REJECTED LIKE TRASH

The cheers slowly died down as Ben pulled his fangs from my neck and wiped my blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

I pushed myself up on shaky arms, every movement sending fresh fire through the mark he had just carved into me. My neck throbbed like an open wound straight to my soul. The hollow place in my chest screamed louder than before, as if the false bond was still trying to root itself in dead soil.

Ben turned to the crowd and raised his hands like a king granting mercy. “The claiming is done. But I have one more gift for you all tonight.”

He paused and looked down at me, his eyes cold and amused. “I, Ben Crescent, son of Alpha Brian, reject you, Catherine Hale, as my mate.”

Pain exploded in my chest sharply, as if someone had reached inside and torn my heart out with bare hands. The rejection tore through me. My body convulsed. I doubled over, clutching the fresh bite, gasping for air that wouldn’t come.

The crowd gasped, then burst into shocked laughter.

“What?” I whispered, my voice cracking like thin ice. “You marked me in front of everyone just to do this?”

“I just to see what it feels like,” Ben said casually, shrugging as if he had dropped a toy. “I’ve always wondered how bad rejection hurts. Now I know. Thanks for the experiment, wolfless.”

He turned to the crowd. “She was never good enough to be Luna anyway. She's too weak.”

I forced myself to my feet with trembling legs. They shook so hard I thought I would fall again. The mark on my neck burned hotter with every heartbeat. “You bastard. You sank your teeth into me, forced that mark while they all watched, and now you throw me away like garbage?”

“Exactly. And it felt fucking amazing. The way your face is all twisted right now? It's just priceless.”

Brian stood up from the dais, clapping his son on the back hard enough to make the sound echo. “Well done, boy.”

The rejection pain doubled. It felt like my soul was being shredded from the inside out and my knees buckled again. I caught myself on the edge of the platform, digging my nails into the wood until they splintered. The mark on my neck throbbed in time with the agony in my chest, as if the false bond was trying to kill me before it let go.

“You’re pathetic,” I spat, voice shaking with the pain that made every word feel like glass in my throat. “Both of you. You need to break a wolfless girl in public just to feel like a man. One day I’ll watch you both bleed out slowly while I smile.”

Brian leaned down close to me, breath hot on my face. “I’m sure you heard my son. You’re Crescent property until we decide you’re not. Keep that mouth shut or I’ll let the whole pack use you tonight instead of him.”

I met his eyes and let every drop of hatred I owned burn through. “You can mark me. You can reject me. You can laugh while I bleed. But you will never own what’s left of me.”

He straightened and waved at the guards. “Get her out of my sight. Chain her in the storage room until she remembers her place.”

The guards grabbed my arms and dragged me off the platform. My bare feet scraped through dirt and broken glass from spilled drinks. Every step sent new spikes through the rejection wound in my chest.

I kept my head up even as tears burned behind my eyes.

The guards yanked me harder. “Eyes down, wolfless.”

The guards drag me into the shadows,and

shoved me into the dark storage room and slammed the door.

I slid down the wall, and whispered into the silence, “You will all pay.”

If I live. If I dare to survive this pain. You will all pay