---- Chapter 25 Damien POV: | knelt in the mud and rain for what felt like an eternity. My body was numb with cold, my hope dwindling with every passing second. | was about to give up, to accept that this was my fate-to die outside the gates of a paradise | had thrown away-when the warrior appeared. He wasn't a shimmering illusion this time, but a solid presence, his silver armor deflecting the raindrops. "The Princess will see you," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. A wild, desperate joy surged through me. She would see me! She still cared. She still loved me. Of course she did. We were Mates. The Goddess wouldn't be so cruel. "Thank you," | gasped, scrambling to my feet. "Thank you." He didn't lead me toward the magnificent main gates. Instead, he took me down a muddy side path to a small, unassuming door. The service entrance. "You will wear this," he said, handing me a simple, grey tunic. The kind Omegas wore. My pride, what little | had left, bristled. An Alpha's status is everything. To be dressed as an Omega was the ultimate ---- humiliation, a public stripping of my identity. But | swallowed it down, stripping off my soaked, ruined clothes and pulling on the rough-spun garment. | would endure anything to see her. He led me through a labyrinth of stone corridors, the air growing warmer, the scent of moonpetals and old magic growing stronger. Then, we emerged into the main hall. | stopped dead, my breath catching in my throat. The room was a cavern of impossible beauty. The ceiling was a dome of living starlight, and the walls were polished marble that reflected the glow of a thousand floating lights. The power in the room was overwhelming, a physical pressure of ancient lineage and pure magic that made my knees weak. My pack, my entire life's work, was a child's sandcastle compared to this. And then | saw her. She was standing on a raised dais, surrounded by the most powerful Alphas in the world. She wasn't the quiet, unassuming girl | had known. She wore a gown of shimmering silver, and a simple circlet of moonstone rested on her brow. Her silver-white hair cascaded down her back, and her aura... it was breathtaking. The power of the White Wolf radiated from her, a calm, majestic light that made her look like the Goddess herself. She was the most beautiful thing | had ever seen. And | was a worm, crawling in the dirt at her feet. ---- Our eyes met across the vast hall. For a single, heart-stopping second, | saw a flicker of something. Recognition? Pain? Then it was gone, replaced by a look so cold, so utterly indifferent, it was like being plunged into a frozen lake. She turned away as if | were nothing more than a piece of furniture. The warrior led me to the edge of the crowd and left me there. | stood, dripping and shivering in my Omega tunic, while she laughed and talked with other Alphas, never once glancing in my direction. The wait was a special kind of torture. Finally, after an age, the crowd parted. She descended from the dais and walked toward me. My heart hammered against my ribs. This was it. | would explain everything. | would beg. | would fall at her feet. | took a step forward, my arms outstretched, the need to hold her, to smell her scent of vanilla and moonlight, an all- consuming fire. "Elara," | whispered, my voice breaking. She didn't slow down. With a grace that was almost insulting, she sidestepped my clumsy advance, putting a yard of cold air between us. She stopped and looked at me, her violet eyes holding no warmth, no love, no hate. Just a distant, chilling politeness. "Alpha Damien," she said, her voice like the chime of cold bells. "You wished to see me?"