Seraphina's POV
The pain hits like lightning striking my chest.
I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't do anything except feel the mate bond tearing apart, ripping through my soul like a thousand knives.
My legs give out. I collapse to my knees in the center of the ceremony circle, clutching my chest as agony explodes through every nerve.
It feels like dying.
Maybe I am dying.
"Sera!" Mira's scream cuts through the roaring in my ears. She's fighting against the guards, trying to reach me. "Let me go! She needs help!"
But nobody helps.
They just watch.
Three hundred wolves stand in silence as their future Alpha destroys me in front of them. As the mate bond—the sacred gift from the Moon Goddess herself—shatters into a million pieces.
I can feel each piece breaking. Feel the golden thread that connected my heart to Kael's turning black and withered. Feel my wolf howling in anguish inside me.
Why? Why is this happening?
Through the haze of pain, I see Kael's face. He's pale, sweating. His hand presses against his own chest.
Good. I hope it hurts him too.
But then Vivienne takes his other hand, and his expression smooths. The pain in his eyes fades, replaced by something that looks almost like relief.
He's relieved.
My mate—my former mate—is relieved to be rid of me.
The realization cuts deeper than the rejection itself.
"I know this is hard to understand," Kael says, his voice steady now. Formal. Like he's giving a speech instead of destroying someone's life. "But Vivienne and I have been together for six months. We're in love. We're planning to announce our engagement tonight."
Six months. While I studied pack law to be his Luna. While I learned healing so I could care for our future pack members. While I made myself useful, valuable, worthy.
He was falling in love with someone else.
"The Moon Goddess will understand," Vivienne adds, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "Sometimes fate needs... correction."
Correction. Like I'm a mistake that needs fixing.
My wolf snarls, pushing against my skin. She wants blood. Wants to rip Vivienne's perfect throat out. Wants to make them both hurt the way we're hurting.
But I can barely move. The rejection pain has me pinned to the ground like a butterfly under glass.
Around us, the pack whispers:
"Poor girl. But honestly, it's for the best."
"Can you imagine her as Luna? She only just shifted."
"Vivienne is much better suited for the position."
"At least now she knows she's not completely defective."
Each comment is another knife. Another reminder that I never belonged here. Never was good enough. Never will be.
"Seraphina." Alpha Marcus's voice cuts through the whispers. He walks toward me slowly, his face carved from stone. "Stand up."
I try. My legs shake, refusing to hold my weight. The pain in my chest is a living thing, pulsing with each heartbeat.
"I said stand."
This time it's a command, laced with Alpha dominance. My body responds against my will, forcing itself upright even though every cell screams in protest.
Marcus studies me with cold eyes. "Your wolf awakening was... unexpected."
"Unexpected?" The word scrapes out of my raw throat. "You told me for fifteen years I was defective. That I'd never shift. That I was lucky the pack even kept me."
"And now you have shifted." His tone makes it sound like an accusation. "Into something we don't understand."
"What's there to understand? I have a wolf now. I'm a real pack member. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"What I wanted," Marcus says slowly, "was for things to stay the way they were. Predictable. Manageable."
Ice floods my veins. "What are you saying?"
"Your wolf is wrong, Seraphina. Unnatural. That kind of power in someone who should be weak..." He shakes his head. "It's dangerous."
"Dangerous?" My voice rises. "I'm not dangerous! I'm just—"
"You made wolves twice your age submit," he interrupts. "You radiate Alpha-level dominance despite having no Alpha blood. You formed a mate bond with my son that was strong enough to be visible." His eyes narrow. "That's not normal. That's not safe."
Understanding crashes over me like a frozen wave.
This was planned.
They knew my wolf would awaken tonight. Somehow, they knew.
And they planned to get rid of me anyway.
"You can't do this," I whisper. "I haven't done anything wrong."
"You exist," Marcus says simply. "And that's enough."
"Father, please." For the first time since the rejection, Kael speaks up. His voice wavers. "Maybe exile is too harsh. We could just—"
"Silence." Marcus doesn't even look at his son. "You made your choice. Now I make mine."
He turns to address the entire pack, his voice carrying across the ceremony grounds: "Seraphina Ashwood, by my authority as Alpha of Silver Creek, you are hereby exiled from this pack. You are stripped of your rank, your rights, and your protection."
