Chapter 2 The Alpha Claim

Elena

"I want Elena Vance," he said. "She comes back with me to Bloodfang. As my Luna."

The silence that followed could have swallowed a person whole.

Every eye in the courtyard was on me. Making it hard to stand.

"What did you just say?" Kai's voice dropped, thick with Alpha aura, he stepped between me and Lucian like his body had made the decision before his mind caught up.

Lucian didn't flinch. He kept his eyes on me, over Kai's shoulder, like Kai's whole furious presence was a minor scheduling inconvenience.

"You heard me, Kai." He said. Unbothered. "I'm claiming Elena Vance as my mate and Luna. Northern Alliance law allows an Alpha to request a woman of Guardian bloodline in exchange for a binding military alliance. I'm well within my rights."

"She's not a bargaining chip." Dad's voice cracked across the courtyard, shaking with a fury I'd rarely heard out of him. "She's the daughter of the Guardians. She belongs to this pack. Her loyalty is to the future Alpha."

Lucian's gaze finally dropped to my father, and something in his expression actually softened — not much, but enough that I noticed. "I respect your service, Guardian Mark. Your sacrifice in the war is known across every territory." He paused, his words softened something in me. People in this pack hardly acknowledge my parents' sacrifice. They see it as a duty. "But you're wasting her. She spends her days in the shadow of a prince who doesn't know her name."

That landed like a slap across my face. I didn't flinch, but something inside me did, because it was true, and everyone here knew it was true, and now everyone here had watched him say it out loud.

Kai's head turned. His eyes found mine, like really found mine, for the first time in my whole life and I saw something within them. Confusion? Anger? Or was there Something underneath both of those that I didn't have a name for yet.

"She stays here." Kai turned back to Lucian, and the air around him started to hum, that low pressure that comes off an Alpha when his temper's climbing. "Elena's bound to my lineage. Her mother died protecting my life. Her father bled for my family. She's taking her place as my personal Guardian when I take the throne."

Lucian laughed. Not loud, just enough to be insulting. "A Guardian. You want to strap armor on her and post her outside your door like furniture with a pulse." His eyes cut back to me. "Look at her, Kai. She was built for a lot more than dying quietly for someone who's spent nineteen years pretending not to see her."

"That's not your call to make." Alpha Thomas came down the packhouse steps, and the whole courtyard seemed to settle half a degree just from his presence. Old, calm, the kind of authority that didn't need to raise its voice. "Alpha Lucian, you're a guest on my land. You don't get to demand a member of my pack without process. Or her consent."

"Then let's make it formal." Lucian said it instantly, like he'd been waiting for someone to give him the opening.

A gasp went around the courtyard. I heard it ripple through the crowd like wind through dry grass.

A formal challenge between Alphas wasn't a small thing. It meant blood, or it meant a binding council ruling. either way, it meant the next few days were going to decide the rest of my life whether I had a say in it or not.

"Are you out of your mind?" Kai took a full step toward him. "You want to fight my father over a woman you've never spoken a single word to?"

"I don't need to talk to her to know what she is." Lucian's eyes came back to me, softer now, almost thoughtful. "I can smell the strength in her blood from three territories away. My pack needs a Luna who actually carries fire. I think that's her."

My chest was doing something strange too tight, too fast, and underneath the panic, something warmer stirring low in my ribs. My wolf, Solara, who usually stayed so quiet I sometimes forgot she was in there at all, was pacing. Restless. Awake in a way I didn't recognize.

What’s happening to me?

‘He sees something in us,’ she said, quiet, almost like she was as surprised as I was. ‘Something no one else has bothered looking for.’

"Elena." Dad reached for my hand, his fingers cold, shaking harder than I'd ever felt them shake. "Tell them. Tell them you won't go."

I looked at him. A man who'd given his legs to a duty that never once asked if he was willing. Then at Kai, standing in front of me like a wall, defending me the way you defend something you're responsible for, not someone you actually see. And then at Lucian. A stranger offering me power I'd never been handed, and asking for everything in return.

I stepped around Kai. And Stood in the middle of the circle myself.

"I'm not an object," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I expected it to. "Not something to be handed over, and not something to be fought over either. I'm Elena Vance. If anyone's deciding what happens to my life, it's going to be me."

Lucian's looked surprised. “Spoken like a Luna already."

Kai's jaw went tight. He caught my wrist, gentle despite the tension radiating off him. "Elena. Step back. You don't understand what's happening here."

"I understand everything JUST fine." I met his eyes and didn't look away. Irritated by him. "You didn't look at me twice in eighteen years. It took another Alpha wanting me for you to notice I existed."

He flinched like I'd hit him. His grip loosened on my wrist, and for half a second something that looked almost like shame crossed his face, but before he could say a word, Alpha Thomas raised a hand and the whole courtyard went still.

"Enough." His voice carried without effort. "Alpha Lucian, you'll be housed in the eastern guest lodge. Three days. No blood spilled on my land during that time. On the third evening, the council of elders will meet to weigh your request against the old laws."

Lucian inclined his head, though nothing about the gesture read as submission. "Three days, Alpha Thomas." His eyes found mine one last time. "But hear me now … I'm not leaving this territory without her."

He turned and walked back to his convoy without another word. Doors slammed. Engines started. The line of black SUVs rolled back out through the packyard to the guest quarters, and the second they cleared the walls the whole courtyard seemed to exhale at once, replaced almost immediately by a low buzz of whispers I could already tell were going to follow me for weeks.

Kai turned to face me, chest still rising and falling too fast. "We need to talk. Now."

I looked at him his faced carrying both guilt and anger.

"Lead the way," I said quietly, and followed him toward the packhouse while the entire pack watched us go in total silence.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the way his eyes had changed when Lucian claimed me.

For nineteen years, Kai had never looked at me.

Now he couldn’t seem to look away.