Daemon's POV
My wolf is going insane.
MATE! MATE! GO TO HER! MINE!
"Shut up," I growl through clenched teeth, but he's not listening. He's never not listened before. I'm an Alpha—wolves obey ME. But right now, my own wolf is treating me like I'm the passenger and he's driving.
And he's driving straight toward Kira Ashwood.
No. Impossible. The defect can't be—
SHE'S NOT A DEFECT! my wolf roars. SHE'S PERFECT! LOOK AT HER!
I stumble out the back door, and the scent hits me like a punch to the gut. Pine and wildflowers, rain and something sweet I can't name. It's everywhere, drowning out everything else, and my body is moving forward without my permission.
Then I see her.
Kira stands in the moonlight, and everything I thought I knew shatters.
She's not wolfless anymore. I can see it in the way she holds herself—taller, stronger, more confident. Her eyes are glowing faint gold, which means her wolf is right at the surface. And the scent—God, the scent is coming from HER.
"You," I breathe, and it comes out wrong. Accusatory. Angry.
Because I AM angry. This can't be happening. The Moon Goddess wouldn't pair me with her. Would she?
But the bond is already forming, a golden thread weaving between us, and I feel EVERYTHING. Her fear. Her shock. Her pain.
Her hatred of me.
That last one hits like a knife to the chest.
"No," Kira whispers, backing away. "This is wrong. This has to be wrong."
"You think I want this?" The words explode out of me before I can stop them. My wolf howls in protest, but I ignore him. "You think I want to be bonded to a worthless—"
"Finish that sentence," a voice growls, "and I'll break your jaw."
Zara Chen steps between us, her eyes flashing with her wolf. She's been Kira's guard dog since we were kids, always getting in my face, always defending the indefensible.
"Move," I snarl, using a touch of Alpha command.
"Make me," she snarls right back. Warrior-class wolves don't submit easily, and Zara would die before letting me hurt Kira.
Not that I want to hurt her. I don't. I just—
Then why did you call her worthless? my wolf demands. Why do you always hurt her?
I don't have an answer for that.
"Daemon?" Stella's voice cuts through the tension. "Daemon, what's going on? Why are you out here with—" She stops dead when she sees me staring at Kira. When she smells what everyone's about to smell.
"No." Stella's voice goes shrill. "NO! She can't be your mate! I'M your mate! We're ENGAGED!"
"We were never mates," I say flatly, not taking my eyes off Kira. "It was arranged by our fathers."
"But—but you're MINE!" Stella's pretty face twists into something ugly. "You can't want HER! She's nothing! She's a defect who couldn't even grow a wolf!"
"I'm not wolfless anymore." Kira's voice is quiet but strong. She lifts her chin, meeting my eyes for the first time in years without flinching. "My wolf just awakened. And she's telling me to run from you."
Something in my chest cracks at those words. Run from me. Like I'm the monster.
You ARE a monster to her, my wolf whispers. Think about what you've done.
Memories flood back. Pushing ten-year-old Kira into a mud puddle while my friends laughed. Mocking her in front of the whole school cafeteria. Telling her she'd be better off dead when she was trying to hide her tears.
I was sixteen. She was ten. And I made her childhood hell because my father taught me that weakness deserves no mercy.
The party guests are streaming out now, drawn by Stella's screaming. I see my father, Alpha Ryker, pushing through the crowd. His face is thunderous.
This is about to get much worse.
"Daemon Silvercrest." My father's voice carries Alpha command so strong that weaker wolves drop to their knees. "Explain why you're out here with the Ashwood defect instead of inside with your fiancée."
"She's not a defect," I hear myself say. "Her wolf awakened. And she's my—"
"DON'T!" My father's roar shakes the ground. "Don't you DARE say what I think you're about to say."
But everyone can smell it now. The mate bond forming between us, growing stronger every second we stand here. The crowd murmurs, shocked whispers spreading like wildfire.
Marcus and Helena Ashwood push forward. Kira's parents, who should be happy their daughter found such a powerful mate, look horrified instead.
"This is unacceptable," Marcus says, his face red. "Alpha Ryker, I apologize for my daughter's—"
"Your daughter did nothing wrong," Zara snaps. "The Moon Goddess chose them. You can't argue with fate."
"We can when fate makes MISTAKES!" Stella shrieks. She grabs my arm, her nails digging in. "Daemon, tell them! Tell them you choose ME!"
I look down at her perfectly manicured hand on my arm, then at Kira standing alone with only Zara beside her. No one else is defending her. Her own parents look like they wish she'd disappear.
