001

I had been walking on air all day.

Owen had asked to speak with me. Owen. I couldn’t stop replaying it in my head. Maybe, just maybe, this was it. Maybe he’d finally see me…not as just the Alpha’s daughter, or the girl who hovered around him quietly…but as the one who had always been there. The one who loved him. The one who would have given him everything.

When I spotted him across the clearing, my heart jumped. He looked like a storm…jaw clenched, arms crossed, his entire body radiating tension. Still, I smiled. I tried to believe there was something behind the cold mask he wore. Something soft. Something that maybe, just maybe, had started to care.

I took a tentative step forward, heart thudding.

“Owen,” I breathed, reaching out.

He stepped back like my touch would poison him.

“Don’t,” he snapped, voice flat and sharp.

My hand dropped. My chest tightened.

"Lyra," he said, and even the way he said my name sounded like an inconvenience. “We need to talk.”

“I’m listening,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice from cracking.

His eyes were everywhere but on me. He stared at the trees, the ground, even the clouds…but not once did he meet my eyes. Like I didn’t matter. Like I wasn’t even worth looking at.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, arms still crossed. “About our packs. About you. About this… mistake.”

My lips parted slightly, confusion setting in. “Mistake?”

“This…whatever this was supposed to be. The bond. You,” he spat. “None of it makes sense. And it never will.”

My throat tightened. “Owen…”

“You’re a charity case,” he cut in. “Everyone knows it. You trail behind me like some pathetic shadow, always watching, always hoping. It’s exhausting. You’re exhausting.”

A sharp sting hit the back of my eyes, but I held it in. I wouldn't cry. Not yet. Not in front of him.

“My father’s pack is struggling,” I said, swallowing the lump rising in my throat. “But that doesn’t mean I am. I’m not weak.”

“You're nothing, Lyra.” His voice was like a blade. “Your pack is a disaster. Your bloodline is tainted by failure. And you? You’re dull. Predictable. Forgettable.”

I blinked hard, forcing back the moisture in my eyes. My chest burned. My lungs felt tight. Still, I stood straight.

“I don’t understand,” I said softly. “Why now? Why are you saying this now?”

He finally looked at me.

There was no warmth in his eyes. No remorse. Only disgust.

“Because I’ve wasted enough time pretending,” he said. “Selena’s back.”

The world dropped out from under me.

“She left you,” I said quietly, the words barely forming. “She walked away from you. You broke down because of her. I was there. I…”

“And I’d still choose her a thousand times over you,” he said, mouth twisting into a cruel grin. “You were a placeholder. A distraction. I never wanted you.”

I took a shaky breath. My eyes were wet, the tears now threatening to fall, but I held them back. I refused to let him see them.

“I was good to you,” I whispered. “I stayed. I waited. I tried.”

“And I hated every second of it,” he snapped. “You’re always waiting around like a lost pup, clinging to the smallest shred of attention like it’s love. It’s pathetic.”

I felt Nira growl within me, but her strength was faint…crushed beneath the weight of our shared heartbreak.

“You’re rejecting me,” I said. “Aren’t you?”

“I should’ve done it a long time ago,” he said, and then leaned closer, his voice low, venomous. “I reject you, Lyra of the Blueclaw Pack. I reject you, your weak blood, your desperate little heart, and everything you thought this was. I want nothing to do with you…not now, not ever.”

His words hit like a storm, one after the other, tearing through the bond I had cherished for so long. Every part of me screamed. Every breath hurt. The tears were there, hot and heavy in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall.

He wasn’t worth that.

“I accept your rejection,” I said, though my voice trembled. “And one day, Owen…you’ll realize what you lost.”

He let out a short laugh. “The only thing I’m losing is dead weight.”

I watched him turn his back on me without a second thought. No hesitation. No guilt.

Just like that…he walked away.

And I stood there…trembling, broken, but still not crying. Not yet. I wouldn’t give him that.

Nira’s voice rose inside me, it was low but filled with rage.

‘We’ll rise, Lyra. We’ll become everything he said we couldn’t. And he’ll hate himself for ever speaking to us like that.’

And I swore then and there…I would make Owen regret every single word.