Chapter 3 Rejection & Exiled

Aria's POV

He walked straight up to me, grabbed my arms, and started kissing me. As I tried to turn my head away he pressed against me more roughly. Disgust filled me at the thought of my first kiss ever being given by Ronan. Shaking my head I struggled to shove him off and instead, he pulled me closer while I pulled back making him angry.

“Why are you fighting this mate bond?” He muttered. I watched his eyes narrow and his brow crease in recognition.

“Aria?! What is the meaning of this? You WITCH!”

Grabbing my wrist he dragged me out of the lake hastily, cursing to himself as he yanked me along behind himself.

Jerking me back and forth he snarled, “I would NEVER accept some lowly bitch as my mate. Aria Hurik, I refuse you a thousand times over!”

“Good,” I mumbled, and then he brought me closer to his face and his glowing eyes.

“What did you say, little bitch? I know that you tried to seduce me by standing there completely nude in the lake. Let's see how you feel about being chained to the pole for the remainder of the night in the nude, you won't be so seductive then,” he huffed before adding, “It will give you a chance to think about the foolishness you have done while I speak to my father about your punishment.”

Stomping back to the pack house Ronan shouted out for his guards.

“I will have you banished immediately for seducing me with your evil spells to the outlands,” he snarled and then narrowed his eyes at the crescent-and-flame mark burned onto my chest.

“What is that? It's not a wolf sigil…you're a fucking witch,” he spat as he poked at the mark. It was making me angry and I was close to kicking him when a couple of his guards arrived.

Ordering them to chain me to the post I swallowed my bitterness as I tried to argue my case.

“I'm not a witch, I'm a warrior, like my late mother, who died protecting yours,” I asserted with determination yet Ronan side-eyed me dismissively.

“She failed, my mom died,” he hissed.

I was chained up for the whole night at the grounds of the pack house.

Pleading for my wolf Ashina to speak with me but I was left all alone both physically and mentally.

Nathan came, he asked the guards to put clothes on me and give me some water.

I was handed a man's button-up shirt and, unchained, I slipped it on. Then, I was given a glass of water.

Just as I was about to take a sip, Ronan's fiancée came and knocked the cup out of my hand, spilling the contents to the ground and on my bare feet. She snapped, “This bitch doesn't deserve to drink, she tried to seduce my man.”

Two guards I was unfamiliar with took each of my arms and lifted me.

I was carried by the two guards to my makeshift trial in front of the Alpha's yard.

He is very disappointed in me as my charges were aired by Ronan. All the servants that I had worked with pointed an accusing finger at me. I was now an occultist in all their eyes.

After the bullshit mock trial, I was biting my lip in disbelief. After hearing the old Alpha growl that I am to be banished immediately to the forest of bone I gasped.

“Where?! I have no one to defend me,” I muttered as my eyes landed on Nathan.

Unfortunately, he also lowered his eyes from mine.

“May I have my mother's blade if I'm going to be sent to the cursed lands? There are werewolf hunters throughout those lands,” I beseeched the two guards who bound my wrists and gestured for me to start walking.

“Guess that's a no,” I muttered sourly as I felt pity for myself.

“Don't,” a voice growled in my mind causing my eyes to narrow.

“Ashina?” I asked in my thoughts.

“Yes, dear. This is all part of your destiny,” she stated cryptically yet again making me exhale in frustration.

“Sure, if my destiny is death. I'm being sent to a place where no wolves return from,” I murmured bitterly as I was swung over the shoulder of one of the burly guards while he climbed into the back of a truck driven by the other.

We traveled down sketchy dirt roads carved into the forest and surrounding terrain.

Peering out I started to see the gnarled trees start to appear along with a thick mist.

If I am going to survive this I need to keep my wits.

“The Hunters won't be out in this fog. Looks like you got lucky,” the guard holding me commented.

Giving him a snort I said, “Please stop at my shack so I can retrieve my mother's dagger.”

He shook his head and told me they couldn't if it wasn't ordered by Alpha.

“No one can stop you from going to your home and getting it yourself, well if you can get past the guards who watch the perimeter of the Ironclaw Pack lands.

“You're going to drop me off at the border only?”

When he nodded I grinned slightly knowing that I could sneak to my shed and collect my meager belongings.

"Isn't the forest of bone in the opposite direction of your dwelling?" my wolf inquired softly and my enthusiasm faltered.

"Yeah," I thought with a frown.