Alden’s Betrayal
*Celeste’s POV*
The moment Alden said the words, my world stopped spinning.
“I reject you, Celeste.”
I blinked as a sharp, searing pull released from my heart, leaving an ache that felt endless. For a moment, I wondered if I had misheard him. The moonlight painted his face with an eerie glow, highlighting the coldness in his indigo eyes–eyes that once held every promise I had ever believed in.
“You… what?” My voice cracked, and I hated how vulnerable I sounded. My wolf stirred uneasily, sensing the crack in our bond.
“I reject you,” he repeated, slow and deliberate, as if savoring my pain. “As my mate. As a friend, as anything.”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be real. This was Alden, the boy who once swore to shield me from every storm, who held my hand beneath the stars and whispered that I was his forever.
“Why?” My whisper came out hoarse, the word tearing itself from my throat. “Why would you say this?”
He smirked, a cruel, twisted version of the smile I had loved. “You’re weak, Celeste. Your pack is weak. I can’t bind myself to someone who drags me down.”
Weak. The word sliced through me like a blade. I staggered, I know he didn’t mean it. my nails digging into my palms as I fought to steady myself. “I don’t understand. We’re mates. You’re supposed to-
”
“Supposed to what?” Alden snapped, his voice sharp as steel. “Love you
unconditionally? Protect your pathetic excuse for a pack? I’m not a fool, Celeste. I’ve outgrown you.”
I stared at him, my chest heaving, my heart pounding with disbelief. “You don’t mean this,” I said, my voice trembling, “This isn’t you.”
He laughed, low and bitter. “You’re still so naive. Do you think I ever wanted this? To be tied to you? You were a stepping stone, nothing more.”
My wolf howled inside me, its cry a mix of fury and anguish. I felt the sting of betrayal, raw and suffocating, but anger surged to the surface, hot and consuming.
“You coward,” I hissed. “You used me. You used us.”
He stepped closer, towering over me, his smirk still in place. “And you let me. That’s the difference between us, Celeste. I’m a survivor. You’re just… expendable.”
Something inside me snapped. My hand shot out before I could think, striking him across the face. The sound echoed in the stillness of the forest, and for a fleeting
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moment, his smirk faltered.
“You’ll regret this,” I said, my voice trembling with rage. “You’ll regret every word.”
He laughed again, that cruel, hollow sound that I knew would haunt me. “We’ll see,” he said before turning his back on me. “Goodbye, Celeste.”
I watched him walk away, his silhouette swallowed by the shadows. The bond between us, something I once thought unbreakable, shattered completely. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground, clutching my chest as the pain hit me like a tidal wave.
The air around me felt colder, emptier. I wasn’t sure how long I stayed there, kneeling in the dirt, my breaths coming in ragged gasps. When I finally lifted my head, the stars above blurred through my tears.
He was gone. And I was alone.
I was still reeling, trying to make sense of his betrayal, when the alarms sounded. Fires raged through the heart of our territory, the air thick with smoke and the cries of my pack.
Suddenly I could hear screams, this is not just an ordinary scream but it was the one of agony.
“An attack…” I heard a woman shouted.
This is just after Alden’s rejection. I should’ve seen it coming.
I ran as fast as my feets could take me to the path that led to our home, but I stopped to help by pushing off a brown wolf who was poundering on a pregnant she–wolf and try to take her pup who was crying beside her father who was already laying dead on the ground.
I fought with everything I had, but we were outnumbered, overwhelmed, this was a planned attack, we haven’t prepared for war because we don’t have any enemy. My
father, Alpha Enas of the Thornclaw pack in the midheart of Eldrun is known by father, Alpha Enas of the Thornclaw p
everyone that he’s peaceful and a very kind man. My mother, Luna Elena is a good woman who tend to everyone and my brother, my brother, Galen…
by thinking of my family, I continued running, The rogues tore through us mercilessly, and I saw their leader, a figure I knew too well.
Alden. Leading them, alongside the B Wer hungry rogue leader, Lucien
Greythorn hand in hand. I felt my heart froze in time.
“Celeste!” My father’s voice broke through the chaos, and I turned to see him fighting off two wolves at once, his movements
his movements slowed by age and exhaustion. My mother stood behind him her face dripping blood, her long blonde hair is now a mix of blood, she was shielding my younger brother, Galen, her eyes blazing with defiance.
“Run!” she screamed at me, her voice piercing through the noise. “Get Galen out of here!”
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“No!” I shouted back, my wolf surging forward. “I’m not leaving you!”
“Go!” my father bellowed, his command rippling through the bond we shared. He knew this was the end for him, for my mother, for so many of us. “Protect the bloodline, Celeste! We will always be with you, Always!”
Tears blurred my vision as I try to grab Galen’s hand away from the flames, he was nowhere to be seen. I stood dead in the smokes and screams trying to use my eye to trace Galen but the Smokes are getting stronger and stronger.