"No!" Mira's scream is pure anguish. "You can't! She's done nothing!"
Two guards drag her backward. She fights like a wildcat, but she's an omega. She doesn't have the strength to break free.
"You have one hour to leave our territory," Marcus continues, as if Mira isn't screaming. As if I'm not dying right in front of him. "If you're found on Silver Creek lands after that, you will be executed as a rogue. Do you understand?"
I can't speak. Can only stare at the Alpha who took me in as an orphan, who I served faithfully for fifteen years, who's now throwing me away like garbage.
"Do. You. Understand?"
"Yes." The word tastes like ash.
"Good." Marcus waves his hand dismissively. "Someone escort her to collect her belongings. Make sure she takes nothing that belongs to the pack."
Hands grab my arms—pack enforcers, wolves I grew up with, now handling me like I'm contaminated.
They start dragging me away from the ceremony circle. Away from the only home I've ever known.
I catch one last glimpse of Kael. He's holding Vivienne, his face buried in her hair. She's smiling.
They're both smiling.
Something inside me breaks that has nothing to do with the mate bond. Something deeper. More fundamental.
The part of me that wanted to be good. To be accepted. To be loved.
That part dies right there in the dirt of the ceremony grounds.
"Sera!" Mira's voice chases me. "Sera, I'll find you! I swear I'll find you!"
But she won't. Nobody will.
Because I'm not going to survive this.
The guards dump me outside my cabin. "One hour," one of them grunts. "Don't make us come looking for you."
They leave me there, broken and bleeding from a wound nobody can see.
I stumble inside on shaking legs. Look around at my pathetic little life. Fifteen years of existing in this space, and what do I have to show for it?
Nothing.
I grab a bag. Throw in some clothes. The necklace Kael gave me catches my eye—I rip it off and throw it across the room.
Lies. Everything was lies.
My wolf whimpers, grieving for a mate who rejected us. Grieving for a pack that never wanted us.
We should run, she whispers in my mind. Her voice is small, hurt, nothing like the powerful presence I felt during my shift.
"Where?" I ask out loud. "Where would we even go?"
Away. Anywhere. Just away.
She's right. Anywhere is better than here.
I shoulder the bag and step outside. The full moon mocks me from above—the same moon that was supposed to bless me tonight.
Some blessing.
The Veil Forest looms at the edge of pack territory. Dark. Dangerous. Full of rogues who kill first and ask questions never.
Perfect.
I shift into my wolf form, the change smoother now. Even in my grief, I can feel her power humming beneath my fur.
Dangerous, Marcus called me.
Good.
Let them fear me.
I run toward the forest, my paws eating up the ground. Behind me, Silver Creek Pack continues their ceremony like I never existed.
Nobody follows.
Nobody cares.
The trees swallow me whole, darkness closing in like a tomb.
I run until my paws bleed. Until my wolf can't take another step. Until I collapse in a clearing deep in the cursed woods, shifting back to human form.
Naked. Alone. Broken.
I curl into a ball on the cold ground and finally let myself cry. Great, heaving sobs that shake my entire body.
I want to die. Want the Moon Goddess to take back this wolf, this life, this unbearable pain.
Why give me hope just to rip it away?
Why make me powerful just to cast me out?
Why—
A twig snaps behind me.
My wolf surges awake with a warning growl.
Someone's here.
I scramble to my feet, searching the darkness. "Who's there?"
Silence. Then footsteps.
A figure emerges from the shadows—huge, moving with predatory grace that makes every instinct scream danger.
My wolf should be terrified.
Instead, she purrs.
What?
The figure steps into a patch of moonlight, and I finally see his face.
Silver eyes that glow like stars. Features too perfect to be real. An aura of power so massive it makes Alpha Marcus feel like a puppy.
I know this face.
Every wolf knows this face.
Horror and recognition crash through me simultaneously.
"No," I breathe.
Theron Nightshade. The Lycan King.
The monster who murdered my parents fifteen years ago.
He smiles, sharp and devastating and completely inhuman.
"Hello, little wolf," he says in a voice like dark velvet. "I've been looking for you for a very long time."