CHAPTER 3

Tiffanie

“What do you mean? You can’t be my chosen mate!” The prince snarled as he finally turned to face me, his eyes narrowing at the anger and confusion written all over my face.

The soft, almost reverent look that had been on his beautiful face moments ago was gone, replaced by pure disgust. My instincts screamed at me to pull away, to keep my mouth shut, but I couldn’t just stand there like a pathetic fool while they looked at me like I didn’t belong.

“I am,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “Your uncle came to my father himself, and my father chose me for you.”

A dark look immediately crossed his face, and a chill flushed over my skin. The crowd surrounding us gasped loudly, murmuring erupting like a swarm of angry bees.

“This disgusting porker thinks she can be future Luna? With hips like wrecked ship hulls and a gut that hangs lower than her self-worth?” someone chuckled.

“A fat Luna?! That’s never happened in history, but it seems the prince is about to break the record!” Another voice snickered, followed by a rumble of laughter from her friends.

My eyes burned with hot tears. I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole.

“This has to be a fucking joke!” the prince roared. “What games is my uncle playing to bring this…” He paused, struggling for the right words. “…bloated omega cow!”

His words cut through me like a serrated knife, slicing away the last scraps of my pride. I stifled a sob and turned to look at my stepsister, Liora, who just stared back at me with an amused grin.

Then she mouthed slowly: I told you.

My whole world shattered at that moment. 

I faced the prince, tears burning in my eyes from the humiliation, hands fisted uselessly at my sides. “Then what? Would you reject me? I was chosen by your uncle. You have no choice but to obey him,” I spat. 

A darker look crossed his face. Before I could react, his hand shot out and wrapped around my throat, squeezing tight. I clawed desperately at his arm, trying to pry it off, but he was a wall of solid muscle that didn’t even budge.

“Do you think I would allow myself to mate with you?!” he growled, his grip tightening like a vice. My eyes bulged, breath cutting off completely. No one stepped forward to stop him. They all stared, anticipation and cruel amusement dancing in their eyes as if I were nothing more than pathetic entertainment.

His gaze hardened against mine, and something clicked behind it.

He suddenly leaned in, nose flaring as he sniffed the air around me. His eyes widened.

In an instant, he released me. I crumpled to the floor, gasping and coughing, my throat burning. Dark amusement twisted his features.

“So you’re not just a fat baggage,” he sneered, voice loud enough for the entire hall to hear. 

“You’re also wolfless.”

Loud gasps rippled through the hall like thunder. The faces of the audience turned red with fury, eyes gleaming with something far more dangerous than mockery.

Reality came crashing down on me. They didn’t just dislike me for my body. These people were hungry for bloodshed.

I quickly looked at my sister for help, but Liora only watched me with cold mockery, her lips curled in satisfaction.

The prince’s voice rang out, cold and authoritative. 

“The Moon Bond Pack does not accept wolfless shifters. The absence of a wolf is nothing but weakness.” He began stalking toward me, each step slow and threatening. “Why have you come here? Did you come to mock us?!”

I cowered away from him, fear flooding my veins like poison. I’m going to die. They’re going to kill me.

“No. No please! I swear I never wanted to be here! I was forced!”

A dark laughter rumbled in his chest. 

“Forced? Or you wanted to try your luck at being the prince’s mate! You’re so delusional!” He sneered. 

“ Liora!” I shouted desperately. “Help me!”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t even flinch.

The prince continued advancing as I stumbled backward, my heels catching on the hem of my dress.

My back suddenly hit something solid. Trembling, I glanced behind me. It was a small, sunken pool filled with dark red water that looked disturbingly like blood.

“That,” the prince said with a vicious smile, “is where the Hollow Awakening Ritual will take place. It’s what we use when a shifter is wolfless, to force the wolf to awaken. It’s brutal… and it can kill you.”

The ritual…the ritual that moonbounds used to awaken a wolf. The one thing I’ve always feared. 

Goddess please!! Stop this nightmare now!

I dropped to my knees, begging. “Please, don’t do this! I’ll leave. I swear I’ll go away and never come back!” Tears streamed down my face as I screamed, but they didn’t listen. The whole pack started closing in, sneering and hungry. The prince nodded to the pack elder who had been meant to officiate our wedding.

“Begin the ritual.”

The older wolf looked conflicted as she looked at my wretched form. “My prince…are you sure?”

“Start it now!” He shouted. 

The elder started chanting in an ancient, guttural tongue. Something invisible latched onto me, gnawing at my skin from the inside. It started slow but soon it felt like my soul was being ripped apart thread by thread. White-hot agony tearing through every nerve, every fiber of my being. I screamed until my throat was raw, writhing on the cold stone floor.

“No!! No!!! Stop it right now!!! Pleaseee!!!”

Blood began dripping from my nose, then my ears, then my eyes, warm and metallic. At that moment, I was certain I would die.

A giant wolf appeared in my mind, nothing like anything I had ever seen. It was massive, silver-furred with a mane of gleaming gold. Its eyes glowed with ancient power as it called out to me, the words faint and distant. I felt a spark of connection, a pull toward it, and I reached desperately—

—but my body started going limp. My vision darkened at the edges.

Just as I was slipping into unconsciousness, the grand hall doors burst open with a deafening crash. A loud, dangerous growl shook the very air, raw and filled with lethal fury.

The prince—who had been holding me down—let out a choked sound as his body was suddenly grabbed and hurled across the hall like a ragdoll, slamming into the far wall.

I forced my eyes open, vision blurry. Looming over me was the Lycan King, Killian, breathing heavily, fangs fully extended and claws out, half-shifted into his terrifying true form. His powerful presence filled the entire hall like a storm about to break.