Prologue

***One Year ago****

“You are a disgrace to this Pack!”

The harsh growls from my pack members rumbled in the hall.

I stood before the trial court, still in shock, still in disbelief. 

I couldn't believe what was going on. 

From going to visit my mate, to standing in front of everyone waiting for my fate to be decided.

From a day that started off being the best day of my life, to the one I hoped to forget.

I looked towards my sister… 

She was wailing, crying profusely as she rolled herself on the ground.

As soon as our eyes met, she threw her face away. 

Tears pooled in my eyes. 

How could she do this…

How could someone that knew me better than anyone be the same one breaking me?

“You seduced your sister's mate,” the head of the Pack court sneered disgustingly at me.

“I didn't—” I tried to explain myself, but he cut me off immediately.

“Don't you dare lie in front of this sacred court!” he barked. 

I turned towards my father. 

He was silent.

The cherished eyes with which he used to look at me were gone, replayed by nothing but disappointment. 

So was everyone else in this hall that used to love me. 

They looked at me like I was something so disgusting it irked them. Like I was a dirty disgusting traitor who deserved never to be seen in their midst.

And maybe I deserved it.

I'd broken the pack law—sleeping with my sister’s mate. 

But then it wasn’t the truth.

Selene was the one that had betrayed me. 

She was the one in bed with my mate when I walked into that room.

But she'd flipped everything.

She'd bought their hearts with her tears and lies and now everything was pinned on me. 

I looked at their faces, and I knew nothing I explained would make them believe my word over my sister's. 

Because if even my own mate could not only betray me, but choose to lie against me, how could I expect anyone else to trust me?

“For breaking the Pack law, Lyra, you are hereby banished from the Pack until your innocence is proven!”

I didn't talk. 

Didn't question my fate. 

Instead, I just turned and walked out the door.

Where I was going, I didn't know.

But all I wanted was to get away from here. 

From everything that concerned Harrow wood pack. 

From the stares that condemned me. The family that abandoned me. And the mate that disgraced me.

Right before I crossed the Harrow wood boundary, a link echoed in my mind. 

My wolf leaped. 

But the next moment, she whimpered and curled into her tails. 

Draven, my mate had just rejected me. 

“Accept my rejection and I wish you well elsewhere,” he added, voice cold and ruthless.

The same voice that used to arouse sweet feelings inside me now crushed the last piece of thread holding me together. 

Tears blurred my vision. 

But I swallowed as I forced them back. 

I refuse to break because of you, Draven, I said to myself. 

And without another thought, I accepted his rejection.

“I, Lyra Vale, accept your rejection, Draven Rowling,” my eyes glowed.

“But I wish you no peace,” I sneered, my fingers curling. “As you've betrayed me today and hurt me in this manner, I wish you nothing but pain!”

“Goodbye, Lyra,” he muttered coldly, “Someday, you'll understand me.”

And then the link cut off.

A sharp pain ripped through my chest immediately and I clattered to the ground, holding my chest in pain.

Right there, as the pain of rejection and the pain of betrayal spread through every inch of me, I swore to rebuild my life.

I didn't care what it would take or how long it'd take. But I swore, I'd become someone so powerful and one day when I stepped foot into this Pack again, I'd not return as the humiliated and disgraced Lyra.