Alpha Kael

Elara POV

The silver chain bit into the back of my neck before snapping with a sharp *crack*.

I gasped, stumbling back against the wall of the Foster Pack House corridor. Alyssa stood over me, her manicured fingers tightly clutching the Moon-Kissed Charm she had just ripped from my throat.

"A divine token blessed by the Royal Seer is wasted on a wolfless Omega," my half-sister sneered, her eyes gleaming with a manic, triumphant light. "You don't deserve the Alpha King's attention, Elara. I do."

I cowered, wrapping my arms around my frail body, playing the part of the terrified, bullied Omega she expected me to be. But beneath my trembling exterior, my reborn soul was laughing. Alyssa thought she had just stolen my glorious destiny. She had no idea she had just stolen a death sentence. In our past life, that charm made me the Alpha King's Luna—a disposable political shield meant to take the bullets for his true human mate, Ivy Kent.

*Take it,* I thought, watching her strut away. *Walk right into the King's slaughterhouse.*

By mid-morning, Alyssa's grand plan was fully in motion. I was summoned to Alpha Jamey's main office, where my father and Luna Maeve waited with cold, calculating eyes.

"Alyssa is destined for the Royal Pack," Maeve announced, not even bothering to mask her disdain for me. "But our alliance with the Blackwood Pack must be honored. You, Elara, will take your sister's place. You will mate with Alpha Kaelen Hale."

Alyssa leaned against the mahogany desk, a vicious smirk playing on her lips. "Consider it an honor, Elara. You'll be a glorious nanny to another she-wolf's three bastard pups, and a mate to a cursed, cold cripple. I give it a month before he shatters your soul with a Rejection."

Alpha Jamey remained silent, his indifference a familiar sting.

I forced tears to pool in my eyes, dropping my gaze to the floor. "Yes, Luna Maeve. Thank you for this... opportunity," I whispered, my voice shaking perfectly.

They thought they were dumping a disaster onto me. They didn't know that Alpha Kaelen Hale was the most honorable man I had ever known, and his three adopted pups would grow into the fiercest, most loyal warriors of our generation. I was securing the one alliance that could offer me true power and safety.