ANMELDENLola’s POV
People were starting to gather. Amy’s voice had gotten louder on purpose, drawing attention. I heard footsteps and low murmurs as passers-by slowed to watch. They didn’t know what happened. But they didn’t need the details to start judging.
Then the crowd shifted. A few voices quieted. That’s when I saw Flint pushing through them, his face unreadable. He stopped when he reached me, eyes sharp and locked on mine.
He knelt down beside me, jaw tight. His hand reached for my arm. I let him help me up.
His touch made my skin burn, but not from the cold. Just being near him like this, in front of everyone, after everything… It made me feel smaller than ever.
And he still hadn’t said a word.
Flint’s eyes were full of questions and hurt. “Lola,” he said quietly, his voice trembling just a little, “is this true? This isn’t real, is it?” He glanced at Amy, then at the diary she held, then back at me. The whole crowd leaned in, hungry for my answer.
I tried to open my mouth, but nothing came out. My throat was tight. I could feel tears burning my eyes. I shook my head, but even that felt weak. I was terrified, not just for myself, but because I knew Flint was seeing a part of me I’d never wanted him to see. I never wanted anyone to know, but especially not him.
The crowd got louder, now sensing weakness.
“She’s not good enough for Flint,” a girl said, and another one snickered, “Did you see how desperate she looked on the ground?”
“If I found out my sister was obsessed with me, I’d be sick,” a boy said, shaking his head.
I looked at Flint, searching his face for something. But he just looked confused and hurt. I wanted to explain, to say it wasn’t supposed to be like this, but I couldn’t find the words. Everything inside me was tangled up.
I hated that he was seeing me like this. Worse, I hated that I had put myself in a position where Amy could use my secret to ruin everything. My face felt hot, my stomach sick. I didn’t want to cry, not in front of all these people, not in front of Flint.
Amy’s voice cut through the crowd, cruel and satisfied. She waved my diary in the air, the pages fluttering. “Should I show Flint what you wrote? Maybe you should read it yourself, Lola. Let everyone see how much you want him.” The crowd murmured with anticipation, all of them eager for more drama.
Flint’s face darkened. He took a step closer to Amy, his voice firmer now. “Amy, that’s enough. Give the diary back.”
Amy ignored him and looked at me with fake pity. “You know, Lola, I always wondered why you looked at him that way. It’s a little pathetic, honestly.” She held the diary out, as if she wanted Flint to take it, but she pulled it back just as he reached for it.
Then Amy said, “Flint, I don’t mind if you want to be with her. I’ll step aside. If you and your little mate are meant to be, I’ll let you be together.”
The words hung in the air. My heart pounded. I couldn’t meet Flint’s eyes. The crowd gasped and started to whisper again, some people laughing, others looking at me with pity or disgust.
Flint’s hand tightened into a fist. He looked at Amy, then at me, then at the diary. For a moment, he looked lost. “How could I possibly want to be with my sister?” he said, voice shaking, louder than before. “That’s not what this is. I never thought of Lola that way.”
The crowd was silent, shocked by his words. Then a wave of whispers started up again.
“She’s just his sister.”
“He’s just being nice.”
“He’d never want someone like her.”
Flint kept talking. “Anything I did for Lola was because she’s my sister. That’s all. She’s family, and I care about her. But she’s not” He stopped, looking away.
Amy’s eyes sparkled with malicious delight. “But she’s your mate, right? Are you going to reject her right here?”
Flint looked at me for a long moment. I saw the hesitation, the struggle. But then his eyes went cold. “My Luna has to be strong. She has to protect the pack. Lola, you’re too fragile. I’m sorry.”
His next words were slow and heavy, each one cutting deeper than the last.
“I, Alpha Flint, reject you, Omega Lola, as my partner.”
The words echoed in my ears. My legs trembled. I felt my chest tighten, my wolf inside me crying out in pain and confusion. I tried to steady myself. My voice was flat, almost empty. “I accept,” I whispered. The bond between us, whatever was left of it, snapped like a rubber band stretched too far.
