Chapter 3 – The Contract
Saphira's POV
No one wanted me anymore. It's not my pack. Not Alpha Zade. Not even the word Luna, which had once felt like a crown waiting to rest on my head. That word had turned into a hollow echo the night Zade spat it at me, then turned his back like I was less than dirt.
I had begged myself to hate him, to hate the pack that had laughed as I was cast aside. Instead, all I felt was empty.
And now, the emptiness wasn't mine alone.
I pressed my palm against my stomach, as if the fragile life growing inside could hear me. My pup. My secret. My only reason for still standing when everything else had been ripped away.
The council would kill us both if they knew. Packs would use the child like a bargaining chip, and I'd be nothing but the vessel they chained until my body gave out.
And then… there was him.
Kieran Thorne. Alpha King. The one wolf powerful enough to crush me with a single command—and yet the only one who had offered me a choice, even if it was no choice at all.
A contract, he'd said. Be my Luna, in name and face, and you and the pup will live.
It wasn't love. It wasn't freedom. It was survival, painted in the colours of chains.
But what was pride compared to the sound of a heartbeat inside me? What was vengeance compared to milk, warmth, and safety?
I thought of Zade's face when he said I wasn't worth the title of Luna. I thought of the whispers, the laughter, the way my own pack had turned away.
No one wanted me anymore.
But Kieran did.
Not for me. Not for who I was. For the blood inside me, yes. For the heir, he could parade as his.
And yet… that meant my child would live.
I swallowed hard, feeling the burn of tears I wouldn't allow to fall. My voice came out raw, brittle, but steady.
"I accept your contract."
The silence after was deafening.
Kieran studied me like I was a puzzle with missing pieces. His eyes were gold in the dim light, sharp, assessing. For a second, I swore I saw something flicker there,regret? Sadness? No. It's probably just the reflection of a king weighing how much I was worth.
"You're certain?" His tone was clipped, as if he expected me to falter.
"What choice do I have?" My laugh was bitter, hollow. "My pack doesn't want me. Zade doesn't want me. I have a pup to protect. That's all that matters now."
His jaw flexed, and I couldn't tell if it was anger or approval. "Good. Then you'll be my Luna."
"Your fake Luna," I said quickly, my chin lifting, needing to claw back even a shred of control.
One corner of his mouth tilted, but it wasn't a smile,it was something far more dangerous. "Fake to you. Real enough to everyone else. They'll bow when you enter a room. They'll fear you. That protection is worth more than your pride."
His words hit hard because they were true. Still, I forced myself to meet his stare. "What do you want from me?"
His steps closed the space between us, deliberate, predatory. The air shifted, thick with his scent,smoke, pine, and steel. My chest ached as instinct screamed to step back, but my feet stayed rooted.
"I want you to keep the child safe," he said lowly. "You will stand at my side. You will wear my sigil. And you will not betray me."
"I don't betray people," I whispered. "They betray me."
That silence stretched, taut and dangerous. His expression flickered, something raw hidden behind the steel mask. Then it was gone, and only the king remained.
"You'll move into the palace at dawn," he ordered. "Your chambers will be guarded. No one touches you without my command."
"And if I refuse?" I tested, though my heart already knew I couldn't.
His gaze cut into me, molten and merciless. "Then your pup dies before it takes its first breath."
My stomach dropped, fury and fear tangling inside me. "You'd kill your own blood?"
"No," he growled, the word harsh and jagged. His eyes burned into mine. "That's why you're still breathing."
Something shifted in the air then, something that made my chest tighten. He wasn't just speaking of me,he was speaking of the life I carried. And for the first time since that night, I realized that this man might actually keep his word.
I clenched my fists. "Fine. But if I wear your sigil, if I play Luna, then you keep your promise. My pup's safety comes before everything else."
"Above everything," he said. His tone was final, unyielding.
The contract wasn't written in ink. It was sealed here, in the fire between our eyes.
For a moment, I almost felt steady. Almost believed I could survive this.
And then the sound tore through the night.
A howl.
Not just any howl,raw, violent, threaded with a fury I knew too well.
Zade.
My blood turned to ice as the palace walls seemed to vibrate with the sound.
Kieran's head snapped toward the window, his eyes flashing molten gold. His aura surged, thick and suffocating, filling the room with dominance.
"He's come for what he thinks is his," Kieran said, voice like stone.
I staggered back, my pulse thundering in my ears. Zade wasn't gone after all. He hadn't washed his hands of me like I thought. He was here, and he was angry.
The howl came again, closer this time. The guards outside shouted, boots pounding against stone.
Kieran's gaze cut back to me, sharp and dangerous. "Stay inside. Do not open that door for anyone."
Fear spiked through me, sharp as glass. My heart screamed in my chest, not just for me but for the fragile life under my ribs.
Because I knew Zade.
And he wasn't here to beg.
He was here to take me back.