[Elara's POV]
I felt the bond between us let out a final, agonizing cry.
Then, silence.
He had hung up.
In the moment I needed him most, the one last chance I had given him, Kaelen had severed our final link.
In that instant, my heart didn't just break. It turned to stone and plunged into a frozen abyss.
Good.
This was good.
"Ha! My brother has Sister Seraphina now. Why would he care about you?" Giselle's jeering voice was a poisoned dart in my ear. "Even if he found out, he wouldn't lift a finger!"
Slowly, I lifted my head.
The Wolfsbane mist was a heavy cloak on my limbs, but the Moon Goddess's bloodline—that ancient, pure power—was already warring against the toxin in my veins.
I looked at the faces of Giselle and Adelina, twisted and ugly with triumph.
"We were family for three years," my voice was a low rasp, a side effect of the drug. "If you stop this now, I will forget it ever happened."
"Forget it?" Giselle shrieked with laughter. "Even if I agreed, I don't think these two gentlemen would. I made sure to pick out two strong, healthy ones for you, out of 'familial' concern."
She shot a meaningful look at the two hulking Rogues.
Their faces split into grotesque, lustful smiles as they advanced on me.
I lowered my gaze.
He had hung up on my last hope.
So be it.
He would learn what it felt like to have all hope extinguished.
My right hand, hidden by the full, starlit skirt of my gown, was still clutching my communication crystal. My fingers moved deftly across the crystal's smooth surface, my thumb finding the command runes by touch alone—a basic skill from my Silvermoon elite training.
A silent, encrypted audio signal was sent.
The recipient: Liana.
In the corner of the room, a tiny camera, disguised as one of the Moon-crystals on my gown, was streaming everything live to her device. I had prepared it after receiving Adelina's letter, my instincts screaming that something was wrong. The moment I stepped into the room and smelled the Wolfsbane, I had held my breath and discreetly placed it.
I had expected blackmail or humiliation.
I never imagined they would stoop to something this depraved.
"Go on, rip her dress off!" Giselle cried, raising her own crystal to record the "beautiful" moment. "I want her ruined, utterly disgraced, so she can never get back up!"
"Tear it to shreds! Leave her with nothing to even cover her shame!" Adelina added, her voice dripping with venom.
The two Rogues closed in, their hands reaching for me with leering grins.
Now.
My fingers typed out one final command to Liana.
—Make it public.
My inner wolf let out a low, guttural snarl.
A faint thread of my bloodline's power unspooled from my mind, reaching for the ancient, magical core of the castle itself. It found what it was looking for: a resonance with the grand enchanted mirror hanging in the ballroom.
In the Starlight Castle's ballroom, the air was thick with perfume and the clinking of glasses. Kaelen was nursing a drink, scanning the crowd for an opportunity to approach the Lycan King, Malachi. He needed an investor for his failing defense project, and Malachi was the biggest prize.
He saw the tall, elegant figure of the King, surrounded by a flock of nobles, his deep violet eyes a silent, dead sea, utterly bored by the world around him.
Suddenly, the grand enchanted mirror at the front of the hall flickered.
The shimmering "Moon Goddess Gala" sigil vanished, replaced by a live feed from room 1205.
On the screen, Elara was slumped against a bed, pale and looking dangerously weak. Two hulking Rogues were closing in on her, their intentions brutally clear.
And his mother, Adelina, and his beloved sister, Giselle, were standing over her, their faces masks of pure malice.
For a moment, Kaelen's mind went completely blank.
Beside him, Seraphina's face drained of all color.
What was happening? She knew the Blackwood women were going to deal with Elara, but why was it being broadcast on the main screen? Who did this?
Just as Seraphina's mind was racing, Adelina's vicious voice echoed through the ballroom.
"Tear it to shreds! Leave her with nothing to even cover her shame!"
"Oh, and I need to get some good shots!" Giselle's voice followed, oozing with a sickening excitement. "When this is over, everyone will just think she invited these two males to her room for a good time!"
