Chapter 2

POV: Selene Harper 

“A bond forged by the Moon should never be breakable. But Ronan broke mine with a single breath.”

What followed was awkward silence.

The kind that doesn’t fall, but crashes.

The kind that presses into your bones and steals your breath, your heartbeat, your name.

“I pledge today under the watch of the Blood Moon that I, heir Alpha Ronan Thorn reject the fated bond between me and miss. Amira Cross.”

Ronan’s words echoed like a death sentence, colder than the snow clinging to my boots, louder than the blood pounding in my ears. The mark on my wrist, still burning with the fury of fate, dimmed. Flickered.

Something inside me cracked—something I hadn’t even realized was whole to begin with.

Laughter rippled through the crowd. Not the kind born from joy, but cruelty wrapped in silk.

“Of course she’s supposed to be rejected,” someone sneered. “This is looking as though the Moon goddess now makes mistake.”

Immediately, someone closed the mouth of the person, “Don’t say that about the goddess, the air has ears.”

“She’s cursed. I knew it.” Another said.

“Ronan would never accept a stray as his mate.”

My knees dug into the frostbitten ground. I wanted to move. I wanted to stand. To scream. But my body had become foreign—a shell too heavy to lift.

I struggle to turn to the person Ronan choose over a cursed thing—so they said. A deadly smile tugged at her lips, “F*k you,” she gestured with her lips. 

Tears had already filled my face. My heart broken into a million pieces. 

This can’t be possible. 

The elder’s voice trembled as he stepped forward. “Alpha Ronan... hope you know what you have just done. Remember that the Moon’s will cannot be so easily undone—”

“That is the business of the goddess. I said I reject her,” he growled, cutting the elder off. His voice was a storm. Brutal. Final.

Ronan’s eyes didn’t meet mine. Not even once. As if looking at me would confirm that the bond was real. As if acknowledging it would give it power.

Liesendra stepped forward, her arm slipping into his. Her smirk now gleamed like polished steel. “The Moon makes mistakes, girl,” she spat, “The Alpha is the one who has the legal right to choose whoever suits his balls.”

She turned to him, biting her lower lips seductively as she grabbed his balls. 

The strong heir Alpha acted like a child all because of the sex they had been having together. “Baby, just stop. Not here. Not now.”

Then she whispered to his ears, her eyes resting on me, “Your reward for tonight will be more than what we do. Suck as many places you can. F*k as many places that you can. And eat as many places that you can.”

“Oh goddess you’re making me c*m already, baby.”

For a moment I taught if there had known where they were. If they had been doing a lot at the secret doesn’t mean it will be a show in public. In front of the pack. 

“She was nothing before this night,” she added softly, loud enough for everyone to hear as she moved towards me. “And she’ll return to nothing now.”

The circle broke. The fire dimmed. “Winter Hollow, dismiss.” Elder Soran screamed.

And I was left there, kneeling in the snow, as the pack walked away.

I don’t remember getting back to my quarters but what I could remember was the door slamming shut behind me, my back against the wall, and the scream that tore from my throat—ugly, guttural, primal.

The kind that no one hears.

Or cares to.

I collapsed to the floor, my hand clutching the mate mark now etched like ash into my skin. It no longer glowed. No longer pulsed. It felt like a scar the Moon carved just to remind me what I wasn’t allowed to have.

Not love. Not legacy. Not even the right to hope.

As the tears streamed down cheek, it served as a reminder to what happened 14 years ago. 

As the thoughts furred my mind, the knock from the door interrupted me.

For a moment, I didn’t move.

“Amira,” Gareth’s voice came through. “Can I come in?”

I didn’t answer. But he came anyway.

He shut the door gently and crouched beside me, the old warrior who once taught me how to throw a dagger with precision now staring at me like I was the one who’d been stabbed.

“I tried to warn you,” he said, not unkindly.

“Why?” My voice cracked like glass, the tears breaking out. “Why would the Moon mark me—just to let him reject me?”

Gareth didn’t answer right away. He sat, exhaling slowly.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’ve seen more strange and dangerous things. The Moon’s will is rarely clear... but never wrong.”

I looked at him. “Then why did Kieran refuse me? Why did he look at me like I was some piece of shit?”

He was silent for some seconds as though to process his words, “Its obvious. Because he’s scared,” Gareth said.

That pulled a bitter laugh from my throat. “Scared of me?”

“Not you,” Gareth replied. “What you are. What you could be to his unborn babies and the pack.”

My brows furrowed. “I’m a Beta for crying out loud.”

I was still speaking with the whole brokenness in me, tears still streaming down my cheeks.

“No.” He leaned forward, voice low. “You’re something far more dangerous. And he knows it.”

I froze.

“What do you mean dangerous?” “I know am cursed, but not in the manner you seem to insinuate it.”

But Gareth stood. “Sleep, Amira. Sleep, and keep your door locked tonight. Not everyone who walks under the blood moon is guided by it.”

And then he left.

Leaving me with more questions than before.

I didn’t sleep.

I couldn’t.

The dreams came again, sharper now—like claws against my mind.

A silver throne, a crown stained in blood and woman whispering, “Amira.”

I sat up with a gasp, clutching the pendant around my neck, heart galloping like a hunted thing.

The room was dim, moonlight spilling across the floor like liquid glass.

Then I heard it.

A howl.

Not just any howl.

His.

Ronan.

It was low and in pain.

It echoed through the forest like a ghost calling out for something it couldn’t name.

For someone it just rejected.

I found myself outside before I could think, drawn to the trees like a moth to a pyre.

The cold kissed my skin. The snow pulled at my boots.

I followed the sound, deeper into the forest—past the training fields, beyond the scent borders. Until I found him.

Ronan Thorn not in his human form.

But his wolf.

Huge. Black as the void. Eyes glowing with torment.

He stood at the edge of the clearing, head low, growling softly... at nothing.

Then his head snapped toward me.

We stared at each other across the white silence.

I should’ve run.

Instead, I took a step closer.

And that’s when he changed.

Bone cracked. Fur dissolved. And there he stood—bare, beautiful, broken.

“Ronan...” I breathed.

“Go back,” he said hoarsely.

“I—”

“I said go back!” His voice thundered, but it didn’t reach me like it used to.

Because I saw it now. The mark on his wrist.

The same as mine.

Still burning and alive.

“You didn’t reject it,” I whispered. “Not really.”

He flinched. Then he turned away.

“You were never meant to be mine,” he said, voice ragged. “And I was never meant to want you.”

My chest tightened, eyes locked on his “Then why does it feel like we’re both breaking?”

He didn’t answer for a moment before yelling, “You’re the only one breaking. Stay away from me.”

And somewhere, deep bene

ath the snow-covered ground, something strange with a white eye cut through the darkness. “Amira.”