Chapter one

CHAPTER ONE:

**Amber’s POV**

“I, Caleb Hemsworth, reject you Amber Williams as my mate… and as from today henceforth, I cut all ties with you or anything that has to do with you…” Caleb’s voice repeated over and over in my head until I felt like I would soon explode from the hurt.

I heard someone call out to me from my doorway but I ignored the sound of the voice recognizing it as that of my obnoxious younger sister Camille.

“Wake up Amber!” She growled exasperatedly and I sat up quickly as soon as I recognized that from the harshness of her voice, there had to be something wrong.

In frustration, I begrudgingly pried my swollen eyes open, rubbed violently at it as I sat up slowly and asked; “What is it?” To my greatest surprise, she didn’t even bother asking me why my eyes were puffy and red.

Or why I even had tears leaking down my eyes.

“It’s mom, and dad!” She cried loudly in a tone of voice that had me sitting up in concentration. As soon as I took in her overall expression, I gasped. She looked rough, tattered even.

“Talk in a way I’ll understand!” I rushed out in fright, “What happened to you and what happened to mom and dad?”

“Speak up!”

I saw her try desperately to rein in the tears that tried to escape her eyes as she said; “News came only a few minutes ago that…” her voice trailed off when suddenly a loud cry tore up from the back of her throat.

“Cam!” I yelled.

“Mom and dad are dead!” She suddenly screamed, which made me freeze momentarily in shock.

“That’s not true…” I mumbled, moving away from my bed to begin to prance around my spacious room, “Mom and dad couldn’t be dead!”

My attention went back to Camille who was still rocking herself on the floor when I heard her suddenly mumble something incomprehensible under her breath.

“Huh?”

“I said everyone knows about it. I even overheard Joyner, mom’s assistant telling the other warriors about it.” She said, sniffling.

No this couldn’t be true!

I wasn’t sure what it was that suddenly overcame me, but a loud agonized scream suddenly tore out from the back of my throat. It was so loud that it rang against my eardrums, momentarily deafening me.

“Amber!” I heard Camille’s frightened scream cut through the fog that had formed in my mind, and when I opened my eyes to look up at her, I noticed that I was sprawled on the floor but couldn’t actually say when I fell.

I screamed again, finally feeling the news sink into my head.

They couldn’t do this to me… to us!

Who the hell is going to protect us now from all these harshness? Who was I going to talk to about how my mate had rejected me just this morning for no real reason.

I quickly rushed to my feet, ran towards my door and pried it open, ignoring Cam’s loud yellings in a bid to stop me.

As soon as I got to the wide passage just across my door, I froze. There were a lot of people there already, walking to and fro the direction of the throne room.

A lot of them had grim expressions on their faces and even stared pitifully at me while I slowly walked past them.

I followed them though, walking in the direction of the throne room; and as soon as I walked into the large room filled with members of my pack who were currently in mourning, I couldn’t help but perceive the peculiar smell of lighted candles in the air.

As if in a daze, I slowly walked towards it until I arrived at the front of the throne room, where Caleb sat with an irritated look on his face.

There was a large table in the middle of the room and on it was a large portrait of my parents who were smiling brightly at the camera.

I sniffled back a sob, suddenly remembering the day the picture was taken.

Seeing how camera shy my parents were, I had snatched the camera out of the photographer’s hands and stood in front of them with a big grin on my face.

On seeing me, they had both visibly relaxed and as soon as they did, I clicked away at the camera, taking several photos of them until that particular one stood out.

I couldn’t believe it now. I couldn’t believe that the picture I had taken on such a beautiful day was now used for their mourning.

I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. Couldn’t stand the pitiful looks on their faces or the garland around my parent’s picture. In anger, I stormed over to the flowers that had been so skillfully arranged in front of their portrait and began throwing them into several unknown corners of the room.

I couldn’t believe these people! couldn’t believe that they could arrange something like this when they hadn’t even seen my parent’s corpses yet or had no proof that they were dead?

“Amber! Get away from there!” I could hear Caleb yell out to me but I ignored him, refocusing my attention to taking out the annoying garland that had been put around their picture.

I could hear the hushed mumblings from the crowd, the snide comments, but I paid no attention to it, ignoring them.

“Amber!” Alpha Caleb growled again, but this time I felt a sudden rage course through my veins from the sound of his voice. He had no rights interrupting my mourning when he was in fact one of the reasons I mourned.

“Amber!”

“Caleb!” I growled back, turning to face him. I could see the look of utter shock flicker across his face due to the way I had yelled at him, but he quickly masked it and began walking towards me with slow, precise steps.

“Do not come any closer to me!” I snarled angrily, baring my teeth as I quickly picked up a sharp spear from a corner and pointed it threateningly at him. “Do not come any closer or I’ll stab you and I mean it!”

“Amber, calm down. I understand exactly how you feel, I know what it feels like to lose both pare—”

“My parents are not dead!” I growled. “They are not dead, y’all are just so clueless, you’d jump into conclusions even without proper evidence!”

I couldn’t say where this sudden courage and anger came from, but I found myself reveling in it, basking in its goodness and enjoying the look of pure shock on Caleb’s face.

“What evidence are you talking about?” He whispered slowly, talking one at a time as if he was conversing with a toddler. “You mean like a proof that your parents truly died in the accident?”

“Yes!” I snapped, “you should at least see their bodies before sprinkling confetti around their pictures and organizing a ceremony as though you’ve been wanting them dead for years!”

“I’ve never wanted them dead!” His words seem to not faze me and I scoffed, looking away from him.

“These are the pictures from their accident scene, their bodies will be arriving here, in this palace, tomorrow morning.” He snarled.

I immediately looked up at him, and then at the phone in his hands whose screen was turned towards me in a way that I could see what was on it, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe.

It felt like I was about to pass out, because in the picture were my parents or what was left of them. They had been severely burnt beyond recognition, but from the clothes on their bodies, I knew they were the ones.

I immediately fell to the floor, wailing. My heart felt like it was being clawed out by wild birds.

In the middle of my woes, I looked up suddenly to see a smirk on Caleb’s face, but as I paid closer attention to him, it suddenly disappeared leaving me feeling like he probably had something to do with my parent’s deaths…