Chapter 2: Under Attack

~ Kaelen ~

The sickening reality of her forced subjugation settled into her bones the very moment Xavier walked out of her bedroom and straight into the adjoining master suite. Minutes later, the heavy, rhythmic slapping of flesh against flesh and loud, unabashed moans echoed right through the thin walls. Xavier was ruthlessly and eagerly bedding his fated mate, Daphne, completely unapologetic in his lust. He was driving his hard cock deep into Daphne’s wet pussy without bothering to be the least bit discreet. Each exaggerated, breathless moan from Daphne as she took his dick sent surging waves of agonizing, mate-bond pain crashing through Kaelen’s already broken body.

Her fractured ribs screamed in protest. Fresh, dark bruises began to physically manifest across her pale, battered skin, the brutal physiological torture of an Alpha actively fucking another woman while his bonded wife lay suffering next door. Kaelen clenched her jaw so hard her teeth ground together, hot tears rolling silently down her cheeks. She refused to sob aloud. She refused to give them the satisfaction of her absolute devastation.

"Hurry!" Kaelen’s loyal maid, Adeline, wept loudly beside the bed, her hands trembling as she urged the medical staff. "Hurry, can’t you see she is in excruciating pain?"

The pack doctor stood over Kaelen’s bed, his face pale, tight, and completely devoid of pity. He uncapped a needle, forced to pump heavy doses of morphine directly into Kaelen’s arm just so she could survive the sheer physical torment of Xavier's relentless infidelity. The cold liquid burned as it entered her bloodstream, slowly doing its dark magic, tricking her brain into numbness while her body continued to tear itself apart from the inside out.

Ever since Daphne smugly moved into the packhouse four months ago, Kaelen's life had rapidly degraded into a living, breathing hell. Daphne, Alpha Desmond’s pampered daughter, was no innocent woman, yet she played the weeping, white-lotus victim with effortless, terrifying cruelty.

On her very first day in the pack, Daphne had joined them for breakfast. She had looked at Kaelen with wide, tear-filled eyes, whimpering insincere apologies. "I’m sorry, Luna Kaelen. This is not what I had wanted for myself. I did not mean to get in between your marriage."

At that time, Kaelen still had her pride. She had bitterly and sharply retorted without missing a beat, "Really? Then why did you spread your legs for a married man?"

Xavier had slammed his fist on the table, fiercely and blindly defending his destined mate. "That’s enough, Kaelen! Can’t you see how Daphne meant no harm? Show respect, because she is also my mate, my destined."

From that day forward, Daphne had orchestrated multiple vicious schemes to cement Kaelen as the ultimate villain in Xavier's eyes. The absolute worst was when Daphne had maliciously faked a dramatic fall in the hallway right after Kaelen walked by. Daphne had collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach and screaming, "Xavier, I might have lost our baby! Kaelen walked past me too fast by accident!"

The betrayal of that moment still burned Kaelen’s soul. After a grueling year of trying to get pregnant herself, Kaelen and Xavier had never been blessed with a pup, yet Daphne had somehow gotten pregnant in her impossibly quick two months at the packhouse. Kaelen hadn't even touched her. She had simply been walking. But the truth didn't matter. Although Daphne didn't lose the baby, that single incident completely changed how Xavier treated Kaelen.

He had brutally struck her across the face for the very first time, the impact cracking her lip and shattering her heart. As punishment, he had dragged her down and thrown her into the cold, unforgiving stone dungeon for five days.

Now, Xavier actively resorted to violently tranquilizing her. Whenever his insatiable appetite for Daphne's body grew strong, he simply ordered the pack doctor to drug his wife into a stupor, leaving Kaelen's body constantly bruised, battered, and broken in the aftermath of their loud, aggressive fucking.

Through the haze of the morphine, the explicit moans fired up again in the next room, louder this time. Xavier and Daphne were going for another round.

"This cannot go on," the attending nurse whispered faintly, looking at the fresh purple marks blooming on Kaelen's collarbone. "How much more can Luna Kaelen take if Alpha Xavier cannot help himself? He should just reject her and set her free."

"But he is our Alpha," the doctor snapped back in a harsh, fearful whisper. "If you want to live, keep your opinions to yourself."

When Xavier finally satisfied all his depraved desires next door and the heavy silence returned to the suite, the doctor and nurse quietly packed their medical bags and left Kaelen’s quarters. Adeline remained behind, sobbing uncontrollably as she gently held Kaelen’s bruised hand. "This isn’t right, my dearest Luna. We must leave this place soon."

Completely unable to endure this continuous torture and hopelessly trapped by Xavier's stubborn, selfish refusal to reject her, Kaelen used the absolute last of her strength. She tightly gripped her weeping maid's hand, her heavy eyelids drooping as the medication threatened to drag her into a deep slumber.

"We must find Genevieve," Kaelen ordered, her voice a raw, desperate rasp. The elusive witch represented Kaelen's only glimmer of hope for escape.

"I am trying my best, my Luna," Adeline nodded frantically, wiping her tears. "Soon, I will find Genevieve for you."

Kaelen surrendered to the heavy medication, letting the dark, dreamless void swallow her whole.

***

The bitter, biting wind of the impoverished north border whipped through Kaelen’s light brown hair, but she hardly felt the cold. Here, far away from the opulent packhouse and the sickening sounds of her husband's betrayal, Kaelen found a brief, fleeting moment of solace.

"We love you, Luna Kaelen!" a group of ragged, dirt-smudged children shouted in unison, their bright eyes shining with adoration after Kaelen handed them heavy bags of fresh food and warm supplies.

