Chapter Three

Sofia’s POV

The murmurs were everywhere. They weren’t whispers anymore, but open, bitter words slicing through me like claws and leaving me bleeding every single spot where they hit.

“Cursed,” one of the pack members yelled from his seat, but my head felt too heavy to turn around to check who it was.

But when I thought that was the worst of it, another person said. “She’s unnatural!”

“Lyla,” I called for my wolf pleadingly, but she was nowhere within reach, lost and buried deep inside me. I felt the resounding silence, how loud it screamed through me, and how bereft it left me. I needed her now more than ever, but she was nowhere within reach, broken because we had both been rejected.

“No wolf chooses to be silent unless the human is broken!” There was no denying how much this statement hurt.

I pulled myself off the floor, standing in the center of the room. Every bit of me felt seen, maybe too seen. I felt like an arrow could be tossed at me, and I would not stand a chance. There was hate at every angle, directed at me.

I wasn’t wanted here.

The pain in my chest spread insistently, becoming so physical that I almost doubled over. It was a thrumming ache that reverberated every time my heartbeat. I had been laid bare before the whole pack. I couldn’t call on my wolf. I was empty and now, everyone knew it.

The elders got off their seats at the same time, and my eyes followed their actions. The disgust on their faces was apparent, and their eyes didn’t waver, staring directly at me. Their aged gaze was filled with judgment and misplaced fear.

But all of those could have been ignored if I hadn’t seen the hatred too. That was what gave me my final judgment. I would never be welcome here. They all moved slowly, and I held my breath until they stopped in front of me, facing me like executioners.

“You are dangerous, Sofia!” One of them growled, his eyes flashing a darker shade of brown. A wrinkled finger was held up and pointed in my direction like I was some filth that needed to be taken out of sight.

“I don’t think I have ever seen such an imbalance in the natural order before,” someone else said, his tone sharp. “Where is your wolf, child?”

That was the best time to plead for mercy, but my tongue refused to listen to my brain. And even if it had, I doubted I could live under the same roof as Lucas and his bride. As if on cue, my eyes strayed in their direction, fury washing through me as I watched them gaze at each other affectionately.

The words of the elders seemed to get louder, ringing in my head and penetrating into my skin. “Layla.” My voice trembled as I tried one more time, reaching for her, and needing to feel her presence. “Please, say something. Don’t leave me too.”

Silence.

It was cold and hollow, and I refrained from wrapping my hand around my frame. I felt like a bottomless well and having the elders glaring at me wasn’t helping. Layla was gone, unable to take this hurt.

Tears blurred my vision and my hands shook in trepidation and hurt as I held on to the ball of my wedding dress. I questioned the truth of their accusations if I was really evil and a distortion of the normal. Maybe that was Lucas’ real reason for leaving me on our wedding day, for rejecting me before the whole pack.

I wasn’t sure why I was crying, if it was from the pain of having my mate get married to another person, or from everything the pack and its elders had just said. In the middle of the chaos, I heard that voice I had fallen in love every single day for a decade but was slowly beginning to lose its potency.

“Sofia.”

I jerked my head so fast that I heard a sharp crack in my neck. But it didn’t matter as my eyes locked onto his. Lucas stood tall, an air of authority about him, with his guards encircling him and Vivian.

I felt something claw at my chest from merely looking at him, but I couldn’t pull my gaze away. I regarded him intently, searching for something other than the resolution that stared right back at me. I looked for sympathy, remorse, and anything other than this rejection.

But there was nothing.

My legs shook again, but I wasn’t going to fall to the ground a second time. My dignity had long abandoned me, but I still had to face this moment. “Lucas,” I said, my voice coming out as a whisper. “Is this really your decision?”

He didn’t blink, as he replied in a low and masculine voice, sounding detached from every emotion. “Take your life seriously, Sofia. You have heard the elders and the pack. They are ready to burn you alive because they believe that you are a curse to the pack. And I cannot stop them if you don’t leave this minute.”

This was it. The man I was fated to by the moon goddess, the one who had promised me the most memorable mating ceremony, had just uttered that he wanted nothing to do with me.

I looked around, foolishly hoping that one of the pack members would stand up for me since they had watched me for a decade with Lucas. But the eyes that stared back at me were either filled with indifference or fear.

They didn’t want to cross Alpha Lucas after he had already given firm instructions. Nodding, I turned around and started my way out of the hall, trying so hard not to look back. Because if I did, I knew I would beg Lucas again, and I couldn’t stand the look on Vivian’s face.

“Sofia!” Evelyn’s voice pierced through the noisy crowd and I turned only to see her following behind me, breaking through the line of pack members that had gathered. She ran to cover the remaining space, but two guards appeared from nowhere, stopping her.

“I’m going with her!” she snapped, trying to get past them. “Move.”

One of the guards looked toward Lucas before returning his gaze to her. “I’m afraid you cannot…”

Evelyn didn’t wait for him to finish his words as she turned sharply and walked briskly back to Lucas. In that split second, I thought my best friend had nine lives.

“If you have authority over Sofia,” she started, holding her shoulders square and her head high. “What gut do you have to stop me from following her? Do I look like her to you?”