Elara's pov
The Valerius silks was a deep, bruised violet, so heavy with silver embroidery that it felt like wearing a suit of chainmail.
Mia's hands were trembling as she cinched the corset. Every tug made the bruises on my ribs scream.
"Stand still, Elara," Mia whispered, her voice tight with panic. "The Council...aren't just watching Lucian tonight. They're hunting for a reason to take you."
A silent tailor, his eyes covered by a black blindfold. It was apparently, a Valerius tradition to ensure the Alpha's property was never truly seen.
He moved around me with a needle, pinning the family crest onto my shoulder.
I was expecting a moon crest, or even a wolf but it was a Twin-Headed Viper entwined around a broken sun.
The symbol of the Valerius bloodline. It represented a power that consumed its own light and frankly, it didn't make sense to me.
As the tailor leaned in to pin the crest, my hand brushed against the candle burning. I flinched, waiting for the searing heat.
It never came.
Instead, the flame turned a dull, sickly gray smoke and without a flicker, vanished entirely.
I stared at the dead wick, my breath hitching.
"Elara?" Mia asked, looking at the candle.
"I... I'm just cold," I lied, quickly pulling on the silver-lined lace gloves Lucian had demanded I wear.
The heavy oak doors swept open. Lucian stood there. He wore a black military-style suit, the silver piping catching the light.
He looked at the marks on my neck, barely hidden by the high silk collar.
"Can she walk?" Lucian asked.
"She's weak, Alpha," Mia pleaded. "The serum—"
"The serum is keeping her heart beating. That is enough," Lucian snapped. He stepped into my space, his scent..pine, rain, and blood overwhelming the herbal oils in the bathwater.
He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up. "Tonight, the Great Hall is full of wolves.
The Alphas, the Red-Moon Seer, and the Council."
"I feel... empty, Lucian," I whispered. "The candle... I touched it and.."
"Silence," he commanded, his eyes flashing a dangerous, metallic silver. "If you falter or show a single crack, they will tear you apart. Do you understand?"
"Yes," I whispered, my knees buckling.
He didn't catch me and i wasn't expecting him to. He simply waited until I gripped the edge of the washstand to steady myself. "Move."
Lucian walked three paces ahead and i followed, my feet dragging against the stone. The hallways were lined with pack members...warriors, enforcers, and their mates.
"She's so thin," a woman hissed as I passed.
"Smell that? She smells like the Alpha's sweat. He's already drained her half to death."
I saw Vanya standing on the mezzanine, she looked at the Valerius crest on my shoulder with a look of pure, murderous envy.
Why she would be envious of me, i had no idea.
The doors to the Great Hall opened and the room was a sea of gold and silver. This was the Lunar Gala, the one night a year where the rival packs met under a truce of blood.
"Alpha Lucian Valerius," the herald announced. "And his... Anchor."
The room went silent.
Silas stood at the head of the Council table, flanked by the Alphas. There was Alpha Skaroz of the Blackwood, and Alpha Hera of the Stormclaw, her scarred arms crossed over a chest of plate armor.
At the far end sat Alpha Mordecai of the Blood moon and behind them, stood a dozen other Alphas from the borderlands.
And in that chair sat Elder Hecate.
She was ancient, her skin like crumpled parchment, her eyes filmed over with a milky white cataract.
"The test," Silas proclaimed, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling. "The Council demands proof that this human is a viable Vessel."
Lucian led me to the center of the room. He didn't offer a word of comfort. He simply stepped back, leaving me exposed in the circle of wolves.
"Come closer, child," Hecate rasped.
I stumbled forward. My vision was tunneling.
Hecate reached for my bare throat, pushing aside the violet silk.
The moment her skin touched mine, it went silent.
Every sound, the breathing of a hundred wolves, the crackle of the hearth, vanished. It was a total sensory blackout.
I felt a pull begin in my gut, it felt like a vacuum that didn't just want Hecate's warmth but her essence.
The Elder's milky eyes suddenly snapped wide. For a heartbeat, they turned pitch-black.
She didn't scream. She couldn't. The air was being sucked out of her lungs and into mine. Her hand, once warm, began to turn a sickly, frostbitten gray.
I am eating her, I realized with a jolt of horror.
"Enough!" Lucian's voice broke the silence.
He lunged forward, grabbing Hecate's wrist and slamming his own power into the connection to break the circuit.
Hecate collapsed back into her chair, gasping for air, her withered hand shaking uncontrollably.
"The results?" Silas demanded, stepping forward.
Hecate looked at me, and for the first time, I saw true, primal terror in a wolf's eyes.
She opened her mouth to speak, to tell them I was a Void that would eventually leave the entire pack a shell.
"She is..." Hecate started, her voice a thin wheeze.
Lucian stepped between us and released a surge of Alpha pheromones so thick it forced the Council members to take a step back.
"She is the strongest Anchor this Pack has seen in a century," Lucian lied, his voice a thunderous command. "She held the Seer's touch without breaking. The test is over. My throne is mine. My Anchor is mine."
Silas narrowed his eyes, looking at Hecate. The old woman looked as if she had aged ten years in ten seconds. She looked at her blackened fingertips and then at Lucian's lethal expression. She knew if she spoke the truth, Lucian would kill her before she finished the sentence.
"She... she is sufficient," Hecate whispered, her head bowing in defeat.
The room erupted into low murmurs. Lucian didn't wait for the festivities. He grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the private chambers behind the hall.
Killian was leaning against the exit, his arms crossed. He held something in his hand, a scrap of the lace glove that had torn during the scuffle. He was staring at it.
"Brother," Killian murmured as we passed. "The Seer looks like she's seen a ghost."
Lucian didn't stop. He slammed the door to the private study and threw me into a chair.
"Look at me," he hissed.
I looked up, tears blurring my vision. My hands were shaking so hard I had to sit on them. "What am I, Lucian? The candle... the Seer... I felt like I was drinking her."
"You are a Void," Lucian said, the word hitting me like a physical blow. "I am not yet sure what your power can do but it seems like you don't just hold the energy, you can also erase it."
"I'm a monster," I choked out.
"You're a weapon," he corrected, leaning over me, his face inches from mine. "If the council finds out what you actually are, they won't share you. They'll dissect you."
A sharp knock sounded at the door.
"Lucian?" It was Killian's voice, uncharacteristically serious. "The Seer's glove just turned to ash in my hand. We need to talk. Now."