Chapter 4

Chapter 4. The Unthinkable Offer

As Lily walked to the forgotten trail near the old Crescent Moon border, the wind carried a heavy, wet bark, earthy, raw, and unwelcoming aura. Beneath the aura was the echo of old betrayals that refused to stay buried.

Her steps were deliberate, slow, as if the earth itself needed warning of her mood. She hadn’t come here to remember; she came to forget, but the forest had a cruel memory. Every broken twig beneath her boots echoed with the weight of names that once meant safety, and now only meant survival.

The old border trail hadn’t seen foot traffic in months. Overgrown weeds curled around forgotten stones, and the scent of pine blanketed the cold air like a memory. Lily walked it alone, letting the quiet press against her ears. This part of Crescent Moon had been abandoned after the northern annexation. Wolves called it ghost ground now, which made it perfect.

No curious eyes, no gossipers, and no traitors dressed as allies. Lily was seated by their swimming pool. She wore a hoodie over her head. And snugly wrapped herself in a coat.

As Lily closed her eyes and focused on her rejection and the problems her family was going through. Then, a hawk cried in the forest nearby. Footsteps, not hurried but cautious and Deliberate steps. She didn’t turn. She didn’t need to. The air shifted before he even spoke.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

She didn’t respond.

Jace stepped closer, the Alpha scent he carried pushing against the atmosphere like arrogance made flesh. His coat was clean. His boots are polished. His jaw was freshly shaved. He looked like a power pretending to be casual.

“You’re hard to track,” he added.

“I wasn’t hiding.”

“You left the inner district.”

She stood slowly. Calm. Controlled.

“I left the rot.”

Jace smiled, the curve of it sharp enough to cut.

“I came to offer a solution,” Jace said carelessly.

“You shouldn’t have come at all,” Lily smirked.

Jace brought out a slim box and black velvet from his pocket. He opened it. Inside was a pendant. An Intricate gold with a design that indicated old power and new money.

“A gift,” he said.

Lily didn’t touch the box. Her gaze drifted to the tree line beyond his shoulder.

“You always think a pretty object will fix what your words destroy,” she said quietly. “But I’ve seen your kind of generosity. It comes wrapped in chains.”

Her voice was even, but something sharp brewed beneath it. Lily stared at it for a beat, then looked at him.

“You’re joking.”

“I’m serious.”

She didn’t move.

He continued, “I have obligations now. Elena is... well, she suits the politics. But you''

“Finish that sentence,” she said, voice flat.

“You understand the reality of things. You’ve seen what ambition costs. I don’t want to destroy you.”

“You already did.”

“I want to give you a way back in. Quietly.”

She circled him once, slow and deliberate.

“Let me guess. I get a townhouse in the city. A driver I can’t trust. Empty promises. And a guard who reports everything back to your new Luna.”

Her smirk was bitter.

“You want obedience, not companionship.”

There it was.

Not love. Not regret. Just ownership repackaged as mercy.

“You’re offering me scraps,” she said.

“You’ve always mistaken my silence for submission,” she added.

“But I was never soft. I was just patient.”

Her fingers curled slightly at her side, her pulse steady, her anger exact.

“I’m offering you a position, protection, and my attention.”

She stepped forward.

The slap echoed across the trees. Then her hand moved, not in hesitation, but in justice. It landed with the sound of everything she had endured and everything she refused to be again.

The slap wasn’t just painful but deadly. It knocked the air out of him. Jace’s head jerked to one side, and his stare flushed out from his eyes. His jaw tightened, and his breath hitched. His pride was bruised.

Lily leaned in.

Her voice didn’t waver.

“I’d rather sleep with your father-in-law than ever be with you.”

Silence. Not even the wind dared interrupt.

Jace blinked. Once. Twice.

Then stepped back, his hand brushing his face, his expression unreadable.

Not anger. Not shame. Just confusion—like for the first time, he wasn’t sure he held the upper hand.

“You should be careful,” he said quietly.

“Of what?”

“Making enemies of Alphas.”

She tilted her head.

“I don’t fear Alphas who beg for what they already threw away.”

He didn’t answer. Just turned and walked into the fog, his steps too fast to be casual.

She didn’t watch him go. She didn’t need to. He’d already lost her. And he knew it.

Back at the estate, her disposition changed. Lily stood in front of the mirror and reflected on all that had happened between them by the pool. The pendant he’d tried to offer was crushed under her boot.

She’d dropped it when she returned and stepped on it without a second thought.

Her mother entered quietly.

“You saw him.”

Lily nodded.

“Did he threaten you?”

“Worse,” she said. “He underestimated me.” They didn’t speak after that, and there was no need. That night, Lily lit a fire in the hearth. Not for warmth. For ritual.

She burned every photograph of Jace from the family records. Every invitation with his seal. Every leftover ribbon from the choosing ceremony.

All of it turned to black curls and embers.

She sat and watched until nothing was left but ash.

And then she whispered, “Never again. Not to him and not to fate''

''I had fallen and I bled. Now I would rise, and if anyone tried to stop me. They’d learn what ruin felt like, too.''

She got up from the ground, the firelight creating shadows on her face. The ash on her fingers prepared her for the battle.

Her wolf awakened, ceasing to whimper and instead observing and anticipating. A howl pierced the night beyond, deep, harsh, and strange.

Not out of Crescent Moon. Something ancient. Something limitless. Lily remained unperturbed. The chase had started, and this time, she would not be the target.