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I was standing near the podium, waiting for Dominic to announce that I was his mate.

Aria was standing beside me with her arms folded. I knew she was happy for me but she somehow looked like she’d rather be somewhere else.

Where she would want to be in this fateful moment was beyond me.

We all knew how much I loved Nic and how long I’ve waited for this moment. Since our sixteenth birthday when Nic took one look at me in the school theatre and growled the word that every girl wanted the future alpha of our pack to growl at them.

“Mate.”

My heart instantly whipped with joy then. I’d never dreamed of becoming the Luna but the thought of it changed my entire life plan in that single moment.

“Can you stop fidgeting.” Aria’s irritated voice pulled me back to the present.

“Sorry,” I whispered and tried to stand still. I failed. “I’m just so excited. Do you understand what this means? This means that Ronnie will never beat me again.

Ronnie was my awful stepfather. The man never had a decent bone in his body.

He beat me when he got home and there was no hot meal waiting for him on the table. He beat me when he came home with his whores and I so much as looked at them the wrong way. He basically beat me up whenever he felt like it and there was nothing I could do about it.

Now, as a Luna, I would be protected and I’d never go to bed hungry ever again.

The room erupted with cheer and joy as Alpha Alkane and Luna Josephine walked into the room. Dominic was trailing behind them with a beautiful smile, like the proud prince he was

I ran my hands over the white dress that Aria reluctantly lent to me. The fabric was clean and smelled like lavender against my skin. It was nothing like the scent of my wolf but I hoped Dominic liked it.

They stepped onto the podium. I noticed that Aria was biting her nails again, a habit I told her to stop countless times. I reached for her arm and took her hand in mine to make her stop doing it. She rolled her eyes and looked up at the ruling family.

“Thank you all for coming,” Alpha Alkane said with a smile. “As you all know that Dominic is about to announce his mate and marriage today. I hope you will all stay and celebrate and feast with us today.”

The room filled with applause and whistling. Someone howled in the corner.

“Dominic.” Alpha Alkane stepped aside and gave Dominic the space.

Dominic stepped forward with a serious expression, his gaze meeting mine at the bottom before moving over to Aria, who was now looking at the floor like it held all the treasures of the kingdom.

“I would like to announce that I have met my mate,” Dominic’s voice came out soft as he looked at me again. “But I reject her.”

The words hit me like a tidal wave.

Aria also froze beside me, her hand still in mine.

She looked at me but I was still staring up at Dominic, my mate, the love of my life, who was about to reject and humiliate me in public.

Like the dates we went on when Ronnie was working late meant nothing. Like I meant nothing.

The way he was looking at me now was not filled with disgust, but it wasn’t filled with joy either. Gone was the loving look he gave me last night when he promised that after today, everything would be different, I would be different. I wouldn’t be just a lowly omega anymore.

“I, Dominic East, reject you, Annabelle Piper as my mate,” he said the words so softly that I considered slapping myself across the face to make sure that I wasn’t dreaming.

I wasn’t dreaming.

I didn’t slap myself of course. I just pinched my thigh hard enough.

All eyes came to me now. Heat rose up my face as the whispers started.

The reject. Rejected mate. Did she really think she was fit to be Luna? Look at her dress, it’s cheap, just like her. Isn’t she that orphan girl whose stepfather drinks too much?

All insults. All directed at me in whispers.

Aria pulled her hand from mine and wiped it against her skirt. She didn’t look at me. Her gaze was still on the floor.

“I’m sorry, Anna,” Dominic said. “But I’m in love with someone else. And she’s pregnant.”

Jesus. This just kept getting worse. I could feel my chest tightening by the second.

“Aria Lopez, will you marry me?” Dominic stretched his hand out to my best friend.

The girl who brought me dinner when Ronnie decided I didn’t deserve to eat. The girl who once tackled the school bully for pulling my hair. The girl who sat on my bathroom floor and tended to my wounds whenever Ronnie was drunk enough to remember that he had a personal punching bag.

My best friend.

The same one who read all the fantasy stories I wrote about Dominic and myself in the past year.

I stood there like a wet duck as she took his hand and stepped onto the podium.

The people started cheering and howling again as Luna Josephine embraced her new daughter in law.

Aria didn’t even look at me once.

It felt worse than any punch Ronnie had ever given me. I could barely catch my breath.

My legs gave out as soon as I stepped out of the door. I fell forward on my hand and knees. I wasn’t even aware that I was crying until I tasted salt on my tongue. The sobs came fast after. I howled like a wounded dog.

Footsteps came quickly behind me. I moved to get up but someone stepped on the hem of the dress and I fell back down on one knee. I looked up to see Aria standing there with a smug look on her face. She was alone.

“Did you really think you were better than me?” She bent and came face to face me. “You couldn’t even come up with a decent dress to come here. You are dressed by me, you are fed by me half the time. Why would you get to be Luna?”

Her palm connected with my cheek before I could even say anything.

A second later a few of our school friends appeared beside her. Dominic’s hand wrapped around her waist.

“Nic?” I whispered.

He snorted just before Aria’s small fist connected with the side of my mouth, knocking me down.

The taste of my own blood hit my tongue.

“Even your own stepfather sold you off.” Aria laughed. “Do you know where you’re going? You’ll find out soon enough.”

I couldn’t believe it was Aria doing that to me. If it was somebody else it wouldn’t have hurt as much.

“Take her,” Dominic barked.

Something hard hit the side of my head and everything went dark.