A Mistake?

I woke to warmth and the weight of a heavy arm draped across my waist.

The furs tangled around my legs, and the fire in the hearth had burned down to glowing embers. Zarek's breath stirred the hair at the back of my neck, slow and steady in sleep. For one perfect, fragile moment, I let myself believe that I would wake up every morning just like this, wrapped in my mate's arms.

Artemis stretched inside me, satisfied. 'Mate,' she purred. 'Ours, finally.'

I turned my head to look at him, and my heart swelled at the sight of his sleeping face. He looked younger in sleep, less like a fearsome Alpha and more like a man who had finally found peace. I reached out to trace the firm line of his jaw, but before my fingers could touch his skin, his eyes jolted open.

Those silver eyes, cold and empty, held none of the warmth from the night before.

"You are still here," he said, and his voice was flat, clinical.

I pulled my hand back, confusion blooming in my mind. "Where else would I be, Zarek?" I laughed nervously, trying to clear the air.

He sat up, the furs falling away from his bare chest, but he did not look at me as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Last night was a mistake," he said, and the words were a slap to my face.

"A mistake?" I sat up too, clutching the fur to my chest. "You said I was your mate. You said you dreamed of me for over a year. You called me your beloved, your love, your Luna."

"I said a lot of things, didn't I?" He stood and walked to the window, his back to me. The morning light outlined his broad shoulders. "The full moon does strange things to a wolf's mind. The bond can feel real before it fully forms, and I was not thinking clearly."

His tone was casual, like he was talking about a misplaced piece of clothing. My blood turned to ice. "What are you saying, Zarek? Speak plainly."

He turned then, and when our eyes met, I did not recognize this man. Cold and distant, he had the face of a stranger wearing my mate's skin. "I am saying that I, Alpha Zarek of the Blood Moon Pack, reject you, Rya of the Blood Moon Pack, as my mate and my Luna. You are not worthy of my pack, my name, or my future."

The words hit me like physical blows, each one a knife sliding between my ribs.

Artemis went silent. One moment she was there, purring and content, and the next she was gone, collapsed into a dark corner of my mind like a wounded animal. I reached for her, called her name in my head, but there was only silence, leaving a hollow echo where her presence once was.

"No," I whispered, my voice cracking. "You cannot do this. The bond does not work like that, Zarek. The Moon Goddess does not make mistakes."

"The bond can be broken," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, unmoved by the tears streaming down my face. "The Moon Goddess grants us free will, and I am choosing to exercise mine. I do not want you, Rya. I never wanted you."

I climbed out of the bed, my legs shaking. I did not care that I was naked or that he could see every tremor in my body.

"Why?" I demanded, my voice rising. "Why would you say all those things last night? Why would you touch me like I meant something, whisper promises in my ear, and then throw me away?"

For a fraction of a second, something flickered in his silver eyes, perhaps regret, guilt, or something darker, but it vanished before I could name it. "You are a distraction I cannot afford," he said. "There are political alliances I must secure, and a mate of low rank would destroy everything I have built. The pack would never respect a Luna who came from nothing."

"So you used me," I said, my voice breaking on the last word. "You used my body and my wolf's trust, and now you are discarding me because I am not good enough for your precious pack."

"I am doing what is necessary for the Blood Moon Pack, for my pack."

I laughed then, a hollow and bitter sound that scraped my throat raw. "You are a coward, Alpha Zarek. You are a coward hiding behind politics because you are too afraid to follow your own heart. You felt that bond last night, same as I did, and you are too weak to stand up to your own pack."

His jaw tightened, and I saw the muscle tick again, the exact same way it had when he first approached me at the celebration. "Say what you will, the rejection stands. You have one hour to gather your things and get out of my chambers, and then I never want to see your face again."

"And if I refuse to leave?"

"Then my guards will remove you." He walked to the door and paused with his hand on the frame, still refusing to look at me. "Do not make this harder than it has to be, Rya. Just go, and forget that any of this happened."

"Forget?" I spat, my voice shaking with rage and grief. "You want me to forget that my fated mate claimed me, called me his beloved, and then rejected me before the sun was fully up? You want me to forget that my wolf has gone silent because of your cruelty?"

"I want you to leave," he said coldly. "That is all I ask."

"Do not call my name ever again," I said, each word dripping with venom. "You lost that right the moment you opened your coward mouth."

He left without another word, and the door closed behind him with a soft click that sounded like a death sentence.

I stood there for a long time, naked and shaking, staring at the door he had walked through. Artemis did not answer my calls; she remained curled in that dark corner of my mind, silent and unresponsive. I felt something inside me crack, something I did not know how to fix.

I dressed slowly, mechanically, pulling on the dress from the night before, the one he had unlaced with such tender fingers.

The fabric smelled like him, full of cedar and smoke, and I wanted to rip it off, but I had nothing else to wear. When I walked out of his chambers, the guards in the hallway refused to meet my eyes; they had heard, or they had guessed, and their silence was its own kind of cruelty.

I found Lila waiting for me at the edge of the celebration grounds, her face pale and her eyes red from crying. "I heard," she said, pulling me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe. "The whole pack is talking about it. He announced the rejection to his Beta before you even woke up. Everyone knows, Rya."

"Of course he did." I pulled back, and I was surprised to find that I had no tears left. "He wanted to make sure everyone knows I am nothing, that I'm not good enough to be their Luna."

"You are not nothing, Rya." Lila grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently. "You are a wolf of the Blood Moon Pack, and you have survived worse than this. You are strong, and you will survive this too."

"Have I?" I looked around at the familiar territory, the trees I had known my whole life, and I felt like a ghost haunting a world that no longer wanted me. "My wolf is gone, Lila. She will not answer me. Artemis is silent."

Lila's face crumpled. "Gone how? What do you mean, silent?"

"Silent," I said. "As if the rejection killed her. I call her name, and there is nothing there, just emptiness."

"That is not possible. The wolf is part of your soul, Rya. She cannot just disappear."

"Then my soul is broken." I retorted, recoiling from her grip. I straightened my shoulders, though every bone in my body wanted to collapse. "I need to leave before his guards escort me out like a criminal. I cannot stay here, Lila. I cannot stay where everyone looks at me with pity or disgust."

"Where will you go?" Lila asked, tears streaming down her face.

"I do not know," I admitted, "but I cannot stay here. Not another minute."

Lila cried then, and I held her for a moment, soaking in her warmth because I desperately needed it. When I let go, I walked toward the edge of the Blood Moon territory, the part where the pack bond grew faint, and no one stopped me.

The forest swallowed me whole, and for the first time in my life, I walked alone with no wolf at my side. No Artemis whispering in my ear. No instincts guiding my feet. I was just a woman, walking through the trees, with nothing but a broken heart and a hollow chest where my wolf used to live. The silence inside me was worse than any pain I had ever felt.

I walked until my legs gave out, crawled until my hands bled, and then I lay down in the dead leaves and waited for the darkness to take me. I craved the abyss.