CHAPTER 1: SHATTERED BONDS

Ava POV

“I, Kale Blackwood of the Crimson Moon Pack, reject you, Alpha Ava Redwood, as my mate.”

The words hit like a blow to my gut. I tried to breathe but it seems stuck to my throat.

For one stupid second I think maybe I misheard him. Maybe I was hallucinating but his voice doesn’t waver as he repeats himself again. I hear the finality in them.

“No…” The sound that comes out of me is small, broken.

I take a step toward him, hands shaking as I reach out like trying to grab on the bond that once bid us and hold it together but it keeps fading away.

“Kale—no. You promised. You promised me. After everything after every night we swore we’d face it together you can’t do this. You promised!”

He clenches his jaw and looks away refusing to meet my eyes “I’m sorry, Ava. But we can’t be mates. The Moon Goddess was wrong. I feel nothing.”

Nothing.

The word echoes inside my head and my knees give out. I drop onto the marble, a sob tearing out of me before I can stop it.

Tears burn my eyes, blurring him as he turns away from me and starts going down the stairs. Each step he takes sounds like a hammer against my ribs.

“Kale—wait!” I scramble after him. My legs barely holding me. I grab the banister as I miss a step nearly tumbling down the stairs,my ankle twisting painfully, but I don’t stop. I can’t stop.

I stumble down the stairs after him, one hand clutching my chest like I can keep my heart from falling out.

He reaches the bottom.

And freezes.

I see it happen—the way his eyes widen, the sharp inhale, the sudden hunger that flashes across his face. I follow his gaze.

Elara.

My handmaid. Quiet, gentle Elara who’s been braiding my hair and bringing me tea for three years.

She’s standing in the shadowed doorway to the servants’ corridor, her hazel eyes huge with confusion.

Before I can even process it, Kale moves. Three long strides and he’s there.

“Mate,Mine” he says then he pulls her into his arms and kisses her deep, desperate, claiming right in front of me.

A scream rips out of my throat. “KALE!”

Elara jerks back, her cheeks heating pushing him away weakly at his chest. “This….this is wrong, Gamma Kale! She’s my Alpha—I can’t—”

He steps in front of her, shielding her with his body like I would hurt her.

His voice is low, steady. “Ava… please. Accept my rejection. Let this end cleanly.”

I’m still on the stairs, crumpled halfway down, tears streaming so fast I can barely see him.

My chest is on fire. The bond is tearing, shredding, and every rip hurts worse than the last.

I stare up at the man who once held me like I was the only thing that mattered.

The man who kissed my scars and promised forever the one I thought would be different ....now this breaking, my forever before it begins.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out at first. Just broken little gasps. I take a deep breath then, in a voice so small I barely recognize it as mine, I force the words I know too well past my lips.

“I… Alpha Eva Redwood of Crimson Moon Park accepts your rejection, Kale Blackwood.”

It is instant. The agonizing pain tears into me like my heart has been torn out, being pierced by a thousand needles.

I fold in on myself, curling tight, sobbing so hard my whole body shakes. The hall spins and voices blur into static.

I don’t know how long I stay there,broken and exposed on the stairs until soft hands touch my shoulders.

“Ava, sweetheart…” My aunt’s voice is gentle, and pained calls out to me. “Come now. It’s not good for the pack to see their Alpha like this. Let’s get you upstairs.”

I let her pull me up. My legs won’t work right. I don’t look back. I can’t.

She guides me to my room. The door clicks shut behind us.

I stagger the last few steps and collapse onto the bed, face-first into the pillows that still carry the ghost of his scent.

Why me?

Why?

Haven’t I earned love? Haven’t I given enough?

Every time it’s been under a blood moon. Every single time.

The first one… I can still smell the iron in the air that night I turned eighteen a month after my parents had been killed and a day after I assumed my role as Alpha.

The crimson glow painted everything red. His name was Rowan the Alpha of the Ironfang Pack.

When our eyes met across the bonfire and the world narrowed to just us I thought I had finally found peace.

For seven days I woke up tangled in his arms, his mark burning sweetly on my shoulder, his laugh rumbling against my neck when I teased him about being too serious.

Then the eighth morning he sat up, looked at me like I’d crawled out of the forest, and said, “Get out of my bed. I don’t know who the hell you are.”

No flicker of pain in his eyes. No crack in his voice. Just confusion and irritation. I showed him our mark. He laughed but he actually laughed in my face and told me to stop playing games.

Then he turned to my friend Mia and suddenly they were mates but when he couldn't mark her because I still carried his mark he came for me, rejected me and forced me to accept his rejection.

I left with my bag in one hand and my dignity in shreds, the rejection ripping through me alone while he walked away untouched.

A year later, during the alliance summit, another blood moon rose. This time I was mated to Cassian, a warrior from Shadow Pack.

He found me in the gardens, pressed me against the ivy-covered wall, and whispered that he’d waited lifetimes for me.

We spent a month stealing moments—his fingers tracing my spine under moonlight, his breath hot against my ear when he said my name like a prayer.

Then one dawn he rolled over, blinked at me, and asked who I was and why I was in his quarters. No recognition..

He called security to escort me out while I stood there shaking, clutching the sheet to my chest, the bond tearing me open from the inside while he felt… nothing.

And now Kale.

My best friend. The one I thought was safe.

Even before the blood moon confirmed it, he’d already been saying he loved me.

For months he’d been stealing kisses in the armory, holding my hand under the training table, telling me I was his long before any goddess said so.

I was terrified when it happened that I tried to stop him. Right there on the sparring field, heart hammering, I opened my mouth to reject the bond before it could form—because I knew what came next, I knew the pain that always came for me and never for them.

But he didn’t let me finish. He cupped my face, kissed me until the words died on my tongue, and murmured against my lips, “I’m not them, Ava. Bond or no bond, I choose you. I promise I’ll never let you hurt like that again.”

So why now? Why this?

When I was beginning to trust in the bond,it's been six months of joy, flowers and him showing me everyday how much he loved me and would do anything for me.

I let myself think I had finally found my forever until the rug was pulled from beneath me.

I press my face deeper into the pillow, muffling the sobs that won’t stop.

Nyra my wolf howls inside me,furious, but even she has no answers. She's too broken from the rejection that she retreats to the farthest point in my mind and I can't reach her.

“Moon Goddess,” I whisper into the dark, voice cracked and trembling, “why do they forget me so easily? Why do I bleed alone every time?”

Outside my window the full moon hangs silent and cold, offering no answers—just pale, uncaring light.