Elara pov.
The weight of Alpha Roland's lie settled over Elara, cold and heavy, much like the silver pendant currently hidden beneath her nightgown.
His denial hadn't felt like casual cruelty; it had felt like a calculated barrier.
He wasn't trying to break her spirit Richard had done that already.
Roland was trying to stop her from knowing something.
She ran a thumb over the moon-and-wolf symbol on the pendant, retreating from the humiliating encounter with a sense of quiet determination.
She couldn't risk the library again, not with the Shadow Sentinels watching, but her mind was awake now, hungry for the truth.
She retrieved the massive regional history book, the one Inez had left near the fireplace.
Roland had crushed the idea of the Moonfall King, but he hadn't taken the book itself.
She flipped back to the etching of the shattered moon, staring at the faint, ancient script.
"They knew too much.
The true enemy is closer than the mountains."
The words, which Alpha Roland's father had scrawled, pulsed with a significance that transcended the history lesson.
She realized the book itself might be a map.
She didn't look for an index; she started searching for other mentions of 'Moon' or 'Fall' in the dense text.
Hours passed.
The fire dwindled to embers. Just as dawn was painting the high windows with pale silver, her finger traced a minor entry hidden in a section on territorial disputes: Moonfall Pack.
The description was terse. Known primarily for its unique architectural style and its command of elemental resources.
Its decline remains an unsolved historical ambiguity.
But the accompanying etching wasn't of a king.
It was a faint, stylized diagram that seemed to show the pack's territory overlaid with four small, geometric symbols: a wave, a flicker of flame, a swirling breeze, and a dense clump of earth.
Elara stared, her breath catching. She didn't understand the diagram, but as she pressed the silver pendant against the page, the metal seemed to warm.
Then, a sharp, surprising sensation jolted up her arm.
It wasn't pain, but a surge of pure, raw energy, the feeling of a tightly wound spring suddenly being released.
The pendant briefly flared with a blinding, soft light, and the four elemental symbols on the page seemed to deepen, burning into her memory.
Before she could react, the light vanished. The pendant was cool again, the book just an old tome.
Elara felt dizzy, her heart hammering. That was not a human reaction.
That was not the behavior of a worthless piece of scrap metal. She had just experienced the very power Roland denied her.
She had proof of his lie, and the realization was a terrifying, exhilarating kind of freedom.
Richard hadn't been successful. Her power was dormant, but it was not dead. And Roland, her terrifying new husband, was hiding the truth for reasons she couldn't yet fathom.
She tucked the book under the bed. She wouldn't risk defying him again, but she would defy his knowledge.
From now on, her obedience would be a weapon.
Alpha Roland pov.
The private chamber Roland used for secure communications was lined with noise-dampening stone, a necessity when dealing with matters of life and death.
He stood over a projected map of the Northwood territory, the deal with Richard forgotten, his focus only on the impending witch threat.
Cassian entered, his Beta's scent tight with controlled frustration.
"Alpha, Richard has done well to cover his tracks.
The Northwood Pack records show a mass 'migration' of all non-wolf staff three months ago. Standard procedure to hide evidence of abuse."
"Find the outlier," Roland commanded, his finger tracing a hidden access road on the map.
"Richard had one loyal maid, Seraphina. She was allowed to linger near the East Wing, giving Elara small comfort.
Richard would only have let her go if he thought she was truly harmless, or if he bribed her."
"She's been tracked to the neutral territory of the Silver Creek Town," Cassian reported, his expression grim.
"But it's a high-risk extraction. Richard has spies everywhere, and the Sun Coven uses that town as a transit hub."
Roland nodded, his eyes icy. "Gideon will handle the extraction. We can afford no mistakes.
We need to know what she saw and what secrets of Elara's parentage Richard was terrified enough to suppress with daily torture."
He then looked directly at Cassian, his voice softening just enough to convey the gravity of the internal order.
"I lied to my mate tonight.
I told her the Moonfall history was irrelevant.
The lie was necessary to keep her docile until we understood Coven's movements. She must believe her safety relies on following my command, not on discovering her destiny."
Cassian blinked, clearly startled by the admission of the mate bond. "Alpha, her recovery is remarkable.
I saw the marks. The pack physician says her body is fighting back faster than any human we've ever seen.
Her human constitution should not be this strong."
"It's not human," Roland stated, turning away.
His hand twitched, remembering the stubborn, warm skin beneath his thumb.
"It's the hybrid fighting to breathe.
We need Seraphina's account before Elara's wolf breaks free of the suppression and attracts every witch and hunter on the continent."
He then issued a new, difficult instruction. "Cassian, ensure Elara is given everything she needs: food, warmth, new clothing but maintain distance.
You are not to display any affection or respect toward her beyond the necessary formalities of a Luna.
Richard's spies could still be watching the manor's internal activities.
The political narrative must be that the Shadowlands Alpha views his bride as a necessary strategic partner, not a chosen mate."
Cassian bowed deeply. "Understood, Alpha.
The lie holds."
Roland stared at the map.
He was a ruthless strategist, the Devil of the Shadowlands, and he had just sealed his mate in a cage of fear and lies.
Every instinct screamed at him to go to her, to hold her, and to admit that the moment he touched her hand at the altar,
he had lost the fight to remain unattached.
He knew she was in danger.
He knew the Coven was closing in, and Richard was merely a puppet of a much darker conspiracy.
He looked at the access road to Silver Creek Town, where Gideon was headed.
Seraphina, tell me everything.
Before the Moonfall rises and burns us all.
Roland has set his plan in motion: Gideon is on his way to find Seraphina, who holds the key to Elara's past.
Meanwhile, Elara has felt her first surge of non-human power and knows Roland is lying to her.