Chapter 3

Silas and Jaxon cried out at the same instant.

Both of them dropped to their knees, doubled over.

They locked eyes, and their expressions turned to ice.

"Elara's in danger."

"If we waste any more time, we lose everyone."

Silas's face went dark.

By then, my mouth was sealed with tape.

I couldn't make a sound.

The blade was still in their hands.

No matter how fast my brothers moved, they couldn't outrun steel.

I lowered my head and looked away.

And I didn't want my family hurt because of me.

By the time they shoved me into the abandoned silver mine, the sky had gone completely black.

I didn't know how long had passed before Seraphina arrived.

She stood in the doorway, arms crossed, staring down at me.

"Elara."

"You really are something."

"One day back, and you've already got the entire Silver Moon Pack losing their minds over you."

She laughed, low and cold.

"Over a hundred pack members are out searching for you right now."

"Side branches, elders — everyone's been called in."

She gritted her teeth.

"Even Elder Vance, who never leaves his territory, came rushing back."

I knew the Pack House must be in complete chaos.

I struggled against my restraints, muffled sounds forcing their way past the tape.

I wanted to tell her about the Blood-Tie.

She didn't care.

She thought I was just thrashing.

She drove her boot into my stomach.

The pain exploded outward, white and blinding.

I curled on the ground.

Tears fell before I could stop them.

It was exactly like being small again — back in the human orphanage where the other children would corner me.

Seraphina crouched down.

Ripped the tape from my mouth.

Gripped my jaw.

"Talk."

"What exactly makes you so different?"

"Your face?"

"Or your bloodline?"

I forced the words out.

They came in broken pieces.

"It's not… that…"

"It's the… Blood-Tie…"

"When I'm hurt…"

"They're hurt too…"

The girls paused for a moment.

Then erupted in laughter.

Seraphina looked at me like I'd just told the worst joke she'd ever heard.

"A blood covenant?"

"What is this, a low-budget werewolf drama?"

I bit down hard.

A deeper pain was gathering low in my body — my cycle, from the cold and the stress.

I pushed everything I had left into a single sentence, barely above a whisper.

"If I die —"

"Every soul in the Silver Moon Pack dies with me."

A beat of silence.

Then Seraphina laughed — and kept laughing, louder and louder.

"If that's true, then perfect."

She leaned down, her eyes vicious.

"If they all die, I'm the only one left."

"Then everything the Silver Moon Pack owns — it's all mine."

She paused, letting the smile settle.

"But it's not true. So it doesn't matter."

Across the territory, inside the Silver Moon Pack House —

The great hall was full of bodies on the floor.

Every blood relative of the Pack, writhing, clutching their stomachs, unable to stand.

Elder Vance, old and already frail, passed out cold from the pain.

Luna Helen's face had gone the color of ash.

"Find her. Now."

"Whoever took Elara wants her dead."

"Every minute we wait, we lose more of our own."

The hall was crowded — Alphas, high-ranking warriors, Elder Council members.

Everyone across every rank of the Pack.

And every single one of them had one purpose.

Find Elara.

That night, every enforcers' signal lit up across the Silver Moon territory.

Pack communication channels screamed with emergency alerts from one end to the other.

Outside the mine, distant howls of patrol wolves carried toward us.

Seraphina heard them. The hatred in her eyes sharpened.

"I was always the Alpha's daughter."

"Eighteen years I stood by this family."

"You come back for one day and everything changes?"

Her eyes had gone red.

Tears slid down her face.

"I only meant to teach you a lesson. But now —"

Her voice dropped below freezing.

"I've changed my mind."

One of the girls came running back in from outside.

Seraphina waved her over.

The girl nodded and immediately looped a rope over an iron hook bolted to the ceiling.

Beneath it, the floor had been soaked with alcohol-drenched wolfsbane cloth.

Seraphina smiled, dismissed the others, and lit a candle.

The flame caught the rope and began to eat slowly downward.

She pressed the tape back over my mouth, then stepped to the doorway.

"By the time I walk back into the Pack House, this place will be going up."

She smiled lightly.

"And when it does, the Silver Moon Pack will only have one daughter left."

"They'll have no choice but to love me."

Right then, her phone rang.

She glanced at the screen and answered.

Silas's voice came through.

"Seraphina. Enforcers tracked Elara's phone signal."