"That way, my brother will finally have a good reason to divorce you and be with Sister Seraphina where he belongs!"
Boom.
The ballroom erupted.
Every noble from every Pack, the entire upper crust of wolf society, was now a witness to the Blackwood family's filthy secret.
The whispers started as a murmur, then grew into a tidal wave.
"Goddess, isn't that the former Luna Blackwood and her daughter?"
"They're using tactics like this against Kaelen's own mate?"
"That's beyond vicious! Wait—Kaelen has a mate?"
"Then what does that make Lady Seraphina? An interloper?"
"I heard Kaelen came from nothing, that he only rose to power with his mate's family's backing. And now he's trying to cast her aside?"
The whispers were like a thousand red-hot needles, stabbing into Kaelen's and Seraphina's ears.
Their faces went a ghastly shade of white, tinged with a nauseous green.
"This has to be some kind of sick prank!" Seraphina shrieked, her voice thin and reedy. "Guards! Someone shut that damned thing off!"
"Your entire family is a disgrace!" Liana, a furious lioness, stormed up to Kaelen and grabbed him by the collar of his tunic. Her eyes were bloodshot with rage. "Which room did they take her to? If they so much as touch a hair on her head, I will make them all pay with their lives!"
"I… I don't know!" Kaelen's mind was still reeling. He stared at the screen, at the sweet, innocent sister he adored, as she laughed and spoke those venomous words. It couldn't be. Giselle would never do something like this.
"Find out! Find out which room it is!" Liana saw the pathetic confusion on his face and roared at the nearby castle guard.
"Yes, ma'am!" The captain immediately got on his crystal, contacting headquarters.
Kaelen was still trying to deny it. "This… this must be a misunderstanding…"
"Misunderstanding my ass!" Liana snarled, her voice cracking with fury. "Elara must have been cursed by the Fates themselves to end up as your mate!"
Kaelen's face burned. He couldn't form a single word in his defense. He frantically tried to open a mind-link to his mother and sister, but the connection wouldn't go through.
On the screen, the two Rogues had seized Elara's arms. One of them reached for the strap of her gown.
Kaelen's heart felt like it was being squeezed in an invisible fist, choking the air from his lungs. He was paralyzed, helpless.
In the room, Elara lifted her head, her gaze meeting the leering faces of the two men.
The last trace of warmth in her ice-blue eyes vanished.
Just as everyone in the ballroom—some of whom had already looked away in pity—thought she was about to be violated, the scene exploded.
The Rogue grabbing her arm let out a bloodcurdling scream and was sent flying backward as if struck by a lightning bolt, crashing into the wall with a sickening thud.
Most people didn't even see how she'd moved.
The sight left not only the ballroom in stunned silence but also the Blackwood women in the room, their jaws hanging open.
"W-what are you waiting for? Pin her down!" Giselle shrieked. "She's been drugged with Wolfsbane! She has no strength!"
The other Rogue, snapping out of his shock, roared and lunged at Elara.
A sickening crunch of bone followed a brutal thud as the second Rogue met the same fate.
Elara's movements were a blur of deadly efficiency. There were no flashy techniques, only pure, lethal combat. Her elbows, her knees, her legs—they were all weapons.
The beautiful starlight gown, instead of hindering her, became a part of the deadly dance. Every dodge, every kick, sent the skirt swirling in a graceful, devastating arc.
This wasn't a fight; it was a performance. A breathtaking, brutal ballet.
In moments, the two powerful Rogues were writhing on the floor, broken and moaning, their will to fight completely shattered.
And the woman in the deep blue gown stood over them, her silver hair a wild storm around her face.
In that moment, she was a sword, finally unsheathed.
Her ice-blue eyes, no longer soft, held a sharp, piercing light that was both terrifying and breathtaking.
In what should have been her most vulnerable moment, she had revealed a brilliant, terrifying light.