Elara's P. O. V

“Elara Vale, you are hereby accused of treason and murder of Beta Aldric, Your punishment should be death. However, because of your years of service to this pack,”

“I grant you mercy.”

“But you will be banished from the Shadowclaw kingdom,” Kael declared.

The night the Alpha banished me was a full moon.

I remember that clearly.

Silver light spilled across the courtyard of the Shadowclaw Pack Kingdom.

Turning the stone beneath my feet into something cold and merciless.

The entire pack had gathered, their whispers crawling across my skin like insects.

"Traitor, murderer, witch."

I kept my chin high even though my hands trembled.

Because standing on the raised platform, before me was the only man whose opinion had ever mattered.

Alpha Kael.

The man who once swore he would never turn against me.

The man who now looked at me like I was a stranger.

Or worse.

“Step forward,” Kael commanded, his deep voice echoing across the courtyard.

I did.

Each step toward him felt like walking toward the edge of a cliff.

My heart raced so violently it almost drowned out the murmurs of the crowd.

I stopped a few feet from him.

Close enough to see the storm in his golden eyes.

Close enough to see the doubt he was trying so hard to bury.

“Do you deny the accusations against you?” he asked coldly.

The words struck harder than any blade.

Accusations.

As if the entire kingdom hadn’t already decided I was guilty.

I swallowed.

“My Alpha,” I said, forcing my voice not to shake. “You know me better than anyone. I would never betray the pack.”

A ripple of laughter broke through the crowd, cruel, mocking.

Behind Kael stood the pack council, their faces carved from stone.

And beside them was Lyria.

Her lips curved into a soft, innocent smile.

But her eyes gleamed with victory.

The same eyes that had watched silently when they found the body.

The same eyes that had looked directly at me before she screamed.

“Elara killed him!”

I clenched my fists.

“You found me beside the body,” I continued, my voice rising. “But that doesn’t mean I did it.”

“Then explain why the royal Beta died with your dagger coated in his blood.”

The question came from Elder Rowan.

Gasps rippled through the crowd, my throat tightened.

Because that part, that part was true, they had found the Beta lying on the forest floor.

My dagger was on the floor beside him, covered in his blood.

My hands were covered in his blood, but what they didn’t see, what no one believed was what happened before.

“I didn’t kill him,” I said.

Silence.

The wind rustled through the tall pines surrounding the courtyard.

Kael’s jaw tightened.

“You expect the entire kingdom to believe you were framed?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“And by who?”

My gaze drifted toward Lyria.

For a moment, her smile faltered, but only for a moment.

Because before I could speak, she stepped forward.

“My Alpha,” she said softly, bowing her head. “Elara was always jealous of the Beta’s position. Everyone knows she believed she deserved it.”

The crowd erupted again.

Lies.

All lies.

But the worst part?

Kael didn’t stop her.

“Enough,” he said finally.

The courtyard fell silent.

His eyes locked onto mine again, and for the first time in years, I couldn’t read him.

“Three witnesses claim they saw you enter the forest,” Kael said.

My stomach dropped.

Three?

That was impossible, I had gone alone.

“I didn’t,”

“And when the patrol found you,” he continued, cutting me off, “you were kneeling beside his body.”

Because I was trying to save him.

Because he had whispered something to me before he died.

Something I hadn’t told anyone.

Something that could destroy the entire kingdom.

But before I could speak,

Kael’s next words shattered everything.

“Elara Vale,” he said.

My breath caught.

“You are hereby accused of treason and the murder of Beta Aldric.”

A low growl rippled through the gathered wolves.

Some of them had been my friends once.

Now they looked at me like I was prey.

My eyes burned as I looked at Kael.

“You know I didn’t do this.”

For a fraction of a second,

Something flickered in his gaze.

Pain.

Then it disappeared.

The Alpha mask snapped back into place.

“Your punishment,” he continued, his voice hard as steel, “should be death.”

The crowd cheered.

My heart stopped.

But as Kael raised a hand, the cheering died instantly.

“However,” he said slowly, “because of your years of service to this pack,”

My pulse thundered.

“I grant you mercy.”

Mercy.

The word sounded like poison.

“You will be banished from the Shadowclaw kingdom,” Kael declared.

Gasps spread across the courtyard.

“You are forbidden from returning. If you step on our lands again,”

His silver eyes burned into mine.

“you will be executed.”

The world tilted.

Banished.

Stripped of my pack, my home, my family.

“You can’t do this,” I whispered.

But Kael’s face remained carved from ice.

“Guards,” he ordered.

Two warriors stepped forward immediately, their hands clamped onto my arms.

The crowd parted as they began dragging me toward the gates.

My chest felt like it was collapsing.

“Kael!” I shouted, twisting in their grip.

He didn’t move, didn’t speak, didn’t even look at me.

“You’re making a mistake!” I yelled. “Someone is lying to you!”

Still nothing.

The massive iron gates loomed ahead, once I crossed them, I would no longer belong to any pack, I would become a rogue, the lowest creature in the wolf world.

The guards shoved me forward, cold night air rushed against my face as the gates creaked open.

I stumbled onto the dirt road beyond the kingdom, and then, the gates slammed shut behind me and just like that, I had lost everything.

But as I stood there, shaking beneath the moonlight, a memory flashed in my mind.

The Beta’s dying voice.

The blood on his lips.

The terror in his eyes.

And the final words he whispered before he died.

“The Alpha must know the truth about his wolf.”

My breath hitched.

Because if what the Beta said was true , then Kael wasn’t just wrong about me.

He was in danger.

And the person who framed me weren’t finished yet.

Behind the closed gates of the Shadowclaw kingdom, something far darker had just begun.

And I had a terrifying feeling that my banishment was only the first move in a deadly game.