Lara's POV
"By the authority of the Alpha Council," Elder Bali intoned, voice echoing off stone and bone, "Kaelen Draven shall take Lady Elora as his wife and Luna this night, to secure the future of the pack."
Cheers erupted as Elora stepped onto the limelight beside Alpha Kaelen, my mate, my lover, and bethrothed.
Howls followed, each sound like a dagger ripping through my chest. Every breath I dragged into my lungs burned, scorching my throat as I watched them together.
I shouldn't have believed him when he said he would find a way for us. I should have known there was none.
I was a traitor's daughter. How could I have believed we stood a chance after my father's failed mutiny, the rebellion that ended, Kaelen's father, Alpha Draven's reign, and cost my father his life?
Kaelen hadn't cared about his father's death. No one but the corrupted council mourned the tyrant, whom only my father dared to stand against. But the pack, especially the council, would never allow a traitor's daughter become Luna.
I had trusted Kaelen and pinned my fragile hope on his promise that our love would win.
Now, standing among the guests as nothing more than a forgotten shadow, I realized how foolish that hope had been.
I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing back the flood burning behind them. I didn't need to cry. It was never going to work out anyway. I had only been too hopeful...
When I opened my eyes, I thought I had succeeded—until tears slipped down my cheeks, stinging as they fell.
Why did it hurt this much?
Why did I feel so empty, so unbearably hollow?
I wiped my tears with my sleeve and lifted my head again.
The Great Hall was alive with celebration, a cruel contrast to the chaos tearing me apart. Torches burned high. Wolves crowded shoulder to shoulder, their scents thick with excitement and anticipation.
Above us, the full moon bled silver through the open skylight, forming a luminous ring around Kaelen and his bride—as if mocking my loss.
Kaelen and Elora stood at the center of the hall. While Elora wore a pearl-blue sheath dress that clung elegantly to her figure, Kaelen was tall and unyielding in a ceremonial black.
The crown of obsidian and silver rested upon his dark hair, marking him Alpha King.
His eyes stirred and found mine.
For a heartbeat, the world narrowed to that single point—steel-gray eyes softening, just barely, with something that looked like pain.
His fingers curled into fists, his hand trembling where it rested on Elora's waist.
My wolf stirred, hopeful. Still foolish. Still yearning to believe that he would cross the hall and choose me.
Then he looked away, his chin trembling as he did.
Elder Bali continued officiating the ceremony while the hall watched eagerly, whispering and fawning, pretending I wasn't standing among them—forgetting that the only reason they celebrated tonight was because my father had sacrificed his life to rid them of an evil king.
"Do you, Lady Elora, take Alpha Kaelen as your Alpha and husband?" Elder Bali said, glancing at Lady Elora.
"Yes." She giggled, reaching for Kaelen's hands and clasping them in hers.
The same hands that had held me just yesterday and wrapped me in their warmth as Kaelen reiterated his empty promises to me.
The rest of her excited chatter blurred past me. Elder Bali moved to Kaelen.
But Kaelen's eyes were on me, trembling as he watched. He snapped them back to the elder just before our gazes could meet.
"Do you, Alpha Kaelen Draven, take—"
"Yes, I do," he interrupted, his voice steady, almost bored, as if impatient for the ceremony to end.
Another wave of excited cheers tore through the air, howls, and whispers pulsating like a living force in the hall.
All I heard was the sound of my heart breaking apart inside my chest, splintering and sinking deeper into the abyss of my stomach.
It took everything I had to keep the burning sting behind my eyes from turning into tears again.
"You may now kiss your Luna," Elder Bali announced, gesturing toward Elora.
Kaelen stepped forward. Veins stood out along his neck, his arms rigid, biceps straining against the sleeves of his robe. He looked as though he were battling something deep within himself, fighting not to look at me.
His lips touched Elora's in a brief, restrained kiss. When he pulled away, she chased him for more, only stopping when she realized he would not give it.
The kiss was nothing, but for my wolf, it was more. As his mate, our wolves were tied to each other.
As his mate, our wolves were bound. We could not read each other's thoughts, but we could feel betrayal through the lash of searing pain that tore through the soul when one of us crossed that line.
My wolf screamed, clawing through me. The kiss alone shouldn't have hurt this much—but it recognized it as the first of many.
It would happen again and again, until I broke the bond.
I clutched my stomach, folding into myself amid the celebrating crowd. The less anyone saw of my misery, the better.
After the kiss, Kaelen turned toward the opposite exit, deliberately avoiding my gaze.
He hadn't gone far before Elder Bali and another elder blocked his path. The noise of celebration swallowed their words, but the veins bulging along Kaelen's neck told me enough to know the conversation wasn't going his way.
With a low, restrained growl, he returned to the center of the hall.
His eyes found mine again, and as much as he tried to make them cruel, they shook with a softness that betrayed the mask of cruelty he wore.
His lips parted, closed, then parted again.
Something in his gaze warned me to leave. Something told me I would hate whatever came next.
I turned and pushed through the excited crowd, heading for the exit.
I was near the door when his words landed. They stopped me cold on the spot.
"I, Alpha Kealen Draven, Alpha of the Moonblood pack, reject my mate bond with Lara Ashwyne,"
So many emotions bombarded me, but I tried to feel nothing. After the wedding, I'd known this was coming.
Murmur rippled through the crowd now, and curious gazes hunted for me in the crowd. Rejected mates were rare. Public rejections are even more so.
Every inch of me screamed for me to run, knowing whatever else he would say would only hurt deeper. But I wouldn't take the coward way out. I was Ashwyne.
I turned around and looked right into the hundreds of eyes staring back at me. Each hair on my body was an ember of coal that seared my skin.
Kaelen stared straight at me now, unflinching, each word that followed a blade.
"She is unfit to stand beside me as Luna. That honor belongs to Lady Elora." his chin trembled, each syllable betraying the guilt in his gaze.
Elora giggled, holding his arms and snuggling into him.
"Lara Ashwyn's bloodline is tainted," Kaelen continued. "Her father, Rowan Ashwyn, was a traitor to this pack—the man who took my father from us."
The word traitor struck as hard as his rejection.
I knew he was doing all these things because the Elders wanted it, but still, it hurts hearing it from him. It hurts seeing him surrender to the Elder's whims after his promises to me.
Yet, I stood tall, even as my chest burned. Somewhere in my heart, I prayed that he would fight for us, but he just went on about my father's crimes. Even though that was the only reason he was wearing the Alpha crown now.
His jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might crack as he turned to the Elders. His hands curled into fists at his sides.
Elder Bali stepped forward, eyes glinting with satisfaction. The other Elders moved behind him.
"Lara Ashwyn," he declared, "by decree of the Alpha King and this council, you are hereby banished from the Northern Pack. You will leave before dawn and never return. Should you cross our borders again, your life is forfeit."
Before I could say a thing, guards emerged from both sides, snatching my arm.
Kealen disappeared through the crowd, refusing to look back as the guards whisked me away.