"Why had Alpha fainted?" Rosaline asked the doctor in front of her. She shifted slightly, her heartbeat quickening as anxiety tightened around her chest.
He was the physician reserved for the heads of the pack, and with his extensive knowledge, he was the most experienced elder among them, his presence alone demanding respect and carrying an unspoken weight.
"It was as if the Alpha had fought a gruesome battle that drained every ounce of his energy. There is more at play here than we can see," Elder Myrath replied, his voice calm but tinged with unease.
He glanced down at Lucian, who lay on the bed, shoulders slumped and chest rising and falling unevenly. Even he seemed confused, unable to comprehend what could have left the Alpha so utterly drained, his normally commanding presence reduced to fragile vulnerability.
Rosaline stared at Lucian, a flicker of realization sparking in her mind...the mark on Elara's neck. Her fingers twitched at her sides, her nails grazing the fabric of her sleeves as her thoughts raced.
Elara had said he had collapsed suddenly. Could it have been because he marked her? The possibility nearly brought a smirk to Rosaline's face, the cruel idea teasing the edges of her lips, though she quickly suppressed it.
Her jaw tightened, and her eyes narrowed slightly, the torchlight catching in them as she turned toward Elder Myrath, forcing her expression into one of concern.
"Elder, I told you about that wolfless girl who was with Lucian when I found him… I saw a mark on her neck. Could it be that cursed wolfless did something to make Lucian mark her, and that caused him to faint?" Rosaline asked, her voice trembling, each word carrying the fragile veneer of a mate whose sacred bond had been violated.
She clasped her hands in front of her, trying to steady herself while her gaze darted subtly toward the unconscious Alpha.
But instead of directing his anger at Elara, Elder Myrath's eyes widened, the pupils dilating as he tried to process the impossibility of her claim.
"You're telling me that Alpha marked that girl?" he asked, his tone sharp but incredulous, as if trying to confirm a truth he could scarcely believe. His hands twitched slightly at his sides, betraying a flicker of agitation beneath his controlled demeanor.
It was not widely known that if your mate attempted to mark another without rejecting you, it would cause the most excruciating pain imaginable, because it had never happened.
The thought alone was enough to make one shudder, the invisible threads of the bond burning into the soul of the victim.
Rosaline's ignorance was understandable, she did not know that by speaking, she risked revealing she was not the Alpha's true Luna, since she stood unscathed, her breath steady, and clearly not in pain.
Elder Myrath's gaze sharpened, his eyes narrowing and the lines on his face deepening with concern and suspicion. Something close to fear flickered in his expression, the faint quiver of his lips betraying the gravity of the realization.
This meant she had been pretending to be the Alpha's mate, a revelation that sent a ripple of tension through the room, thickening the air and making each breath feel heavier as the weight of the truth settled silently around them.
Still not believing that to be the possibility, he once again asked Rosaline, his brow furrowed, voice tight with disbelief, "If the Alpha marked that girl, did you not feel anything at that time?" His piercing gaze locked onto her, searching for even the faintest hint of truth, making Rosaline look at him with tear-filled eyes, her chest tightening as if the weight of the world rested there.
"How would I feel anything at that time, Elder Myrath? How could I have known that while I was tending to the royal delegates, that cursed girl had done something to my mate for him to mark her, leading him to faint like this?" she said, her words quivering slightly while tears now spilled freely down her cheeks, the salt stinging her skin as if to punctuate her performance.
She expected the usual reaction of pity, of sympathy, but this time, when she looked at the elder, he was staring at her with something she had never seen before, something close to fear, a shiver running down his spine.
"You… you are not our Alpha's mate!" Elder Myrath said, his voice faltering, disbelief thick in every syllable. He could not grasp the fact that he was witnessing something so audacious, so forbidden...a shewolf brazenly pretending to be someone else's mate. The air around them seemed to grow heavier, charged with the raw energy of her deception.
…Where was her own mate then?
Rosaline's eyes flashed a sudden, chilling light, the silver in them glinting under the torches, as she moved in a fluid, predatory motion. In an instant, her claws were out, wrapping around Elder Myrath's neck with a force that made his knees buckle, cutting off his breath in a sharp, violent gasp.
Looking at his pathetic, choking form, she smirked, the curve of her lips proud and cruel. Despite being only a Gama's daughter, she was the most powerful shewolf in the pack, because her mother was blessed by the Moongoddess herself. The power thrumming in her veins now surged outward, tangible, making the elder's struggle look pitiful and weak.
She smiled in contentment, eyes glinting as she watched him gasp for air, so powerless beneath her. Who else could be worthy of being the Luna, she thought, if not her?
.....Certainly not that wolfless mutt.
Her smirk widened as she pushed Elder Myrath to the ground with a deliberate shove, the impact sending a dull thud across the floorboards.
She would not kill him,he was needed. He would ensure that Lucian rejected that mutt and chose her, Rosaline, as the Luna she rightfully deserved to be.
Elder Myrath wheezed, clawing at the floor for purchase, trying to draw in ragged, desperate breaths. The sight of him, so small and struggling beneath her, only made her smirk deepen.
Slowly, she leaned closer, black eyes gleaming with the power of her wolf, the air around her thick with the scent of dominance and predatory threat.
Elder Myrath swallowed hard, his throat dry, every instinct screaming that he was in the presence of true power.
"Elder Myrath, I respect you!" she said, her voice silky but edged with danger. She let a pause hang between them, savoring the fear radiating off him.
Then she continued with a smirk that chilled the air around them, "And if you want to not change this respect into your murder, you'll have to do and say exactly what I want."
Just then, a rustling sound came from Lucian's bed.
He had woken up?