From Rejected Rogue to Alpha Queen: The Sterling Legacy

I was trapped in a cage made of pure silver, my skin sizzling against the bars, while my Fated Mate stood outside checking his watch.

"Not yet, Elena," Damien said coldly. "Victoria's son must be born first to secure the prophecy."

I was in active labor, but he pressed a button on a remote. A magical collar clamped around my neck, seizing my muscles and forcing my unborn baby to stay inside, suspending the birth in agonizing tension.

I screamed through our Mind-Link, begging him to save our son, but he severed the connection.

He called our child a mongrel and walked away to be with his brother's wife.

While I lay dying in a pool of black and gold blood, poisoned by his sister, Damien was next door celebrating the birth of another man's child.

When the doctor told him I was flatlining, he told them to save the power for Victoria.

He didn't know I wasn't a rogue. I was the daughter of the Alpha Prime, the King of all wolves.

He killed his true son and his True Mate for a lie.

My father saved my body, but my heart died in that cage.

One year later, I returned as the CEO of the company holding all of Damien's debt.

He knelt before me, weeping, begging for his Luna back.

I stepped on his hand with my stiletto heel and smiled.

"Your Luna died in the basement, Alpha. I am just here to collect what you owe."

Chapter 1

Elena POV:

The smell of my own burning flesh was the first thing that hit me.

It was a sharp, acrid scent that overpowered the damp mold of the basement. I shifted my weight, trying to find a comfortable position on the cold concrete floor, but my shoulder brushed against the bars.

Hisss.

Smoke rose from my skin. I bit my lip so hard I tasted iron, refusing to scream.

I was trapped in a cage made of pure silver.

In our world, silver is the only thing that can truly hurt a werewolf. It acts like acid against our skin and neutralizes our accelerated healing ability. For a pregnant wolf like me, it was a death sentence.

"Damien," I whispered, my voice raspy from days of dehydration. "Please."

My stomach tightened. Another contraction. It felt like a giant hand was squeezing my insides, trying to wring the life out of me.

Damien stood on the other side of the silver bars. He was the Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, the leader of hundreds of wolves. He was tall, with broad shoulders and eyes the color of stormy seas.

He was also my Fated Mate.

The Moon Goddess, our deity, pairs every wolf with a perfect match. When you meet your mate, you smell a scent that drives you crazy. For me, Damien smelled like rain and dark chocolate.

But he didn't want me. To him, I was just a Rogue-a wolf without a pack, a beggar with no status. He didn't know I was the daughter of the Alpha Prime, the king of all wolves. I had hidden my scent to find true love.

What a stupid, naive girl I was.

Damien looked at his watch, ignoring my pain.

*"Not yet, Elena," he said, his voice devoid of warmth.*

"I... I can't," I gasped, clutching my swollen belly. "The baby... he wants to come out."

*Damien didn't shout. He simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote with a single red button.*

*"The Shaman was clear. Victoria's son must be the firstborn of the week to secure the prophecy's blessing. Yours is coming too early."*

*He pressed the button.*

*The silver collar clamped around my neck hummed with a sickly violet light. A magical inhibitor-a Stasis Hex. It didn't just stop me from moving; it seized my involuntary muscles, locking my uterus in a state of suspended, agonizing tension.*

*"Stop!" I choked, the unnatural pressure crushing my insides. "You're suffocating him!"*

"You know the prophecy," Damien said, adjusting his expensive cufflinks, *ignoring the violet light pulsing against my throat.* "Victoria is in labor upstairs. Her son must be born first."

Victoria. His dead brother's wife. The woman he treated like a Luna, the queen of the pack, while I rotted in a cage.

"You are killing him," I wheezed, tears streaming down my face. "Damien, this is your son too."

"Don't lie to me," he sneered. "A Rogue like you probably slept with half the border patrol. That mongrel isn't mine."

He turned his back on me.

"Wait! Damien!"

He walked away. The heavy iron door slammed shut, plunging me back into the dim light.

*The Stasis Hex held firm, fighting nature itself. My body was a battlefield between the biological urge to push and the magical chains holding the baby in.*

Then, the water broke.

A gush of fluid soaked the dirty rags I was sitting on. *The Hex short-circuited against the sudden biological shift, snapping with a spark that burned my neck.* The pain that followed was blinding. It wasn't just a contraction; it was a tearing sensation.

I tried to reach out to him with my mind.

Wolves in a pack, and especially mates, share a telepathic connection called the Mind-Link.

*Damien,* I screamed internally. *Please, the baby is stuck. Help me!*

Silence.

It wasn't just that he wasn't answering. I hit a wall. A cold, static wall. He had blocked me. He had severed the mental line.

It was the ultimate rejection.

"Ahhhhh!"

I couldn't hold it back anymore. I screamed. The sound bounced off the damp walls, raw and guttural.

The silver dust from the bars was seeping into my pores. I could feel the poison entering my bloodstream. My inner wolf, usually a source of strength, was whimpering, curled up in the back of my mind. She was too weak to help me shift.

The door creaked open again.

Hope flared in my chest. "Damien?"

But it wasn't him. It was Sophia, his younger sister. She wore a silk dress and held a handkerchief over her nose, looking at me like I was a pile of garbage.

"Shut up, you filth," Sophia spat. "Victoria is trying to breathe through her contractions upstairs. Your screaming is stressing her out."

"Sophia... help me," I begged, crawling toward the bars. My knees scraped against the concrete. "The cage... open it. I need to shift to give birth. The silver... it's killing the baby."

Sophia smiled. It was a cruel, twisted smile.

"That's the point, isn't it?"

She walked up to the cage. Instead of reaching for the key, she kicked the silver bars.

Clang!

The vibration sent a shower of silver dust falling onto my exposed arms.

"No!" I shrieked as the dust burned holes into my skin.

"Damien says you're faking it," Sophia said, tapping her temple. "Let me ask him what to do with you."

I saw her eyes glaze over. She was using the Mind-Link.

I saw my chance. The link was open.

I gathered every ounce of strength I had left. I didn't aim for Sophia. I used her open connection as a bridge to blast my voice directly into the pack's collective mind.

*DAMIEN! SAVE OUR SON! HE IS DYING!*

It was a soul-roar. I felt the drain immediately, my vision blurring.

Upstairs, in the luxury suite, Damien must have flinched. The Mate Bond, even if he denied it, meant he would feel a phantom pain in his chest when I was in this much distress.

For a second, silence reigned.

Then, a sickly sweet voice echoed in everyone's head. It was Victoria.

*Oh, Damien... my stomach... that witch is using black magic on me! She's cursing our baby from the basement! It hurts!*

The change in Damien's energy was instant. I could feel his rage vibrating through the floorboards.

His voice thundered through the Mind-Link, cold and deadly.

*Make her shut up, Sophia. If she speaks again, cut out her tongue. Don't let her out until Victoria is done.*

Sophia looked at me, her eyes returning to focus. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a dagger.

The blade wasn't steel. It was pure, dull silver.

"You heard the Alpha," Sophia whispered. "Time to be quiet, little Rogue."