Chapter 3

Alpha Kael.

Even I knew that name.

He was the most powerful Alpha on the continent — ruler of the Nightcrest Pack, commander of ten thousand wolves, and a man so feared that other Alphas avoided eye contact with him at summits.

Rumors said he'd killed a rogue army of three hundred with his bare hands. Other rumors said he'd never taken a Luna because no woman met his standards.

And he was standing in Liam's wedding hall, saying he wanted me.

"You can't be serious." Liam's voice cracked with disbelief. "Alpha Kael, this woman is barren—"

"Did I ask for your medical assessment?" Kael descended the balcony stairs with a calm that made every wolf in the room instinctively lower their heads. His aura was suffocating — ancient, dominant, absolute.

He stopped in front of me.

Up close, he was even more terrifying. His jaw was sharp enough to cut glass. A thin scar ran along his neck — the only evidence that anything had ever touched him.

"What's your name?" he asked, his deep voice low enough that only I could hear.

"Margot," I whispered.

"Margot." He said it like he was tasting the word. "Do you want to stay here?"

I looked at Liam, who was holding Vivienne protectively. I looked at Colette, whose smug smile had frozen on her face. I looked at the altar that should have been mine.

"No," I said.

"Then come with me."

He extended his hand. His palm was rough with battle scars, his fingers long and powerful.

I didn't know this man. I didn't know his motives. But I knew one thing — staying here meant accepting the role of a discarded woman for the rest of my life.

I took his hand.

His fingers closed around mine — warm, firm, certain.

Gasps echoed through the hall. Liam took a step forward. "You can't just take her! She belongs to my pack—"

"She rejected your rejection," Kael said without turning around. "She belongs to no one. Unless she chooses otherwise."

He began walking toward the exit, my hand still in his. His two wolves fell into step behind us.

"Margot!" Liam shouted. "If you walk out that door, don't ever come back!"

I didn't stop.

Vivienne's voice chased after me, high-pitched and desperate: "You'll regret this! He's using you! No one actually wants a woman who can't bear children—"

I flinched. The words hit exactly where they were designed to.

Kael felt me tense. Without breaking stride, he said — loud enough for the entire hall to hear:

"The woman walking beside me fought off a rogue incursion on your eastern border single-handedly last winter. She reorganized your pack's failing treasury. She trained your top ten warriors."

He paused at the doorway and turned his head just slightly — not to look at Liam, but at the crowd.

"And you replaced her with a woman whose greatest achievement is getting pregnant."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Kael led me out into the night air. A black carriage with the Nightcrest crest waited at the bottom of the steps, drawn by two massive shadow wolves.

He opened the door for me. "Get in."

I looked up at him. "Why are you doing this?"

His dark eyes met mine. For a moment, something flickered there — something deep and unreadable.

"Get in, Margot. I'll explain everything."

I climbed into the carriage.

He sat across from me, the door closed, and the carriage began to move.

Through the window, I saw Liam standing at the entrance of the hall, watching me leave.

For the first time since I'd walked into that bridal suite, I didn't feel pain.

I felt nothing at all.

And that terrified me more than anything.

Kael studied my face in the darkness of the carriage. Then he said, quietly:

"Your father saved my life once. I never got the chance to repay him before he died."

My heart stopped.

"But that's not the only reason I'm here." He leaned forward, shadows cutting across his face. "Margot — you're not infertile. Your diagnosis was faked."