Chapter Four

Dakota POV

He looked like he had seen a ghost.

“I don’t want to be your Luna.” The words slipped past my lips effortlessly, and the crowd cheers died down instantly. Lucian’s face went pale, his hand, still holding out the ring, hovered in the air like it had frozen mid-motion.

Even the birds in the trees seemed to have stopped singing, the entire place went completely silent as every pair of eyes glanced from me to Lucian.

He blinked. Once. Twice. His smile twitched, struggling to stay in place. Then he forced out a small, confused laugh, like I had just told a joke he didn’t understand.

I looked down at him, kneeling there with the sun making his perfect hair glow.

How could someone as good looking as him be such a monster?

“Dakota,” he said softly, his voice dropping to that tender, caring tone he always used when he wanted something from me, “if this is about being nervous in front of everyone, we can…”

“I’m not nervous.” I snapped, cutting him off with a much stronger and sharper voice than I expected. “I just don’t want to marry you.”

I overheard Claire’s loud gasp from behind me and could clearly see the stunned expression on my parents' faces. Whispers and murmurs broke out among the guests,

“What did she just say?”

“Did she just…?”

“No way! No way she said no.”

My father, stepped forward. His strong, familiar gamma scent filled my nostrils as he touched my arm gently. I leaned into his touch, not realizing just how much I missed his presence until that very moment.

“Dakota, sweetie,” he said, his deep voice laced with concern, “isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

I turned to look at him, at the face of the man who had loved me my entire life. He only trusted Lucian because I trusted him. I could only imagine how devastated he would have been in my other life after he found out what happened to me.

How gruesomely I was murdered.

I wanted to tell him everything, about the murder, the baby and Lucian’s dirty secret. But I couldn’t, not here, not now.

“I’m fine, Dad,” I swallowed hard, my throat burning, “I just know what I want. And it’s not him.”

“Baby,” Mom whispered, her eyes frantically searching mine, “becoming Luna has always been your dream. You’ve talked about it since you were old enough to speak. You love Lucian, and we all know that.”

She wasn’t wrong. The old Dakota dreamt of nothing more than becoming Luna and spending the rest of her life with the man she loved, blindly.

“I was a child back then,” I said quietly, holding Mom’s gaze, “and children grow up, they also grow out of things they naively thought they wanted.”

“You’re just nervous, baby. You’re not thinking clearly and I’m sure you just need time to…”

“I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have in my entire life, Mom. And I don’t need time to think about anything, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life tied down as someone’s Luna when they’re more important things to do.”

Lucian finally rose to his feet. He was so much taller than me, and he used that height, squaring his shoulders, looking down at me with that intense Alpha aura of his that used to make me weak in the knees.

A muscle ticked violently in his jaw as he struggled to remain calm. “Everyone is watching. Don’t do something you’ll regret, Dakota. We can talk about this privately.”

Regret?

The word almost made me laugh. I knew what real regret felt like. Real regret was dying with your unborn child ripped from your body while the father walked away with his lover without looking back.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Lucian. I just don’t want you. It’s really that simple.”

I met his eyes, those dark, dreamy eyes I once got lost in. Now, all I saw was the moonlight reflecting off them as he raised his claws above my stomach.

“B-But… but we’re…” he stuttered lightly, his voice cracking like he was so scared of losing me.

He was such a good actor. One would think he really cared about me, they'd think I had hurt him.

The great Alpha heir, rejected in front of his entire pack.

“Dakota, please…” he pleaded, reaching for my hand but I jerked away from him like his touch would burn me. Because in a way, it would. Every memory of his hands on me made my skin crawl with disgust and hatred.

“Don’t you dare touch me!” I yelled.

Stefan pushed forward, his large frame wrapped around me, shielding me away from Lucian’s glare,

“Dee. Hey. Look at me,” he cupped my face gently in his palms, “are you sure you want to say no to him?”

I turned to face my brother. In the previous life, I never got to see him again after my mating ceremony, I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to scream it so everyone could hear.

“I just realized something today,” I said softly, squeezing his hand. “I want more out of this life. I want more than just being a figurehead Luna.”

Stefan ’s brow furrowed, “But you always said—“

“I know what I always said.” I cut him off gently, “I was wrong.”

Lucian stepped closer again. I could smell his cologne, the same one he always wore. It used to be enough to send my wolf into heat, now it made my stomach turn.

His face was blank, but I could see the rage he was struggling to hide behind his wounded expression. The same rage I’d seen in the woods.

The same monster, barely leashed.

“Lucian Bardulf” I said his name like it was nothing. Like he was nothing. “Under the law of the moon and in the presence of the pack, I, Dakota Steps, reject you as my mate.”