CHAPTER TWO

SHERRY.

How could one be so cruel to his best friend's sister?

"Eric, that is enough!" Viktor roared, his teeth lengthening into fangs.

"No, it's not," Eric said, his eyes drilling into mine, tearing away the last pieces of my dignity. "You are below my standards, Sherry. You're too small, too fragile and completely incapable of being a Beta's mate. You would be a liability to this entire pack."

The crowd began to whisper, their eyes stabbing into me like needles. I saw Hazel smirking in the front row, looking at me with pure triumph. I saw the pity on the faces of the older pack members. It was humiliating. The one place I called home had turned into a public execution ring, and my fated mate was the executioner.

"Why are you doing this?" I choked out, clutching my stomach as if I had been punched. "We are fated. We are supposed to protect each other."

"I protect the pack," Eric said coldly. "And I don't need a burden dragging me down."

He took a deep breath, his chest expanding, and looked around the room to ensure every single eye was on him. When he looked back at me, his eyes were dead.

"I, Eric, Beta of the Blood Moon pack, reject you, Sherry, as my fated mate and future one. You are unworthy."

The mate bond inside me snapped and I felt it doen to my soul.

A physical pain, agonizing, tore through my chest. I gasped, dropping to my knees on the cold hard floor, my hands top-pressing against my heart. It felt like my soul was being ripped in half, bleeding out right there in front of everyone.

"Eric!" Viktor shouted, stepping toward him, but Eric didn't back down.

"I stand by my decision," Eric said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. He turned his back on me, looking at the crowd. "The rejection is final."

"Get out," a sharp, angry voice hissed from the side.

My mother, Camilla, stepped out of the crowd, her face twisted in disgust. I thought she was going to defend me. I thought she was going to comfort her bleeding daughter.

Instead, she glared directly at me.

"Look at the embarrassment you have brought upon this family," Camilla hissed, her voice loud enough for the nearby wolves to hear. "Begging a Beta to take you? Throwing a tantrum on the floor? You are the Alpha's daughter, Sherry! Have some dignity. A Beta is barely a step above an ordinary wolf anyway, and you are weeping on the floor for him?"

"Mother, stop!" Viktor snapped, kneeling down beside me, wrapping a strong arm around my shaking shoulders. "She's hurting! The mate bond just broke!"

"She is making a scene!" Camilla countered, her eyes cold . "Get her out of here before she soils our family name any further."

I couldn't hear them anymore. The voices blurred into a loud, ringing buzz in my ears. 

The rejection was a heavy, suffocating weight pressing down on my lungs. I looked up through my tears and saw Eric walking away, Hazel immediately slipping her hand into his, comforting him as if he were the victim.

While I was here struggling to breathe, struggling to even see properly through my haze of tears.

He didn't even look back.

The humiliation, the rejection, the cold words from my own mother—it was too much.

I pushed Viktor away with whatever strength I had left, scrambled to my feet, and ran.

"Sherry, wait!" Viktor called out.

I didn't stop. I ran through the crowded hall, pushing past the whispering wolves, bursting through the double doors into the cool, dark Florida night. 

The humid air hit my face, mixing with the hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I ran past the pack borders, into the deep, dark woods where no one could see my shame.

I collapsed against the base of a massive tree, sliding down into the dirt, burying my face in my hands. I sobbed until my chest ached, until my throat was raw.

Weak. Fragile. Below his standards.

His words repeated in my head like a cruel chant. Like a broken music box that wouldn’t stop playing.

My heart was broken, completely shattered into pieces. But as the hours passed, and the silver moonlight filtered through the canopy of the trees, hitting my tear-stained face, something inside me began to shift. 

The crushing pain didn't disappear, but underneath the agony, a tiny, sharp spark of defiance ignited.

I didn’t want to feel this way. I couldn’t stay this way.

The timid, quiet girl who hid behind books died on the pack house floor tonight.

I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand, staring up at the full moon. "I will never beg for love again," I whispered into the empty woods, my voice shaking "I will never let anyone call me weak again."

The rustle of leaves behind me made my ears twitch.

I didn't move or breathe as I saw a shadow lengthened across the grass, stopping just short of my boots. A suffocating pressure suddenly filled the air, completely different from Eric's scent, completely different from anyone in my pack. It was dominant, dangerous, and entirely wild.

I slowly turned my head, my eyes widening as a pair of glowing, crimson eyes stared back at me from the darkness of the trees.