Chapter 4 A Rival Arrives

• The news ripped through the Silver-Moon pack like a wildfire laced with poison, scorching the fragile aspirations of every high-ranking female.
• “He said vessel!” Lyra hissed, her voice taut with disbelief and fury. She was pacing her chambers—a sprawling suite of her luxurious family mansion. With a choked sound of utter rage, she smashed a priceless crystal vase from a marble pedestal. The sharp crash echoed the destructive force of her indignation.
• Her father, Elder Bernard, a powerful, calculating figure and the main elder on the council, watched her with paternal indulgence, a shrewd glint in his eye as he took a slow sip of aged scotch.
• “He did, my little Lyra. A vessel. That is precisely the word he used,” Bernard confirmed, utterly unruffled. Lyra, stunning and dangerous even in her destructive rage, spun on him.
• “A slave! A pathetic half-breed who couldn’t even shift! And you allowed this disgrace, Father? I'm Lyra, the daughter of the Alpha’s Chief Advisor! My blood is pure! I was meant to stand beside him!” Her short, dark hair seemed to vibrate with her fury, and her aristocratic face was drawn tight with venomous jealousy.
• Bernard stood, placing his heavy glass down with a definitive click. He crossed the room, placing firm, steadying hands on her trembling shoulders.
• “Listen to me, Lyra. You are still the intended Luna…that slave is nothing more than a biological function…” Bernard remarked as he took a step forward, “A means to an end… Fenris views marriage as a weakness and women as tools. He chose a slave because she comes with no strings, no demands, and no political power to challenge him.” He added as he removed his hands and slowly walked back to the sofa.
• “But the heir!” Lyra’s voice cracked with raw, wounded pride.
• “The heir will be born in this pack, raised by this pack, and will need a Luna…a Queen—to guide him,” Bernard reassured her, his eyes gleaming with ambition. “That role, my daughter, belongs only to you. No female, least of all a filthy, unshifted captive, will take your place. Now, calm yourself. You must appear unaffected.”
• Lyra inhaled a shuddering breath, her mind clicking back into the cunning focus she was known for. She was spoiled, but she was also ruthless.
• “I need to see her,” she stated, her voice dangerously quiet now. “I need to know what that disgusting creature possesses that the Alpha sees fit to keep her breathing.”
• Bernard shrugged, the shadow of a smile touching his lips.
• “Lyra, no…the Alpha hates chaos he didn't initiate.” Bernard tried to stop her, but she was already out of his sight.
• ____
• Elara POV
• I was back in the absolute darkness of the dungeon. The chilling stone floor mocked the pain throbbing from my earlier humiliation. I had been thrown down roughly, still dizzy from the Alpha’s overwhelming presence. The wounds on my arms and head were now festering. I thought my day of agony was finally over.
• “W-water, p-please,” I tried to plead, but no one was there. The silence was shattered by the screech of the heavy door and the sudden, flickering intrusion of torchlight. I squinted against the light, watching as the shadows of two massive guards bowed low, practically scraping their heads on the floor before the figure who had just entered.
• The woman was my age, with a fierce, arrogant beauty and short, dark hair that framed a face contorted with cold disgust.
• “Well, well. Look what the Alpha dragged in,” Lyra drawled, stepping over the threshold as if crossing into a sewer. She moved with an inherent, entitled grace that made me feel even more degraded.
• “The notorious vessel,” Lyra spat the word, kicking my ribs with the tip of her perfectly polished boot. I didn't know who she was, but the way the guards obeyed her made me think she held a special position.
• “In case you didn't know… I'm Lyra…your worst nightmare,” she said sarcastically while she stepped on my leg ferociously. I gasped, the breath driven violently from my lungs, but I bit back the scream. Lyra turned to the guards, her tone one of bored command.
• "How pathetic are you," she bent down and took me by the neck viciously. Her sharp nails dug in my flesh as she tilted my head up. Lyra scoffed seeing nothing special about the female, she was ugly that the alpha would keep her, talk of laying with her. This was a taint to her name, the alpha having sex with a pathetic slave. How humiliating.
• “Bring me the lash. And the tongs. Let’s clean up this rubbish before the Alpha decides he’s keeping a decaying pet.” She gave orders as she tossed me back on the cold floor.
• The guards moved instantly, their fear of Lyra overriding the Alpha’s indirect order to keep the prisoner intact. They returned, carrying a heavy leather lash and a pair of cruel, serrated metal tongs. Lyra knelt, her eyes burning into mine.
• “Why? Why do you exist? You are nothing but a slave, too weak to even become a wolf. The Alpha keeps trash out of morbid curiosity, but to allow a broken, worthless creature like you to carry his blood?” She grabbed a handful of my matted, bloody hair and yanked my head back.
• “Ahhh!”
• “You do not deserve his heir. You are a stain on this lineage.” Lyra made a low yell as she added more pressure that I couldn't take it anymore. Tears flooded my eyes, but I bit them back. She stood, taking the lash from the guard. The first strike landed across my back with a sickening crack. I bit down so hard I tasted blood, refusing to give Lyra the satisfaction of a scream.
• “Endure it, bitch. This is the first lesson. You are a slave. I am the future, Luna. You will never be more than dirt beneath my boot.”
• The whipping became a blur of excruciating, rhythmic pain. Lyra was merciless, aiming for the open wounds, using the pain to fuel her own bitter resentment. I tried to shift, tried to fight, but the physical starvation and the spiritual agony from the trauma left me pathetically weak. All I could do was endure the excruciating pain, my mind dissolving into a haze of white-hot agony.
• Lyra finally dropped the lash, breathing heavily, but her eyes shone with triumph. She picked up the tongs, using them to twist and squeeze the already bruised flesh on my arm.
• “Listen to me, half-breed. When that child is born, you will be discarded.” She yelled through gritted teeth, her eyes shone with hate that I didn't know existed. Even the bullies I endured back at the pack were nothing compared to this.
• “You will be skinned and buried. I will ensure no one even remembers your miserable name. You are not a mother; you are a service. A slave. And you will fail him!” Lyra seemed to be savoring the punishment until my body went slack. “What's going on here?” I heard someone say, I recognized that voice even without seeing the person. From the door, a shadow of a man emerged. All rugged and dressed in black. My vision was blurred, my head lolling back as I finally succumbed to the darkness of unconsciousness.
• Lyra straightened, wiping her hands with fastidious disgust as Kai walked in.
• “What's all this, Lyra?” Kai asked with narrowed eyes as he turned to Lyra,
• “Doing what I always do…punish slaves…do you need anything…. Beta?” Lyra said as she gracefully turned around to meet Kai.
• “The alpha strictly forbade…”
• “She's nothing but a slave, Kai…since when do we treat them like they matter?” Lyra cut Kai off. Of course, Kai was aware of Lyra’s spoiled ways.
• “No one attends to her. No water. No food. If she dies, she dies. She is expendable.” Lyra gave her orders and turned to leave but stopped to glare at Kai before she walked away. The guards nodded, tossed Elara’s unconscious, broken body back onto the icy cold floor, and secured the bolts. Lyra stormed out, a cold, satisfied fury replacing her initial rage. She had a new, more important mission: demand answers from the Alpha himself.