Chapter 3
Elara
Kael turned and walked out, slamming the door.
Hot tears pricked my eyes, but I stubbornly wiped them away. I wasn't going to cry over them anymore.
A moment later, the door clicked open. My mother rushed in. She sat on the edge of my bed, her scent full of guilt and confusion.
"Elara, how did this happen?" she asked, brushing damp hair from my face. "You have your Chosen Mates and Chloe here. How did you end up in the pool?"
I bit my lip. I wanted to tell her they nearly drowned me for a low-ranking Omega, but the truth would only break her heart.
"I just... got careless, Mom," I lied, looking down at my hands. "I was overthinking the engagement with the Royal Pack. My head was spinning, and I slipped."
She sighed heavily. Kissing my forehead, she told me to rest, adding that she had to leave for a border summit for a week.
That was all Chloe needed.
With the Alpha away, she didn't waste a second. The next afternoon, she pushed into my room without knocking, carrying a steaming bowl of stew. The heavy scent of cooked meat hit the air, barely masking something sharp and bitter.
"Elara," she cooed, walking over to my bed. "I made this just for you. I was up all morning prepping it."
I didn't even look at her. "The audience is gone, Chloe. Drop the act."
Her sweet mask dropped into a nasty sneer. "I heard you're actually signing with the Blackwood heir. The vegetable." She let out a short, mean laugh. "Perfect match. A comatose wolf for a desperate Alpha."
I looked her dead in the eye. "He's still the Alpha King's heir. Even braindead in a hospital bed, he's leagues above a pathetic Omega like you. You couldn't touch his world if you tried."
Chloe's face flushed with hysterical rage.
"You think your bloodline makes you untouchable?!" she shrieked.
Without warning, she hurled the boiling stew straight at my face.
It wasn't just hot broth. The second the liquid hit my skin, my wolf howled. The acidic burn of concentrated Wolfsbane ate into my flesh.
"Ahhhh!" I screamed, grabbing my face. The pain was blinding, searing right down to the bone. "Help! It's Wolfsbane!"
Boots pounded the hallway.
The door burst open. Kael, Zane, and Finn rushed in.
Ignoring my screams entirely, they swarmed Chloe.
"What happened?!" Kael demanded, grabbing her shoulders.
Zane stepped in front of Chloe, shielding her from me. Finn stayed by the door, glaring at me like a guard dog.
Chloe buried her face in Kael's chest, fake-sobbing. "I brought her food... and she snapped! She threw it!"
"My face!" I gasped, writhing on the bed as the Wolfsbane burned deeper. "Get the healer! It's Wolfsbane!"
Kael gave me a dead, cold look. "I gave the medical staff the weekend off."
I stared at him through my one good eye, trembling. "You gave them time off?! They work for the pack!"
"With the Alpha gone, I call the shots," Kael barked. "We aren't wasting pack resources on your jealous tantrums."
Burning alive, I desperately reached for my phone on the nightstand to call my mother.
Kael lunged. He snatched the phone from my hand and crushed it under his heavy boot.
The screen shattered. It was the phone my mother had given me for my birthday.
"Stop playing the victim, Elara," Kael growled. "Chloe spent hours making that for you, and you do this? You're sick."
Tears streamed into the open burns on my cheek, stinging like acid.
Suddenly, Chloe gasped. "Oh, my hand..."
She held up her wrist. A single drop of hot broth had left a tiny red blister. She trembled, acting terrified. "Maybe we should call the healer back, Kael? If Elara's actually hurt... the Alpha will kill me."
Kael saw the tiny red mark, and panic washed over his face.
"Finn, mind-link the healer right now!" Kael shouted, gently holding Chloe's wrist. "Tell them to get back here, Chloe's burned!"
I stared at him, my vision blurring. He was mobilizing the pack for her tiny blister while my face melted off.
The pain surged through my brain. The room spun, and darkness pulled me under.
When I finally woke up, my face was wrapped in thick, magically-infused bandages.
The pack doctor stood at the foot of my bed. "Severe third-degree burns," his voice was grave. "Facial tissue is severely damaged. The broth was laced with high-grade Wolfsbane."
A suffocating, lethal Alpha pressure filled the room.
My mother stood by the door, radiating murderous fury. She was back early.
The three brothers stood pale and silent in the center of the room, their usual arrogance completely gone. Chloe cowered in the corner.
"You were ordered to protect her," my mother said, her voice deathly quiet, her golden eyes locked on Kael. "If my daughter's face is permanently ruined... I will personally strip the flesh from your bones."
