Rejection and the attack

SILVER

Then everything changed.

Heat tore through my veins, and my spine jerked as Lena howled inside my mind. My heart clenched like an invisible thread had wound itself tight around it, burning beneath my skin before shooting down my arm. My knees buckled and I hit the floor.

"Mate." Lena's cry tore through my mind, wild and certain.

My eyes snapped open. A golden thread glowed around my wrist and stretched across the room. I followed it with trembling eyes until it stopped. On him. Alpha Kael Blackthorn.

The hall erupted in gasps.

"Mate," someone whispered.

Kael stared at me, and for one heartbeat, neither of us moved. I searched his face for the warmth I had felt only an hour ago, waiting for the familiar smile, the gentle touch, or the soft words that would tell me this was all a mistake.

Instead, his expression hardened. He took a step back, shaking his head, one hand raised toward me like he was warding off something diseased.

"She..." His voice was cold, nothing like the low murmur he'd used with me in the library. "She is my mate."

"Her?" He spat the word like it tasted foul. "The worthless, plus-sized pig?"

My whole body went cold. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I searched his face for any trace of the man who had knelt to kiss my forehead an hour ago, who had called me sweetheart, who had promised to come find me after.

He stepped forward, jaw clenched. "I don't accept this. I reject this bond. I reject her."

The hall fell silent, and every heartbeat around me sounded painfully clear.

"Kael," I whispered, taking a step closer. "I don't understand."

"There is nothing to understand, Silver."

"You made me believe you cared," I said.

A bitter smile appeared on his face. "You believed what you wanted to believe."

Those words hurt more than the rejection itself. I had spent months protecting those memories because they were the only moments when I felt chosen. Now I had to accept that I had been holding onto something that was never real.

The High Priest stepped forward, expression grave. "Alpha Kael, breaking a fated bond is not a decision to take lightly."

"I have made my decision."

"You may never find another mate."

"Then I will live without one."

He doesn't want us, Lena whimpered.

I closed my eyes and swallowed the pain threatening to consume me. For years I had waited for someone to prove I was worthy of love. Tonight, I understood I couldn't keep begging someone else to see my value.

"Begin the ritual," Kael ordered.

The High Priest chanted, and the golden thread between us began to fade, taking the last of my hope with it.

"I, Alpha Kael Blackthorn, reject you, Silver, as my mate."

Everyone waited for me to break.

"I, Silver, accept your rejection."

My words surprised even me. The bond shattered, pain tearing through my chest, my wolf crying out at the hollow space it left behind. When the pain faded, I realized I was still standing.

I turned and walked out of the hall without another word, refusing to let any of them see how badly they had broken me. I didn't know how long I walked before the sound of movement behind me made my body tense. 

Before I could turn around, a powerful force slammed into my stomach and sent me crashing against a tree. Pain exploded through my body as blood filled my mouth, and the scent of rotten flesh and decay surrounded me.

Rogue.

More crept from the shadows, faces twisted between human and wolf, scarred and filthy.

"Please, let me go." I wriggled against the hand pinning me down. His tongue dragged toward my neck and I shoved him back hard enough that he stumbled. The rest snapped their gazes to me.

I turned and ran, forcing my injured body to move faster than it wanted to. I barely made it five steps before an arm caught me and threw me into the mud.

I dragged myself up, fists raised, ready to fight even if it wouldn't be enough.

"You want to fight us?" one of them laughed. "We are nine and you are one huge, curvy bitch."

I ignored him. Lena and I searched for any gap, any way out. If I shifted, they would too, and their claws would finish what their fists had started.

They lunged. I dodged the first two and failed the third. Claws tore into my back and I went down. Boots, fists, and claws continued to strike me without mercy. I lay bleeding from a dozen places while the leader crouched over me, claws pressed to my chest, aimed at my heart.

Something in me broke open.

A scream ripped out of my throat, raw and endless, and the air around me changed. My blood hummed hot under my skin. Wind tore through the trees. Then light split the dark, a bolt of lightning crashing out of me and through all of them at once.

No scream. No cry for help. Just a flash, and then nine bodies lay unmoving, burned to ash around me.

I stared at my own shaking hands, unable to understand what had just happened. I had never felt power like this before, and for the first time in my life, I wondered if everything I knew about myself had been a lie.

My legs gave out. I braced for the ground to meet me again.

But the impact never came.

A large hand caught my waist instead, steady and warm. My vision blurred, darkness pulling me under, and just before it swallowed me whole, a pair of blue eyes held mine.

"Princess."

I went limp.

~~~~~

My eyes slowly opened as sunlight touched my face. I blinked several times, adjusting to the unfamiliar brightness surrounding me. The first thing I noticed was the white ceiling above me and the golden chandelier hanging from it.

I pushed myself upright and looked around the room. Everything was unfamiliar, from the luxurious furniture to the soft sheets beneath me. My heart immediately began racing as memories returned one after another.

The mating ceremony.

The rogues.

The stranger with blue eyes.

Fear rushed through me as I wondered where I was. Had the rogues captured me and brought me here? Was this another trap waiting for me?

I quickly moved toward the door, determined to escape before anyone could stop me. I had survived the pack, the rejection, and the rogues, and I refused to become helpless again. Before I could reach the handle, the door opened.

A familiar pair of cold blue eyes met mine.

“Going somewhere, princess?”