Sienna's POV
Three days later, I still hadn't left my room.
My body ached in ways that didn't make sense. The mate bond was supposed to fade when rejection happened. The elders said so. They talked about rejected mates moving on, finding peace, starting over in new territories where no one knew their shame. But my bond wasn't fading. It was getting worse.
Every heartbeat felt like it was pulling me back toward him.
I could hear my parents downstairs fighting about money again. Different voices this time. Another debt collector, maybe. Or a pack member coming to check on the disgraced Graves family. I didn't care anymore. I'd stopped caring about a lot of things since that night in the great hall.
Jade knocked on my door around noon. She'd been checking on me every day, bringing food I couldn't eat and saying things meant to help that just made everything hurt more.
"There's another gathering tonight," she said quietly, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Monthly check-in with the warriors. Your parents are going."
I turned my face away. "I'm not going."
"I know. But Sienna, people are talking. Not nice talking."
That made me look at her. Jade had dark skin and darker eyes and she'd been my friend since we were kids, back before everyone realized I was worthless. She was still here, which meant either she was the most loyal friend alive or the most pathetic one.
"What are they saying?" I asked, though I didn't want to know.
"That the bond showed itself because you're cursed. That weak bloodlines attract curses. That your family's been hiding something about your blood for years." Jade hesitated. "Your mom's been telling people that your dad's side came from human stock. That that's why you're so weak."
The words landed like stones. My mom was throwing my father under the carriage to save her own reputation. Of course she was. This was what my family did. They protected themselves and left everyone else to burn.
"I'm not going," I repeated.
But as evening fell, something inside me changed. Maybe it was anger. Maybe it was the mate bond still screaming for him. Maybe I was just tired of hiding.
I put on the same cardigan and went downstairs.
My parents were already gone. Cowards, both of them. They'd abandoned me without even saying goodbye, which was probably better than if they'd stayed and watched me fall apart again. I made my way to the great hall, my hands steady even though my insides felt like they were made of ice water.
The crowd was smaller tonight. Maybe two hundred warriors instead of five hundred. The air smelled like sweat and leather and something dangerous that I realized was coming from me. The mate bond was pulling so hard I could barely breathe.
And then he walked in.
Kael Storm entered with his warriors, and everything in the room shifted. Every wolf's attention snapped to him like he was the sun and they were all planets orbiting his gravity. He was talking to someone about pack borders, completely focused, completely unaware that I existed.
My wolf screamed.
She wanted to run to him. She wanted to claim him. She wanted to make him see that we were meant to be together, that the bond was real, that he couldn't just erase us like we were nothing. The pull was so strong I could barely stay standing. It felt like chains around my chest, pulling, always pulling.
This time I didn't hesitate. I didn't second-guess myself. I walked straight through the crowd toward him, and I didn't stop. Didn't slow down. Didn't give myself time to remember what had happened last time.
Kael saw me coming when I was about five feet away. His entire body went rigid. His hand came up in a warning gesture, a clear signal that I needed to stop right now. But I didn't stop.
"We need to talk," I said. My voice was stronger than I expected. Steadier. "About the bond. About what happened."
The crowd was watching. They'd gone completely silent, watching to see what would happen next. This was entertainment for them. This was drama better than anything they could manufacture on their own.
Kael's jaw clenched. "There's nothing to talk about, Graves. I made myself clear."
"The bond didn't break," I said. I was close enough now to see the flecks of gold in his dark eyes. Close enough to feel the heat coming off his body. The mate bond was so bright and hot inside me I thought I might burn. "It's not supposed to be this strong after a rejection. Something's wrong."
"Nothing's wrong. You're just not accepting the rejection properly." He said it like it was simple. Like it was easy. Like he hadn't destroyed me three days ago with a few words spoken loud enough for fifty people to hear. "You need to let it go, Sienna. Move on. Find another pack."
The coldness in his voice was worse than the cruelty. This wasn't anger. This was indifference. This was him genuinely not caring that he was tearing me apart.
Something inside me broke.
I reached out and grabbed his arm. I didn't think about what I was doing. I just did it. My hand closed around his wrist and the contact was like touching fire. The mate bond exploded between us. For a second, I felt everything he felt. His power. His strength. His absolute certainty that he was better than me. His irritation that I was wasting his time. His complete and total lack of concern for my wellbeing.
Then he ripped his arm away like my touch burned him.
"Don't," he said, and his voice had changed. There was something darker underneath it now. Something that sounded like fear, but that couldn't be right. Kael Storm didn't get scared of anything.
"Why won't you look at me?" The words came out broken. "Why does the bond pull so hard if we're not supposed to be together?"
Kael stepped back, putting distance between us. His eyes went cold. Colder than before. This was the look he gave to enemies. To threats. To things that needed to be destroyed.
"Because some bonds are mistakes," he said, and his voice was loud enough that everyone in the hall heard it. "Because nature isn't perfect. Because even the moon can be wrong about who belongs together."
He paused. Let that sink in. Let everyone understand what he was saying.
Then he delivered the real blow.
"You're not mate material, Graves. You never will be. Your bloodline is weak. Your wolf is pathetic. And the fact that the bond is trying to connect us is an insult to my family legacy. To my status. To everything I've worked to build." His eyes went to something past me. Past everyone. Something that looked like disgust. "You're a stain on this pack. And if you keep pushing this, I'll have the Council vote to exile you. They'll send you so far from here that you'll spend the rest of your life wondering why you ever thought you mattered."
The room was completely silent.
Everyone was watching. Everyone had heard. Everyone understood what he was saying. I wasn't just rejected. I was being publicly erased. Unmade. Told that my very existence was a mistake that needed to be fixed.
My parents were in the crowd somewhere, and I couldn't make myself look at them. I couldn't bear to see the shame on their faces. Couldn't bear to see them distance themselves from me like I was a disease they needed to avoid.
Raven Steele was standing next to Kael, and she was smiling. That smile was pure satisfaction. Pure joy at watching me burn.
My hand fell to my side.
The mate bond screamed in pain so intense I thought I might collapse right there on the floor of the great hall. Every part of me wanted to run at him, to use the bond, to make him feel even a fraction of what he'd just done to me.
But I didn't. I turned and walked toward the door instead, and with every step, I could feel the weight of two hundred pairs of eyes on my back. Two hundred wolves watching the moment I stopped being their pack mate and became something else. Something they could dismiss. Something they could ignore.
Something that didn't matter.
I made it outside and the cold night air hit my face. My legs were shaking so bad I could barely walk. The mate bond was tearing me apart from the inside. It was supposed to fade. It was supposed to be dead.
Instead, it was burning hotter than ever.
I made it maybe fifty feet from the great hall before I had to stop. Before I had to lean against a tree and try not to scream. The pain was physical now. It felt like something inside me was breaking, cracking, transforming into something I didn't understand.
And that's when I felt it.
Something dark and ancient waking up inside my chest. Something that had been sleeping for years, waiting for exactly this moment. Waiting for the moment when my pain became so intense that it had no choice but to emerge.
Something that felt like power.