Chapter 2

“Try again” she said stepping back a little to give me space.

I looked toward the kitchen down the hall. I couldn't smell anything coming from there. I couldn't even smell the floor polish or anything around me anymore

To a werewolf, smell is everything. It’s how we see the world, how we know who is a friend and who is a foe.

But the trauma of Malakai’s rejection—the sheer cruelty of it happening so soon after my first shift had broken the connection between my sense of smell and my soul.

"Omg," I choked out, a fresh wave of terror washing over me. "Everything is gone. The world... it doesn't have a smell to me anymore."

I was nineteen years old. I was a late shifter, hence tagged a defect. A defect who had finally found her wolf only to have her heart murdered a day later. I wasn't just rejected. I was smell-blind young werewolf.

It was devastating.

No smell of flowers, Just… air. Cold, empty, hollow air.

"Jasmine, look at me!" Freya’s voice was frantic, her hands gripping my shoulders so hard I could feel her fingernails through the thin fabric of my hand-me-down dress.

"You’re hyperventilating. Breathe, Jaz. Just breathe."

I tried. I took a deep breath like she instructed, praying for the smell of anything but It was like someone had cauterized my soul.

"I can't," I choked out, the tears finally spilling over. "Freya, my sense of smell is gone. Everything is gone."

I wasn't just talking about the scents. I was talking about the life I had imagined for myself just ten minutes ago.

I thought the bond would be my shield. Instead, it had been the weapon used to execute me.

"What happened there?" Freya asked, her eyes darting toward the closed door of the private chambers.

Before I could answer, I heard footsteps again.

I flinched, my body instinctively reaching for Freya’s. But it wasn't Malakai or Cecily. It was Vivienne. My stepmother stood there, her arms crossed over her chest, the look of triumph on her face that didn’t need a smell for me to understand.

"So," she began, "The defect finally shifted, only to be rejected by one of the most powerful wolves in the pack. It seems even the Moon Goddess agrees with me, Jasmine. You are a waste of space."

"He... he was my mate," I whispered, my voice trembling.

"Was," Vivienne corrected, stepping over my legs as if I were a piece of roadkill. "Now, he is Cecily’s. Malakai has already spoken to your father.

He’s claimed Cecily as his chosen mate. The Pack Alpha has accepted it. A future Beta needs a strong female, not a late-shifting freak who can’t even hold onto her own fated bond."

My father had accepted? So he knew then, and He hadn't come to check on me. He hadn't demanded for Malakai explain himself like any caring father would. He had simply accepted for my step sister to replace me.

"Get up," Vivienne snapped. "You have embarrassed the family enough. The ceremony is starting, get back home and make sure dinner is ready and the floors are scrubbed clean, Since you don't have a mate to take you off our hands, you can spend the rest of your life making sure our house is clean enough for Cecily and Malakai to live in."

Freya stood up, pulling me with her.

"She’s hurt, Vivienne! Can't you see she’s in shock?"

Vivienne didn't bother looking at Freya. She kept her eyes locked on mine, her lip curled in a sneer.

"Shock? She’s lucky I didn't throw her out of the house. A rejected wolf is a threat to a pack. From this moment on, Jasmine, you are nothing.

You don't speak unless spoken to. You are the shadow we should have cast out years ago."

She turned and walked away, her heels clicking against the stone floor in a way that sounded like a funeral march.

I stood, leaning heavily on Freya, feeling the weight of the entire situation pressed down on me. Nala was still silent. I reached out mentally, calling for her, begging for a growl, a whimper, anything.

Silence.

"Jaz," Freya whispered, her voice thick with unshed tears. "We have to go back home. We can’t stay here."

"Home, Freya?" I asked, looking down at my hands. They were pale and shaking. "I’m a nineteen-year-old rejected wolf. I have no money, no mate, and I can’t even smell the air I’m breathing. That place is not my home"

"What about the scholarship," Freya wishpered slowly like she was scared that even the walls may hear her, "The one you applied for at Ivory Spire.

The scholarship!

“I'm yet to receive the mail. It may come in tonight since the school year is officially starting next week” I told her but i was still doubting if I would get the offer.

I had been studying like crazy secretly, I had applied for a university scholarship position at Ivory Spire. It was a school for the elite werewolves and my father and step mother had no idea I applied.

If my parents found out I'm pretty sure they will do all they can in their power and connections to stop me from getting the scholarship.

Freya grabbed my hands, her eyes bright with a sudden spark. "Then we're leaving together if you get the scholarship, I got my admission letter yesterday, Jas. I’m going to Ivory Spire, too."

I blinked, the shock momentarily numbing the ache in my chest. "You’re coming?"

"Don't think I'll let you face those elite snobs alone" She beamed…