Chapter 2
Angel's POV
They were all killed in the attack.
The words echoed in my head like a drum, beating over and over until they lost all meaning. I stared at Mother Superior's crying face, but I couldn't see her. Couldn't see anything except the image of my parents - my mother's warm smile, my father's gentle hands - dissolving into smoke.
Were killed.
Were killed.
My body started moving without my knowledge. I stood, my legs somehow carrying me toward the church doors even though I couldn't feel them. Couldn't feel anything.
"Angel, wait!" Sister Catherine quickly caught my arm.
I pulled away. "I have to go. I have to - they need help." My voice sounded strange, distant, like it belonged to someone else. "They're probably just lost somewhere. The roads can be confusing, they could be stranded in…"
"Angel, please…"
"They need me." I yanked my arm free and stumbled forward, but Mother Superior stepped in front of me, her hands gripping my shoulders.
"They're gone, child," she said, her voice breaking. "There's nothing you can do."
"No." I shook my head violently. "No, they're not. They can't be. They promised they'd be here. They promised!" I struggled against her grip, my ceremonial dress twisting around my legs. "Let me go! I have to find them!"
"Angel…"
"They're alive! I can feel it! I would know if they were… if they…" The word stuck in my throat. I couldn't say it. Wouldn't say it. "They're not dead!"
"Alpha Terrell led the attack!" Mother superior yelled.
The name dropped into the church like a stone into still water.
Everyone gasped at once as they began whispering in fear. The name itself - his name - was spoken in hushed, terrified tones, as if saying it too loudly might summon him.
I literally stopped breathing.
Alpha Terrell.
No. No, no, no.
My knees weakened. Everyone knew about Alpha Terrell. Everyone knew that no one survived his attacks. He didn't just kill - he obliterated. He burned the bodies of his enemies after battle, leaving nothing behind. Not even ashes to bury. Not even that small mercy.
The image enveloped my mind like a cloud: my parents, Agnes, the baby - all of them reduced to smoke and cinders. Nothing left. Nothing to hold, nothing to mourn over, nothing to lay to rest.
"Oh God," I gasped, holding my chest tightly in pain. "Oh God, oh God…"
I couldn't breathe. The air had turned solid, too thick to pull into my lungs. I tried to inhale, but all that came out were desperate, gasping sounds and hiccups that shook my entire body.
Mama. Papa. Agnes.
The pain was a living thing, clawing its way up from my chest, wrapping around my throat. My legs gave out, but Mother Superior caught me before I hit the ground, holding me up even as I shattered in her arms.
The church fell silent. No one moved. No one spoke.
When Alpha Terrell was involved, no one ever did.
Then the doors burst open.
A cold wind swept into the church first, carrying with it dried leaves and debris. Everyone turned, and the whispers died completely as the High Priestess of the Moon Goddess entered.
She was tall, and covered in black robes of the black wolf pack. Her dark eyes scanned the congregation before settling on me, still limp in Mother Superior's arms.
Mother Superior immediately stood, gently releasing me. I slumped against the altar, my body feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. She hurried to greet the priestess, bowing her head in the customary show of respect. Humans respected the werewolves' religion; werewolves respected ours. That was the arrangement.
"High Priestess," Mother Superior said, her voice shaking slightly. "We are honored by your presence, though I fear this is not the best time…"
"I am here for her." The priestess thundered, as she pointed directly at me.
Every eye in the church turned my way.
I barely registered it. The numbness had spread from my chest to my limbs, from my limbs to my mind. Everything felt distant, muffled, like I was underwater.
"I bring a message from the Moon Goddess herself," the priestess continued, her gaze never leaving my face. "Angel's ordination cannot proceed."
The words should have meant something. Yesterday, they would have devastated me. But now? Now they were just more sounds in a world that had stopped making sense.
Mother Superior's face went pale. "High Priestess, surely there's been a mistake. Angel has dedicated three years of her life to…"
"There is no mistake." The priestess moved closer, her robes sweeping the floor. "The Moon Goddess has revealed a truth that cannot be denied."
I stared at her, my vision blurring with tears that have refused to fall. What did any of this matter? My family was dead. Burned. Gone. What did the Moon Goddess or my ordination or any of it matter when my entire world had just turned to ash?
The priestess stopped directly in front of me, towering over my numb body on the floor. "Angel," she said in a powerful voice. "You are fated to the Alpha."
There was complete silence.
Then the whispers exploded like a dam breaking.
"Fated?"
"To an Alpha?"
"That's impossible…"
"Her?"
"It can't be…"
The priestess raised her hand, and silence fell again. "My dear, you are fated to Alpha Terrell of the Black wolf pack."
I felt my spirit leave my body.
Someone gasped. Someone else laughed.
I heard the words. Understood them individually. But together, they made no sense.
Fated. To Alpha Terrell.
The man who just murdered my family.
"No," I whispered, the word scraping out of my raw throat.
"The Moon Goddess does not lie," the priestess said. "The bond has been ordained. You are his mate."
His mate.
The room began to spin. Faces blurred together, different expressions, disbelieving stares, mouths hanging open in horror.
"The fat girl?"
"Fated to the most powerful Alpha?"
"This is a joke…"
"Alpha Terrell's mate?"
"She's not even pretty…"
"How is this possible?"
Their voices layered over each other, matching the loud screaming in my own head.
My parents were dead. My sister was dead. Her baby - that beautiful baby I'd never get to meet - was dead.
And the man who killed them was supposed to be my mate.
The universe had played a cruel joke. The cruelest joke imaginable.
"No," I said again, louder this time. My hands pressed against the cold floor, trying to ground myself in something real, something solid. "No, that's… that's not…"
But the pain was too much. The numbness and the agony crashed together in my chest, a contradiction my body couldn't process. The church tilted sideways, the candles becoming streaks of light, the faces melting together into a blur of color.
I heard Mother Superior call my name, heard her footsteps rushing toward me.
But the darkness was already rising, ready to swallow me whole.
My last conscious thought was a prayer, desperate and broken:
Please, God. Please let this be a nightmare.
Then everything went black.