Chapter 1: The Color of Weakness

Ava's POV

The knife cut into my hand.

It hurt, but I didn't move. I couldn't. Everyone was watching. The whole pack was here in the ceremony hall, three hundred wolves waiting to see my blood drip into the bowl and waiting to see proof that I really belonged to Alpha Ryder.

The old woman doing the ceremony squeezed my hand harder. More blood came out and fell into the silver bowl.

People started screaming.

My heart stopped for a second.

The blood in the bowl wasn't red. It was purple and almost black, shining weird under the candles.

"No." I tried to pull my hand back. "No, this can't be happening."

The whole room went quiet. It was worse than the screaming. The old woman dropped my hand like I'd burned her. She backed away fast, her face all twisted up in fear.

"Violet blood," someone whispered and then everyone was saying it and their voices were getting louder and meaner.

I pressed my bleeding hand against my dress, but it didn't matter anymore. They'd all seen it. They all knew what I was now.

I made myself look at Ryder.

He was standing up on the stage in his fancy Alpha clothes, looking perfect like always. My mate and my love. The Moon Goddess picked him for me. We were supposed to be together forever.

But his face looked like stone.

"Ryder, please." I could barely get the words out. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't know."

He didn't come to me, didn't touch meand didn't even look sorry.

He turned away from me and faced everyone else instead.

"I reject her." His voice was so loud. So sure. Every word felt like he was ripping my heart out. "I won't have a mate who's weak, I won't be stuck with cursed blood and because she's not good enough for me."

Something inside my chest snapped. Actually snapped, like a rope breaking.

The pain was so bad I couldn't breathe.

Couldn't see. Couldn't do anything but stand there shaking while my whole world fell apart. My knees wanted to give out but my body wouldn't let me fall. It was like I was stuck there, frozen, while he destroyed me in front of everyone.

"That violet blood means death," Ryder kept going. He wasn't even looking at me now. "It means she's broken. Useless. Any pack that keeps her will be cursed too."

Everyone started yelling, agreeing with him and telling me to leave. Some of them said worse things. Scary things.

I stepped back. My hand was still bleeding, leaving purple drops all over the white floor.

"Get out of my sight." Ryder's voice cut through all the noise. He meant it. He really meant it.

Then something else happened. Something worse than the bond breaking. It felt like claws were digging into my chest from inside my body, hot and sharp and burning. I bent over, gasping. What was this? What was happening to me?

Nobody helped. They just stared at me like I was a monster.

So I ran.

I ran so fast my feet hurt hitting the floor. People were still shouting behind me. Someone even threw something and it broke against the wall right next to my head

I didn't stop until I got to my room. It was tiny, in the omega part of the pack house where they put people like me. People who didn't matter.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I grabbed my old bag and started shoving clothes in it. I didn't own much. Omegas never did.

That burning in my chest got worse. I fell against the wall, holding my ribs. It felt like my bones were on fire. Like someone was burning words into my skin from the inside.

Then it just stopped.

I sat there breathing hard, my whole body shaking. What the hell was that?

Didn't matter. I had to go. Now. Before they came for me.

I grabbed my bag and ran again, out into the night where nobody wanted me.

Three days later, I was pretty sure I was going to die.

I was sitting in some gross alley between two buildings, too tired to move anymore. My bag was gone, some guy stole it the first night while I was sleeping and I hadn't eaten anything since I left. My stomach hurt so bad.

The city was huge and loud and no one cared about me at all. Wolves walked past the alley and didn't even look. Why would they? I was nobody.

I was nothing, just like Ryder said.

Everything started spinning. I let myself fall over. Maybe this was better. Maybe I should just let the cursed blood finally stop.

Then a voice called out my name

"Ava?"

I knew that voice. But that was impossible.

Someone grabbed my shoulders and shook me a little. I tried to open my eyes.

He had dark hair, and brown eyes that looked worried. I knew him from before, from home.

"Max?" I could barely talk.

"Don't try to talk. Just rest." He put a water bottle against my mouth. I drank so fast I choked. "I've been trying to find you everywhere."

"How did you know where I was?"

"That doesn't matter right now." Max pulled me up so I wasn't lying down anymore. He was looking at me really intense, It made me uncomfortable. "You can't stay here. People will find you."

I laughed, but it sounded awful and broken. "It doesn't matter where I go. No one wants me anywhere."

"I know a place." His hands got tighter on my arms. "The Silvermoon palace. The rival pack. They need maids and I know people there and you'll be safe."

"Safe?" I looked at him. Something about his face seemed off. "Why would you help me? Why do you even care?"

His eyes got soft. Sad. "Because I always have, Ava. Even when no one else did."

I wanted to argue. Wanted to ask more questions. But I was so tired and hungry and broken that I just nodded.

Max smiled. It should have made me feel better.

But when I looked back one last time at the direction of my old home, the home that threw me away, I saw his face again. His smile looked different now. Like he wanted something from me I didn't understand yet.

She didn't know if the terror of rejection was worse than the terrifying help she was about to accept.