“Galen…” I called slowly with my already swollen eyes dropping down tears. “Galen!” I screamed.
My wolf howled in anguish, but my mother’s voice snapped me out of my haze.
“Celeste!”
I turned to see her standing on the steps of the pack house, blood streaking her arms as she fought off two rogue wolves. Her hair, wild and matted, shone like a beacon against the night.
“Where is your brother!” she screamed, her voice a mix of command and desperation.
“I can’t find him…He…He disappeared…”
“Protect Yourself! Go now, go to the other side of Eldrun and the Elders will tell you what to do, Celeste, always know I and your father loved you and your brother so
dearly,”
I watched in panic as I watch my mother being torn by claws.
“I’ll protect…Protect you, Go…G…Go, Run,”
Mother…I stumbled over the body of a fallen warrior, my heart seizing as I realized I recognized him. The older man had taught me to fight when I was a child. His lifeless eyes stared back at me, and I bit back a sob as I forced myself to keep moving.
“Galen!” I called again, my voice breaking.
A flash of golden hair caught my eye, and I thought for a fleeting moment that I saw him, but then he was gone, swallowed by the sea of bodies.
“We need to get out of here, Celeste!” My wolf, Usla howled inside of me.
I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. If I did, I wouldn’t be able to leave.
~
By the time the sun rose, Thornclaw was no more. Days turned into weeks, and the losses piled up. My parents, my pack, my home, all of it gone. Alden’s betrayal had destroyed everything I’d ever known.
I stumbled through the carnage, my legs barely holding me upright. My father lay among the dead, his hand still clutching the tattered remains of our banner. Tears blurred my vision as I knelt beside him, my fingers trembling as I closed his lifeless
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eyes.
My mother’s body was nowhere to be found, and neither was Galen’s. A knot of dread tightened in my chest. I wanted to hope, maybe they escaped, maybe they’re alive, but hope feels like a cruel trick now.
The survivors were few, their faces pale and stricken as they tended to the wounded. I tried to help, but every step felt heavier than the last.
When I finally collapsed onto the steps of the pack house, the weight of my failure crashed over me. Tears streamed down my face, hot and unrelenting, but they couldn’t wash away the pain clawing at my chest.
“I will make you pay,” I whispered, my voice shaking with the force of my vow. “For every life you’ve taken, for every drop of blood spilled, I will destroy you.”
Usla growled in agreement, her fury mirroring mine.
And though my body trembled, broken and battered, I felt the faint flicker of something I hadn’t felt in a long time: resolve.
This wasn’t the end of the Thornclaw bloodline Not yet.
But grief gave way to anger. I clung to it like a lifeline, letting it fuel me as I rebuilt what little I could. Galen might have survived on scraps because I couldn’t find his body, maybe he’s hiding in the wilderness, And here I am, avoiding rogue patrols. Every night, 1stared up at the stars, my mother’s voice echoing in my mind.
“Protect the bloodline.”
I vowed then and there that I would. Not just for her, but for myself. For everyone we’d lost. And for Alden, I made a different vow, a darker one.
“I’ll make him pay,” I whispered to the night. “For everything.”
~
when I got to the Elders court in the midfront of Eldrun. They sat in their grand chamber, their faces grim as they delivered their decision.
“To restore your pack’s reputation,” Elder Magnus began, “and to ensure its survival, you must marry Alpha Kaelen Drazmir.”
The words hit me harder than Alden’s rejection ever has. Kaelen Drazmir, The Alpha King. The most ruthless wolf in Eldrun. I’d heard the stories, his cruelty, his coldness, his deadly secrets.
“You cannot force me into this!” I slammed my hands onto the heavy oak table, my voice echoing through the grand council chamber.
The council elders, their faces as weathered as the stone walls, surrounding us, sat in their seats like statues. Unmoved, indifferent, and utterly resolute.
Magnus Blackthorn, the eldest among them, leaned forward, his green eyes gleaming with cold authority. “Celeste Thorne, you will listen. This is not about your personal
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desires. This is about survival, for you, for your people, and for the Thornclaw name.”
I clenched my fists, the fury inside me threatening to boil over. My wolf, Usla, snarled in agreement, but there was no outlet for our rage. My pack was in shambles, my family gone. And now these men, who claimed to uphold tradition and justice, wanted to strip away the last shred of freedom I had left.
“You want me to bind myself to a man I’ve never met,” I said, my voice trembling with both anger and disbelief. “To a man whose reputation is built on fear and bloodshed?”
Magnus tilted his head, his tone calm but unforgiving. “Alpha Kaelen Drazmir is the only one with the strength and resources to salvage what remains of Thornclaw. Without his protection, your and the other packs that left will all vanish into obscurity.”
“And if I refuse?”
