I was the Barron heiress, and everyone assumed Damien, the Head Warrior, was my fated match. But the sickening scent of rotting peaches led me to the garden, where I found him pinning Eve against a tree. He wasn't just cheating; he was admitting he only wanted me for the Alpha title, while calling that manipulative charity case his "true queen." When I tried to cut off his funding, he declared war. He sabotaged my saddle, leaving a silver shard embedded in my leg, and sneered that I was vulnerable without him. Then came the ultimate humiliation. At my twenty-first birthday party, in front of every high-ranking wolf, Eve and Damien played a deepfake video of me with Rogues. Damien looked at me with mock pity, offering to marry me only to "hide my shame," while his six brothers stood as a human shield protecting Eve. They called me broken. They thought I was defenseless. But they didn't know I had already sent a message to the most dangerous wolf in existence. Just as Damien tried to force his claim, the ballroom doors exploded inward. The Alpha King walked in, eyes glowing gold, and pulled me against his chest. "She is mine," he growled, silencing the room. I looked at Damien and his brothers, holding up a silver USB drive. "You destroyed my reputation to protect her," I whispered. "Now, let's see if you still want her when you find out she's been sleeping with all seven of you." I plugged in the drive.
I was the Barron heiress, and everyone assumed Damien, the Head Warrior, was my fated match.
But the sickening scent of rotting peaches led me to the garden, where I found him pinning Eve against a tree.
He wasn't just cheating; he was admitting he only wanted me for the Alpha title, while calling that manipulative charity case his "true queen."
When I tried to cut off his funding, he declared war.
He sabotaged my saddle, leaving a silver shard embedded in my leg, and sneered that I was vulnerable without him.
Then came the ultimate humiliation.
At my twenty-first birthday party, in front of every high-ranking wolf, Eve and Damien played a deepfake video of me with Rogues.
Damien looked at me with mock pity, offering to marry me only to "hide my shame," while his six brothers stood as a human shield protecting Eve.
They called me broken. They thought I was defenseless.
But they didn't know I had already sent a message to the most dangerous wolf in existence.
Just as Damien tried to force his claim, the ballroom doors exploded inward.
The Alpha King walked in, eyes glowing gold, and pulled me against his chest.
"She is mine," he growled, silencing the room.
I looked at Damien and his brothers, holding up a silver USB drive.
"You destroyed my reputation to protect her," I whispered.
"Now, let's see if you still want her when you find out she's been sleeping with all seven of you."
I plugged in the drive.
Chapter 1
The Broken Bond
Elena POV:
The scent hit me before the sound did.
It wasn't the crisp pine of the Barron estate, nor the metallic tang of the logistics warehouse. It was something cloying. Nauseating. Like peaches left to rot in the heat, mixed with the heavy musk of aroused wolves.
Midnight, my inner wolf, paced restlessly in the back of my mind. She was usually composed, befitting the Barron heiress, but today she was snarling, claws scratching against my consciousness.
"Turn back," she warned, a low rumble in my head. "It reeks of betrayal."
But I had to know. I pushed through the manicured hedges of the private garden. I was looking for Damien. Damien Paul, the Head Warrior, the man my father intended for me to marry. We had grown up together. Everyone assumed we were Mates-even without the bond completed.
I froze.
There, beneath the shadow of the old oak tree, two figures were intertwined. One was Damien. His broad shoulders were unmistakable as he pinned a smaller figure against the bark.
The other was Eve.
Eve McClain. The charity case my father had taken in years ago. She was supposed to be an Omega, submissive and weak. Yet, she had her legs wrapped around Damien's waist, her head thrown back.
"Damien..." she moaned, her voice dripping with that fake sweetness I'd come to hate. "What about Elena? What if the Princess finds out?"
Damien grunted, burying his face in her neck. "Let her find out. I don't care. I need you, Eve. You're the only one who quiets the noise."
My breath hitched. It felt like a giant paw had crushed my lungs. In our world, the bond is sacred. To betray a partner is to fracture one's own soul.
"But you're going to marry her," Eve whispered, tracing a finger down his chest. I could see a small vial in her hand, uncapped, releasing that dizzying, rotten scent.
"I have to," Damien growled. "She is the key to the Alpha position. I marry her, I become the Alpha male of the Barron Pack. But you... you will always be my true queen. She is just a political necessity."
A political necessity.
The pain I expected-the shattering of a heart-didn't come. Instead, a cold wave of clarity washed over me. I looked at Damien. I waited for the pull, the Spark that defines a true Mate connection.
I felt nothing.
Actually, I felt nausea.
"He is not ours," Midnight growled, settling on her haunches, golden eyes filled with disdain. "We do not bow to traitors. And that smell... it is poison."
I stepped out from the hedges. A twig snapped under my boot.
Damien whipped his head around. His eyes were dilated, swimming in a haze of lust and whatever drug Eve was pumping into the air.
"Elena!" He scrambled back, dropping Eve. She landed on her feet with surprising grace, quickly hiding the vial behind her back.
"Don't," I said, my voice steady. "Don't insult me with an excuse, Damien."
"It's not what it looks like," he stammered, buttoning his shirt. "My wolf... I couldn't control it. Eve, she was in heat, and I..."
"She is not in heat," I said coldly, inhaling. "There is no pheromone spike. Just cheap perfume and your own lack of honor."
Eve stepped forward, eyes wide and teary. "Elena, please! I didn't mean to! He just... he overpowered me!"
"Stop talking," I commanded.
Damien stepped in front of Eve, shielding her. "Don't speak to her like that, Elena. She's fragile."
"Fragile?" I laughed, a harsh sound. "She has been manipulating you and your six brothers for months. Do you think I am blind? I see how the seven of you follow her like puppies."
"We protect her because she is pack!" Damien roared. His voice carried a trace of the Alpha timbre.
It washed over me, but I did not kneel. I was a Barron.
"You protect her because you are compromised," I said. "You just admitted you are using me for the title. You want the Alpha seat? You want to rule the logistics empire?"
I turned my back on them.
"Where are you going?" Damien demanded.
"To see my father," I said over my shoulder. "And to cancel the wedding. You will never sit on the Alpha throne, Damien. You are nothing but a Warrior who lost his way."
As I walked away, I heard Eve sobbing, and Damien whispering soothing words. The bond I thought we had was not just broken; it never existed.
Chapter 1
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Chapter 2
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Chapter 3
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Chapter 4
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Chapter 5
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Chapter 6
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Chapter 7
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Chapter 8
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Chapter 9
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Chapter 10
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Chapter 11
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Chapter 12
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Chapter 13
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Chapter 14
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Chapter 15
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Chapter 16
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Chapter 17
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Chapter 18
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Chapter 19
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Chapter 20
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Chapter 21
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Chapter 22
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