Chapter 4- Aurelia's POV

They spent the entire night stripping me of my life.

The Luna necklace came off first. An elder reached out and unhooked the silver chain from my throat, dropping the pendant into a box without looking at me.

Next was the ring. I pulled the band off my finger myself and set it on the vanity table.

After that, two women went through my wardrobe, taking every gown, every cloak, and every pair of boots bought with pack coin. They said those items belonged to the Luna title, not to me.

By the end of it, I was left with a single small cloth bag holding only a few basic shirts and a pair of worn trousers.

The servants who used to bow to me in the hallways kept their heads down, refusing to meet my eyes.

A couple of younger maids looked at me with pity, but most of the older staff were openly cold, practically shoving me out the door to prove their loyalty to the new regime.

I didn't bother shedding a single tear.

My eyes were dry because I had already cried every drop of grief out of my body during the three years I spent trying to make Kael love me.

I looked around the room, noticing that Kael was nowhere in sight.

I wondered if he was too much of a coward to face the mess he had created.

"The Alpha is waiting in the yard,"a guard barked, grabbing my arm to pull me forward.

I yanked my arm out of his grip and walked on my own, stepping through the corridor and out into the main courtyard.

The morning air was cold, biting against my bare neck.

Kael was standing near the iron gates, flanked by six armed warriors.

Selene was right beside him, wrapped in a thick fur mantle with one hand resting protectively over her flat stomach.

The sight made my stomach turn with disgust, but I kept my face blank. Elder Ezra stepped forward from the line of warriors, holding a rolled document in his hand.

"By order of the Alpha and the council, Aurelia is hereby stripped of all status and permanently banished from the Blackthorne lands,"Ezra declared loudly. "If you step foot across these borders again, you will be hunted as an enemy."

"Where am I supposed to go?"I asked, looking straight at the elder.

"That is no longer the concern of this pack,"Ezra replied without missing a beat.

"Sending a lone, unmated wolf into the outer wilderness without a scent trail or protection is practically a death sentence,"I pointed out, my voice loud enough for every warrior in the yard to hear.

"A rejected female who carries no value to this pack has no right to demand our protection,"the old man sneered back.

Kael stood close enough to hear every single word. He stayed silent. He didn't step in to offer me a horse, food, or safe passage through the neutral valleys.

I turned my head and looked directly into his gray eyes.

"Are you really going to let them throw me out into the wild like garbage after three years of everything I gave you?"I asked him.

The muscles in Kaels jaw jumped, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides.

I could see the hesitation tearing through him. For a split second, he looked like he was about to step forward and call a halt to the banishment.

Selene saw it too. She leaned into his side, her voice a quiet whisper near his ear.

"The entire pack is watching you, Alpha,"she murmured. "Show them your strength."

Kael closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, and when he opened them, the cold mask was back.

He chose his crown. He chose the pack.

"Escort her to the western boundary,"Kael ordered the guards, his voice hollow.

Two warriors moved up beside me, keeping their hands resting on their sword hilts as they marched me toward the stone markers that separated the territory from the wild forest.

Just before my boots reached the final boundary line, I stopped moving.

The guards reached for their blades, but I ignored them and turned around to look back at the Alpha.

Everyone in the courtyard seemed to think I was going to drop to my knees and beg for mercy. Selene had a small, triumphant smile on her face, waiting for me to break.

I kept my back straight.

"You will regret this,"I said to him.

I paused, looking at his rigid posture, and realized that was the wrong thing to say. A regret implied I still cared what he did with his pathetic life.

I stared into his eyes one last time, my voice dropping to a calm, dead tone.

"No,"I said softly. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."

The words cut through the courtyard like ice.

Kaels inner wolf went, terrifyingly still inside him.

He flinched back a step, staring at me in confusion because my words didn't sound like an angry threat from an abandoned mate. They sounded like a dark warning from someone far above him.

I didn't wait for his reply. I turned around and crossed the stone marker into the neutral wilderness.

The second both of my boots hit the dirt beyond the boundary line, something deep inside my body shifted.

The mark on my left collarbone flared with sudden, intense heat, pulsing hard against my chest, but I kept walking, not looking back once as the thick trees swallowed me whole.

For the first time in three years, I had no pack, no title, and no mate.

I was alone in the wild.