Chapter 3– Banished, not broken.

~Kyra~

Fate doesn’t whisper to you when it’s coming. No, it snaps your neck mid-stride, without mercy or warning.

The exile spell had already begun to eat me from the inside. My legs trembled, hands shook. A tear slid out of my eyes as reality crashed down on me.

I was banished. Exiled. I was no longer the Alpha princess. I no longer had a home. I was now an orphan.

Alone.

The energy I’d felt in my veins was no longer as strong, hell. It was like it didn’t exist.

I’d barely made it through the black river, an empty land that had never been claimed for years when I was sent flying backward by a huge force.

A wolf. A massive wolf. Banewolff wolf.

News must have spread around about my banishment. If I wasn’t dead in two days, then I would be dead in the hands of rogues or wolves who hated my father; our pack.

I tried to scramble to my feet, but another wolf pinned me down. More began to emerge from different corners of the forest. Fear rooted deep into my chest, but I refused to let it show.

I tried to summon whatever magic I had left, but it was only a weak flickering flame. “Get your hands off me!” I screamed out in panic.

The wolf's eyes gleamed with triumph, and it only infuriated me more. I struggled to slip out of his hold, sending a quick blow to his nose, which made me grin in satisfaction at the sounding crack, but that was short-lived when more of the wolves surrounded me.

I was outnumbered. Five to one. I didn’t get the chance to react when they threw me to the ground.

Shackled and half-conscious, they dragged me like a common prisoner—a feral beast paraded through their pack like a trophy until the full moon appeared in the sky. Humiliation burned into my skin. I, the Alpha princess, have been reduced to nothing.

But I didn’t lower my head. Not even once. And I wasn’t going to beg. I wasn’t going to show any weakness to them.

Because wolves like them? They feast on weaknesses. And I refused to be their meal.

The Banewolff warriors sneered as they shoved me forward. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I smiled anyway, pretending like any of this wasn’t humiliating, downgrading.

In the center of the crowd, he stood, rippling off power and authority.

Tristan Banewolff.

Alpha Tristan Banewolff.

He was taller than I remembered, colder too. He looked at me like I was filth he couldn’t wait to scrape off his boots.

Dressed in a black open-button shirt and black pants, His arms were folded, power bleeding off him in thick waves. His eyes held something in them, something dark, full of barely reigned rage. I remembered those eyes three years ago when he barged into our courtyard foaming at the mouth, screaming and calling us names like some unhinged beast. Although he wasn’t raging like a feral beast now, it seems like someone knows how to control their anger now.

“Kyra Ferguson,” he drawled my name like it was filth on his tongue. “On your knees.”

A bitter laugh coiled out of me. “Is this your kink now?” I sneered, raising my head even as exhaustion clung to my bones. “Making women kneel before you to make you feel superior?”

Gasps rippled behind me like I’d struck the Alpha with a blade. What now? The Alpha can’t be talked back to?

His nostrils flared. A vein tickled at his jaw. His eyes hardened. He took a step forward, slow, deliberate. “On your knees, Ferguson scum, or I will put you there myself.” He growled.

The entire courtyard went still again. The wolves around us leaned in, eyes gleaming with hunger. They want to see me crawl. They want to see me break.

Too bad for them, I was already broken and yet still standing until the day I took my last breath.

“I don’t kneel for men lower than me,” I hissed, lifting my chin. “Especially not the ones foaming at the mouth.”

Ripples of murmurs moved through the crowd. A few of the words I caught. They thought I was arrogant, I was disrespectful, and too proud. They expected me to bow, to beg, but I will do neither of those things.

Tristan lifted a brow, his eyes unreadable. I didn’t know what he was thinking since his expression was stoic except for the tick in his jaw. After a long silence, he spoke. “For someone who just got banished, and lost her home, you sure have a lot of pride.”

I shrugged, managing to push down the wince when I felt a sharp pain from the movement. “I’m banished, not broken, Alpha.”

He nodded, his lips curling into a wicked smile, “not yet.”

“Why am I even here?” I managed a look around, and I could see the impatience in the eyes of his pack members, the hatred, the despise. “To amuse you? Or maybe kill me?” I let my face show disappointment, “You didn’t have to go that length, Alpha, in two days, I would be dead anyway. You should have used that energy on something else.”

