1. Reject Her

[Zeve’s POV]

“Do you, Zeve, take Chaz Enver as your groom and mate for life?”

“I do.”

I held my gaze low under the translucent white veil. It was the day, the moments I had desired for twenty-two years of my existence.

I glanced at Chaz, my mate. The person I loved the most. Our eyes met, and I smiled faintly.

The night I had been waiting for — the night when Chaz would finally claim me as his and complete our fated union. 

I had been crushing on him since we were kids. Once, he asked me to play with him in the palace’s garden. I don’t remember what we played or what we talked about. But I remember I felt the best when I was with him. He was warm and the sparks I felt from him were irresistible. He was the best thing that could happen to me.

But then he left.

It was a difficult twenty-two years for me. I was a kid of rogues and thanks to luna Ava Enver; I could survive.

Even though she accepted me in the pack, others didn’t because I was different.

They bullied me for being different — for being me. Some girls said my beauty was a curse, and that I had brought all ill fate on myself.

I hated coming out every day, going to classes, getting bullied and beaten and coming back and pretending as if nothing happened. If luna Ava came to know about it, the girls at school would beat me more, so I hid my scars, bruises from everyone and continued living the hell.

‘They knew, every one of them knew. Everything you were going through; they knew it all.’ I flinched at my wolf’s voice. She kept repeating the same words over and over again.

There were people who were genuinely good to me. If they knew, they would have reached out a helping hand to me. Wouldn’t they?

A few years later, Chaz came back from his training outside the pack and joined our school. He was luna Ava’s only son and the alpha of the pack because his father died in a fight a few years ago. He became the youngest alpha at nineteen years and now he was twenty-four.

He was the heartthrob of the pack ladies. He slayed every heart with his green eyes.

School roof and my diary were my best friends. They knew all my secrets, from my tears to my laughter.

I had a secret diary about Chaz in which I wrote about him, about us. My fantasies about him. My unsent letters to him. Talia, a girl who always bullied me for no reason, stole that diary from me and to embarrass me in front of Chaz and everyone in the school. She gave it to Chaz.

But instead of embarrassment and more harassment, Chaz proposed to me.

And today he was standing in a white tunic and pants as I stood facing him in my white wedding gown. The ceremony garden lit with thousands of candles, torches, and lamps. We were vowing to be one, to be there for one another, in sorrow and happiness and in life and death. 

Chaz had changed my life. He taught me to believe in myself, fight for my rights, and stand for myself. He taught me I was unique, and that being different didn’t take away my right to be loved and accepted.

The bullying stopped after he proposed to me in front of the entire school. He protected me everywhere and by everyone.

My dreams turned into a crush and that crush turned into a desire and then those desires weaved into love. Now I couldn’t imagine my life without him. At least that was what I thought back then. 

My thoughts fluttered beyond the gloomy clouds that reminded us of the perpetual night that had made the concept of day a mere hypothesis in the books.

Our world had a night with no day. A moon with no sun.

“Do you, Chaz Enver, take Zeve as your bride and your mate for life?”

Chaz was holding my hands. He peered at me before answering. My heart pounded my chest.

Accept me yours, Chaz. I exhaled, trying to calm my frenzied thoughts.

“I…”

“He doesn’t!”

Chills ran through my body, numbing my legs. That roar had petrified my whole body. Never had I ever heard a voice so daunting and domineering.

My eyes lifted, hearing an unfamiliar voice. Everyone present at our wedding ceremony looked around frantically for the source of the voice.

“Seize them!” 

There were no thunders in the clouds. It was that voice that brought trembles on the ground.

Chaz left my hands and drew his sword hanging on his waist belt. I remained rooted in my place.

I stared blankly at my hands that Chaz left. It was a bad omen to leave hands before completing the vows. Our marriage...

“Protect Zeve at all costs. Don’t let them reach her!” Chaz ordered the soldiers, and four of them rushed to me. “Zeve, hide.” Chaz looked at me. Those eyes that always held subtle warmth in them were colder than winter that day.

“W-what is going on?”

