Chapter 1

Lyrielle

“Please!”, I begged, my voice cracking as my knees hit the solid granite floor. “You love me! Please don’t do this!” I screamed, tears trickling down my face.

Around me, everyone stared on, not a trace of empathy on their hideous faces. As if I hadn’t served them for the last 18 years of my life.

Cillian stared straight past me, nothing but resentment present in his eyes. Beside him, Gishlaine smirked. Clung to his arm as if she was the one that needed saving.

Nails dug into my biceps, drawing blood in little crescent moons. Guards had forced me to my knees, but it wasn’t enough. I needed to be lower. Bow down before the Alpha and his chosen mate. The heir that she now carried inside her stomach.

It was supposed to be me beside him. I had always been beside him. Beside his Beta, Jared. They were meant to be mine. But every time I scanned the crowd around me, Jared’s face never showed up.

“Lyrielle Carston, you have hereby been rejected by Alpha Cillian Aster and Beta Jared Fowler. As per our customs, you will be released into the forest surrounding the pack and driven out by those who guard us. An unwanted mate for one is an unwanted wolf for the pack.” The boom of the announcer’s voice rang dully through my aching head.

Deep within me, I could still feel the raw edges of my mate bond hiss and fray.

Murmurs erupted all around us. A barrage of voices, most voicing their content at my exile. My demise. We all knew no one wandered the woods for long before succumbing to the darkness.

I would be no different.

“In your place, Gishlaine Baldwin will take the title of Luna, as she already carries the next Alpha. Do you have any last words, Lady?” The announcer’s eyes flicked to my hunched form. To the form that still refused to bow down fully. The title he used, bestowed upon me by long-gone foster parents.

“After everything I gave you? After you promised my parents you’d take care of me for the rest of my life?” More tears stung my eyes. They rolled down my red-splattered cheeks and fell to the floor. “I gave you everything, and by the Goddess, she knew it too. Promised you to me with a mate bond. Proof that I was meant to be by your side!” My voice rose and rose until all I could hear was the echo of it in the eerily silent room.

The murmurs had stopped.

I lifted my gaze to his, and he finally met my blue eyes head-on with his brown ones. Pieces of his neatly trimmed black hair fell into his face. And there was Gishlaine, clinging to him even more, her face contorted in fear.

“I told you she won’t just let you go, baby,” She whimpered, tears lining her eyes. As if I could even contest the rejection to begin with.

Between the sadness and betrayal, anger burned brighter than it had ever before.

One moment there had been softness in Cillian’s eyes; the next, they burned like fire. He slowly removed Gishlaine’s hand from his arm, kissing each knuckle on her hand swiftly before taking a stride forward.

Wrath morphed his face into a mask I had never seen before. Gone was the boy who held my hand every time I injured myself in some odd way. Gone was the boy who sang to me at night to drown out the raging storm outside.

What remained was nothing short of a monster.

Biting my bottom lip, I forced myself to look at the ground again. Forced my body to go limp.

The fight should have left my body the night all of this began in the first place. Why it only chose to abandon me now was beyond me.

They had been my everything…

“Look at me!” He exclaimed and wrenched my chin up, so our eyes met. Hatred lingered so close to the surface, I could almost taste it in the air. Yet the sparks of our mate bond still skittered across my skin, settling deep into my gut.

What had I ever done to deserve this kind of treatment?

Our eyes met again as he smoothed his hair back, forcing more composure into his body. Even the breath he released shook with anger.

“You are nothing. No one. From a pack long dead and parents long forgotten. My parents made that vow to a dying Luna and Alpha. Careless. Reckless. Stupid. It had been the biggest mistake they ever made,” He hissed and leaned in closer. “The Goddess made a mistake in choosing such a weak lineage for us. You come from nothing but cowards unable to help themselves. Well, we refuse to be the ones to help you any longer.” He whispered and released my chin.

The sparks died, and the dread inside me returned.

I was going to be sent into the forest. Chased and nipped at by the guards until I was no longer anywhere near their lands. Their borders. Or I was going to be their prey, if they finally caught up to me.

Doomed.

A shrill shriek pierced through me. Damned me.

Cillian spun on his heels, not even a second glance to spare me.

“She will be let loose at 11:00, not 12:00, and given an hour head start,” He commanded as he finally reached his place beside Gishlaine. A wicked smile crossed his lips. “She was the mate of an Alpha and Beta, after all. Might as well give her an hour extra. She’ll need it.”

With that, my fate was sealed, and my destiny wiped away before me.

“Please!” I screamed around my constricting throat.

The words never seemed to reach him.