Renounced

This had to be some mating ceremony prank, trick, or joke. I tried to hold on to that thought, but the rational part of me knew that it was no joke. The man I loved had been cheating on me with my sister. If I had any doubts about that, I only had to see the way he looked at her. Jason and Erina drifted across the room together, accepting congratulations. Erina parted from Jason and went over to a group of her giggling friends while Jason made his way to the back of the room.

Jason loved me. I knew it. He was just confused.

I took a step, then two, and ended up flat-out running to him. I wiped my streaming eyes to get him into view, clutched at his sleeve.

"Jason, please don't do this," I begged.

He slapped my hand away and took a step backward when I tried to take his hand.

"Kiara-" he warned.

A sob tore its way through my throat. "You can't reject me. I love you. I know you love me-"

His lips curled in disgust as he continued to back away. "Look, stop making a scene. You're ruining my party. Stop with the sniveling, okay?"

He turned his back on me and disappointed into the crowd, taking a large chunk of my broken heart with him. I pressed a hand to my chest. The pain I felt there was almost physical. It was like I had a hole punched right through my insides. I hugged myself tightly and groaned in agony.

"She's not going to have a fit, is she?" said someone to my right with a hint of hopefulness.

"Maybe if she does, she'll finally be able to shift properly," said another.

Raucous laughter greeted this remark.

"Poor little, Erina, heartbroken and sad," someone said in a singsong voice. "Those the poor baby want a hanky?"

A handkerchief was thrown in my face. I looked up and stared at Erina's clique of friends with hate-filled eyes that were getting mistier by the second. Choking on a sob, I bolted out of the room and gunned for the stairs, shoving people out of my way.

All I remember about my run home is that I fell a lot. My arms and legs were maps of scrapes and bruises by the time I got home. I locked myself in my room and looked around wildly.

I had to leave. There was no way I could remain in the pack. The thought of running into Jason and Erina day after day after day...

"I'll go mad," I croaked.

I began to cram most of my clothes into a large suitcase. I took the petty cash I had saved up and lugged the heavy suitcase down the hall. My father, who was crossing the corridor stopped in his tracks. He glanced at the suitcase, completely ignoring my tear-streaked face.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm leaving," I wailed. "J-Jason-" Oh damn! It hurt so much to say his name. "-rejected me as his mate in front of everyone. He chose Irina instead and- and everyone was laughing. They called me names and-"

I dissolved into tears.

"Is that all?"

His question temporarily stunned me into silence. My life was literally ruined and he was asking if there was more.

"Dad, I told you-"

"I heard what you said! You got rejected by your mate. So what? Life's hard. Get used to it. Get that stuff back into your room now and stop acting like a spoilt brat. If you make another move to leave this house, you'll suffer something much worse. You know I don't make idle threats. "

He stormed off, muttering something about useless, ungrateful daughters.

The next few days were a nightmare. Word had spread to everyone in the pack about me getting rejected. Once, I thought I had a hard life. It was nothing compared to what I faced now. I would gladly have spent all my days locked up in my room alone, but Lora was not having it. She sent me on stupid, irrelevant errands and I knew it was just so people could point, stare, laugh, and jeer at me.

Whenever I returned from these errands, she would stare at my reddened eyes hungrily, eagerly waiting for a tear, and then her face would droop in disappointment when I stubbornly refused to cry. But I made up for all the tears I refused to shed, in my room, bawling my eyes out.

As if all that wasn't torture enough, I wasn't allowed to eat my meals in peace. I was forced to sit at the dining table with Lora and Erina chatting excitedly about Erina's relationship on one side, and my father, hanging on to his wife's every word on the other side. Then Lora and Erina would pause to ask why I looked so unhappy and why I wasn't excited about my sister's good fortune.

"Fortunately, Erina will soon move in with Jason," said Lora to my father one time with a disdainful glance at me, while I tried to swallow past the pain and clog my throat. "The way Kiara looks at Erina sometimes... like she wants to murder her..."

Lora shivered delicately. My father let out a humorless laugh and patted her hand.

"Nonsense, love," he said. "Kiara wouldn't dream of hurting Erina."

And he glared at me as though he would have liked to murder me instead.

I felt my sanity being chipped away bit by bit as several more days passed. And then one day, my father came into my room with Lora on his heels, while I sat curled up on myself, staring blankly out of the window. I stared at them dully, wondering what new methods of emotional torture they had devised for me now.

"Kiara," he said in a deep, grave voice. "We have come to the conclusion that you have to leave-"

I got to my feet without having a memory of moving.

"Yes," I said eagerly. "Yes. I will leave. I have to. I-

My gaze fell on my suitcase which I had never really unpacked.

"Listen," he said sharply and I fell silent. "A few months ago, we took a loan from Alpha Ryder for the expensive course of medical treatment you had to cure your shifted problems. A waste of good money but now we're up to our ears in debt-"

"Because of you," Lora finished.

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. Instinctively, I knew something bad was coming.

"What has this got to do with me leaving?" I asked.

"Everything!" my father snapped, anger breaking through his enforced self-control. "Alpha Ryder demands you as his bride to pay off the debt."

"No." My mouth widened into an o of horror. Rejected by my mate and now sent off to some man as payment? This couldn't be happening.

"Yes. You will pack your belongings to go live with him."

"I won't," I gasped. "I won't go. You can't make me."

"Do you have any idea what he will do to us if we don't pay?" Lora shrieked. "Are you going to put all of us in danger just because you're too proud, too stubborn to do as you're told?" She tugged at my father's arm frantically. "I told you! I told you we shouldn't have taken that loan."

"Calm down, love," he soothed with his angrily flashing eyes fixed on me. "Don't you dare make me regret trying to find a cure for your condition, Kiara. You will get married to Alpha Ryder and that's the end of it. If you refuse, may the goddess help me, I'll..."

He clenched his fists, making the threat very clear.