Chapter four: Innocent Allegation.

Evans' POV

The world turned blur to my vision as I stood at the centre of the grand hall, my body numb, my mind reeling in disbelief.

This was the point. The moment that would break me forever.

Kian’s words still resonating in my ears, cutting deeper than two edeged sword.

“And you can use the door. Excuse us, your kind isn't meant to be here. Continue serving our guests.” he said with a tone of confidence as he fluttered his arms on Amelia's waist.

It dawned on me. It wasn't just rejection. It was erasure. A declaration that I was a nobody—a non-existing being that had no place in this world.

Liesendra whimpered, her pain folding into mine. The bond that had connected both I and Kian, weak as it had always been, was now shattering strand by strand. I could feel it breaking, pulling at my soul with sharp, gut-squeezing agony.

I clenched my fists, nails biting into my palms.

He had to feel this too. He had to.

I lifted my gaze to him, hoping and holding on to the alter of restoration—praying to see even a snippet of hesitation.

But Kian’s look was a reflection of indifference.

I swallowed, my throat turning soar. “So you don't care?” My quivering voice barely above a whisper. “You act defiant to the bond we share, Kian?”

For the briefest moment, something flickered in his golden eyes. A hesitation. A second where I thought—**hoped**—he might take it back.

Then it was gone.

His expression hardened. “I don’t, dear.”

The conclusive tone of his response stole the air from my lungs.

Liesendra whimpered with a statement I could never expect from him. “Say it, Evans. End it once and for all.”

I forced my gaze up, stopping the tears that cascaded down my cheek. “Then I, Evans Blackthorn, accept your rejection.”

The moment the words left my lips, I felt it.

A violent, throbbing pain ravaged in my chest as the mate bond shattered completely. It clawed deep inside me, sending out every bit of wamth and replacing it with an unbearable hollowness. My knees shaked involuntarily, but I refused to fall.

Across from me, Kian sucked in a sharp breath, his hand holding his chest as if trying to maintain balance. His wolf, Zoren, let out a guttural growl of agony, his body trembling from the shatterd bond that we once shared.

For a flick second, I saw pain swirl across Kian’s face. Real pain. His lips tugging as though there was something he intend on letting out.

Then he clenched his jaw, trying not to show the pain that ravaged deep inside of him as he walked away.

I felt myself break all over again.

He left. Just like that.

And I was left alone.

The murmurs around me were a distant resonation, a cruel symphony of judgment.

“Her destiny is laced with pain.”

“She was never fated to be Luna.”

“Pathetic!”

Their words cut into my skin, each one another weight pressing me deeper into the abyss of my reeling, painful thoughts.

Then a slow clap cut through the whispers.

Amelia.

She moved forward, her emerald eyes piercing with unrestrained glamour. She was gleaming—radiant in my ruin–her smile so venomous that it felt like death on my tongue.

“Bravo, Evans,” she said, clapping as she moved closer to me. “That was quite the performance. So horrific. So predictable.”

My pulse racing violently.

She leaned in, her lips brushing the shell of my ear as she whispered in a low husky tone, “If you try to stay anywhere close to Kian after what you displayed minutes ago, I will ensure I make your existence worst than death itself.”

I wanted to snap back, to tell her of my less concern, but I could seldomly breathe, let alone retaliate.

I turned and ran.

I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I needed to go somewhere lonely.

I couldn't clearly remember making it back to my room.

The moment the door shut behind me, my body crumpled, my knees hitting the hard floor as tears followed, streaming down my cheeks. A strangled sob tore from my throat as I pressed my forehead against the cool wooden planks.

“Moon Goddess, why?” My voice cracked, raw and broken. “Why did this happen to me?”

The reply was the thick silence in my room.

The Moon Goddess had turned her back on me, just as everyone else had.

Liesendra curled into herself, her whimpers reverberating through my mind.

“I was meant to be loved. Now at the age of finding the love of my life.”

