CHAPTER 7: MARKED FOR MISERY

The morning after the Rejection Ceremony dawned grey and unwelcoming. Fog blanketed the Crescent Moon Pack’s village like a shroud, softening the sharp edges of rooftops, muffling the usual early bustle.

Samantha sat alone on the steps behind the old pack infirmary. Her dress from the night before was still damp from dew, stained with the forest floor and streaked with dried tears. Her hair had come undone in tangled ropes down her back, and her arms were littered with shallow scratches.

She didn’t know how she made it back.

Her body had moved without her mind. Her soul… she wasn’t sure where it had gone.

Every breath felt like inhaling broken glass.

Her wolf, the one she’d never heard or felt, remained silent within her. If there even was a wolf at all.

Maybe Elias’s rejection had killed what little connection she’d had to it.

She closed her eyes, trying not to let the ache in her chest consume her again.

“I told you,” came a voice behind her, smug and sharp. “You were never worthy of him.”

Samantha stiffened.

She didn’t need to turn to know who it was.

Rose Ryder.

Rose’s boots clicked against the stone as she stepped into view, arms folded across her chest. Her dark lashes were perfectly curled, her red lips untouched by the cold. Unlike Samantha, she looked well-rested, nourished, adored.

The contrast was a slap to the face.

“I mean, it was kind of pathetic,” Rose went on, circling her like a predator. “Still showing up, pretending to belong. Wearing that little ribbon like you were still family.”

Samantha stood slowly, not trusting her voice.

Rose’s smirk widened. “What? No clever comeback today? No whimpering ‘but we were fated’ nonsense?”

“I accepted his rejection,” Samantha said quietly. “You got what you wanted. Just leave me alone.”

Rose’s face twisted, her façade cracking for just a moment. “You think this is about Elias? That boy was easy to take. He wanted power. I gave it to him. But you?” Her eyes narrowed. “You’ve always had Alpha John’s affection. The pack’s sympathy. The Luna’s love. Even wolfless, they still pitied you.”

She stepped forward, close enough for Samantha to smell her perfume—roses and venom.

“But now,” Rose whispered, “no one’s left to protect you.”

Samantha’s pulse thudded in her ears.

Rose reached out and casually tucked a lock of Samantha’s hair behind her ear, her nails grazing her cheek. “Now it’s my pack.”

She left Samantha trembling, her laughter trailing like smoke behind her.

The worst part wasn’t even her cruelty.

It was Elias’s silence.

He watched it all from a distance. Cold. Detached. Sometimes his eyes would flick toward me—just briefly—but he never stepped in.

Never stopped her.

Never spoke to me again.

It was like I’d become invisible.

Except to the moon.

That night, I lay on my cot staring at the ceiling, wrapped in silence that didn’t soothe. The full moon was rising—its light spilled through the crack in the shutters, silver and sharp. I couldn't shift to go for a run. My wolf was buried too deep.

But I needed to feel something again. Anything.

So I went to the cliffs.

The wind bit at my skin as I stepped barefoot into the clearing. The trees behind me rustled, whispering secrets I didn’t care to hear. The sky was a canvas of stars, but the moon outshone them all. Full. Watching. Waiting.

I dropped to my knees on the moss-covered stone, the cool damp seeping into my bones.

The ache in my chest had grown louder these past few days—no longer a dull throb, but a pressure that built with every insult, every silence, every look that said you don’t belong.

I tilted my face to the moon.

And I broke.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I whispered, voice catching. “I didn’t ask to be cursed. I didn’t ask to be chosen.”

The wind howled.

I clenched my fists into the earth. “Do you hear me? I didn’t want him to be my mate!”

A sob wrenched from my chest. “I loved him. And he—he cut me out like I was nothing.”

The trees didn’t answer.

I stared at the moon, teeth gritted. “You picked the wrong girl.”

Tears streamed freely now. I couldn’t stop them even if I tried.

“I don’t want a mate anymore,” I choked out. “Do you hear me?”

My voice cracked, echoing off the rocks.

“I don’t want one.”

The words left a hollow in my soul—a space where something once sacred had lived.

“I don’t want love. Or fate. Or any of it. Just take it back. Take it all back.”

My voice broke into a sob.

As soon as she said it, something shifted.

A hush fell over the clearing, deeper than before. The birds stopped their song. The breeze stilled. Even the trees seemed to lean in.

Samantha froze.

Her breath caught.

A chill crept down her spine—not cold, exactly. But… ancient. Heavy.

The moon overhead glowed brighter, casting silver across her skin.

And for the first time in her life—

Something stirred within her.

Not a voice.

Not a wolf.

But a sensation.

A spark.

A pulse of warmth deep in her chest, like a heartbeat that wasn’t hers.

It vanished just as quickly as it came.

Samantha gasped, eyes wide.

“What was that?”

But the forest remained silent.

Still, the whisper of that moment stayed with her.

She placed a hand over her heart, unsure whether to feel hope or fear.

She didn’t know that far away, in another land, beneath another moon—

Someone had felt it too.