The Alpha's Regret

Kaelen's POV

The heavy oak-paneled door of my office swung open. The sharp scent of nervous sweat hit my nose instantly. My Beta, Cade, stepped inside. His posture was tense, his shoulders rigid. He avoided my eyes, staring at the floorboards.

"Alpha Kaelen," Cade started, his voice wavering slightly. "The retired Alpha... your father has come. It seems we have a bit of a situation here."

Before I could press him for details or ask why he was sweating, heavy boots stomped down the hallway. My father marched into the room. His amber eyes locked onto mine with a fierce, unwavering glare that demanded total submission.

Cade sighed, confirming my worst fears. "The Alpha of the Midnight Azure pack is coming today with his daughter for formalising the engagement."

My hands slammed flat against the polished mahogany desk, rattling the inkwells. "What! Today?!" I roared, standing up.

"Yes, tonight!" my father demanded, stepping right up to the desk. His commanding tone left zero room for debate.

"Why didn't you discuss anything about this?" I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to shatter the furniture into splinters. I despised being ordered around like a mere pup. My authority in this pack was absolute. This felt like a direct, insulting challenge to it. "You know I want to find my mate before I can make my mind to accept an arranged mate!"

It was a blatant, dirty lie. The words tasted vile on my tongue. I had already found my fated mate—a fragile, broken slave named Elara—and I had ruthlessly rejected her to protect my image and my pack's pride. But my father growled about his desperate, dying wish for grandchildren, leaning heavily against the wood. Knowing exactly how profoundly lonely he had been since my beloved mother died, the fight slowly drained out of me. I reluctantly relented.

"Alright..." I ground out, my claws retracting painfully. "But don't expect me to agree on everything you say!"

I shoved past them, leaving the stifling confines of my office to clear my throbbing head. My traitorous thoughts drifted right back to the intoxicating night I spent tangled in the sheets with Elara. I could still smell her sweet scent, still feel the desperate heat of her skin against mine. Try as I might, I couldn't erase her delicate, tear-stained face from my mind. I kept reminding myself she was just a filthy slave, unfit to stand by my side as Luna of a warrior pack.

Deep inside my consciousness, my powerful wolf, Fenris, grumbled. *'You didn't even ask me!'*

He bared his fangs in the darkness of my mind. He had been furious and silent ever since I arrogantly rejected our true mate without his consent, tearing our soul in half.

Turning a sharp corner in the dimly lit corridor, I abruptly collided with a delicate, fragile figure.

It was Elara.

She stumbled back. When she immediately offered a dramatic, submissive apology, hot irritation flared within my chest. Was she mocking me? I stepped forward and grabbed her waist tightly as she struggled to pull away. I expected her to be powerless against me, but something felt wrong. Her waist had noticeably shrunken beneath my hands. When I gripped her arms to hold her still, her tiny wrists felt fragile enough to snap under the slightest application of pressure. She felt hollowed out.

Then, the terrifying realization hit me. I stared down at her, reaching out with my inner senses, but I hit a dead wall. I couldn't feel her wolf. The tether was dead.

"Where's your wolf...?" I demanded, my voice rough with rising panic. "I can't sense her."

In the depths of my mind, Fenris grew frantic. He threw himself against my mental barriers, clawing at my sanity, trying to seize physical control of our body. *'Kaelen! I can't sense her at all... She's gone!'*

As she desperately thrashed against my unyielding hold, the thin fabric of her sleeve caught and tore open.

I froze, the air punching out of my lungs. Exposed under the harsh hallway light was a brutal, horrifying canvas of dark purple, unhealed bruises and deep scratches. They were severe, angry marks tracing down her delicate skin.

Fenris released a pitiful, agonizing whimper that echoed through my skull. *'She isn't healing... That only means that...'*

Her wolf was gone. Dead. Erased by the sheer trauma of my rejection. The severed bond had killed her inner beast. But how? The realization slammed into me like a physical blow. My chest and heart clenched in agonizingly painful ways as Elara's beautiful eyes welled thick with unshed tears.

She glared up at me, telling me with pure venom that it was none of my business. She choked back a heartbreaking sob. The raw pain echoing in her delicate voice dropped my heart down into the pit of my stomach. Despite having forcefully broken the sacred bond, I still felt her immense hurt tightly tethered to my very soul.

I let my hands drop. I stood paralyzed, rooted to my tracks in shock as she ripped herself away from me and ran down the hall, her footsteps echoing into the silence.

Every single fiber, every primal instinct of my being screamed at me to chase after her, to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness. But my stubborn pride won out. I chose to stay rooted to the cold stone ground.

If only I had gone.

I regretted that single decision deeply. That fateful moment in the corridor was the last time I ever saw her face.

Hours later, the heavy atmosphere of the pack house shifted into roaring celebration. The loud boom of fireworks shook the grand hall as my lavish engagement was finalized. I stood rigidly on the dais beside Alpha Varrick and his daughter, swallowing down the bitter taste of my own choices while the crowd cheered for the new political alliance.

Then, the heavy oak doors at the back of the hall burst open. A guard from the border patrols shoved his way frantically through the dancing pack members, sprinting directly toward the dais.

"Alpha Kaelen!" the guard panted, dropping to one knee. The celebratory music abruptly cut off. "A slave has slipped through the defenses and escaped into the forest!"

My stomach plummeted. I didn't even need to ask who it was. The suffocating emptiness in my chest confirmed it. It was Elara who had run away.

She had vanished into the night, leaving me standing in a room full of cheering strangers, drowning in a haunting sense of guilt and the agonizing realization of what I had truly destroyed.