CHAPTER 7 : " Shattered Bonds "

The moment the child’s scream died out, Selene knew something had changed.

It was like the world had shifted. A piece of her... the one she’d been holding together with sheer will...cracked.

She stood over the blood-written threat on the nursery wall, her chest rising and falling with uneven breaths. Ryker touched her shoulder gently, but even his warmth couldn’t reach her.

Her past was clawing its way back through the doors she had sealed long ago.

And this time… it wouldn’t be quiet.

By morning, the fortress had been swept for intruders. The child was safe, but no one slept.

Selene stood in her war room, listening as council members debated what had happened. Beside her, Ryker said nothing. He hadn’t left her side since the night before,but he hadn’t touched her again either.

As the elders argued, a voice broke through the noise.

“Selene.”

It was soft. Familiar.

Cassian.

Her fated mate.

She hadn’t seen him in weeks, not since he’d rejected her in front of the pack, ripping her heart out with a coldness she hadn’t known he possessed.

Now he stood in the doorway of the chamber, eyes dark, mouth tight.

And the entire room fell into silence.

An emergency assembly was called.

The entire pack, high-ranking warriors, elders, and allies, gathered in the ceremonial courtyard beneath the high moon. The crowd buzzed with whispers. Not just about the council’s threat, but about Selene and Ryker.

About the rogue who hadn’t left her side.

About the way her power was changing.

Selene walked into the courtyard in full armor ; her black leathers etched with silver Moonborn runes, her long braid crowned with a circlet. She looked every inch the alpha queen she was becoming.

But even she couldn’t anticipate what waited for her.

Cassian.

And the woman beside him.

“My Alpha,” Cassian said, stepping forward. “I ask for the floor.”

Selene hesitated. “Speak.”

“I request to dissolve the final mate bond between us. Officially. Before the eyes of the pack.”

The crowd gasped.

Selene’s knees threatened to give, but she stood firm.

“You already rejected me,” she said coldly. “Why drag this into the public?”

He smirked. “Because I’ve chosen another. And I want the blessing of the pack.”

He stepped aside.

And Liora, the healer, walked forward.

Selene’s eyes widened. Liora. Her childhood friend. Her ally! 

Liora wouldn’t even meet her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Selene,” Liora whispered. “We didn’t mean for it to happen. But… we’re mates now.”

Lies. She could smell it. The bond wasn’t real. It had been manipulated, forced, perhaps even marked by dark magic.

But the pack didn’t know that.

They were too busy watching her break.

She tried to speak, but her voice died in her throat.

Cassian turned to the pack. “You deserve an alpha who isn’t clouded by secrets, who doesn’t consort with rogues or let dark power corrupt her.”

That’s when Ryker stepped forward, rage simmering in his eyes. “Say that again,” he growled.

Cassian’s smile was cruel. “You don’t belong here, rogue. You’re a danger. Everyone knows it. She’s only keeping you because she’s spreading her legs for you.”

Selene’s breath hitched.

The crowd gasped.

Ryker lunged, but Selene held him back.

Her hand shook. Her entire body trembled.

But she spoke, voice steady. “Leave. Both of you.”

Cassian bowed mockingly. “Gladly. We’ll see if the pack still follows you after this.”

As he walked away, the crowd began to whisper.

And Selene....

Selene turned and walked away from them all, her vision swimming, her chest collapsing inward.

She didn’t go to her chambers.

She went to the cliffs.

The place her mother used to take her to look at the stars.

She stood barefoot on the edge, the cold wind biting her skin. The night sky stretched wide and merciless above her.

Tears finally fell.

Not silent. Not graceful.

They fell wild and choking, sobs racking her body.

She cried for what she lost.

For what was stolen.

For what she could never have.

Ryker found her there hours later.

He said nothing.

Just sat beside her in silence.

“I loved him,” she whispered finally. “Even after the rejection. Even after the cruelty. Some part of me still hoped…”

Ryker looked at her then, eyes full of a sadness she recognized.

“I know,” he said. “Because I once loved someone like that too.”

She turned her head. “What happened?”

He hesitated.

“She gave me to the Council to save herself.”

The moon was high when Selene rose.

Something in her eyes had changed.

“No more,” she whispered. “No more of this weakness. No more of these shackles.”

Ryker stood with her. “What will you do?”

She turned, her hair whipping in the wind. “I will become what I was meant to be.”

“Even if it means becoming something darker?”

She gave him a broken smile. “Especially then.”

At dawn, Selene called her inner circle to the Moonborn sanctum.

She cut her palm, blood dripping into the sacred basin.

“I renounce the bonds that once held me,” she declared. “Cassian. The Council. The old order.”

Her voice thundered with power.

“I am Moonborn. I am Alpha. And I will no longer wait for fate to be kind.”

The blood in the basin glowed gold.

Ancient magic stirred.

The basin pulsed once.

Then shattered.

A symbol burned itself onto her skin, a crescent moon surrounded by flame.

That night, Ryker found her in her chambers.

“You’ve changed,” he said.

Selene stood at the window, her hair loose around her shoulders.

“No,” she said softly. “I just finally stopped pretending to be the girl he threw away.”

He stepped closer. “What happens now?”

She turned to him, and in her eyes, a flicker of gold fire burned.

“I destroy them all.”

A pulse of magic rippled through the room.

And in the distance...

The great bells began to toll.

The fortress gates had been breached.

An army stood at the edge of the forest.

And leading it?

Cassian.

With Liora at his side.