Selene stood stiffly in the grand foyer of the Mooncrest Pack's estate, her palms damp with sweat, her heart pounding so hard she thought it might crack her ribs.
The silence of the place was almost unnatural. No footsteps, no voices — only the whisper of her own breath as it shivered past her lips.
The air was cold, laced with an ancient chill that seemed to seep from the very stones beneath her boots.
The walls were carved from gray stone, worn smooth by time, their cold surface exhaling centuries of secrets. High above, vaulted ceilings curved like the inside of a cathedral, casting every sound into eerie echo. Even her heartbeat felt too loud here, like an uninvited presence.
She didn't belong. Not here. Not in this place where power lived in the bones of the walls.
Her hands fisted at her sides to stop their trembling.
The massive oak doors at the far end creaked open, and in he came.
Alpha Kael.
The sound of his boots striking the stone floor was sharp and deliberate, like thunder trapped in the echo of a war drum. Selene felt the weight of him before she even saw his face. Like gravity had thickened around him. Like the air had gone still out of respect — or fear.
She had heard whispers, even in the quiet village she came from. Whispers of him — ruthless, distant, powerful beyond measure.
Stories passed down like warnings, always with a breath held between syllables. He was the wolf they said had ice in his veins and fire behind his eyes.
But nothing — not the rumors, not the ceremony, not even the way her mother had silently wept when she was chosen — could have prepared her for the sheer force of his presence.
He was tall, towering even, with shoulders carved from years of war and duty. His black hair was tousled, windswept as if he had stepped out of a storm — or had brought it with him. His frame was lean and broad, every movement controlled, efficient, coiled like a predator just before the kill.
And his eyes —
His eyes were silver like winter moons, unblinking and emotionless, carved from ice and shaped by storms. They swept across the room with terrifying precision, cutting through everything they touched.
When they landed on her, they didn't pause.
They pierced through her as though she were invisible.
Worthless.
He didn't stop when he saw her. He didn't smile.
He barely even acknowledged her.
She could have been a ghost standing there. A statue. An unwanted stain.
She'd imagined this moment once — not with joy, but with numb acceptance. Even that had been kinder than the reality.
Beta Marcus cleared his throat and stepped forward, breaking the brittle silence that had wrapped itself around her throat like a noose
"Alpha," he said, voice formal. "Your bride."
Selene's legs were stiff. It took everything in her not to falter beneath their gaze — Kael's indifference and Marcus's tension. Her knees wobbled, but she forced herself into a curtsy, the gesture awkward and mechanical, like her body was no longer hers.
Kael's lip curled — not into a smile, but into something closer to disgust. His gaze traveled over her, slow and measured, and in that moment, Selene felt peeled open. Not in curiosity, but judgment. As if she were being appraised not for her value, but for the lack of it.
"This?" Kael said finally, his voice low and biting.
It wasn't a question.
It was a condemnation.
He spoke as if she weren't standing there, flesh and blood, heart and soul.
"This is what you bring me?"
The words rang in her ears long after they were spoken.
Marcus stiffened. Selene saw the flicker of discomfort pass across his face — a moment of something like pity or regret — but it vanished quickly, tucked back behind years of protocol.
"She is of pure bloodline, Alpha. Daugh—"
"I know who she is," Kael cut in sharply, his voice like a whip crack.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Selene's cheeks burned, the flush of humiliation creeping down her neck. The shame sat like fire in her gut, crawling up her throat. She fought the urge to speak, to defend herself, to scream that she was more than this, more than a transaction.
But she knew better.
Words would only deepen her shame.
She kept her gaze low, biting the inside of her cheek to keep the tears at bay.
Kael turned his back on her.
The movement was quiet, simple — and final.
The ultimate dismissal.
"Do what you must," he said coldly. "Get it over with."
Selene's breath caught in her throat.
She had been traded like cattle and discarded just as swiftly.
Her eyes blurred as the edges of the world seemed to harden. Her stomach twisted.
Everything inside her screamed to run, but her feet were stone.
She stood frozen, her mind roaring with a thousand questions she would never dare to ask.
Was this to be her life?
A silent existence, tolerated at best, despised at worst?
A breeding bond? A living contract?
The weight of it pressed against her lungs until breathing felt like a luxury she hadn't earned.
The silence between them wasn't empty — it was full of all the things she wasn't allowed to say.
Marcus laid a hand on her shoulder.
It was meant to be a gesture of reassurance, perhaps — but it felt more like a silent command. A signal that her time for standing still had ended, and now she must walk into the life that had already been decided for her.
She stumbled forward on trembling legs.
Her boots echoed on the stone, loud in the space Kael had left behind. A space she was expected to fill, quietly, obediently, without question.
Behind her, the heavy doors began to swing shut.
The sound they made was slow and resonant — a low groaning crash of wood against stone. And yet to her ears, it sounded like the slamming of a tomb.
The world she had known was gone.
And in its place stood only cold walls, colder eyes, and a future that had already turned to ash.