Chapter 3
"Burn it deep," Kael ordered.
The white-hot metal slammed into my bare flesh.
Foul, gray smoke plumed upward. The scent of scorched skin and roasted hair instantly drowned out the pine needles burning in the bonfire.
"Acknowledge your crime!" Kael shouted over the hiss of melting flesh.
"Go to hell," I grunted through clenched teeth.
Jace pressed his knees harder into my ribs, pinning me flat against the altar stones. "Stop fighting it. You lost."
"I built this pack," I forced the words out, my voice straining against the agony. "I built you."
"You built nothing," Kael spat. He twisted the iron rod.
The flesh over my collarbone tore open.
I stretched my right hand out. My bloody fingers trembled as I reached for my son's ankle. "Jace."
He looked down at my hand. He drew his leg back.
His heavy boot collided with my knuckles, kicking my hand away with brutal force.
"Don't touch me," Jace sneered.
"I am your mother."
"My mother died tonight."
Kael lifted the iron. The crescent moon mark was gone, forever replaced by a hideous, charred lump of ruined tissue.
"I, Alpha Kael," he boomed, his voice echoing through the silent crowd, "reject Elara as my mate."
The words struck my chest like a physical hammer.
A violent spasm seized my lungs. My heart contracted, squeezing tight enough to rupture. The invisible tether connecting my soul to Kael's snapped in a single, devastating second.
I turned my head and vomited a thick puddle of black blood onto the sacred stones.
"The bond is gone," Elder Thorne announced, stepping away from the dark stain.
"Throw her out," Kael commanded. He tossed the cooling branding iron into the dirt.
Torin and Rurik, two massive guards I had trained myself, stepped out of the shadows.
"Grab her legs," Torin instructed.
"Don't get her blood on your uniform," Rurik replied.
Torin clamped his massive hands around my left ankle. Rurik seized my right.
I spat a glob of dark blood onto the stone steps. "I can walk."
"Rogues don't walk on our soil," Torin grunted.
They yanked me backward.
My spine slammed against the jagged edge of the altar stairs. I didn't scream. I kept my mouth shut as they hauled me through the dirt. The jagged rocks tore through the back of my ruined dress, scraping raw lines into my skin.
"Careful," Jace called out from the altar. "Don't let her filth touch the new Luna."
"We have her, young Alpha," Rurik answered.
The pack members parted silently. No one offered a hand. No one spoke a word in my defense. They simply watched the guards drag their former Luna through the snow and mud.
The boundary fence loomed ahead, a towering wall of rusted wire and sharp metal barbs.
"On three," Rurik muttered, adjusting his grip on my ankle.
"One. Two. Three."
They swung my body sideways. I flew through the freezing air. My shoulder slammed into the frozen snowbank on the other side of the boundary line.
Ice immediately seeped into my open wounds.
"Patrol the perimeter," Torin ordered his partner, turning his back on me. "Shoot her if she crosses back."
Footsteps crunched on the gravel inside the fence.
Lyra stood at the boundary line. Jace's heavy fur cloak swallowed her small frame. A smug, victorious smile curled the corners of her lips.
"You dropped something, old woman," Lyra whispered.
She bent down. Her fingers pinched a rusty copper coin from the dirt. She flicked it through the chain-link fence.
The metal disc struck my cheek, leaving a hard sting before dropping into the snow next to my face.
"Consider it a parting gift," Lyra taunted. "Buy yourself a shallow grave."
I pushed myself up onto my elbows, ignoring the screaming pain in my collarbone. "Enjoy my leftovers, little girl."
"Kael is mine now," she replied softly. "The pack is mine. And your son?" She let out a soft laugh. "He obeys my every command."
"He is a fool."
"He is loyal to his true Luna," she corrected.
Lyra turned her back on me and walked away.
I lay in the freezing snow.
Jace marched beside Lyra, his hand resting protectively on the small of her back. He never looked over his shoulder. He walked away from me without a single moment of hesitation.
My eyes burned with a terrible, stinging heat. The urge to cry clawed at my throat, yet my tear ducts remained entirely dry.
The brand on my left shoulder throbbed.
Every frantic beat of my heart pushed fresh agony through my veins. The brand wasn't just burned flesh. It was a permanent reminder of severed bloodlines. My family was dead.
I swallowed the foul taste of blood lingering on my tongue.
Using my elbows, I dragged my upper body upward. The snow crunched beneath my weight. Freezing wind bit into my exposed skin, numbing my scraped back, but the brand pulsed with white-hot fury.
I forced my knees under my hips.
"Get moving," I muttered to myself.
Then, a sound hit the frigid air.
*Awooooo.*
A low, guttural wolf howl echoed from the deep woods behind me.
I froze.
*Awooooo.*
A second howl joined the first.
*Awooooo.*
A third voice layered over the others, vibrating through the frozen ground beneath my palms.
I slowly turned my head, squinting into the dense thicket of black pines.
Leaves rustled. Branches snapped under heavy paws.
One by one, five pairs of glowing green eyes illuminated the dark gaps between the bushes.
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