The moon was full, bright enough to see every betrayal written across his face. Rain slicked the stone courtyard. The air stank of wet earth and silver. And of me : the scent he said he could no longer stand.
"From this moment," Damian said, voice flat as ice, "you are no longer my mate."
Hundreds of eyes watched. Warriors. Elders. The pack I'd served since I could walk.I stood barefoot in my wedding dress, the same one I'd never had the chance to wear.A gust of wind lifted the hem, mocking me.
I waited for him to take it back.To say it was a cruel joke, a test, anything.
He didn't.
Instead, he reached for the woman beside him : my half-sister, pale and trembling."She's dying," he said. "Grant me this last wish. I'll marry her to ease her final days."
My throat closed around the scream. The crowd gasped; someone whispered my name.
"You promised me forever," I whispered.
"And you promised loyalty," he answered, his golden eyes unreadable. "Yet you met another man in secret."
"That's not ..."
"Enough!" His roar shattered the night. The Alpha's mark burned on my skin until it faded into nothing.The bond snapped : a silent explosion inside my chest.
Pain turned to numbness. Numbness to fury.I looked at him one last time, memorizing the man I'd once loved.
Then I walked out of the courtyard, barefoot, bleeding, carrying his child.