Chapter 1

Silver

I swear the whole clearing felt like it was pressing on my chest because everyone kept shouting and chanting and screaming things like “reject her!” and “she’s not worthy of you Ivo!” and “that slave shouldn’t even be standing near you!”

I swear my hands were shaking so bad I tucked them behind my back even though it didn’t hide anything because their eyes were already eating me alive. Ivo stood right in front of me with that stupid cruel smile he wears whenever he wants to pretend he’s thinking like he has to pretend his decision matters.

Deep down I already knew he was gonna reject me, I felt it deep in my bones and the way the elders kept staring at him like he should hurry up and get it done snd the way Beta Rowan kept whispering to his son and gesturing at me like I was some disease they wanted to wash out of the pack.

But the moment Ivo leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, my entire body lost its senses.

I melted into him like I’ve been waiting for that moment my whole life which is stupid because I never imagined myself as anyone’s mate especially someone like him, the alpha’s son and the next Alpha of Star-snow Pack.

I’m just a servant more like a slave honestly, the one they make do the dirty chores and the one they don’t even let join pack trainings because I’m “below omega.

I shouldn’t even be in the damn clearing. This place is for pack members only, for people with wolves not for someone like me that everyone calls freak because my wolf hasn’t existed in years.

But the mating pull hit me too strong the moment he touched me. I swear my knees buckled and my heart jumped in a way that made me feel stupid and hopeful for the first time in forever.

And then I heard her my wolf. The wolf that went dormant because they practically starved us in this pack. She whispered one word, her voice was faint like she had been dying. Mate.

She said Ivo was our mate and something warm burst inside me so desperate and foolish and so so hopeful that maybe this was my way out of slavery. Maybe this was finally my chance to be treated like a human being maybe this meant I’d be Luna someday maybe all the years of suffering meant something.

My head was spinning when his hands cupped my waist and he pulled me deeper into the kiss and the crowd gasped loud like they didn’t expect him to kiss me back at all. I moaned into his mouth because the pull was frying my brain and I didn’t even care about all the hateful eyes watching us.

His hands slid up to my breasts and I swear I didn’t even think, I just leaned in because it felt like the bond was dragging me into him. For a second I forgot everyone hated me. For a second I forgot who I was because I belonged and I feel wanted.

Then everything shattered.

I was ripped away so fast my head spun. I didn’t even understand what happened until the slap came crashing across my face so loud that I swear the whole forest heard it. The hit threw me to the ground and the pain exploded across my cheek.

I blinked up and saw Ella standing over me, her face twisted in anger. Of course it was her. She is his girlfriend. The girl everyone has always wanted him to end up with. The perfect match and the Beta’s daughter. The golden girl that the elders have been pushing at him since he grew facial hair.

She didn’t just slap me. She stepped on my hands with her heels and I heard my bones crack like dry sticks under her foot.

I screamed so loud my throat burned instantly, but she pressed harder and harder like she wanted to grind my fingers into the dirt. I tried pulling back but the pain was too much and people just watched nobody even tried to stop her.

I screamed until my voice broke and I tasted blood on my tongue. Ivo finally grabbed her arm and yanked her off me but the way he bent and kissed her cheek made something inside me twist and crumble into dust. He whispered something to her and she laughed wiping my blood from her hand like it disgusted her.

Then he turned to me with His eyes were cold and totallly blank.

“I, Ivo Rowan, reject you, Silver Snow.”

The words hit me harder than her slap. I felt the bond tear through my chest like claws ripping me from the inside. I curled in on myself because the pain was too sharp and too real and I swear for a moment I thought I was actually dying.

My wolf whimpered in my head then went dead silent again. I think she shut down from the pain. I wanted to scream but nothing came out. My breath kept shaking and my vision blurred like I was drowning.

The guards didn’t even give me time to get up. They grabbed me by the arm and dragged me across the ground like I was trash not someone who just had her soul ripped apart in front of an entire pack. They threw me out of the clearing and I landed so hard on my side that my cracked bones flared all over again.

From far away even through the ringing in my ears, I could hear them cheering and celebratimg. Applauding Ivo and Ella like they were the perfect fairytale couple. Every cheer stabbed me deeper.

I forced myself up after a while shaking so bad I had to hold onto a tree. Something in me broke that day so deep. But I still walked all the way back to the servants’ tent because where else do rejects go?

The moment I laid down on the mattress, Miss Tilda, the head servant walked in and told me to get off because it wasn’t my turn to sleep there tonight. She didn’t care I was bleeding ns trembling and half dead. She didn’t even blink when I showed her my broken fingers.

She just said “Rules are rules. Get up, girl.”

So I got up because what else could I do?

I dragged my feet out of the tent and went straight to the river. I knelt by the water trying to dip my hands in to soothe the throbbing pain. The water stung like fire but I stayed there staring at my reflection and not recognizing myself anymore.

That was when I heard engines. A lot of them. I looked up and saw black cars (big ones( driving into the pack grounds. Star-snow is too poor for this. We barely even have two working cars in the entire pack. Whoever they were, they weren’t normal guests. They had to be someone powerful. Alpha Kings or something close.

My heart stumbled because the last thing I needed tonight was some new problem.

I hid behind a tree watching them climb out. Their guards were huge, dressed in dark suits and carrying weapons I’d never seen before. And then I didn’t even hear him approach. One moment I was alone and the next a man stood right behind me and for a second I thought my heart jumped into my throat.

He was tall and handsome and sooo terrifying. His presence alone made the hairs on my neck rise. His eyes swept over me like he was trying to figure out what I was.

“You! Do you have a mate?” he said quietly his voice deep enough to vibrate something in me.

I blinked frozen and not knowing what to say.

“I…I…” My voice cracked bad. “I did. But he rejected me.”

His gaze dropped to my broken hands then slowly traveled back to my eyes.

“Good. Come with me”” he said completely unreadable.

And before I could even think about it, his hand closed around my arm. Everything in my life changed right there.