Chapter 3

ELARA

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm here to collect someone. I can't offer you a free ride."

Amos, one of my father's oldest guards, kept looking past me toward the airport doors. I struggled not to laugh.

"You were sent to collect Elara Vale. That's me."

His suspicion deepened. "How do you know my name? And how could you be Elara? Elara is..."

"Ugly?"

He flinched and shook his head. Even years ago, Amos had never been able to use that word against me.

"Would it help if I reminded you that butternut squash soup is your favorite and that you used to play Chutes and Ladders with a very stubborn little girl?"

Recognition transformed his face.

"Asteria have mercy. Elara?"

He opened his arms, and I stepped into the first warm welcome I had received on this soil.

"Your face," he said after releasing me. "You look... I don't understand."

"It's a long story. For now, let's say fate finally showed me some kindness."

Five years in Valoria had given me a career, human friends, kind neighbors, and a life far from Pack cruelty. Returning had never been part of my plan.

My father had summoned me for two reasons. The first was to finish severing my bond with Darius.

When wolves mated, they knotted a ceremonial ribbon and stored it in a temple. Separation required two acts: spoken rejection and cutting that ribbon together. Darius had rejected me, and I had accepted, but events five years ago pulled me away before we completed the second step.

Now he had chosen another woman and could not fully claim her while even a fragment of our bond remained.

I wanted that ribbon cut as much as he did.

Amos took my suitcase toward the car. I told him I needed to collect one more bag and turned away.

"You dropped something."

I looked down and felt my heart leap into my throat.

A medical scan lay on the floor.

I snatched it up, but Amos had already seen the image of unborn children.

"It isn't mine," I said too quickly.

His brows rose. People did not usually carry someone else's fetal scan in a back pocket.

I tucked it away and hurried to the baggage desk before he could ask more.

While I waited, thoughts of Darius crowded in. He was apparently desperate to complete the severance because he had selected a new mate. Good. He belonged to my past, and the ribbon was the final thread tying me to it.

"Excuse me, miss. An Alpha requests a moment of your time."

A broad man in a black suit and dark glasses stood behind me. His posture marked him as a guard.

"I'm in a hurry. Please offer him my apologies."

The guard's jaw tightened. "You should not ignore him."

Pack rank gave powerful men the expectation of immediate obedience. Five years away had weakened my patience for it.

"I said no."

"It is Alpha Darius of Ashvale."

Pain tightened across my chest.

I glanced toward the airport bar, but a counter concealed the man seated there. Darius was here, waiting for the woman he had rejected and failed to recognize.

"That gives me even less reason to see him."

The guard stared at me, then returned to his Alpha.

I demanded an update on my luggage. The attendant promised it would arrive within minutes.

It was not fast enough.

A familiar man left the bar and started toward me.

Darius Vane was coming closer, and he had no idea who I was.