Chapter 4

Elara

Chloe immediately burst into terrified sobs.

"I made the stew, Alpha, I swear! But I didn't lace it with anything!" She pointed a trembling finger at me. "Elara was upset. She knocked the bowl out of my hands, and it splashed her!"

My mother turned her lethal gaze to me. "Elara. Truth."

I didn't blink. "She's lying. She threw it right at me, and it was laced with Wolfsbane."

My mother's face darkened with pure fury. "Throw this Omega in the pack cells," she snarled to the guards.

"No!" Kael and Zane shouted in unison.

Zane stepped forward, baring his neck in submission. "Alpha, wait! It was me. I requisitioned liquid Wolfsbane earlier to interrogate a rogue. I left the vial on the kitchen counter. Chloe must have accidentally spilled it into the broth. It was a mistake!"

My mother wasn't stupid. She knew a pathetic cover-up when she heard one.

She looked at me, her mind-link brushing against mine. How do you want to handle them, Elara?

Let me do it, I replied mentally.

My mother nodded slowly. It was time for me to assert my dominance as the future Alpha.

She turned to the room, her voice booming through the halls as she summoned the packhouse staff.

"Listen closely," she addressed the gathered enforcers, maids, and guards. "From this moment on, you take orders only from Elara. Kael, Zane, and Finn are guests here. They are candidate mates, nothing more. They have absolutely no authority to command Blood Moon resources or personnel. Understood?"

A chorus of "Yes, Alpha" echoed through the room.

The brothers looked as if they'd been slapped. Chloe shrank back, her face dead pale.

Thanks to my Alpha bloodline and the pack doctor's intense healing magic, my face recovered over the next few days. It left only a faint pink scar that would soon fade.

The moment I was cleared, I started cleaning house.

I sat in my room and ordered Chloe to bring me a fresh bowl of stew.

When she finally walked in, trembling slightly as she handed it to me, I didn't hesitate. I took the heavy bowl and poured the boiling hot broth directly over her face.

Chloe let out a blood-curdling shriek, dropping to her knees as the heat blistered her skin.

"How does it taste?" I asked coldly.

She glared up at me, eyes full of vicious hatred, but she didn't dare fight back.

Outside my door, Kael and Finn were shouting, banging their fists against the wood. But the elite pack enforcers—now strictly taking my orders—blocked them with bared fangs.

I signaled a guard. "Let Zane in."

Zane burst through the door, immediately dropping to his knees beside the sobbing Omega. He looked up at me, his eyes pleading.

"Stop tormenting her, Elara! If you want revenge, take it out on me!"

I let out a dry, hollow laugh. "Deal."

I pulled a small glass vial of concentrated Wolfsbane from my pocket and tossed it onto the hardwood floor in front of Chloe.

"Pour that on Zane," I told her, my voice dead flat. "Do it, and you and I are even."

Chloe looked at the vial. Then she looked at Zane—the warrior who had defended her, fought for her, and nearly drowned me for her.

Without a second of hesitation, self-preservation won. She snatched the vial.

"I'm sorry, Zane," she whimpered, popping the cork. "Elara is forcing me."

She splashed the acidic liquid right onto his neck and shoulder.

Zane roared in agony, clutching his burning flesh.

I smiled. Perfect match.

A week later, I was lounging on a patio chair near the plunge pool, two heavily armed enforcers flanking me. I had summoned Chloe to file my nails.

She stood over me, looking down her nose with that familiar, arrogant sneer.

"You think you've won?" she whispered so the guards couldn't hear. "I know your mother left for the border again. You can't boss me around. Kael and Zane will always take care of me. Once they inherit this pack with you, they'll make sure I'm the one living like a Luna."

I chuckled, standing up.

"You're forgetting one thing. Without my family's charity, your caretaker father wouldn't even have a roof over your head. You are nothing but a parasite."

Before she could spit another insult, I kicked her square in the chest.

She tipped backward, screaming as she crashed into the deep, freezing water of the pool.

"Hold her down," I commanded my guards.

The enforcers grabbed the long pool skimmers, pressing them against her shoulders, keeping her treading water in the deep end.

I crouched by the edge, watching her gasp and thrash. "Enjoying the water, Chloe?"

She choked, glaring at me with venom. "You bitch! Kael and Zane will kill you for this!"

"Shut her up," I waved a hand boredly.

A guard dunked her head under for five seconds, letting her up gasping and spitting.

"Elara! What the hell are you doing?!"

Zane came sprinting across the lawn, charging at me like a feral rogue.