With mounting frustration and confusion, the Elders proceed to the final stage: The Will Test, a confrontation with Anya's deepest fear. The magical energies coalesce to form a horrifying manifestation: a perfect, powerful clone of Kaelan, but infused with the arrogant, cruel authority of the Alpha she most feared—the pure embodiment of her perceived Lycan tyranny.
The phantom Alpha stands over her, not pleading, but issuing an absolute Command to submit, abandon her free will, and confess her lingering contempt for shifters. This is the ultimate trap: yielding to the command means failing the Rite, but resisting means facing the Alpha's fury.
Anya is paralyzed by the terrifying realism of the construct. Yet, she recalls Kaelan's true vulnerability—his tears over his past failure, his confession of strategic need—details the phantom Kaelan lacks. She realizes that true power is not command, but choice. She refuses the order, but instead of fighting, she challenges the phantom, forcing it to address her as an equal.
The magical construct strains under the contradictory reality. As it falters, Anya asserts her final, absolute choice: she declares her love for Kaelan, not the Alpha, but the flawed, devoted man who risks everything for her.
The strength of this uncoerced, chosen bond is too powerful for the magic. The phantom shatters, and the chamber is flooded with a brilliant, blinding light as the Rite completes.