The council chamber reeked of smoke and impatience. Fire snapped in the hearth, throwing shadows across the faces of elders who had ruled longer than I had drawn breath. Their eyes cut like blades, their tongues sharper still.
"Atlas cannot stand leaderless in spirit," Elder Merek said, knuckles pressed into the table. "You are Alpha, yes, but without a Luna, your throne looks bare."
Another elder added, "The packs around us whisper already. They see youth. Weakness. A wolf without a Luna is a house with no walls."
The words slid like ice into my blood. They were not wrong. But walls built from politics alone crumbled faster than stone under rain.
Rizzle my wolf stirred inside me, his voice deep and iron-edged. "They would chain you with a wife if you do not choose. A Luna of their making, not yours. We need no walls but fangs."
I kept my face calm, though his fury vibrated through me. "The strength of Atlas lies in unity, not in appearances," I told them. "I will take a Luna when the time demands it, not before."
Merek leaned closer, his stare like a hook. "The time is already past due, Alpha. Do not mistake patience for loyalty."
Their murmurs rose, hissing like snakes. Bunch of old men that will not let me rest, I let them coil. Let them believe they pressed me to a breaking point. But inside, Rizzle and I stood on a sharper line. Without a Luna, every move I made would be weighed and doubted. With one… perhaps I could buy silence long enough to secure Atlas.
When the meeting broke, the elders scattered with whispers trailing in their wake. I left the chamber heavy with their shadows. Rizzle prowled close to the surface. "They'll tear you apart if you don't give them something. A Luna. A bond. They won't wait."
"I know," I muttered. And as if summoned by fate itself, my steps carried me to the dungeon. This one tiny rogue wolf that refused to be bent, I can hear the irritation in Wood's voice. He's tired of her already and I had to do something about it.
The torches along the stairwell hissed when I came down. Guards straightened, bowing their heads as I passed. Their fear licked the air, mingling with the stench of rust and damp straw, as if, if given the opportunity they will not kill me, I don't trust their show like they care.
She stirred when my boots stopped outside her cell. Her eyelids fluttered before snapping open, confusion flashing before she sat upright, startled.
I let the silence hang before speaking. "Do you know my name?"
Her violet eyes, sharp even through exhaustion, narrowed. "replied…No."
"My name is Alpha Lucas," I said evenly, my voice carrying through the stone walls.
Her lips pressed tight. I tilted my head, watching her closely. "And yours?"
She said nothing. The quiet was powerful, but beneath it I could see the fear coiling in her trembling hands.
"Answer me," I ordered, my voice dropping lower, heavier.
Still, she held her tongue.
The crack of my command broke the air. "SPEAK!"
Her body jolted, the sound tearing through her walls, and before she could stop herself she screamed, "Ella!"
The name echoed, clattering against the bars, loud enough for every guard in the corridor to hear.
I stepped closer to her. The air shifted, her scent filling it with iron and wild herbs, sharp against stone.
"You're alive when you shouldn't be," I said evenly. "Most rogues die at the border. Yet you ran, fought, and bled into Atlas land. That doesn't happen without reason."
Her lips parted, breath trembling.
"What are you, Ella?" I pressed.
Her fists clenched. Then the words burst from her like wildfire. "I'M NOT A ROGUE! I'M A HEALER. I HAVE NO PACK. I was searching for herbs in the forest when rogues attacked me. I fought them, I killed to live, and then fell into your territory. Your guards dragged me here like I was one, I am sorry!"
The echo of her voice reflected through the dungeon. The guards behind me shifted uneasily.
Rizzle snarled low inside me. "She could be lying. She could be bait."
"She's something," I muttered. My eyes locked on hers. She trembled, but the truth in her tone carried weight even lies could not mimic.
"A healer with no pack," I said slowly. Hmm then the thought came, she's not from Atlas. I could fake a mate with her "That explains survival,...but not why you crossed my border. It doesn't explain why my instincts say killing you would be a waste."
Her confusion flickered, breaking her fire for a moment.
I leaned closer, voice dropping to steel. "Do you know what happens to rogues caught in Atlas lands? At dawn, the council demands your head. They'll say I am weak for sparing you. They'll call me reckless. And they'll not be wrong."
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
"You shouldn't be here alive unless something important is meant to be done," I said. "So I'll give you one chance to live."
Her eyes widened.
"You will stand beside me as Luna."
The word cut sharply through the silence. Her lips opened without any sound, disbelief flooding her face.
"You can't mean.."
"Oh, I do," I cut in, voice sharp. "Not as my true mate. Not as what Fate has yet to write. But as my Luna in the eyes of the elders, the council, the pack. They demand I bind myself. They demand I show unity. You will be that illusion." You've been acting a scene here since you came in…this is no different
Rizzle growled in my skull. "We lie to them. We claim her as a mate, though she is not. They will bow because they must. It keeps us alive."
Her protest trembled on her lips, but I pressed on.
"In return, you live. You will have protection, medicine, and shelter within Atlas. Resources to rebuild what rogues took from you. But you will wear the title. You will move beside me. And the pack will believe the bond."
Her breath hitched. "You're asking me to live a lie."
"I'm telling you it's the only way you survive," I said, voice cutting clean. "Without it, dawn will end you."
The dungeon walls seemed to close tighter around us, chains rattling faintly in the silence.
She stared at me, her violet eyes burning, pleading, fighting. For a heartbeat, I thought she might spit in my face and choose death instead. But something flickered fear, calculation, and beneath it… reluctant hope.
Still, her silence stretched too long. Rizzle snapped inside me. "She hides more than she says. She is not only a healer. She carries something deeper."
I rose, towering over her. "You will decide before dawn. Say yes, and you become Atlas's Luna. Say no…" My voice dropped to a whisper, colder than stone. "…and the council will take what's left of you."
The torches sputtered, shadows crawling across her face. For a heartbeat, she looked less like prey and more like prophecy waiting to break.
Her lips opened, but no sound came. The cell itself held its breath.
And in that breath, I knew whatever answer she gave, wisdom should be in play.