His hand moved faster than I could blink—fingers around my throat, slamming me backward against the post behind me. Pain flared at the back of my skull, I didn’t cry. I couldn’t breathe even.

“You want death?” His voice was cold, devoid of any emotion as he looked down on me with those deep black eyes. “I could give it to you. End you right now.”

“Then do it!” I hissed, feeling the air slowly leaving my lungs, my eyes burned from the strain on my lungs. “Satisfy your cravings.”

For a second, just one, his grip tightened.

And then it loosened.

He smiled, “Oh, no.” his voice was low and venomous. “You don’t get to die, not today, not until I say so. You see, death will free you. I don’t want that,” he spat. “What I want is to see you broken, useless. Until I see that pride burn out of your eyes, leaving it empty and soulless.”

“Then you have a long way to go.” I gritted through clenched teeth.

“Do I?” He murmured, his eyes narrowed on me as if he was in a deep thought, and then he smiled slightly. “You’ve just given me a better idea.”

I leaned back, “another dog collar and leash?”

He smirked, “you will see.”

The courtyard shifted, murmuring their confusion that mirrored mine, but innever let it show on my face. Tristan lifted his head and then nodded as if he was waiting for something. Or rather someone.

Three robed figures stepped into view. Elders. Ancient eyes narrowed on me, filled with hatred. And disgusts like i was an abomination.

“Alpha Tristan,” a woman spoke, she stood in the middle. Her eyes settled on me, cold. “You summoned us.”

“I did,” Tristan replied. “I wanted you all to be present when I capture the Ferguson princess.”

I felt their eyes on me again before one person spoke again. “What do you intend to do with her, Alpha?”

“I’m going to keep her here. Punish her, break her, and when I’m satisfied, I will give her a slow, painful death for her sins.”

“She’s a witch. Isn’t that why she was banished? What if she uses her powers…”

“I’ve got a solution for that Elder Rowan.”

“She’s not going to live freely. She’s a prisoner here. Under my serve and command…"

“Like hell!” I found myself spitting out before I could even stop the words.

They all looked at me. The other male elder had a frown in his eyes. “She has a sharp mouth, Alpha. She won’t listen to you.”

Tristan smiled. This time, it was a full-blown one. Genuine. “Oh, she will. Not when the Blood pact will be used, she has no choice but to obey my every command.”

His words rang in my head. Blood pact. He wants to own me. He wants to control me. I won’t be able to escape. I won’t be able to kill but…

He also won’t be able to kill me.

There was an explanation about how the blood pact worked. It was something I didn't understand myself. It creates a bond that is very deep and connected. Kind of like joining two souls until it is broken.

“I don’t think this is a good idea, Alpha.” The woman spoke again.

Tristan sighed, then turned to her. “If the pact is formed, she can’t hurt anyone in the pack, and she’s under my control until I choose to do with her what I please.”

It all happened so quickly. One minute, I was standing, and the next, I was on my knees, palm bleeding. He held my palm with no empathy before he sliced his palm open, then pressed it together with mine.

“Say the words.” He gritted.

I tried to struggle, but his other hand was on my neck. “Say the fucking words.”

“No!”

He hissed, pressing my neck harder. His eyes flashed yellow and I felt my body froze. Alpha powers, he was going to force me to say it. And I couldn't resist, because right now, I was a rogue, packless. I was low in the fucking hierarchy.

“Say the fucking words!”

“Under the moon, with the goddess present, by blood, I bind. By blood, I pledge. By blood, I serve.” A tear slid out my eye as I spoke. Trying to stop myself from saying those words.

He let go of my neck, his palm still pressed to mine. “Under the moon, with the goddess present, by blood, I bind. By blood, I forge.”

Something snapped between us like a whip. My body jerked with a new force of energy. I heard the sharp intake of breath as his body stiffened just as his eyes went wide.

“What did you do?!” He growled, eyes filled with rage and horror.

I couldn’t breathe properly, I couldn’t speak properly. “I- I didn’t do anything…”

“No,” he whispered, stepping back. “No. This can’t be.”