Chapter 2

                                                                      Shattered Allegiances

Jordan’s POV

I stood before the great mirror, changing my jacket, and my eyes hardly registered on my reLoraection. Tonight did not revolve around me. It had nothing to do even with Lora.

But all I had done had brought about this momentous event commemorating the ceremony. The mate I am meant for. Eva, Lora's sister.

Though I pushed it aside, the weight of the choice I had taken seemed like a stone wall. The pack demanded me. The pack's might would guarantee our survival; there was only onward from this.

But God, did it cause pain?

The ceremony would begin not too far off. Already suited in the ceremonial robe, Eva stood in the room's corner looking very beautiful. She was lovely; her features reFracted Lora's exactly, but while Lora's beauty was subdued by compassion, Eva's was sharper, more aggressive, like a weapon just ready to strike. One did not confuse it with anything else. She did not seem like the lady I had imagined.

Though I wanted I could feel for her more than responsibility, the fact was clearer than ever: she was my mate, my chosen connection, and I had to see this through. I had to put on the front, grin, and turn this into a win. For the benefit of the pack. Not anything else counted.

Glancing across the room, I saw Lora seated weakly on one of the chairs in the rear. Her pale face sliced right through me. She was hardly keeping herself together, yet I had made her present here. She had not wanted to come; how could she have wanted to? I had urged. The pack needed to see her here, see her embrace that this was the way things had to be.

I started to turn away from her. Looking at her anymore made me uncomfortable. Not accompanied with the shame dragging me down. Not realizing how I had wrecked the one thing that had ever meant to me.

She needed to be here tonight, even if seeing her here was painful. She must realize this was the new reality.

" Jordan?" I turned to face Eva as her words drew me out of my thoughts. Now she was grinning, her hand softly resting on my chest. I could not overlook something in her smile—something ravenous.

I returned her grin not at all. Rather, I found myself nodding against will. "We have time."

The pack murmurs filled the hall, the great ceremonial music resounding from the stone walls. I strolled next to Eva, my head elsewhere and every foot weighted. Lora's presence behind me, her gaze dulling into my back, was just barely felt. She watched. Anticipating.

Though I turned away, her eyes pierced through me. I have to pay attention. I was obliged to.

Though the ceremony was basic, its weight seemed oppressive. The pack was expecting to see this link created, to watch me settle with Eva. Still, that was not my decision. Nothing I wanted was what I found here. Not what I was hoping for.

Lora was there.

I knew my job. This was more of survival than of love. Regarding ensuring the pack remained intact. One could not overlook Alpha Revan's requests. The pack's strength derived from it. And I would do it if it meant betraying Lora, if that meant rejecting what we had, then so too. In reference to the pack.

As the ritual oil dripped over our linked hands, I looked at Eva. Her touch was just too warm; the proximity made my skin crawl.

Whispering with satisfaction, "You've done the right thing, Jordan," she said. "This will help all of us. You'll find.

But I answered nothing. Her comments were Loraat, lifeless against the damage I could feel in my chest. The shame stationed me more the further I descended into this deception.

I then started to hear it. Whispering, the stiFled sobs behind me. Lora had begun to shed tears. To know what had happened, I had not to turn around. Her suffering was felt right from where I stood. Her sadness was physical, weighty in the air.

Her sister was covering for her. Assuming everything previously belonged to me. Her spirit was cracking, nearly audible to me. Still, I found it difficult to quit.

Could not.

The marking ceremony carried on, but all I could hear was the weight of the choice crushing down on me and Lora's weeping. Not driven but rather out of desperation, I tightened Eva's hand. Let it stop, please. Let it be finished.

As I faked a smile—a fake mask of pride—the applause of the audience sounded empty in my ears.

But I could sense my own emptiness deepening.

The ceremony was over, and the cheers subsided into whispers as the attendees scattered to their separate areas of the hall. Still there, though, Lora was still She had not departed.

I turned to see her standing in the corner, tears moistening her face, her eyes fixed on me with such unvarnished intensity that it sliced through me like a razor.

She said, "Domic," her voice shaking. "How would you go about this?"

The words cracked the last bits of my will. I wanted to dash to her, to draw her close and ask her to pardon me. But I couldn't.

Not could.

Rather, I froze there, my eyes expressing the misery I felt within. I'd lost her. Backtracking was not possible.

Lora pulled aside and her eyes darkened. She remarked, her voice full of sadness and incredulity: "I thought I knew you." "But I was mistaken. I misinterpreted things.

I went to her, but two pack members showed up next to her and drove her away before I could say anything. Their overly strong grasp seized her by the arms.

"Stop!" I yelled, but the words came out frantic, coarse.

Still, none of them was listening. Nobody could hear my voice screaming with pain. Lora was being hauled away from me, her face contorted with a mix of terror, uncertainty, and anger.

Though I wanted to go to her, strike back, rip apart everyone standing between us, I couldn't. The pack was hungry for this. Her leaving had to be seen by the pack.

The ruling had been decided upon. Not now was turning back possible.

"Domic!," Struggling against the hold of the pack members pulling her toward the entrance, Lora yelled, her voice cracking. Please! permit not permit them to carry me! Please!"

Her comments cut me like a razor, and for the first time I felt like I was suffocating. I wanted to connect. I wanted to embrace her and ask her to see things clearly. But I couldn't.

I watched helplessly as they pushed her onto the wagon. The cart meant for someone else. someone not me.

Helpless, immobilized, powerless of doing one action to halt it, I stood.

Lora's gaze never turned away from mine; her face contorted in agony and treachery The wagon carried her far from me, first slowly then quickly.

And I thought I had lost everything at that same instant.

I stared as the cart vanished into darkness, Lora's face gone from vision.

But something drew my attention as I turned to go.

Alpha Revan stood in the shadows on the edge of the woods.

And he fixed me in the middle.