Chapter 4:

OLIVIA

I couldn't make sense of it. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get myself to understand what just happened. Did Damien just walk past me like I was nothing? And of all the ladies in the hall, why Clara?

Could that be...?

No. I mentally shook my head, refusing to believe. This doesn't make sense, because this wasn't happening. It's just my imagination — me thinking, after all the hours I had spent on Clara and trying to make her look beautiful, that she was going to steal my spotlight, and not actually that she had.

But the more I kept trying to process everything, the more reality kicked at me.

"Clara," I finally got the courage to ask, "what's going on here? Why is Damien standing beside you?"

She was smiling, like my confusion was food for her satisfaction.

"What is happening?" she scoffed. "Don't be dumb, Olivia. As you can see, Damien and I are mates. We've been chosen by the moon goddess herself, which means we'll be spending the rest of our lives together."

Despite the explanation, I couldn't get myself to believe her. Normally, Clara was always good at making comments that would hurt me, so this was probably one of those comments.

She's just trying to hit a nerve, I thought.

I looked at Damien instead. Maybe this was a misunderstanding, maybe he had only walked over to Clara because someone had called him, or maybe he hadn't seen me.

There had to be another explanation.

"Damien..." My voice shook. "Tell me what's going on."

He looked at me for a long moment. There wasn't an ounce of guilt in his eyes, only annoyance.

"You still don't get it?" I felt something painful move in my stomach. "I chose Clara."

The words hit me so hard that I forgot how to breathe.

"No..." I whispered. "No, that's not possible."

He laughed under his breath. "Of course, it is."

"What about us?" I asked. "What about the last eight years? What about everything we shared?"

He shrugged. "What about it?"

I stared at him. "You told me you loved me."

"I said what I had to say."

"You promised we'd become Alpha and Luna together."

"I changed my mind."

Every answer landed like a knife had been pierced into my chest.

"So..." I couldn't find the right words to ask. "None of it was real?"

He didn't even hesitate. "No."

One word. One word was all it took to erase eight years of my life.

My knees were trembling I almost lost balance. Suddenly everything became blurry around me, I couldn't tell if it was because of my tears or because the world itself had started falling apart.

"You lied to me," I whispered.

"I did."

"Why," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you let me know all these while?"

His eyes swept over me from head to toe. "Because I never imagined you'd actually believe I could end up with someone like you."

The crowd burst out laughing, some pointed their fingers at me like that would make the laughter more interesting. It was so loud it felt like they were all celebrating my heartbreak. I felt my cheeks burn, my hands were shaking so badly I had to clench them into fists.

"I loved you, Damien," I said through tears. "I gave you everything I had."

"And I accepted it." It wasn't just his replies that broke me, but how cold and reluctant he offered them. "So stop acting like I owe you something."

I stared at him, searching desperately for the man I'd loved. The one who used to hold my hand. The one who promised we'd grow old together. The one who told me I was enough.

But he wasn't there. Maybe that's because he never existed.

Clara stepped beside him and slipped her hand into his. She smiled at me with the same smile she'd worn every time she'd taken something that mattered to me.

"Oh, Olivia," she said sweetly, "did you really think he would choose you over me?" She looked me up and down. "Look at yourself. If he became Alpha, would you even fit beside him on the Luna's throne?"

Her statement only made the crowd laugh more. Someone snorted, another person whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"I always knew she'd be rejected."

"I almost feel sorry for her."

"No, you don't."

"I don't."

My chest hurt so much I thought something inside me had torn apart. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't even think straight anymore.

Eight years.

Eight years of loving him. Eight years of believing every promise. Eight years of building a future that had never existed.

Damien stepped forward, like he needed to be this close to get whatever this was done with. In a loud voice, he said. "I, Damien Redwood, future Alpha of the Redwood Pack, reject you, Olivia Parker."

The mate bond snapped inside me. It wasn't just painful, it felt like someone had reached into my chest with bare hands and forcefully ripped my heart away. I couldn't hold back the tears as the cry broke out of me. My legs felt so heavy I hit the floor on my knees.

The way everyone just stood there, watching and laughing at me at the same time like I was some public display that needed to be ignored. I could tell from the look on their faces that they all felt relieved that the pack's biggest joke had finally reached its ending.

I lifted my head despite my teary eyes. "Please..." I begged. "Please... don't do this."

Damien looked down at me as though I were something dirty on the bottom of his shoe.

"I already did." Then he turned his back on me, as if eight years of my love weren't even worth one last look. "Leave this hall, and never come back," he declared. "From this day henceforth, I do not want to look at your face ever again."