Magnus’s expression darkened. “Then you condemn your people to ruin.”
The words hit me like a physical blow. I
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t do it.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Magnus said, his voice leaving no room for argument. “This
is the council’s decree.”
“Why should I trust you?” I shot back, my voice rising. “You stood by and did nothing while my pack burned. While my family died!”
Magnus sighed, his expression unchanging. “This is the only way, Celeste. You want to save what’s left of your bloodline? Then you’ll marry him.”
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. Every instinct screamed at me to fight back, to refuse. But I thought of Galen, he might be somewhere out there, of the few survivors who still looked to me for leadership. I couldn’t let them down.
My heart clenched at the memory of my brother’s golden eyes, his laughter as he trained in the courtyard. He had been among the pack that night, fighting valiantly against Alden’s betrayal. His body had not been found among the dead, but hope was a dangerous thing. No one had seen him, and the silence surrounding his fate was unbearable.
Some whispered he had been taken. Others believed he had fallen into the shadows like so many others. The uncertainty haunted me. I couldn’t mourn him fully, nor could I cling to the possibility of his survival.
Usla paced restlessly within me, her anger mirroring my own.
“You’re stronger than this,” my mother’s voice echoed in my mind, a memory from a time that now felt like another life.
“Strength isn’t in surrender. It’s in knowing when to fight and when to endure.” My heart ached at the thought of her.
What would she say if she could see me now, torn between duty and defiance?
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Alden’s Betrayal
I didn’t want this. The idea of being tied to The Alpha Kaelen Drazmir, a man known for his ruthlessness, was unbearable. But the faces of my people haunted me.
They depended on me to save them, just as my parents once did. And somewhere in the back of my mind, a quiet, desperate thought lingered: What if Galen is alive? What if this union could bring the strength I need to find him?
“I’ll do it,” I whispered in between my heart and to my wolf, the words tasting like ash on my heart.
“We are all doomed. You have to remove the term ‘disgraced Alpha‘ from the mouth of the other pack because that’s what they call your late father.”
Disgraced Alpha? How can people be do mean with words? We where attacked for no just cause and my father the now late Alpha and my mother fought with their lives to save their pack and this is how others see him?
The elders were already standing to leave, their eyes fixed on me with a pause.
“I’ll marry him,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me.
Magnus nodded, a flicker of approval crossing his face. “A wise choice.”
“But hear me,” I continued, my gaze hard as steel. “This is a union of necessity, not submission. I will not bow to the Alpha King. I will not be his pawn.”
Magnus’s lips curved into a faint smile. “You may think so now, Celeste. But Alpha Kaelen Drazmir is not a man to be trifled with. You would do well to remember that.”
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “But don’t expect me to submit to him.”
Magnus’s lips twitched, almost like he wanted to smile. “That remains to be seen.”
The journey to Kaelen’s territory was long and tense. As we approached Shadow Keep, its towering black walls loomed over us, a fitting reflection of its Alpha. My heart pounded as we entered the gates, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was walking into another cage.
Kaelen was waiting for me in the grand hall, his gray eyes piercing as they met mine. He was taller than I’d imagined, his presence commanding, his expression unreadable.
“So, you’re the council’s solution,” he said, his voice cold and detached.
I met his gaze, refusing to back down. “And you’re the Alpha King,” I replied, my tone sharp. “The council didn’t mention how charming you’d be.”
A flicker of something, amusement, maybe, crossed his face before it vanished. “You’ll find that charm isn’t my priority.”
“Good,” I shot back. “Because I’m not here to be charmed.”
The tension between us was palpable, the air crackling with unspoken challenges. I didn’t know what the future held, but one thing was certain: I wouldn’t let him break
Alden’s Betrayal
- me.
“I’m Kaelen.” A cold, yet dangerously hoarse voice spoke beside me.
I slowly turn to look who just spoke because that voice held power. Kaelen towered over me, his 6’4 frame exuding power and danger. His broad shoulders and chiseled features made him impossibly handsome, yet it was his piercing gray eyes, cold and calculating, that held me captive. When he spoke, his voice was sharp and commanding, each word sending icy shivers down my spine.
“The…then who might you be if he’s Alpha Kaelen?” I asked, now standing in between the two towering figures.
“I’m his Beta, Dorian Vale.” He introduce as he slowly bows his head to Me.
“My apologies, My Lord,” I lowered my head in a bow, feeling a bit embarrassed by his cold stare and then I caught a smirk on the lips of his Beta as he excuses himself.
Usla, my wolf, stirred, her presence bristling with recognition.
‘Fate‘ she whispered. I could feel his wolf, an overwhe
Iming force of raw masculinity, ruthless, enigmatic and.dominance.
“I’m Usla,” she said cautiously inside of me.
“I’m Vedmus,” his wolf replied, a dark promise in his tone. “Welcome home, fated mate. After the knot, it begins.”
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