Sherry's POV

The word "Mate" was barely a sound, but it felt like a gunshot in the silent room.

My focus was pinned entirely on Eric. I saw the pure, undiluted shock on his face first, the sudden horror of recognition. Then, it flashed into something crueler: disappointment, quickly followed by a cold, calculating flicker of fear.

The music had been turned off. Every person in the pack house was absolutely still.

Eric inhaled sharply, then he broke the eye contact. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, the raw emotion was gone. He replaced it with a hard, ugly smirk. It was forced, completely unnatural.

He didn't just step away from me; he practically threw himself back, taking three harsh, deliberate steps. He wanted everyone to see the distance he was creating.

“Excuse me,” Eric said, his voice loud and chillingly composed. “I think I must have been… mistaken.”

My chest seized up. My hand reached out, shaking, trying to grasp the warmth he had just taken away. He was too far.

Eric looked directly at me. He scanned me from head to toe with an expression of open contempt. He made sure the whole pack witnessed his scorn.

“You,” he scoffed, shaking his head slightly. “You seriously thought I would accept you as my mate?”

The words hit me like physical blows. They were designed to tear me down, and they worked. The silence in the room was suffocating, making his assessment loud and clear to everyone.

“Sherry,” he continued, his tone dripping with disgust painted across his face, “Look at yourself. I’m the Beta. I need a woman who is strong, who can lead, who can handle social events and command respect. Someone who strengthens my position.”

He paused, letting his judgment sink in.

“You are weak,” he said, the words cruel and final. “You hide by the wall every year. You barely speak above a whisper. That dress can’t hide that you’re just average-looking. You are too small to stand beside me. You are below my standard.”

The humiliation was overwhelming, paralyzing. My ears were ringing. My eyes burned, but I refused to cry. All I could see was the hundreds of eyes fixed on me as my Mate went on about my faults.

Next to me, Viktor exploded. He surged forward, his face red with pure, unleashed fury. His scent—my grounding, protective brother turned aggressive.

“Thorne!” Viktor roared, using his formal name. “You will stop! That is my sister you are talking about!”

Eric held his ground. “Viktor, I’m being honest. The Beta’s mate has to be an asset. Sherry is a liability. I reject this claim. I refuse the mate bond with her.”

I saw Camilla react not with anger for me, but with horror for herself. She took a step back, hand over her mouth. Her fury was clear: Mated to a Beta, and then publicly rejected?

Her disappointment was clear but it was nothing compared to Eric’s cruelty.

Viktor was left speechless by Eric’s arrogance. He just stood there, his fists clenched, shaking with rage.

I finally managed to speak, my voice a broken, painful sound. I wasn't pleading about my flaws; I was begging for the reason behind his cruelty.

“Why?” I whispered. “The bond… it's real. Why do this?”

Eric’s jaw tightened. The cold mask slipped again, just for a second, revealing that flash of genuine, underlying fear.

“I told you why,” he said, his voice dropping like that could lessen the pain his words caused.“You’re not what I need. You are not enough.”

He turned immediately and walked away. He didn't look back at me, or at Viktor, or at the hundreds of witnesses. He simply walked straight out of the hall and through the main doors, abandoning his post and his friend without a word of apology.

The pain of the severed bond was a searing, constant ache in my chest. The divine connection that had anchored my soul to his snapped like an abused wire, sending a blinding wave of agony through my chest.

I couldn't breathe.

I shoved past Viktor, ignoring his frantic grip on my arm. I ran.

I ran past the offices, past the noisy crowd, until I found a tiny, rarely used door. I stumbled into the dark, dusty linen closet and collapsed onto the cold wooden floor, curling myself into a tight, miserable ball.

I broke down. It was a humiliating, gasping mess. I cried not just for the rejection, but for the brutal public way he did it. 

"Weak." "Average." "Not enough."

These words were now echoing in my mind like a broken music player.

The door creaked open. I couldn’t lift my head.

A quiet presence entered. The clean scent of jasmine and paper filled the small space. That scent belonged to Mia, my only close friend. She was a healer-in-training, but she didn’t try to fix me.

She just sat down on the floor next to me, pulled my shaking body into her arms, and held me tightly. She didn't say a word. 

I cried into Mia’s shoulder until I was completely empty, the sobs having torn through my chest and left me shuddering, light-headed, and cold. My dress now felt like a joke now, a painful reminder of the expectations I had failed.

“It hurts, Mia,” I finally choked out, the words muffled against her skin. “It hurts everywhere. Not just my chest. It’s like he reached inside and ripped out the one thing I didn’t know I was missing.”

The mate bond pain wasn’t just an ache; it was a screaming void. Every cell in my body was wired to recognize his presence, to seek him out, and now that source of comfort was violently reversed into a source of agony. It was the deepest, most fundamental form of betrayal a wolf could experience.

Mia shifted, her arms tightening around me. “I know, Sher. I know. He is a fool. A cruel, terrified fool.”

“He was terrified,” I whispered, repeating the word, trying to understand it. “I saw it. Right before he turned into that monster. But why? Why couldn’t he just… quietly reject me? Why the public show? Why the humiliation?”

I pulled away slightly, looking at her in the dim light of the closet. My face must have been wet, swollen, and stained with dirt from the floor.

“He didn't just reject me, Mia. He rejected the possibility of us. He rejected the Goddess’s command because I didn't fit his checklist. He called me weak in front of my father, my brother, and the entire pack. That is what will follow me forever.”

The words Weak. Average. Not enough. had taken root. They felt truer than my own name.

Eric, the embodiment of power and confidence, had publicly validated my deepest, most agonizing insecurities. He hadn’t just rejected a girl; he’d validated my lifelong self-doubt brutally.

“That is not true, Sherry,” Mia insisted, her voice firm. She pulled my chin up, forcing me to meet her gaze. “He said those things because he had to make the rejection final. He had to convince the pack and maybe himself that he was right to ignore the mate bond. He used your genuine shyness as a weapon. He knows you are not weak.”

“He is the Beta. He speaks with authority,” I said, the despair in my voice heavy. “He will become Alpha Viktor’s right hand. Everyone will believe him. I will always be the girl who was not enough for the Beta.”

A fresh wave of hot tears burned my eyes. It wasn't just the pain of losing a mate; it was the crippling, lifelong burden of public shame. I was the Alpha's daughter, meant to be above reproach, and now I was the central figure in a scandal of rejection.