Luna's POV
I made a stupid decision.
After three days of feeling the mate bonds burn with no response from them, I couldn't take it anymore. Maybe Sage was right—maybe proximity would trigger their side of the bond. Maybe if Kael actually looked at me, really looked at me, his wolf would recognize what I was to him.
So I did something I'd never done before.
I knocked on the Alpha's office door where Kael was working.
"Come in," his deep voice called.
I pushed the door open, my hands shaking. Through the bond, I felt his annoyance at being interrupted. My courage almost failed, but I forced myself to step inside.
Kael sat behind a massive desk covered in pack documents. He didn't look up. "What do you want, omega?"
"I need to talk to you." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "It's important."
"I'm busy." He still didn't look at me. Through the bond, I felt his impatience growing. "Whatever it is can wait."
"Please." I stepped closer to the desk. The mate bond flared hotter with proximity, pulling me toward him. "It's about... it's about something that happened during the pack run. Something important."
That got his attention. Kael finally looked up, his amber eyes cold. "The only important thing about that run was how pathetically slow you were. Now get out."
"Kael, please just listen—"
"Alpha," he corrected sharply. "You don't get to use my name, omega. You haven't earned that right."
The bond twisted in my chest, making me feel his disgust, his irritation, his absolute certainty that I was wasting his valuable time.
"I'm sorry, Alpha." I took another step closer, desperate. The bond was screaming now, begging him to feel it, to recognize me. "But this is about the mate bond. My wolf says—"
"Your wolf?" Kael stood abruptly, and through the bond I felt his anger spike. "You've had your wolf for three days and you think you know something about mate bonds? Let me educate you, Luna."
He walked around the desk, backing me toward the wall. I should have run, but the mate bond kept me frozen, craving his closeness even as fear made my heart race.
"Mate bonds are sacred," Kael said, his voice deadly quiet. "They connect equals. Alphas mate with strong wolves who can stand beside them. Not weak, pathetic omegas who can barely shift without collapsing."
Each word stabbed through me, made worse because the bond forced me to feel his absolute conviction. He meant every single word.
"The Moon Goddess would never curse someone like me with someone like you as a mate," Kael continued. "So whatever your confused wolf is telling you, forget it. You and I exist in completely different worlds."
"But I can feel—"
"I don't care what you feel!" His voice rose, and through the bond, his disgust crashed over me like a wave. "You're nothing, Luna. An orphan omega who only exists in this pack because my father feels charitable. Don't mistake that charity for importance."
Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him.
"Now get out of my office," Kael said, turning his back on me. "And don't waste my time again with whatever fantasy your wolf has invented. You're not special. You never will be."
I ran.
Through the bond, I felt Kael sit back down at his desk, his irritation already fading as he forgot about me completely. Just another annoying interruption in his important day.
But I couldn't forget. The mate bond made sure of that, replaying his words and emotions over and over.
Weak. Pathetic. Nothing. Worthless.
And the worst part? Through the bond, I knew he believed it all.
I ran past the pack house, past the training grounds, straight into the forest. I didn't stop until my lungs burned and my legs gave out. Then I collapsed against a tree and finally let the tears come.
They poured out of me—all the pain I'd been holding back for three days, three years, seven years. I cried for the little eleven-year-old girl who'd lost her parents. I cried for every beating, every insult, every moment of cruelty. And I cried for the impossible situation the Moon Goddess had trapped me in.
"I'm so sorry," Selene whispered, her voice full of pain. "I'm sorry I brought you hope only to have it destroyed."
"It's not your fault." I wrapped my arms around my knees, shaking. "You didn't choose them as our mates."
"No, but I thought... I thought surely the mate bond would change things. That they'd feel the connection and everything would be different."
"They feel nothing," I said bitterly. The three bonds still burned in my chest—Kael back at his desk, Ryland charming someone at the training grounds, Dante running through the forest alone. "And even if they could feel it, Kael made it clear. He'd reject me in a heartbeat."
Through the bond, I suddenly felt Dante getting closer. His wolf was running through these same woods, heading in my direction.
I scrambled to my feet, wiping my tears quickly. I couldn't let him see me like this—vulnerable and broken.
But Dante's auburn wolf burst through the trees before I could hide. He skidded to a stop when he saw me, his grey eyes locking onto mine.
For one impossible moment, I swore he saw me. Really saw me.
The bond between us vibrated, reaching, hoping—
Then Dante's wolf curled his lips back in a snarl.
Through the bond, I felt his confusion about why he'd been drawn to this spot, his frustration at finding me here, his instinct to drive me away from his territory.
He took a threatening step forward.
I ran again, my heart shattering into smaller and smaller pieces.
Behind me, I heard Dante's wolf growl, then the sound of him running in the opposite direction. Through the bond, I felt his relief at getting away from me.
Even his wolf wanted nothing to do with me.
I finally stopped running when I reached the pack border, the invisible line I wasn't allowed to cross. Freedom was right there—just one step and I'd be in neutral territory.
But rogues hunted neutral territory. A lone omega wolf wouldn't survive a single night.
I sank down onto the forest floor, trapped between the pack that hated me and the world that would kill me.
The three mate bonds pulsed in my chest, connecting me to wolves who would celebrate if I disappeared.
"We'll survive this," Selene promised fiercely. "We'll get stronger. And one day, we'll be powerful enough to leave and never look back."
"How?" I asked, exhausted and hopeless. "How do we survive loving them when they despise us?"
"We stop loving them," Selene said firmly. "We bury these bonds so deep they can't hurt us anymore. We focus on surviving until we can escape."
"Can we really do that?"
Through the bond, I felt Kael laughing at something his Beta said. Felt Ryland's satisfaction at winning a training match. Felt Dante's emptiness as he ran alone through the woods.
Three mates who completed me and destroyed me in equal measure.
"We have to," Selene whispered. "Because the alternative is letting them break us completely."
I stayed in the forest until dark, trying to build walls around my heart thick enough to keep the mate bonds out.
But when I finally returned to the pack house, bruised and dirty and hollow inside, I knew the truth.
You can't stop loving your fated mate.
No matter how much they hurt you.
The mate bond makes sure of that.
And mine was the cruelest bond of all—because I suffered alone, while they felt nothing at all.