I didn’t know if I could move. I didn’t know what to do. I could hear the laughter and the whispers, but I was numb.
Amy smiled, triumphant. “Well, that settles it. I guess that’s the end of your little crush, Lola. Maybe now you can finally move on.”
A few people snickered. Someone muttered, “This is brutal.”
I tried to straighten my dress and hide my shaking hands, but my whole body was tense. Every muscle ached from holding back the tears and the embarrassment. I looked down at my feet, not wanting to see anyone’s face, especially not Flint’s.
Then Amy, still clutching my diary, turned to Flint with a wicked smile. “Do you want to read the rest? I think you’ll find it very interesting. Or maybe Morgan wants a look.”
She laughed, but suddenly a new voice broke through the noise.
“That’s enough, Amy.”
It was Morgan.
He walked through the crowd, his eyes hard and focused. He didn’t stop for anyone, pushing aside people who didn’t move fast enough. The entire group went quiet as he approached.
Morgan stopped in front of Amy, his body language unyielding. “Give me the diary.”
Amy tried to pull it back, but Morgan was faster. He took it from her, his hand tight and sure. She glared at him, but he just stared her down until she stepped back.
He turned and looked at Flint. For a second, nobody spoke. Morgan’s face was calm, but his eyes were cold.
Flint glared at Morgan. “What are you doing?” he asked.
Morgan ignored him and looked at me. He reached out, gently pulling me behind him, his arm firm around my shoulders, blocking me from Amy and the stares of the crowd.
I could feel the warmth of his hand, the steady beat of his heart through his jacket. My own heart was racing, but I was grateful for the barrier between me and everyone else.
Morgan faced Flint again, lifting his chin. His voice was clear and full of certainty. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
Flint’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”
Morgan shook his head and turned to face the crowd, making sure everyone could hear him. The entire group was quiet, waiting to see what he would say next.
He held the diary in one hand, his other arm protectively around me. “You didn’t know? Lola is my girlfriend.”
Lola's POVThe fire had burned down to low orange coals by the time we slipped away from the celebration.Nobody stopped us. A few people smiled. Sera, who had been watching the whole evening from her usual spot near the food table, gave me a small nod that felt like a blessing. Evelyn caught my eye from across the field and raised her cup without saying a word. That was enough.Morgan held my hand the whole walk back. He didn't say anything, and I didn't either. Some moments don't need filling. This was one of them.The pack house was quieter now as we moved to our room, most people still outside, voices and laughter drifting through the open windows. He led me upstairs. Closed the door. And when the latch clicked shut, something in my chest finally settled. The last tight thing let go.I turned to face him.He was looking at me the way he had looked at me in the clearing earlier. Like he still couldn't quite believe we were here. Like he was checking, one more time, that I was real.
