Rejected Before the Whole Pack

Chapter 3

Nyra’s POV

The chains bit into my wrists as the guards dragged me forward and the sound of metal scraped against metal followed every step I took.

It was loud, it was too loud, like the whole pack needed to hear exactly what I have become, a prisoner, a disgrace and a warning.

The sacred ceremony ground was already full when they led me in and the moment people saw me, the whispers began.

“She’s in chains…”

“Moon Goddess…”

“She really did it.”

“No wonder the Alpha threw her away.”

I kept my eyes on the ground, if I looked at their faces, I may shatter.

The moon hung high above us, it was bright and merciless and its silver light fell over everything.

Over the altar, over the sacred stones and over the women dressed in ceremonial white and then over me and I have never felt more ashamed in my life.

I was dirty from the dungeon and my hair was a mess.

My dress still carried stains from the filthy water Selka threw on me and I smelt like prison, like pain and like humiliation and everyone could see it.

I felt like I was being buried alive while still standing, the guards stopped me near the center of the sacred grounds and my breathing turned shallow.

Then my eyes lifted and I saw him. Draven, standing at the front, he was tall, proud and untouched.

Dressed in ceremonial black with silver across his shoulders and he looked like power itself, like a king, like a man who belonged under the moon and beside him…stood Calista.

My heart twisted so hard it hurt, she was dressed like a Luna already, white silk and moonstone jewelry.

Her hand rested lightly on Draven’s arm like she already owned him, like I was never there, like the last three years of my life never happened.

I should have looked away, I knew I should but I couldn’t, because some broken part of me was still searching his face, still hoping to find regret, still hoping he will look at me and remember.

Remember Blood Hollow, remember my hands covered in his blood, remember the night I saved him, remember the promise he made before the whole pack.

The woman who bled beside me would one day stand beside me but all I saw now was distance.

And that hurt more than hatred ever could.

The High Priestess then raised her staff and the crowd slowly fell silent and then her voice rose into the night.

“Tonight, under the eyes of the Moon Goddess, truth shall be revealed.”

A strange shiver ran through me and I lowered my eyes and tried to steady my breathing, I told myself I just needed to survive this.

Just this, then maybe I could still fight, maybe somehow I could still prove I was innocent.

The High Priestess continued.

“Bring forth the unclaimed, bring forth the uncertain, bring forth the hidden bonds.”

One by one, wolves stepped into the sacred moon circle, the rite began and I barely saw any of it.

My mind was too loud, my chest was too tight and my body was too weak and then suddenly…something changed.

A strange heat rose inside me and I frowned.

No. Not heat, it was a pull, it was deep, sharp and alive and then breath caught and I pressed my chained hands against my chest.

What is this?

My wolf, the same weak wolf that had always felt like a faint little pulse inside me, suddenly stirred hard and my eyes widened.

No. No, this has never happened before, ever.

The pull got stronger and my knees weakened and then the high Priestess lifted her head sharply and then her eyes found me.

“Bring the accused forward.”

My heart stopped and the guards dragged me into the moon circle, the second my feet crossed into the sacred light, pain and fire exploded through my body and I gasped so hard it felt like I had been struck.

The chains rattled and my pulse slammed wildly in my chest and then I smelled him. Cedar, rain, smoke and Draven.

My head snapped up and across the circle, his body went still and his eyes were locked onto mine.

Shock crashed across his face, real shock, the kind he could not hide and the whole world disappeared around us.

The crowd, the whispers, the chains, everything, because I felt it now, I felt him, not as my Alpha, not as my former fiance, not as the man who broke me but as something deeper, something sacred, something the Moon Goddess herself has written into my soul.

My mate, my breath trembled.

No… No. Moon Goddess. No.

My lips parted.

“Draven…”

His jaw clenched, his nostrils flared and I knew he felt it too.

The bond, the truth, the sacred pull between us, he was my mate, my real mate, my fated mate and for one foolish, broken second, hope rose inside me.

Maybe this was it, maybe this was why I was brought here tonight, maybe this was why the Moon Goddess allowed all this pain, maybe she was revealing the truth, maybe this bond would save me, maybe now he would finally believe me, maybe now he would finally choose me, my heart rang so hard I could hear it.

I stared at him with tears already burning in my eyes.

“Draven…” I whispered again and then Calista stepped closer to him, her face had gone pale and her eyes were wide.

“No,” she said under her breath and the hope inside me trembled and then Draven’s face changed.

And what I saw there killed me before he even spoke, not wonder, not joy, not relief but rejection.

My whole body turned numb.

“No…” I whispered and he stepped forward.

His voice rang across the sacred grounds.

“I reject Nyra Veylin as my mate.”

The entire pack gasped and I stopped breathing and for one second, I truly stopped breathing because no matter how cruel I knew he could be…

I did not think he would do this, not like this, not here, not in front of everyone.

Tears spilled from my eyes instantly and my mouth opened, but no words came out and then he spoke again.

“A traitor cannot stand beside an Alpha.”

The words hit me like a slap and harder.

“A weak omega in chains will never be my Luna.”

The whole crowd seemed to spin around me, every stare burned, every whisper cut and every heartbeat hurt.

Then he delivered the final wound.

“My place is beside Calista.”

Something inside my chest tore open and I screamed, the pain hit so violently that my knees slammed into the stone and my whole body folded.

The chains then crashed against the ground and I clawed at my chest, gasped, sobbed, and shook so hard that I could barely hold myself up.

It felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside, like my soul was being torn in two while everyone watched.

The rejection bond burned through me like poison, I could not breathe, I could not think, I could not stop screaming.

My vision blurred with tears, the sacred stone beneath me turned wet from them and the worst part?

No one helped me, no one moved, no one said stop, because to them, this was justice, this was what I deserved.

I then curled in on myself, and tried to survive the agony splitting through my body, then I felt someone knelt beside me.

For one stupid second, my heart jumped, Draven but no, it was her Calista.

She crouched close enough for only me to hear, her perfume filled my nose and her voice slipped into my ear like poison.

“Now die where no one can save you.”

My whole body went still and then I lifted my head slowly and stared at her through tears.

And in that terrible moment… I finally understood, Calista did not just want me gone, she wanted me dead.