More tears burned hot trails down my cheeks as I clenched my hands into fists.

No.

I would not let this get into me.

I had already lost alot. My parents. My dignity and pride in this pack. My mate.

They had taken all I cherished.

What else was left for them to take?

********

The rejection was meant to grant me freedom, but instead, it became another chain tied around my throat.

Chief Kim, the enforcer of the pack, ensured I went through hell.

“You day dreamer, the high time you come to the realization of you not being Luna, the better for you,” she sneered. “You never deserved it in the first place.” She spat.

My body ached from endless chores, my hands blistered from scrubbing floors, and my stomach twisted in hunger as my rations dwindled.

Amelia had taken control of my salary.

“A Luna must manage the pack’s finances,” Kim said sweetly, smirking as she pocketed the coins meant to sustain me.

Kian?

He was nowhere.

I caught glimpses of him at gatherings, standing tall beside Amelia, his face unreadable. He never looked at me. Never acknowledged I existed.

It was as if I had become a ghost in my own home.

Until the night the rogues came.

A chilling howl shattered the air.

I froze, my hands gripping a basin of water as the sound rippled down my spine like ice.

The second howl was closer.

Then the loud noise began.

Chaos filled the packhouse as warriors assembled for defence. My eyes fixed on Kian as he shifted into his massive, handsome wolf form, his glowing purple fur that reflected the moonlight rays. He was a force of destruction, having his dorminace on the rogues.

I should have run.

I should have hidden.

But I stood there, befuddled, watching as the battle went on before me.

A rogue broke past the defenses, his eyes locking onto me with an eerie smirk that I couldn't yet fathom.

Liesendra growled. “Shift. Fight.”

But it dawned on me.

I was weak.

Too weak.

The rogue lunged—

A large figure lunged at him mid-air, sending the rogue flying into a nearby oak tree with a painful growl.

I barely registered the others retreating before I felt someone’s gaze on me.

Alpha Kian.

He stood a few metres from me, his wolf breathing heavily as he shot me a cold look. For the very first time since the rejection, I saw something unreadable in them.

A flicker of something raw.

Then—

“My Alpha, we found something familiarly strange.”

A warrior dragged a rogue forward. His face was bruised as blood suffused all over his face from the beatings of the warriors, his lip curled into a smirk.

“We found this material on him,” the warrior announced, holding up a torn piece of cloth.

A piece of my clothing.

My stomach churned. “No. No, this isn't real…” I muttered.

The warriors tone sounding cold. “After further interrogation, he confessed that he was under the orders of someone laced with the pack.”

A suffocating silence.

Kian’s voice was razor-sharp. “And who must that be?”

The warrior hesitated before speaking.

“Evans Blackthorn.”

A sudden cacophonous loud gasp cut through the silent air.

I lost breathe for a moment.

Kian turned to me. His golden eyes, once filled with warmth, now burned with cold fury as though to tear me apart.

Amelia stepped closer, whispering something to him.

His expression turned more cold and primal.

“I, Kian Silverstein, banish you, Evans Blackthorn, forever. For treason against the Dawnshade Pack.”

The words slammed into me, stealing the last remnants of my strength.

I had nothing left.

No family. No mate. No home.

“Please my Alpha, I have no where to go. This is my only habitat.” I said, as I kneeled in front of him, my hands clenched to the hem of his cloak.

“I don't care. There is no place for a devil in sheep clothing in my pack.” his voice stern and sharp. “Now leave immediately before the warriors do that for you.”

The only face I could rest my eyes on were the cold smirk that tugged at Amelia's lips. "Leave." Her lips moving with no audible pitch as she gestured with her fingers.

Without a word, I turned, my heels in fast motion as what I was muffled to was the parched leaves beneath my feet, the trees moving in the same speed with my legs at the side of my vision, trying to control the dam of tears that had formed in my eyes as I made my way deep into the forest.

Into the darkness.

And straight into the arms of fate.