I could barely speak. I reached out for Chaz’s hands, but the soldiers grabbed my arms and dragged me away. I turned and the last thing I saw before being dragged into the woods was — the redness of blood creep up the white curtains and flowers.

There were screams, screeches, and chaos within seconds.

Chaos.

“Chaz! Chaz! Chaz!” I screamed.

The flames of the candles that were to witness our union had set the entire garden on fire. The flames rose like walls between me and Chaz.

My screams were nothing before the screams of the soldiers being killed mercilessly by the unknown enemy. People being burnt alive. Soon I was running with my wedding gown, getting dragged in mud and grass.

The soldiers were still hostile towards me. The way they grabbed my arm and pulled me hurt. For them, I was just an outsider and didn’t belong there. They never cared if I was hurt or bleeding, all they cared about was dragging me. It wasn’t something new for me.

They threw me in the small house, especially built for me in a secluded area in the forest. After Chaz proposed to me, I started living there. He said it was our house, but he was rarely there.

I understood he was busy because he was the alpha of the pack, so I never disturbed him. Not even in my heats when I needed him the most. I wanted him close to me, even if it was for one minute. 

That day, too, I wished he would have come with me, but the pack was attacked and they needed him more.

The soldiers locked the door from outside. I caressed my hands, bruised with their fingerprints, and hugged them close to my chest.

“What is going on?” I held my heavy head and sunk in the chair by the window. The sky was pitch black that day. I didn’t feel the need for lights in the room. Squirming in my chair, I got up and paced near the door. 

Soon I heard strange noises coming from outside, swords clanging, soldiers screaming as if someone slit their throats. My anticipation took no time to turn into fear. Death was only a few steps away from me. 

“Come out!” It was the same voice from before.

I stopped breathing. I covered my mouth with my hands and slowly shifted back.

I heard a loud sound and shivers on the gate — someone broke the lock!

“Come out if you want to see your mate alive for one last time.” My body stiffened as stone. I rushed out of the door without thinking.

“NO!” I screamed.

Chaz was on his knees, his hair was in the man’s grip, who stood behind him holding a sword at his throat.

A menacing aura surrounded the attacker. He had neck-long hair that eclipsed half of his face.

His blood and sweat drenched hair fluttered in the air as his glowing blue eyes met mine.

My breath hitched, and I unconsciously stepped back from him.

He was wearing a translucent knee length black robe that flowed like waves in the breeze. The robe barely covered his upper body. He wore black pants with golden belts and chains around his waist, thigh and ankles. He was barefoot.

His bare chest was covered with traces of blood and ashes. The pressure of bloodlust emerging from him thickened the air all around me.

Tensing my brows, I clenched my fists. I had to do something, but what?

The soldiers all laid dead, and he had no other companions with him. His sword was stained red with blood.

Did he kill them all by himself? I thought. 

“Zeve, live!” Chaz forced out words from his throat. The sword sunk deeper as he spoke.

“No, please! P-p-please spare him!” I begged.

He tilted his head and squinted his eyes. Raising one of his eyebrows, he said those cursed words.

“Reject her or I will end your entire pack.” His face and voice were cold, with no ounce of emotion.

I widened my eyes, dropping my gaze at Chaz. “No… please don’t…” I shook my head slowly.

He removed the sword from his throat and Chaz looked into my eyes, tears trailing down his cheeks, and he said in a quavering voice.

“I, Chaz Enver, reject you, Zeve, as my mate.” He smiled faintly and shut his eyes.

Chaz tensed his brows, allowing his tears to stream from his cheeks to his throat.

Something that was keeping me from falling apart snapped the moment I heard those cursed words.

I flopped on the floor as an excruciating pain emerged in my chest.

My limbs were lifeless, my mind was numb and tears streamed down my eyes even when I didn’t blink. I clenched my chest, trying to breathe, but I couldn’t.

My breaths broke, my soul cracked from the core. I felt like my body was being torn apart. I gasped again and again, wheezing.

Not once. He didn’t even fake it.

It hurt, it hurt so bad. It hurt worse than death. Was our bond so weak that he didn’t even think twice before rejecting me? He didn’t bargain or resist. Not even once.

Rather, he... smiled.

My mate smiled after rejecting me.