And suddenly I see it clearly: my whole life, I've been taught that power matters most. That the strong deserve everything and the weak deserve nothing.
But Kira isn't weak. She survived eighteen years of abuse from her family, from me, from everyone. She survived without a wolf in a world where wolves are everything. And the second she finally gets her power, she's ready to throw away the most sacred bond our kind knows.
Because I made her that strong.
I made her that broken.
Fix it, my wolf pleads. We can fix this.
But before I can figure out how, my father speaks.
"Daemon." His voice is ice-cold. "Reject her. Now. That's an order."
An Alpha command from my own father. Meant to force my obedience.
But I'm an Alpha too. And Alpha commands don't work on other Alphas.
"No," I say clearly.
The crowd gasps.
My father's eyes flash red—his wolf is at the surface. "What did you just say to me?"
"I said no." My wolf surges forward, lending me strength. "I won't reject my mate."
For one second, I see something like pride in Kira's eyes.
Then her face hardens.
"Well, I will," she says, and my world tilts.
"Kira, don't—" I start moving toward her, but it's like trying to run through water.
"I, Kira Ashwood—" Her voice rings out clear and strong.
"STOP!" I'm shouting now, running, trying to reach her before she can finish. "Please, just wait—"
"—reject you, Daemon Silvercrest—"
"NO!" The word tears out of me, and I realize with horror that I'm begging. I've never begged for anything in my life, but I'm begging now. "Don't do this. Please. KIRA!"
"—as my mate."
The world explodes.
Pain like I've never known crashes through me. It feels like someone reached into my chest and ripped out my heart while it was still beating. The mate bond, barely formed, tears apart with a sound only we can hear—a scream of agony and loss.
I'm on my knees. When did I fall? I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't do anything except feel the wrongness of what just happened.
Through the pain, I see Kira collapse too. But she's stronger—or maybe she hates me enough to push through it. She forces herself to stand, to shift.
Her wolf is magnificent.
Silver-white fur that glows in the moonlight. Golden eyes blazing with power and pain. She's not just any wolf—she's something rare, something special.
And she's running away from me.
"KIRA!" I scream her name, but she's already disappearing into the forest.
My wolf takes over completely. I shift without meaning to, and the howl that comes out is nothing human. It's pure anguish, pure loss, the sound of something dying.
The entire pack feels it. I see wolves covering their ears, pups crying, even my father looks shaken.
GO AFTER HER! my wolf roars.
"She rejected us," I whisper in my mind.
THEN MAKE HER UNREJECT US! SHE'S OURS! WE'RE HERS! FIX IT!
But I don't know how to fix this. I don't know how to fix anything I've broken.
I shift back to human form, barely noticing that I'm naked and bleeding from shifting too fast. Cain, my cousin and best friend, throws a blanket over me.
"Daemon," he says carefully. "Are you—"
"She rejected me," I say blankly. "My mate rejected me."
"Yeah, she did." Cain doesn't sugarcoat it. "And you deserved it."
I look up at him, and he doesn't flinch.
"You made her life hell for eight years," Cain continues. "You bullied her, mocked her, made her feel worthless. Why would she want to be bonded to you?"
Why would she?
The question echoes in my head as Stella tries to grab my hand (I jerk away), as my father orders everyone back inside, as the party pretends to continue like my entire world didn't just shatter.
But one thought keeps circling:
The rejection only works if I accept it.
And I'm not accepting it.
She might be running now, but the bond isn't completely broken yet. I can still feel her, faint and growing fainter, somewhere in the forest. Still in pain. Still alone.
"I have to find her," I say, standing on shaking legs.
"Daemon, she made her choice—" Cain starts.
"NO!" My Alpha command makes everyone within earshot freeze. "She made that choice because of what I did to her. Because I was a cruel, arrogant bastard who didn't deserve her."
"Was?" Cain raises an eyebrow.
"I'm done being that person." I don't know if it's true yet, but I need it to be. "I'm going to find her. I'm going to fix this."
"And if she runs again?" Zara asks coldly. She's still here, glaring at me like she wants to rip my throat out.
I meet her eyes. "Then I'll follow her. For the rest of my life if I have to. Because she's my mate, and I'm not letting her go."
"Even if she hates you?" Zara presses.
"Especially because she hates me." I look toward the forest where Kira disappeared. "She hates me because I gave her reasons to. So I'll give her new reasons. Better ones."
Somewhere in the darkness, I feel a spike of pain through our damaged bond.
She's hurt.
And I'm done being the reason why.