CHAPTER THREE: SENTENCE OF DEATH

Thalia's POV

The dungeon floor was so cold that it bit through my knees. I knelt there in chains with my wrists raw and bruised, listening to water drip somewhere in the dark.

A small barred window sat high above me, and thin rays of moonlight crawled across the wall as the night went on.

I did not sleep.

I was used to cold stone, since I had slept on the bare floor of the servant quarters for years, but this was different. Nobody was going to unlock this door in the morning and send me to the kitchens.

I kept hearing him, the words ringing over and over again in my head like a wound that would not close.

‘I reject you, Thalia, Omega of Greenwood Pack, as my mate.’

The Goddess herself had chosen Cane for me, and he had thrown me away for my sister without a second thought.

The worst part was that I could still feel the bond. It was a thin thread tied to my chest, frayed and bleeding, and I hated it. I hated that some stupid part of me kept reaching for it, as if it still meant something.

I did not regret the slaps. I replayed them in my head, and I was surprised to find I would do it again. What scared me was whatever came next.

My fingers found my mother’s pendant under my shirt. It was the only thing they had not taken from me, and I held onto it until my knuckles ached.

The cell door creaked open at daybreak. Two guards hauled me to my feet without a word and dragged me up the stairs into the great hall.

They threw me down at the foot of the dais. The hall was full of elders and warriors, the same faces that had laughed at me last night.

My father sat on his stone throne with Seraphina on his right. A faint red mark still lingered on her cheek, and I was petty enough to be glad.

Cane stood beside her in his best clothes. He looked at the wall, the floor, the ceiling, anywhere except me.

“Alpha,” he said, and cleared his throat. “I request permission to end the mating bond between myself and Thalia, and to take Seraphina as my chosen mate.”

My father looked at him the way a man looks at a son who has done exactly what he hoped.

“The moon is still full tonight. The ritual will be held at moonrise.” He waved a hand at the guards. “Take her back.”

No one asked if I had anything to say.

***

By dusk, the whole pack had gathered in the clearing again. They had not come to celebrate this time. They had come to watch me break.

A platform had been built in the center. The warriors stood on the left and the council on the right, while my father sat on his stone throne with Seraphina and Cane at his sides, both in matching robes of crimson and gold. She looked radiant, but he… he looked cold and far away.

The thread in my chest pulled tight when I saw him. Angel lifted her head, and I felt her sadness settle over me. She still loved him.

The guards forced me to my knees in the middle of the circle, my chains clinking in the silence. The High Priestess stepped forward, her robes flowing like liquid moonlight.

“State your request,” she told Cane.

He stepped forward with his hands clasped behind his back, like a true Alpha. “I wish to end the mating bond between myself and Thalia, Omega of Greenwood Pack. And before the Moon Goddess and this pack, I choose Seraphina as my mate.”

The crowd murmured. Some smiled. These were the same wolves who had watched me fall, and now they wanted to watch me break.

The Priestess turned to me. Her voice had softened, as if she already knew what was coming.

“Thalia, do you accept the rejection of your fated mate?”

My heart pounded. Angel stirred weakly, her ears pinned back.

‘I’m sorry,’ I told her. ‘I can’t keep waiting for him to change his mind.’

I lifted my chin. There would be no begging. If I could not be chosen, I would not be pitied either.

“I accept.”

Silver light rose from the stone beneath my knees and wrapped around me like mist. The Priestess chanted in the old tongue, and then the pain came.

It tore through me like fire under my skin. My spine bent, and a scream ripped out of me before I could stop it. It felt like claws digging into my soul and dragging out something I needed to live.

I fell onto my scraped palms. Wave after wave rolled through me, and I could not breathe. The Goddess had chosen him for me, and I was the one left in pieces.

Through the haze, I saw Cane flinch. It was only a small shiver. Then he stiffened and stood still. He did not look at me.

A silver spark flared above me, and the Priestess lowered her arms.

“The bond has been torn, but it will not fully break until she rejects you as well. Until then, you will continue to feel her pain. Whenever she suffers, it will be as though a part of you is missing, leaving an ache you cannot soothe.”

Good.

I wanted him to feel it too. I wanted him to suffer the way I had suffered for years.

When the pain finally faded, there was a hollow in my chest where the thread had been.

“Make your declaration,” the Priestess told Cane.

He and Seraphina stepped forward. “Before the Moon Goddess and every wolf here, I declare that Seraphina, daughter of the Alpha, is my chosen mate. I choose her this day.”

Seraphina smiled as he kissed her forehead. The Priestess anointed them both with moonstone oil.

“You are joined before the Goddess. Let the mark seal what this ritual has begun.”

Cane kissed her. It was not a kiss of love but a claim, and the pack cheered. I felt nothing at all.

My father stood. “Now that the formalities are done, let judgment be passed.”

I searched his face for even a flicker of mercy. There was none.

“You defied your Alpha and struck your sister, the future Luna of this pack. You humiliated this family and this sacred ceremony. From this day, you are no daughter of mine.”

I opened my mouth, but he raised his hand.

“Your sentence is death. You will be burned alive. Fire purges the guilty, and by it you will be cleansed of your sins.”

The crowd gasped. I looked around for anyone who would object. The elders stared at the ground. The Priestess said nothing. Cane stood frozen beside Seraphina with his fists clenched and his mouth shut tight.

He did not say a word, and that hurt more than the ritual.

“There was no trial,” I said. My voice shook, but I did not let it break. “You didn’t even ask me why.”

“You struck your sister in front of the whole pack,” my father said coldly. “That is trial enough.”

The guards seized me again. This time I fought, kicking, twisting and snapping my teeth at their hands, with Angel growling weakly inside me. It did not matter. They dragged me toward the stake.

I looked back once. Seraphina was smiling, the girl my mother had carried into our home as a baby and raised as her own. She did not look away.

The torches lining the path flickered as we passed. For a moment, every flame leaned toward my chest, toward the pendant hanging beneath my shirt.

It was only the wind, I told myself, and I closed my eyes.