Please.
32:47Nobody answered.
32:49Security had abandoned the compound days ago.
32:52She was alone.
32:54Why did you do it, Selina?
32:57She went rigid.
32:58The voice sounded exactly like Aliyah's mother.
33:00The woman she had paid to have torn apart six years ago.
33:03You had our bodies dragged 200 meters, planted the crystal to frame our daughter.
33:08No!
33:08Stay away from me!
33:13Total darkness.
33:15A guilty mind doing what guilty minds do.
33:18Filling the black with things that weren't there.
33:20She screamed until something in her throat tore.
33:23Doubled over and reversed bile onto the concrete.
33:25There's no way out.
33:26She wasn't going to die today.
33:28Wasn't going to die tomorrow.
33:29She was going to live in this pitch black box for decades.
33:31Blind, crippled, locked in a cage with the ghosts of the people she'd murdered.
33:35Not a single soul who cared enough to check if she was still breathing.
33:38Back at the North Vaughan compound, the weight I'd been carrying for six years finally came off.
33:43Floor to ceiling windows in the master fweef.
33:45Snow was falling over the tree line beyond the perimeter.
33:47But something quiet and behind me now Grayson sat in my chest.
33:51My fingers drifted without thinking.
33:53Brushed the faint jagged scar on my soul.
33:55Fennah came in behind me.
34:01You won, my queen.
34:03So why is your heart still racing?
34:05My lunar bloodline healed the physical damage, Fenric.
34:09But the hole in my soul is still there.
34:11Grayson broke the bond, left a gap I can't close on my own.
34:14Are you sure you want that?
34:16You're the head of North Vand.
34:17You deserve a mate who isn't carrying someone else's wreckage inside her chest.
34:21The words cost me everything, eyes squeezed shut, terrified he'd finally see how fractured I really was underneath.
34:28He turned me around, gently, no rush, not disappointed, golden eyes stubble, burning with something old and fierce and tender.
34:35Alara, look at me.
34:36Grayson didn't leave a void in your soul.
34:38He just cleared the space that was always mine.
34:40My breath caught.
34:41His aura wrapped around me.
34:43Not the crushing kind.
34:44The other kind.
34:45Warm.
34:46Solid.
34:47I'm not going anywhere.
34:48I told you when I pulled you out of that fire, I've been yours since we were starving kids in
34:52that group home.
34:53I don't care about the scars on your soul, I'll write over every one of them with my own mark.
34:56You're not broken, Alara, you were just waiting for the right person to show up.
35:01He dropped to one knee.
35:02From his jacket pocket, a ring.
35:03Black titanium band.
35:05Single deep red diamond.
35:06Custom cut.
35:07Nothing flashy.
35:08Nothing wasted.
35:09My mark is already on your skin.
35:10But I want more than that.
35:11I want your choice.
35:12Be my true mate.
35:13Not because I claimed you.
35:14Not because the moon goddess arranged it.
35:16But because you're choosing me.
35:17My heart melted.
35:18Yes.
35:19Yes.
35:20Dropped into his arms, crying so hard I couldn't breathe.
35:23Undone by a love so steady and real, it didn't feel like it could possibly be meant for someone like
35:27me.
35:27Fenric's fangs broke the skin at my colishone.
35:29Same spot, deeper this time.
35:31Warmth flooded my chest.
35:33Not just a claim anymore.
35:34A soul bond.
35:35The old void filled in, completely, instantly, as if it had never been empty at all.
35:45The broken bond was gone.
35:47I was whole.
35:50Two weeks later.
35:51Winter solstice.
35:52The grand atrium of the North Van compound transformed.
35:54Silver, deep crimson, ice-white arrangements catching light from every angle.
35:57Floor to clearing windows framed the snow-covered hills outside.
36:00Every seat was filled.
36:01Standing room only along the back walls.
36:02I stood at the top of the central stair-ace.
36:04Gown shimmering like liquid moonlight.
36:05Fenbor at the front of the hall.
36:06Black fitted suit.
36:07No tie.
36:08The kind of man entire empires either followed or ran from.
36:10When I started down the aisle, the room went silent.
36:12Not the polite kind.
36:13The kind where nobody breathed.
36:14Elder Thorn stepped forward.
36:16Slim velvet case.
36:17He opened it.
36:17A black diamond collar necklace set in dark titanium.
36:20Designed to sit high on the collarbone.
36:22Exactly where the faded scars from Grayson's hooks still marked my skin.
36:24Old wounds covered by something new.
36:26Something mine.
36:27By the power of the moon goddess and the blood of the North, we present to you Ellara, the lunar
36:31alpha, the undisputed queen of Northward.
36:33Fingers lingering on the clasp will a half second longer than necessary, private, deliberate.
36:38Said more than any ceremony ever could.
36:40Then he kissed me.
36:41Not gentle.
36:42Not ceremonial.
36:43The kind of kiss that made a thousand wolves lose their minds.
36:46The hall detonated.
36:46Applause.
36:47Howling.
36:48Stamping feet.
36:49Sound bouncing off every glass panel and steel beam until the walls hummed.
36:53I looked out at the sea of wolves on their feet.
36:56Bowing.
36:57Roaring my name.
36:59Ellara is not just a survivor anymore.
37:02She is a legend.
37:04Far from the North, a winter storm was tearing across rural Montana.
37:08Grayson lay broken in bloody snow on the shoulder of a dead county road.
37:11The rogues had taken their time.
37:13Limbs wrecked, mangled by rusted blades and feral teeth.
37:15They'd left him barely breathing, letting the wind chill do the rest.
37:19Feral howls across the frozen fields.
37:21Celebration.
37:22Grayson coughed out black blood.
37:24Couldn't feel his legs.
37:25Couldn't feel his hands.
37:26The only thing left, the hollow screaming emptiness in his chest where our maitre bond used to live.
37:31Vision bled to black.
37:32His last thought was the one that would follow him into hell.
37:35He had thrown away his only true love for a murderer.
37:37The alpha who sacrificed his mate died nameless and frozen in the middle of nowhere.
37:41Six months later.
37:43North foreign compound.
37:45Buzzing.
37:46A leather chariot of the executive boardroom.
37:48White cashmere bethrow over my shoulders.
37:50Live feed of new recruits running drills on the training field outside.
37:54But I wasn't sitting alone.
37:56Fennec.
37:56Kneeling in front of me.
37:58Scarred hands resting on my rounded stomach.
38:00The entire organization is losing their minds.
38:03The lunar bloodline is strong.
38:05Inside me.
38:06Two tiny heartbeats drumming in tandem.
38:09Twins.
38:10A boy and a girl.
38:11Fennec stood.
38:12Pulled me up.
38:12Like we had all the time in the world now.
38:14His aura wrapped around me.
38:15Warm.
38:16I closed my eyes.
38:17I let myself feel it.
38:18All of it.
38:18The broken girl who'd rotted in a concrete box beneath Silvermoon was gone.
38:23She wasn't coming back.
38:24I am Alara.
38:25The lunar queen of the north.
38:26And my reign has only just begun.
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