Violet
I knew he was going to reject me.
I had already lived through it once.
Damon stood in front of me, arm around Elena's waist as the entire pack surrounded us.
Just like before, he had chosen to humiliate me this way.
And within seconds, he repeated the same words he had uttered in my past life.
"I, Damon Blackthorn, Alpha of the Shadowpine Pack, reject you, Violet, as my mate."
A searing pain ripped through my chest, severing the mate bond between us. I winced and stiffened, trying not to let the pain show. Still, everyone's perceptive eyes caught my reaction. Some pack members smiled at my demise.
His dark eyes glinted in the moonlight, a proud smirk on his face as he spread out his other hand towards me.
"Did you really think I would accept a measly nameless omega as my Luna? You have been a stain in this pack since your birth. Your mere presence itself is an insult to my late father's image. Your own household revoked your family name and rejected you. And you thought you could stand beside me?"
Elena pressed against him, fake concern on her face.
"Oh, Damon. Go easy on her, please," she whispered, loud enough for me to hear as she looked up at him.
Damon shook his head and sighed, looking back at her. "My dear, you are too kind. But—"
"I understand," I murmured.
My words caused Damon to pause and look at me. Elena frowned, her blue eyes shifting to meet mine. It was funny how she no longer found this amusing.
I had accepted his rejection in tears. And she had gloated at that moment, her eyes beaming with such joy as I grovelled at their feet.
I felt so disgusted with myself at my past actions, but I composed myself and smiled.
"I, Violet, accept your rejection."
The breeze died down. The trees stopped swaying.
It suddenly felt like my insides exploded. Blood trickled down my nose, but I kept smiling. I would not give him, or anyone the satisfaction of seeing me grovel.
Everyone looked at me in shock. Damon frowned.
Wasn't this exactly what they wanted?
"Congratulations, Alpha Damon," I continued. "I hope she is worth it."
I turned to leave, but Damon laughed.
"Worth it? You were never worth anything. Elena here is by far worth more than both your bond and yourself." He held out his hand to Elena, and she took it, a gloating smile on her lips as she eyed me.
"She doesn't know what she is saying." Elena smirked and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Just let her go. She should faint soon anyway from the effects of the rejection."
Damon grinned. "You're not wrong. She will need the rest for someone who will never find another mate."
A metallic taste filled my mouth. I shoved past the wolves and ran.
Pain tore through every step. By the time I reached my house I was on all fours, vomiting blood.
Under the pain, rage burned.
His father had shown me compassion, letting me remain within the pack after my own family had kicked me out. And the next thing Damon had done shortly after taking over his father as the Alpha was to call a meeting to announce the rejection instead of holding a banquet in his father's honour.
He despised me that much and I never saw it.
My heart shuddered as my chest burned.
I had loved him blindly while he entertained Elena. I had been so weak and pathetic as the old me had hoped our bond would be stronger than the flings he had with her.
Such stupidity.
He rejected me and I had begged him not to.
Tomorrow, Damon would publicly banish me from the pack. And just hours after I crossed into the trees, five of his patrol wolves would hunt me down on his orders to finish the job.
I shuddered, my hand pressing against my stomach where the scarred patrol leader's claws had ripped me open in my last life. I could still taste the blood, still see the blinding silver power that had erupted from my hands a second too late to save my life, before a strange voice in the dark dragged me back to this morning.
I clenched my jaw and got back on my feet, ignoring the pain that consumed my body. I closed my eyes and focused, channelling that pain into a part of myself I had to awaken.
I would not let this new chance go to waste.
I would not die this time.
Moonlight peeked through tattered curtains of the dim room.
I had less than twelve hours before Damon would summon me for the banishment. I wasn't going to wait.
Leaving at the crack of dawn would be best. The wolves of the pack were more active at night and in the later hours of the morning.
My body screamed as I moved to the bed. Vision swaying, I sat, then lay back and closed my eyes, searching for the power that had awakened right before my death.
In the woods, one word from my lips had frozen the five patrol wolves, and silver light from my hands had severely injured them.
The power was still there. I just needed to tap into it.
A nauseating current pulsed through my veins, stitching the worst of the severed bond together. It drained me, leaving me breathless and trembling. Before I knew it, I drifted asleep.
[___]
I jerked awake, heart thrashing. It was still dark outside, and I had no idea how much time had passed.
Without a second thought I rushed to the corner of the room where I kept my few belongings and started packing. Warm clothes, dried meat and bread, a dull knife.
Then the pendant slipped out and clattered to the floor—the silver one my grandmother had given me before she died. I picked it up and ran my fingers over the faint engraving of a crescent moon overlapping a sun.
"Child of Moon and Sun... Your time has not ended. Wake up."
I remembered now….
One moment I had been bleeding out on the forest floor, pleading for another chance, and the next, that voice had shattered the darkness and brought me back in time.
It was strange. Even if I recovered from the rejection, the pain should not have gone this quickly. I then felt a faint thrumming in my chest. It resonated with my heartbeat.
A strange feeling settled over me.
Did any of this have something to do with my bloodline?
I quickly wore the pendant around my neck despite the rusty chain. Once I finished packing, I waited until the first light of dawn, then left.
[___]
The sun climbed as I raced through the trees, still inside pack territory. My lungs burned, but I kept going. I had left earlier than I had done in my past life, avoided the usual patrol paths.
And this time, I didn't feel drained like before.
But I was still afraid that the patrol wolves could still catch up with me. My shoes finally gave out, and I continued barefoot, sticking to the shadows while my legs and ribs ached.
The strange power had helped me heal a little, but my body was still paying the price, and I still didn't fully understand the force now living inside me.
The edge of Shadowpine territory soon appeared a short distance away. I looked back like I had done multiple times throughout the journey, expecting to hear the excited howls of the patrol wolves chasing after me.
There was nothing.
The thought should have brought relief, but I still felt uneasy. I just needed to jkeep going until I got beyond the border.
The neutral forest stretched endlessly before me. I kept my eyes trained on it. No matter how much my body screamed in agony, I had to get there first.
The neutral territory began where Shadowpine's ended. Once I crossed that line, I would be outside Damon's reach.
I would be a lone wolf.
The trail narrowed, and the forest grew thicker and darker. Then I saw the line of stones half-buried in the dirt that marked the border.
I crossed without hesitation.
The moment my foot touched neutral ground, something inside me loosened. The tether to Shadowpine I hadn't even realized I still felt snapped.
I was free.