CHAPTER THREE - Shattered

I watched the horror bloom across Skyler's face, and I didn't understand.

This was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life. The mate bond—that sacred, unbreakable connection that every wolf dreamed of—had finally manifested. After years of longing, of hoping, of loving him from afar, fate had confirmed what my wolf had known all along.

We were meant to be together.

So why was he looking at me like I was his worst nightmare?

"Skyler?" My voice came out small, uncertain. The joy that had flooded my system moments ago began to curdle into something cold and sharp.

He moved before I could process it. One moment he was across the room; the next, his hand was wrapped around my arm and he was dragging me toward the back exit. His grip was too tight, bruising, but I was too shocked to protest.

"Skyler, what—"

"Not here." His voice was a growl, barely human. "Not in front of everyone."

The night air hit my face like a slap. We were behind the pack hall now, in the shadows between the building and the tree line. Music and laughter drifted through the walls, muffled and distant, a cruel reminder of the celebration I'd been so excited for.

Skyler released me like my skin burned him. He paced away, one hand raking through his hair, his movements jerky and agitated. I could feel his emotions through the bond—a chaotic tangle of fear and denial and something darker I couldn't name.

"Skyler, please." I stepped toward him, reaching out. "Talk to me. I don't understand what's happening."

He spun to face me, and the look in his eyes made me flinch.

"This can't be happening," he said. "This is a mistake. It has to be a mistake."

"It's not a mistake." I shook my head, desperate to make him understand. "The bond doesn't make mistakes. We're mates. We're *meant* for each other. I've known it for years, ever since I was sixteen—"

"You were a child." The words were harsh, cutting. "You *are* a child. Ronan's baby sister, following me around with those big eyes like a lost puppy. I thought you'd grow out of it."

Each word landed like a blow. I felt my eyes burn, but I refused to cry. Not yet. Not in front of him.

"I'm not a child anymore." I lifted my chin, trying to hold onto some shred of dignity. "I'm twenty-one. I'm a full member of this pack. And I'm your mate."

"No." He said it like a curse, like a denial of reality itself. "You're not."

"You felt it." I stepped closer, desperate. "I *know* you felt it. The bond is there, between us. You can't deny that."

His jaw clenched. For a moment, something flickered in his eyes—longing, maybe, or regret—but it was gone before I could grasp it.

"It doesn't matter what I felt." His voice went cold, deliberately cruel. "I don't want it. I don't want *you*."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I actually staggered, my hand flying to my chest where the bond pulsed like a fresh wound.

"You don't mean that."

"I do." He moved toward me, and his closeness was a special kind of torture—feeling the heat of him, smelling the leather and pine scent that had haunted my dreams for years, while his words carved me into pieces. "Listen to me carefully, Wren, because I'm only going to say this once."

I shook my head, backing away. "Don't—"

"You're like a sister to me." Each word was precise, intentional, designed to destroy. "You've only ever been a sister. You *will* only ever be a sister. This bond means *nothing*."

The world went white. Then red. Then black at the edges, narrowing to a tunnel with Skyler's cruel, beautiful face at the center.

*He doesn't want me. After everything, after all these years, he doesn't want me.*

"Why?" The word tore from my throat, ragged and broken. "What's wrong with me? What did I do?"

Something cracked in his expression—a fissure in the ice—but he smoothed it over before I could hope.

"There's nothing wrong with you," he said, his voice slightly less harsh. "You'll find someone else. Someone better. Someone who isn't—" He stopped, jaw tightening. "Just forget about the bond. Ignore it. It'll fade eventually."

"It won't." Tears streamed down my face now, impossible to stop. "You know it won't. Rejected bonds don't just *fade*. They fester. They poison—"

"Then learn to live with it." He stepped back, putting distance between us. "Because I won't accept it. I won't accept *you*. Not now. Not ever."

He turned and walked away.

I watched him disappear around the corner of the building, back toward the celebration, back toward his life that didn't include me. The bond stretched between us like a wire pulled taut, vibrating with pain.

My knees gave out. I crumpled to the cold ground, velvet dress pooling around me like a puddle of broken dreams. The sob that escaped my throat was barely human—a howl of anguish that my wolf echoed inside my skull.

*Rejected. Unwanted. Not enough.*

I don't know how long I stayed there, crying in the dirt behind the pack hall while my birthday celebration continued without me. Long enough for the cold to seep into my bones. Long enough for the tears to run dry, leaving me hollow and scraped out.

When I finally stood, something had changed.

The part of me that had loved Skyler Voss so completely, so unconditionally—it wasn't gone. But it had cracked, fractured, begun to harden into something sharper and more dangerous.

I walked home alone, slipping through shadows to avoid anyone who might see my ruined face. I packed a bag with mechanical efficiency. I wrote a note to my parents that explained nothing and everything: *I have to go. Please don't follow. I'll call when I'm ready.*

By dawn, I was gone.

And I swore to myself, as Ironvale disappeared in my rearview mirror, that I would never let anyone break me like that again.