Chapter 2

Rosalie's POV

I heard voices, far away.

That was the first thing that woke me up. My eyes felt like they were glued shut, and when I finally managed to blink them open, everything was a massive, blurry smudge. I couldn't make sense of the ceiling or the walls.

But then my chest started to ache as that deep, crushing weight came slamming right back into my ribs, and the memory of the bedroom door, the giggle, the sheets—it all flooded my brain.

It had to be a nightmare. I had to have just fallen asleep and had the worst dream of my entire life.

I scrambled to sit up, my head spinning so fast I felt sick, and that was when I noticed the white curtains and the smell of rubbing alcohol.

The pack infirmary.

Why was I in the infirmary? I couldn't remember collapsing.

I swung my legs off the mattress, my knees shaking like jelly. I didn't care, I just needed to find Easton. I needed to see his face and have him tell me that none of it was real.

Disoriented and stumbling, I pushed past the doors and stepped outside into the cool night air.

And then, I just stopped as the noise hit me first.

Loud music, cheering of a crowd and laughter everywhere.

The entire pack square was completely covered in bright, glowing fairy lights and long silver banners. There were rows and rows of food, people dancing, and then—the howling started. A massive, beautiful chorus of wolves throwing their heads back in joy.

I slowly tilted my head up, my eyes widening so wide they hurt to see the moon. It was big, round, and glowing a blinding white.

My breath caught. A full moon? But... hadn't it just been midnight when I got back? Hadn't it only been a few hours since I saw Easton in our room? How was it a full moon already?

“Hey! Wait, please,” I choked out, grabbing the sleeve of a pack member who was rushing past me with a tray of drinks.

“What’s the celebration about?”

The person stopped, turning to look at me and the second they recognized my face, the smile dropped off their mouth as they looked at me with this awful, stinging disdain, their nose crinkling up like I was something dirty on the bottom of their shoe.

“It's the Alpha's mating ceremony,” they said, their voice dripping with pity and disgust. They shook their head, looking me up and down. “Such a shame. Everyone really thought you were going to be Luna.”

I staggered back, my boots slipping a little on the dirt. My mind was reeling, spinning around and around so fast I felt dizzy.

This had to be some sick, twisted joke everyone was playing on me…it had to be.

I shoved past the person, knocking into their shoulder, and started running straight into the thick crowd. I didn't care who I ran into or who I pushed out of the way.

“Easton!” I screamed, my voice cracking, “Easton!”

But I couldn't see him through the sea of people.

Suddenly, the loud music began to quiet down, and the roaring crowd started to settle, parting right down the middle. I stopped running, my breath coming in ragged, short gasps as I watched the space open up.

There he was.

Easton was walking down the aisle toward the altar. And right beside him, holding his hand, was a woman. She was beautiful, but my eyes dropped down to her stomach. She was pregnant, very obviously pregnant under her white dress.

Easton had this look on his face, this huge, beaming smile that I had never, ever seen on him in the two whole years we had been together. It completely broke something inside me as I raised my hand and slapped my own cheek, hard, over and over.

“Wake up,” I told myself, but the pain was real, and the lights didn't fade, and the tears just kept falling freely down my face, blurring everything.

They reached the front, and the pack priest stepped forward, his voice booming over the silent crowd. “Do you, Easton, take Brenda to be your true mate and Luna forever?”

“I do,” Easton said. His voice was so clear, so proud.

And that was the exact moment something inside my mind just snapped. I couldn't hold it in for another second.

“Easton!” I screamed his name at the top of my lungs, the sound tearing from my throat and echoing right through the middle of the silent crowd.

I started running straight toward the altar, my fingers digging into the fabric of my dress to hoist it up so I wouldn't trip over my own feet. The crowd parted for me like I was a ghost, loud gasps and angry murmurs rippling through the people as I broke past the front row.

I stopped right in front of him and he froze.

“Rosalie,” he breathed.

“Tell me it's not true,” I whispered, my voice shaking so hard it felt like my teeth would shatter. But then the sadness just turned into anger and I screamed at the top of my lungs, pointing my finger right at the pregnant bride beside him.

“Tell me all of this is just a fucking joke! Easton, tell me!”

He shifted his weight, his chest heaving as he looked around at the hundreds of pack members watching us. He looked annoyed, like I was an inconvenience ruining his perfect night.

“Rosalie, stop,” he said, his voice dropping low, trying to sound authoritative. “Go back to the infirmary. You aren't well. We will talk about this later.”

“Talk about this later?” I let out a sharp, hysterical laugh, tears blinding me. The pain in my chest was so heavy I could barely stand. “Is that why you wanted me to die? Is that why you sent me off to the northern boards? So you could be with her?”

The crowd went completely dead silent, even Brenda let out a tiny gasp, her hand flying over her pregnant stomach.

“I thought you loved me,” I sobbed, stepping closer until I could smell his familiar scent, the scent that used to make me feel safe but now just made me sick. I reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt, my fingers bunching the fabric, pulling him down to my level.

“Two years, Easton! How could you do this to me? How could you?”

He didn't soften or look guilty.

Instead, his hands came down around my wrists and pried my fingers off his shirt, using enough force to shove me backward as I stumbled, my boots losing traction on the dirt, and I almost collapsed onto the floor, barely catching myself.

He looked down at me, his eyes cold and full of disgust.

“Why would I ever want someone as weak and wolfless as you to be my mate?” he sneered, his voice cutting through the quiet air so everyone could hear it. “You're nothing, Rosalie. You're a liability to this pack.”

And as if that wasn't enough, “I, Easton of the IronVale Clan, reject you, Rosalie, as my mate,” he said, his voice echoing over the speakers so every single person could hear it.

“And I accept Brenda as my chosen Luna.”

The words felt like an actual series of blows to my chest. I fell back onto the hard dirt, stunned and broken, my knees giving out entirely as I watched him turn away from me as he wrapped his arms around Brenda, pulling her in and kissing her deeply right there on the altar in front of everyone.

As the kiss broke, he looked down at me one last time, his mouth twitching into a cruel line. “It was never about you, Rosalie. It was never going to be you.”

A strange numbness started creeping through my veins, freezing me from the inside out. I couldn't move. I couldn't even find the words to cry anymore.

My mind went completely blank, just staring at the dirt. Tonight was supposed to be the night.

It was my twenty-first birthday. My wolf was supposed to finally surface tonight. I had held onto that one tiny shred of hope, thinking that if she just woke up right now, I could show Easton, show the entire pack, that I wasn't the weak, useless girl they all thought I was.

Deep inside my soul, I reached out. I screamed into the empty darkness of my mind, begging for my wolf, praying for even the tiniest spark or a sign from the Moon Goddess…anything.

But I was met with… silence.

There was nothing there. My heart shattered for a second time, the pieces literally grinding into dust.

I really was wolfless.

The silence around the altar didn't last long as suddenly, the crowd erupted into wild cheers for the new Alpha and Luna, the sound turning into ugly boos and jeers the moment their eyes landed back on me.

“Get out of here!” someone yelled.

Before I could even try to stand, a crumpled plastic cup hit my shoulder, followed by food and small rocks raining down on me.

And nobody stopped them, nobody cared.

Two guards stepped forward, their hands clamping onto my arms as they brutally dragged me off the altar like I was a piece of trash being cleared away for the real celebration to begin.