"No, it is not true! I did not do anything to Luc... Alpha, I am his true mate!" Elara screamed the moment she gathered herself after the crushing blow of Rosaline's words.
"I was only doing my duties when I felt it. Ask the Alpha, he is the one who came to me himself! How could I have possibly drugged him?!" Her desperate voice rang across the hall as her eyes locked on Lucian's face, searching, pleading, waiting for him to defend her, to tell them all she spoke the truth.
But silence greeted her.
Rosaline's gaze hardened, venom dripping from her narrowed eyes. She gave a sharp nod to the guard at Elara's side. He shoved her down with brutal force, making her knees slam against the cold stone floor. He wrenched her arms behind her back, locking her in place, leaving her with no chance to move or fight back.
"How dare a wolfless mutt like you raise your voice before the Alpha?!" Rosaline's voice thundered through the hall, each word vibrating with power. The sound carried like a whip's lash, making the gathered wolves flinch and recoil.
Malice deepened in their stares as they turned on Elara, seeing her now not as one of them, but as an enemy.
"Do you truly think we would believe your baseless lies?!" Rosaline sneered, her lips curling with mockery. "You tried to steal what was never yours...my mate! If it were not for the courtesy I must uphold as Luna, your blood would already stain this hall and your corpse would lie beneath my claws."
Her words were like icy blades, sharp and merciless. A collective shudder passed through the pack. Everyone knew the tales, Rosaline's mother, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself, had been promised that her daughter would rise as the most powerful she-wolf of her generation. To fall into Rosaline's wrath was to welcome death.
Elara shook her head frantically, her breath uneven as pain and humiliation burned through her. "No! It is not true! I am not pretending...I am his mate! And I did not give him any drugs. He—"
Her voice broke into a cry when the guard behind her yanked her head back by the hair, forcing her into silence. Pain shot through her scalp as she hissed, teeth clenched against the sting.
"You dare deny it still?" Rosaline's tone dripped with triumph, her smirk cruel. "You say you didn't give him drugs? Very well, let us hear what Elder Myrath has to say."
At her words, a stir ran through the hall. From among the ranks of the pack, Elder Myrath stepped forward. His gait was slow but steady, his presence commanding immediate silence. Elara's heart raced, dread knotting in her chest as his sharp eyes swept over her.
"When I examined the Alpha in his unconscious state," Elder Myrath began, his voice deep and heavy with authority, "I found his body weakened, his strength drained. It was clear his fainting did not come naturally. His body was locked in battle against something… sinister. A foreign substance coursed within him, forcing him to the edge of collapse, until exhaustion finally claimed him."
Gasps rippled through the hall. Elara's eyes widened, her lips parting as if to protest, but words stuck in her throat.
Then, with deliberate calm, Elder Myrath reached into the folds of his robe and drew out a small leather pouch. The faint clinking of glass came from within as he held it up for all to see.
"I discovered traces of this," he said gravely.
"This is Moonshade," Elder Myrath declared, his deep voice echoing through the silent hall. "I found traces of it in the Alpha's blood. That means the Alpha was drugged, his senses clouded, his judgment twisted. It made him believe Elara was his mate… when in truth, she is not."
The words struck like a blade. The elder's testimony left no room for doubt, Myrath was revered throughout the pack, a man of wisdom and unshakable honesty.
His judgment was as good as law. And now, with his declaration, the hall shifted like a tide. The whispers grew sharper, eyes turned colder.
In an instant, the story was sealed. Elara was guilty.
She felt it in the way the air thickened, in the accusatory gazes that bore into her like thorns. They had already convicted her. The fragile string of hope she'd been clinging to frayed with every breath.
Her gaze slid, almost against her will, to Lucian.
Rosaline trying to paint her as a schemer was no surprise, that viper had always sought her downfall. But Lucian… Lucian's silence was the knife she hadn't braced for.
If you keep quiet against wrong, you are siding with it.
And Lucian, the man she had dared to think was her fated one, said nothing. Not a single word in her defense. He simply stood there, his strong frame rigid, his expression carved from ice, his eyes regarding her the way everyone else's did...cold, accusing, as though she truly were a criminal.
Elara's lips curled into a faint, bitter chuckle. How foolish she had been. Just hours ago, she had dared to believe she had finally found her mate. Someone who would stand beside her. Someone she could call her own, who would protect her when the world turned cruel.
But all of that, every tender hope, every fragile dream had been nothing more than a cruel illusion.
Her laughter died in her throat. Her body felt heavier, her heart hollow. She lowered her gaze, realizing her only bargaining chip had always been Lucian. And now even that had crumbled.
There was nothing left to shield her.
Nothing left but death.
And strangely, she didn't fear it. The thought of it almost felt… freeing. To finally stop enduring, to finally close her eyes and be done with this endless torment, it was a mercy she hadn't dared ask for.
"Alpha," Rosaline's silken, venomous voice cut through the silence, dripping with triumph. "I suggest we cut her head and display it before the entire pack. Let everyone see what becomes of those who dare to play at being the Alpha's mate."
She sank back into her seat with a smile of self-satisfaction, her gaze locking on Elara with gleaming malice.
Rosaline had not expected it to be this easy. Yet here she was...Lucian's so-called mate, eliminated without her having to lift a finger.
And all it had taken was a single poisoned lie.