Chapter 2

Cole's POV

It's my birthday too.

The words hung in the air, sharp and broken. For a second, just a second, the room went dead silent. Ava looked like a wreck-frosting streaked in her dark hair, that cheap dress clinging to her frame, her blue eyes wide and glistening with shattered hope.

She was beautiful in a tragic sort of way. A part of me wanted to reach out. To wipe the mess off her face.

Mate.

The word echoed in the back of my mind, a primal itch I couldn't scratch.

But then Lexi's hand tightened on my bicep. Her nails dug in, grounding me. Her perfume-sugary and expensive-filled my nose.

I looked down at her. Lexi. The girl who sat by my bedside for three days while I was in a coma. The girl who shared her strength when I was burned and broken. The pack doctor said I would have died without her.

I owed her my life.

And Ava? Ava was just... there. Wolfless. Weak. Gordon's disappointment.

"Enough, Ava," I scoffed, pouring every ounce of cruelty I could muster into my tone. I had to kill this hope now, for both our sakes. "You think just because the Moon Goddess played a cruel joke and paired us, I owe you a party?"

Ava blinked, her face draining of color. She looked like she'd been punched.

"If my father didn't need the political stability to confirm my Alpha succession," I sneered, twisting the knife, "I would have rejected you three years ago."

Her lips parted. A whisper of pain escaped. "What...?"

I slung my arm around Lexi, pulling her flush against my side. I needed the pack to see this. I needed Ava to see this.

"Lexi is the one I want," I said, loud enough for the back of the room to hear. "She saved me. She's strong. She's worthy."

I turned my cold gaze back to Ava. "You? You're nothing but a placeholder. My ticket to the crown. Once I'm Alpha, you're gone."

My wolf, Reaper, snarled in my head. [You idiot! She's our mate! Don't do this!]

Shut up, I commanded. I choose Lexi.

Reaper went silent. The bond between us snapped shut like a coffin lid.

Ava stood there, trembling. Tears finally spilled over, tracking through the frosting on her cheeks.

"I hate you," she whispered.

Then she turned and bolted.

The crowd murmured. Some smirked, but others looked uneasy. I ignored them all.

"Jasper... I mean, Cole," Lexi murmured, looking up at me with those big, wet eyes. "Is she okay? I feel terrible."

I squeezed her shoulder, forcing a smile. "Forget her. You saved me from that fire, Lexi. I swore I'd love you forever. A wolfless nobody isn't going to change that."

Ava's POV

I ran until my lungs felt like they were bleeding.

The woods were dark, the moon obscured by thick, suffocating clouds. Branches whipped my face, tearing at my skin, but the physical pain was a relief compared to the agony in my chest.

I collapsed beneath the old willow tree at the territory line. The mud soaked into my ruined dress.

I had given him everything. Three years. My dignity. My wolf. And to him, I was just a "placeholder." A stepping stone.

I curled into a ball, my forehead pressed against the damp earth.

"Moon Goddess," I sobbed, my voice breaking into ugly, ragged gasps. "Please... if you're real... fix this. Wake my wolf. Take this bond away. I don't want him anymore. I reject him!"

The wind suddenly stopped.

Above me, the clouds tore apart. A beam of silver moonlight slammed into the forest floor, illuminating the clearing in a ghostly white glow.

My heart skipped a beat. Then another.

Heat.

Liquid fire surged through my veins, starting from my core and exploding outward. My bones cracked and shifted. It wasn't pain-it was power.

[Ava.]

The voice rang in my head, clear as a bell, fierce as a storm.

[About damn time.]

A white wolf stepped out of the moonlight in my mind's eye. Tall, regal, with eyes that burned like blue stars.

Nyx? You're back?

[I never left,] she growled, her strength flooding my exhausted limbs. [But that boy? He is dead to us. It's time to leave, Ava.]

I wiped my face. The tears were gone. In their place was a cold, steely resolve.

"You're right," I whispered, standing up. The weakness was gone. "If he treats me like trash, I'll treat him like history."

The next morning, I walked into the Pack Office.

Alpha Vance-Cole's father-was behind his desk, looking gray and sickly. He was the only one who had ever shown me kindness.

"Ava?" He looked up, startled. "You look... different."

"I'm leaving," I said, my voice steady. "I want to file for Rejection."