Why am I crying? I knew it all along. From the very beginning, I was important to him, but he never wanted me. Never loved me. I felt it all the time, but I ignored it.

My vision turned blurry. Vaguely, I saw the stranger put the blade next to Chaz’s throat, “time to say goodbye.”

“NO! I am begging you. Please… please don’t kill him…” I bowed, with my forehead touching the ground in front of him. My hands were shaking uncontrollably.

Even though Chaz didn’t love me, I loved him more than anyone and anything in the world.

“No goodbyes for you then…” I heard a thud on the ground and rose from my bow just to see Chaz’s body fall lifelessly on the ground, his throat slit and his eyes wide open.

I covered my mouth with my hands, unable to speak even a word.

“CHAZ!” I screamed.

Before I could run to Chaz, the stranger trudged towards me. Trembling and panting, I crawled back from him. He kept stepping forward.

My hand felt the sword on the ground. I clenched it and slashed it at him as I jumped to my feet. He stepped back to dodge my attacks as I brandished my sword.

My whole body was sore. Stumbling, I maintained the fighting stance. I was dizzy, but I clenched the sword tighter.

He didn’t lift his sword at me as if I wasn’t even a worthy opponent in his eyes. After making enough distance between us, I lifted the hem of my gown and dashed into the deeper woods. Panting, I kept looking back to see if he was following me. Grass crunched, twigs cracked, leaves crumbled and short branches brushed against my body as I kept running. 

There was rumbling in the leaves as if several people chased after me, not one. Hearing those sounds, I ran faster and faster and faster. The air became chiller, freezing my bones.

I stopped running only when I could run no more. The wind was so cold that my lungs were rejecting my breaths. I threw up as the scene I witnessed kept on replaying in my mind.

“Why? Can’t run anymore?” I flinched at the stranger’s voice and shifted back. He was standing right behind me.

Defeated, I fell to my knees.

“K-Kill me...” if death was indeed my fate, there was no use running from it.

“You were fighting moments ago. Why change your mind now?”

“Just kill me already!” I whimpered.

“In a crisis, the first response you show is the genuine desire of your heart. I know you want to live. Keep running. I will wait for ten minutes. Until then, run as far as you can. By the end of the eleventh minute, if I find you, your fate will be mine to decide and if you escape, you escape.” He shrugged.

Was it all a game for him?

I lifted my gaze to his face; he stepped back and ushered me to run.

I knew he would kill me. He was just playing around with me a little for his amusement.

I looked in the pack’s direction that was never mine, my mate who delightfully rejected me right before he was killed.

“What should I do?” I didn’t realise I was thinking out loud while constantly breathing shallowly. My legs felt numb, my hands trembled, and my mind wasn’t working. 

His gaze was unreadable. He was waiting for ten minutes to pass as he tapped his feet on the ground, turning his back to me. Damn this psycho!

“Fuck!” I snapped and dashed deeper into the woods, leaving the pack and the stranger behind.

I ran as fast as I could. Didn’t know where I was going or what awaited for me. I just… kept running.

Didn’t keep track of time, didn’t know how to. The sky had never changed for five hundred years. It was a night twenty-four hours. I read about a word called ‘Day’ in history books. It was the time when the Sun replaced the moon. Pictures showed skies in blue, white, red, orange colours. But from the time I remember, I had always seen the sky in shades of grey and black.

People said the day was dead and night and cold would prevail for eternity. Knowing that my death was only a few steps away from me, I had this really ravaging urge to see a white sky and feel the light that people said was warmer but gentler than fire.

The woods transitioned into the rocky foothills of the mountains. The river had frozen. Running in the gown was a nightmare come true. I kept on running through the slippery rocky terrains. Stumbling, falling and bruising myself. There was a cave hidden in those terrains. I rushed into its darkness and curled myself in a corner.

Are ten minutes over? He can’t find me here, right? Even Chaz failed to find me when I ran from home. I thought, curling my knees to my chest.

My breaths formed white clouds as they rushed out of my lungs. I intertwined my fingers and held them close to my mouth, praying for those minutes to end without him finding me.

“Found you!” His hoarse, husky voice echoed in the cave.