Chapter 3

Alessia POV:

The scent of her was a cloying sweetness in my own bedroom. Lilies and deceit.

I had just escaped the study, where the mind-numbing tedium of the pack's quarterly grain reports had been a welcome distraction. As I walked down the hall, I noticed the door to the chambers I shared with Santino was ajar. A faint sound, a soft clinking, drifted out.

My heart gave a painful lurch. Santino was out on patrol. The room should have been empty.

I pushed the door open.

The sight that greeted me punched the air from my lungs. Valentina was standing at my vanity. My vanity. And in her hands, she held my mother's moonstone necklace, turning it over and over, a small, mocking smile playing on her lips.

A wildfire of pure rage erupted inside me, so hot and violent it almost made me dizzy. That necklace was not just jewelry. It was my mother's last touch. It was the legacy of my bloodline. It was sacred.

"Put it down," I growled, my voice low and colder than a grave. For the first time in months, my inner wolf was not just stirring; it was awake, and it was furious.

Valentina looked up, feigning a startled gasp. "Oh, Luna! You surprised me."

With a dramatic flourish, she tossed the necklace into the air.

Time seemed to warp, stretching the moment into an eternity. I watched the beautiful moonstone spin, catching the light for one last, brilliant flash. Then it hit the hard stone floor with a sickening crack.

It shattered.

The sound echoed the crack spreading through my own soul. A pain, more profound and agonizing than anything I had ever known, ripped through me. It felt as if a part of my very being had been violently torn away.

I stumbled forward, my knees buckling as I crashed to the floor. My hands trembled as I reached for the broken pieces. Tears I didn't know I had left to cry blurred my vision. This was more than a broken heirloom; it was the desecration of a memory.

"Oh, my!" Valentina wailed, her act flawless. "You rushed in so suddenly, you scared me! I didn't mean to!" She clutched her chest, her face a mask of counterfeit panic.

The sound of heavy, running footsteps echoed from the hall. Santino burst into the room, his Alpha senses on high alert.

His eyes took in the scene in a single glance: Valentina, looking pale and frightened; and me, kneeling on the floor amidst the ruins of my mother's legacy. He didn't hesitate.

"Alessia! What did you do to her?!" His voice was a whip-crack, laced with the power of his Alpha Command. He didn't ask. He accused.

The Command slammed into me, a psychic blow that made my head spin. I couldn't form a reply, couldn't defend myself. I could only curl inward, the sharp edges of the moonstone fragments digging into the soft flesh of my palms.

Santino strode past me without a second glance. He went straight to Valentina, wrapping a protective arm around her. "Are you alright? Did she hurt you?" he murmured, his voice thick with concern.

I forced myself to my knees, the pain in my hands nothing compared to the gaping wound in my chest. "You use the Alpha's Command on me?" My voice was a raw, broken whisper. "For her?"

His gaze was glacial. "You upset her. It's my duty to protect her and the pup."

He didn't even look at the shattered necklace at my feet. He didn't care.

In that moment, something ancient and powerful flared to life within my veins. The White Wolf blood, the legacy of my ancestors, surged to a boil. It was a tide of furious power, a strength I had never known, but the lingering force of his Command held it back, pressing down on me like a physical weight.

I was trapped. I was drowning.

In my utter despair, I did the only thing I could. I reached out with my mind, not to anyone in this pack, but far away, across the mountains, to the one person whose power was absolute.

I sent a silent, desperate scream through the Mind-Link, a raw cry of a soul in torment.

*Father!*

The tense silence was broken by another arrival. Gamma Damien stood in the doorway, his face a mask of grim fury. He had heard the Command, felt its violent ripple.

His eyes took in the scene: me, broken on the floor; Santino, shielding the other woman.

Damien took a step forward, his body forming a solid wall between us.

"Alpha Santino," he began, his voice dangerously low.

"Stay out of this, Gamma!" Santino snarled, his own Alpha authority lashing out. The power in his voice forced Damien to halt, but the defiance in Damien's eyes did not waver.

The pressure inside me was building. The White Wolf was clawing at the cage of Santino's Command, fighting to be free.

And in the cold, dead space where my love for my mate used to be, a new, terrible certainty took root.

It was over. Everything was over.

I looked up at Santino, my mate, the wolf I had sworn my life to. And I saw only a stranger. A cruel, blind stranger.

And in the silence of my heart, I spoke a vow.

*You will regret this day for the rest of your miserable life.*