5

Chapter 5

Yvonne's Pov

The day of the rejection ceremony arrived. I had to dress carefully, so I picked out a fitted, silver-embroidered gown that bore the royal mark of the Silvercrest Pack across the lapel.

I did not dress for Ronan, nor did I dress to prove anything to Celeste.

I dressed for myself because I wanted the woman who entered that Council chamber to bear no resemblance to the frightened, desperate Omega who had once begged her mate for a crumb of affection.

My family accompanied me down the grand marble hallway.

My father walked with the terrifying, majestic authority of the Silvercrest Alpha, while my mother held her head high at his side.

My three brothers surrounded me like an immovable wall of dark steel.

For the first time in my entire life, I walked into a room knowing that no one could threaten me without answering to an entire dynasty.

Ronan arrived a few moments later, trailing his councilors and carrying himself with his usual rigid composure.

Celeste stood right beside him, dressed in opulent velvet as though she were already the crowned Luna of the Darkmoon Pack.

She smirked at me, expecting me to break down under the weight of the room.

Instead, the High Council immediately stood and bowed to my family.

The air grew thick with tension. Ronan looked across the chamber, his dark eyes locking onto mine.

Through the thick atmosphere, I could feel the faint, heavy pulse of the mating bond pulling between us.

For years, that bond had felt like an inescapable chain wrapped around my throat.

Now, standing beside my family, it felt like a fragile thread. I was finally strong enough to snap in half.

The elder Councilman stepped forward and cleared his throat, opening a massive leather-bound ledger. "We are gathered to oversee the formal dissolution of a fated mating bond," he announced, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "The Council confirms the identities of the parties present: Alpha Ronan of the Darkmoon Pack, and Princess Yvonne, lost heiress of the Silvercrest Pack."

The Councilman paused, looking over his spectacles at the documents in his hand. "Furthermore, this Council officially recognizes the newborn twins born to Princess Yvonne as pureblood Silvercrest heirs, carrying full dynastic protection under high treaty law."

Celeste’s smirk faltered, her face turning pale as the Council officially stripped the Darkmoon Pack of any legal claim to my babies. Ronan’s jaw tightened, a muscle jumping in his cheek as he stared at me.

"Princess Yvonne," the elder stated, turning his eyes toward me. "Alpha Ronan previously served you with formal rejection papers following the birth of your children. Do you accept this rejection and agree to sever the fated bond today?"

This was the exact moment I had imagined a thousand times while lying awake in the dark.

Every bitter memory rushed through my mind in a single wave. I remembered the freezing tile floor of the delivery room. I remembered the heavy stench of my own sweat and blood as contractions tore me apart.

I remembered screaming into the receiver, begging Ronan to come, only to hear his icy refusal over the line.

I remembered Celeste's soft, mocking laughter echoing in the background while I bled.

I remembered the assistant handing me rejection papers while I was barely sitting upright, accompanied by a ruthless threat to steal my babies.

Every single memory hardened into a cold, unbreakable diamond inside my chest.

"I accept..." I began, my voice clear and steady. Before I could finish the sentence, Ronan suddenly froze.

His eyes widened in shock as a sudden, high-priority mind-link message hit his consciousness.

I could not hear the words being transmitted to him, but I watched the devastating effect in real time.

The color drained from his face until he looked like a corpse. His confident posture caved in, his hands began to tremble, and his arrogance vanished in a fraction of a second.

He looked wildly toward the heavy exit doors, then back at me, and finally toward the eastern wing of the Silvercrest estate. Pure, unadulterated panic swept across his features.

Without saying a single word to the Council, without finishing the ceremony, and without looking back at Celeste, Ronan abruptly spun on his heel and fled the chamber at a full sprint.

The entire room erupted into instant chaos. Council members shouted in confusion, and Celeste stood frozen in the center of the aisle, her mouth hanging open as her Alpha abandoned her in front of the highest court in the land.

I remained standing, my heart hammering against my ribs. For a fleeting second, I assumed Ronan had simply lost his nerve or that Celeste had orchestrated some desperate ploy.

Then, my father’s emergency comm-link chimed loudly.

Alpha Darius reached into his coat and pressed the receiver to his ear. In a second, his expression shifted from stern composure to raw, terrifying fury. Gideon and Julian immediately drew their weapons, their eyes flashing dark as their Alpha aura flared into the room.

"The perimeter hasn't been breached," Gideon snarled, looking down at his tactical tablet. "The intruder didn't come from the outside."

"What is happening?" I demanded, my blood running cold as the vision from my nightmare flashed behind my eyes. "Father, what happened?!"

"The nursery," my father growled, his voice trembling with a rage that shook the floorboards. "The high-security containment system for the twins was just bypassed from the inside. Someone used legitimate Silvercrest royal credentials to unlock the doors."

Before anyone could order me to stay behind, I tore out of the Council chamber. My mother screamed my name, and my brothers surged after me, but a desperate, primal instinct took over my legs. I sprinted down the long, carpeted hallways, ignoring the burning pain in my recovering body, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it echoing in my ears.

My wolf was screaming inside my head, thrashing frantically against my ribs.

I rounded the final corner of the private wing and skidded to a halt outside the nursery doors.

The heavy, reinforced titanium door was standing wide open. The two elite Silvercrest guards stationed at the entrance were slumped against the wall, unconscious, with strange black marks seared into their necks.

I pushed past them and burst into the room.

The high-tech medical incubators were shattered. The glass was cracked, the power lines were severed, and the vital monitors were emitting a flat, continuous screech.

The cribs were empty. My twins were gone.

For several agonizing seconds, my lungs refused to take in air. The world lost all color, turning into a flat, gray void. The frantic shouts of my family rushing into the room behind me faded into complete silence.

Then, deep within the dark center of my soul, something snapped.

The dormant White Wolf inside me surged forward with an ancient, explosive force that rippled through the ambient air.

A physical shockwave of silver-white light detonated outward from my body, shattering the remaining glass panels in the room and sending a terrifying surge of energy down the entire corridor.

Every supernatural warrior in the building dropped to their knees, gasping under the sudden, crushing pressure of my aura.

Silver-white fire flooded across my skin, tracing the veins down my arms. My vision cleared, burning with a brilliant, blinding light.

The sacred, unbreakable blood-bond connecting a mother to her newborn children ignited like a flare in the pitch-black night.

I raised my head, my glowing eyes locking onto a dark corridor leading toward the subterranean mountain tunnels beneath the estate. I could feel two tiny, terrified heartbeats pulsing softly through the dark.

They were alive and I was going to slaughter whoever took them.