Lola's POVThe morning of the wedding, I woke up before the sun.I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling for a long time, just listening. The pack house was already awake. I could hear movement downstairs, voices carrying up through the walls, the soft sounds of people preparing for something they had all chosen to be part of. Not because they were ordered to. Because they wanted to.That was the part that still caught me off guard, even now, the choosing.Evelyn came in an hour after sunrise with a tray of food I barely touched and spent the next two hours doing my hair with the focused silence of someone who understood that this moment didn't need a lot of words around it. She braided sections back from my face and wove small white flowers through the rest, and when she finished, she stood behind me and looked at my reflection in the mirror."You look like yourself," she said. "That's the best thing I can say."I reached back and squeezed her hand.The ceremony was held in the open
Lola's POVElder Mara found me the next morning.I was sitting alone in the small garden at the back of the pack house, drinking tea and staring at nothing in particular. My mind was still moving through everything that had happened, replaying pieces of it the way you do when something large has shifted, and your brain hasn't fully caught up yet.I heard footsteps on the stone path and looked up. Elder Mara was one of the oldest members of the council, a small woman with careful eyes and grey hair neatly pulled back. She had been on the council for decades but had never aligned herself with Joseph's faction. During yesterday's confrontation, she had been the first council member to step away from him.She stopped a few feet from my bench. "May I sit?"I nodded.She sat down slowly and folded her hands in her lap. For a moment, she just looked at the garden. Then she said, "I owe you an apology."I didn't say anything. I waited."I knew about the witch," she said. "The one who came to
Lola's POVThe hall was quiet now.Joseph was gone. The soldiers who had come with him had either been detained or had walked out on their own, heads down, avoiding eye contact with anyone. The council members who had arrived so confidently behind him had slipped out one by one during the confusion, leaving behind only the echo of everything that had just happened.Morgan stood in the middle of the room, looking at the damage, overturned furniture, scattered documents, and a long crack in the wall where someone had been thrown against it. His arm was still bandaged from the garden. He hadn't complained once."We need to move fast," he said. "Joseph's people are still in the territory. Some of them won't accept what just happened. They'll push back."He was right. Within the hour, reports started coming in.Three of Joseph's loyalists had barricaded themselves in the east wing of the pack house, refusing to stand down. Two more had been found trying to destroy documents in the archiv
Lola's POVThe name on the paper was Elder Joseph.The man who had pressured me to marry Flint. Who had sat across from my family and laid out consequences like cards on a table. Who had been woven into the fabric of council life for as long as I could remember. He had been there at the beginning of all of it, not watching the conspiracy unfold, but driving it.Morgan and I drove back from Karen's cabin in silence. There was nothing to say that the weight in the car wasn't already saying. We had a name. We had Karen's testimony. What we didn't have was the kind of hard, documented proof that could stand up to a council that Joseph himself had helped build. We needed time to gather it properly.Joseph didn't give us time.Tim came through the office door the next morning, pale-faced and without preamble. Elder Joseph was at the gates. Five council members are with him. Twenty soldiers. A warrant for my arrest on charges of treason and conspiracy against the crown.The same charges th
Lola's POVI drove back with one hand on the wheel and the envelope pressed against my side, checking the rearview mirror every few seconds. The feeling of being watched had not faded. If anything, the farther I got from the palace, the heavier it settled.Morgan was waiting at the gates when I pulled through. He opened my door, looked at my face, then at the envelope, and didn't ask unnecessary questions, just walked me inside and locked his office door behind us.I told him what Abraham had said. The forged evidence. The silence he had chosen. The name of the organisation connected to my parents' deaths. Morgan spread the envelope's contents across the desk: documents, photographs, pages of handwritten notes, and we stood over them together, beginning to make sense of the edges of something much larger than either of us had anticipated.Then his phone rang.He answered, listened, and his expression shifted in the particular way it did when information arrived that changed the shape
Amy’s POVThe anger did not fade with time. Weeks had passed since the punishment Morgan handed down after the locker room incident, but the feeling stayed alive beneath the surface. It didn’t scream every day. It waited. It sat quietly in their chests, growing heavier each time they saw Lola walk
Morgan's POVThe next morning, I woke up still thinking about Lola. About her lips. About the way she'd kissed me back.I got dressed and headed downstairs. My mother was already in the dining room, drinking coffee. She looked up when I walked in."Morgan, sit down," she said. "The elders want to s
Lola's POVAfter leaving the chaotic scene in the locker room, the air in the hallway felt thin. My head felt light. The back of my neck was cold where my hair used to be.Morgan walked beside me. He didn't say anything, but his presence was heavy."I'm like a superhero," I said. My voice sounded w
Lola's POVMorgan stood in the doorway, his eyes locked on me. His face was unreadable, but I could see something dark and dangerous building behind his eyes.The room went completely silent. Even Amy stopped talking. Everyone just stared at him.Morgan's gaze moved slowly across the room. He looke







