Chapter 7

Clara’s POV

“Murderer! Arrest her!”

The accusation crackles through the air, damning as anything could ever be. My eyes widen in fear. “No, I don’t– I swear I didn’t–”

Rachel’s eyes gleam with a cruel light. “Guards, arrest her. Now!”

A scream of pure horror rips from my throat as two guards lunge towards me. Their fingers clamp around my arms like iron, the force enough to leave bruises. 

I look up at Rachel, eyes watering helplessly. “I didn’t do it! Please!”

“Tell that to Damien,” she replies cooly.

The guards haul me out of the small room, and much to my horror, a small crowd has already amassed outside. Shame and fear pour through me as I lower my head and try to hold back my tears. In the crowd I catch sight of Layla, covering her mouth and crying.

Is she going to be okay? What about her family? Considering what they think I did…

Whispers fill the hall, expressions of revulsion cast my way. Every harsh word and sideways glare slips a pin of agony straight to my heart. I can hear what they’re saying.

“Why do you think she did it?”

“It has to be because he tried to oppose her Mating Ceremony with the Alpha!”

“Seems like he was right to oppose her…”

Fresh tears well up in my eyes. This is horrible. These are all my worst fears that come to life. This is going to be the end of all I know, the happiness once thought I could have.

I’m led through the palace halls on full display, a public humiliation that makes me sick to my stomach, until finally we arrive at the dungeon. I tremble from head to toe, nearly paralyzed with fear as they unlock a cell and shove me inside brusquely. The air is dank and damp, and in the distance, I can hear the screams of tortured prisoners.

“Rot in hell,” one of the guards spat at me as the wrought iron bars rattle shut.

I don’t say anything, too numb to muster up a response.

The cell is small, containing nothing but a bedroll tucked into one corner. I make my way over to it and wrap my arms around my knees, rocking back and forth as I do my best to understand everything that’s happened to me.

It all went by so fast–Chloe, that room, Elder Claude, his blood on my now-dirtied dress, the dress that was meant to be worn on the happiest day of my life…

How could it all have gone so wrong?

‘Don’t fret,’ Marigold says to me. ‘There’s no way our mate would just leave you here. He’s probably investigating the real culprit, and you’ll be out of here in no time!’

‘But what if he doesn’t show up?’ I wail. ‘I've been waiting for hours…’

‘He’ll be here,’ Marigold says soothingly.

I really hope she’s right.

He’s my only hope.

“Please, Moon Goddess,” I whisper, turning my gaze up to the dripping stone ceiling of my cell. “Alpha Damien was the mate you chose for me. Please, let him save me. Please, I–” my voice breaks. “I don’t know what to do without him.”

But time keeps creeping by, and he’s still nowhere in sight.

I’m half-asleep on the bedroll when I suddenly hear the dungeon’s lock click open.

I’m on my feet in an instant, elation rushing through me. “Damien!” I gasp out as he steps into the room. I’m at his side in an instant, looking up at him with wide, doting eyes. “I knew you’d come for me, I–I prayed, you know…”

But before I can wrap my arms around him, he thrusts out a hand, stopping me cold. A bloodied dagger gleams in his grip—the same one I used to cut Claude’s wrist.

I freeze. The cold in his eyes makes me flinch.

“Why?” he snarls, eyes blazing red. “Why did you try to kill Elder Claude?”   

My heart feels like it’s breaking apart under the fury and disappointment on his face. “I—I didn’t!” I gasp, reaching for him. “He was already poisoned with wolfsbane—”

“You’re lying to me!” Damien cuts in, hurling the dagger at my feet. 

“No, I’m not, I swear it, I–there was a maid, Chloe, and she led me into that room and locked me inside–”

“I’ve never had a maid named Chloe,” he says, voice hollow as he shakes his head. Disgust hardens his expression. “I thought you were different from the other hybrids, Clara. I thought… I could love you. Elder Claude was right. I should’ve listened.”

Every word hits me like a punch to the gut. “No!” I sob out. “No, please, don’t–”

“You’re nothing but a lowly Omega, and a hybrid at that,” Damien says bitterly. “Pathetically trying to vie for power wherever you could get it, since you have so little of your own. I should have known better. No more talking. I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”

My tears are falling freely now. “Please believe me, Damien, I need you to believe me–”

“The evidence is conclusive,” he snaps. “We found you with the bloodstained dagger in your hand and the poisoned wine still in the room, and Rachel has said herself that she watched you poison Claude before cutting his wrist. It was you. There’s no point in denying it.”

“Damien, please! You know Rachel hates me, she’s framing—”

“I, Alpha Damien Maxwell of the Moonstone pack,” he begins, his voice booming with a terrifying, formal power, “reject you, Omega Clara Brooks, as my mate and Luna.”

The words hit me like a physical wrecking ball, shattering the very foundation of my soul. A guttural, soul-shredding scream tears from my throat as the mating bond snaps, the agony of the rejection far worse than any physical wound. Inside me, Marigold’s tortured howls echo my own as our heart splinters into a thousand jagged pieces.

I reach for him one last time, my fingers trembling, desperate for a shred of the mercy he once promised. But Damien recoils, his expression a mask of cold disgust, as if my touch were a lethal poison.

“Guards!” he barks, his back already turned to me, his silhouette hard and unforgiving. “We need a full confession before the trial tomorrow.”

“Please, Damien...” I choke out, my voice breaking as a fresh wave of sobs steals my breath. I can’t even form the words to beg.

“I wish I’d never met you,” he mutters, bitterness thick in his voice as he turns away. My knees give out, and I crumple to the floor while he delivers his final order to the approaching guards.

“Torture her until she talks!”