During the rare breaks when her husband wasn’t vigorously screwing his mistress, Kaelen threw herself into performing her Luna duties. She compassionately distributed food to the less fortunate families stationed at the weakest boundary of their territory. Working with the pack members was therapeutic. It grounded her.

"Thank you, Luna. You have been so incredibly kind and considerate to us," a weary mother said, tears of genuine gratitude pooling in her eyes as she clutched a blanket Kaelen had brought.

"We are so lucky you are our Luna!" another young boy exclaimed, hugging a loaf of bread to his small chest.

An elderly woman, her face deeply lined with years of hardship, stepped forward and looked at Kaelen with profound sympathy. She gently took Kaelen’s battered hands, her thumbs brushing over the faint, lingering bruises on Kaelen's wrists. The older woman tenderly kissed Kaelen's forehead, establishing a gentle, heartbreaking mindlink that echoed in Kaelen's head.

*We know you love us, child. But whatever you choose to do, we will completely understand. You shouldn't stay in this hell just for our sake. Don't stay on our account.*

Tears pricked the corners of Kaelen’s eyes, deeply touched by the unconditional love and permission to leave. She may have lost the devotion of her husband, but the Midnight Moon Pack still loved her fiercely. This genuine respect was something the pampered, useless Daphne could never earn, no matter how many babies she carried.

Unlike Daphne, who spent her days crying, scheming, and focusing on fashion, Kaelen was the true, structural pillar of the pack. Over the past year, Kaelen had quietly and flawlessly managed their business ventures, designed their security strategies, and served the people. She quietly concealed a highly capable, dangerous, and mysterious past that not even Xavier knew anything about. It was her deepest secret.

As Kaelen and her small group resumed carrying the heavy bags of provisions, Adeline’s voice suddenly crackled in Kaelen’s mind, buzzing with suppressed excitement.

*Luna! Our contacts outside have almost successfully traced Genevieve's location. It won't be long now.*

*Good,* Kaelen mindlinked back, a rare, genuine spark of hope igniting in her chest. She waved at a group of children running past.

But that fragile hope was instantly violently shattered. Absolute panic erupted across the treeline.

"Luna!" A horrified, breathless warrior burst from the dense northern woods, sprinting toward Kaelen with wild, wide eyes. He tripped over his own boots, scrambling to his feet as he screamed, "Luna! Our scouts on this border have been brutally attacked! Over a hundred men are charging our way!"

Kaelen’s blood ran cold. She snapped her attention to the dense forest, her tactical acumen instantly sharpening. "What? Are they rogues?"

The warrior gasped for air, his face pale with sheer terror. "Luna, the scouts who reached out to me... I... I think they are already dead. I can't feel their signatures anymore. They failed to identify the hostiles, but the enemy is barely a kilometer out!"

Realizing with sharp, clinical precision that the perimeter had completely fallen, Kaelen didn't waste a single second screaming or panicking. She immediately and flawlessly took charge of the chaotic situation. The north border was exceptionally weak, a vulnerable flank that Xavier had arrogantly neglected to reinforce because he had spent the last four months entirely consumed by fucking Daphne.

"There is no time!" Kaelen barked, her voice cutting through the rising panic like a steel blade. She grabbed the trembling warrior by his tactical vest. "Bring all the people to the designated underground shelter as fast as you can! Hurry! Swift, organized evacuation—women and children first!"

She pushed the warrior forward and immediately expanded her mindlink, forcefully overriding the chaos by issuing loud, crisp orders to all nearby gammas and border patrols. She physically shoved paralyzed pack members toward the safety routes, grabbing crying children and thrusting them into the arms of running mothers.

With Adeline at her side, Kaelen orchestrated the massive evacuation, holding the rear until the very last impoverished family crossed the heavy steel threshold of the pack’s main underground shelter.

By the time Kaelen finally sprinted down the concrete stairs and arrived in the fortified bunker to ensure their safety, her chest heaving, she found Xavier and Daphne already there. They were cowering in the center of the room, surrounded by an elite guard. Xavier was pacing furiously, completely enraged by the sudden, violent intrusion on his territory.

"Who the hell has the nerve to attack my pack?!" Xavier loudly demanded, his face twisted in humiliated fury as he realized his neglected borders were completely overrun. "Why has no one given me a goddamn name yet?!"

Just as he roared, the heavy steel doors groaned. Beta Jonas sprinted into the bunker, abruptly shifting from his massive wolf form back into his naked human body. He didn't even bother to grab a pair of shorts. His chest was violently heaving, and his face hung heavy with absolute, paralyzing dread. The air in the bunker seemed to instantly plummet in temperature.

Jonas braced himself, his voice shaking as he delivered the chilling news to his Alpha. "It’s the cursed alpha, Soren Ames. He is the one orchestrating the attack."

Instant chills ran violently down Kaelen’s spine. The blood drained entirely from her face, leaving her as pale as a corpse. Her boots felt suddenly cemented to the concrete floor, completely freezing her in place behind Xavier's broad back. The air trapped in her lungs turned to ice.

Her trembling lips parted, and barely a whisper managed to escape into the suffocating silence of the bunker as she repeated the dreaded title.

"The cursed alpha?"

Over a year ago, Kaelen had desperately, recklessly fled from this very man in the dead of night. She had changed her identity, hidden her lethal skills, and buried herself in the mundane life of the Midnight Moon Pack to ensure he would never, ever track her down.

Now, listening to the muffled, booming sounds of explosions rattling the earth above them, it seemed her dark past was violently chasing after her. Her heart hammered against her bruised ribs in sheer, unadulterated horror. She mused into the terrifying darkness of her own mind, her breath catching in her throat. Had he finally found her? Was this entire bloody invasion solely meant to drag his runaway bride back?