Chapter 3
The great hall has never felt so much like a colosseum.
Alexander's hand is iron around my uninjured arm as he drags me through the double doors. My dislocated shoulder screams with every jarring step, blood still trickling down my side from the claw marks, but his grip doesn't loosen. If anything, it tightens.
The pack is already assembled—word travels fast when there's a scandal. Hundreds of eyes turn toward us, and the whispers start immediately. A wave of sound that crashes over me like broken glass.
"Kneel." Alexander's Alpha command slams into me with the force of a physical blow.
My legs buckle before I can even think to resist. My knees hit the marble floor hard enough to crack, pain shooting up through my thighs. I bite down on my tongue to keep from crying out, tasting copper.
"Members of Silvermoon Pack." Alexander's voice rings through the hall, amplified by his Alpha authority. "You all know Audrey Freeman. My Luna. My mate." He pauses, and the silence is suffocating. "Tonight, she has proven herself unworthy of both titles."
Murmurs ripple through the crowd. I try to lift my head, to speak, but his aura presses down harder. My wolf is completely silent inside me—not submissive, but broken. Shattered.
"She attacked Emberly Nelson in the forest." Alexander's words are precise, cutting. "Attacked a pregnant she-wolf out of jealousy and spite. And because of her actions, my heir—my child—is dead."
The gasps are immediate. Someone in the back lets out a sob. I can feel their judgment settling over me like a shroud.
"No." I force the word out through gritted teeth. "I was attacked. Rogues—six of them—"
"SILENCE!" Alexander roars, and his Alpha command crushes down so hard that black spots dance across my vision. "You will not speak unless given permission."
Movement at the edge of my vision. Emberly is being helped into the hall by two pack warriors, her face pale and tear-streaked, one hand still pressed protectively over her stomach. She looks fragile. Devastated. Perfect.
Alexander immediately moves to her side, cradling her against his chest. The tenderness in his touch—the tenderness that used to be mine—makes something inside me crack.
"Look at her," Emberly whispers, but her voice carries through the silent hall. "Look at what she did to me. To our baby." Her shoulders shake with sobs. "I just wanted to talk to her, to make peace, and she—she shifted and—"
She breaks off into tears, burying her face in Alexander's chest. He strokes her hair, murmuring comfort, and I realize with sudden, horrible clarity: No one is going to believe me.
Footsteps echo on the marble. I recognize them before I even see her.
Elena Edwards—Alexander's mother, former Luna, and the woman who has made it clear from day one that I was never good enough for her son. She sweeps forward in a gown of deep purple, her silver hair pulled back in a severe bun, her face carved from ice.
"This has gone on long enough." Her voice is clipped, authoritative. "Alexander, you have been too lenient with this girl. Seven years she has been Luna, and what has she given this pack? No heirs. No strength. No loyalty." She turns to face me, her gray eyes cold as winter. "She is a disgrace to the Edwards name."
"Mother—" Alexander starts, but Elena raises one elegant hand.
"I call for a formal stripping." The words ring out like a death sentence. "Strip her of her Luna title. Strip her of her assets. Strip her of the marking that binds her to this pack and to your bloodline. She is unfit to bear the Edwards name."
The pack's response is immediate. Voices rise in agreement, in condemnation. Someone shouts "Murderer!" Another voice calls me barren. The words pile on top of each other until they're just noise—cruel, cutting noise that tears at what's left of my heart.
Alexander looks at me. Really looks at me. And I see nothing in his eyes. No recognition of the girl who carved him a wooden rabbit when we were prisoners together. No memory of the woman who donated blood to save his life. Just cold, absolute judgment.
"So be it," he says quietly.
Something inside me breaks. Not cracks. Not bends. Breaks completely.
I force myself to stand. Every muscle screams in protest, my shoulder grinding in its socket, blood running fresh down my ribs. But I stand. Alexander's Alpha aura pushes down harder, trying to force me back to my knees, but I lock my legs and refuse to fall.
"Fine." My voice comes out steady. Eerily calm. "If that's what you want, Alexander."
I meet his eyes, and for just a second, I see something flicker there. Uncertainty? Regret? But it's gone before I can name it.
I take a breath. Then another. The formal words rise up from some deep, primal place—words every wolf knows, words that can never be taken back.
"I, Audrey Freeman," I begin, and my voice rings clear through the hall, "reject you, Alpha Alexander Edwards, as my fated mate."
The pain hits immediately.
It's like someone has reached into my chest and torn out my heart with bare hands. The mate bond—seven years of connection, of shared dreams and broken promises—rips apart with a searing agony that drops me back to my knees. I hear Alexander cry out, see him stumble, his hand flying to his chest.
But through the pain, through the tears streaming down my face, I feel something else.
Freedom.
"I accept your rejection." Alexander's voice is ragged, breathless. His face is twisted with pain, but his eyes—his eyes are still hard. Still furious. "You are no longer my mate. No longer my Luna. You are nothing to this pack."
The bond snaps completely. The absence of it is so profound that for a moment I can't breathe, can't think. My wolf lets out one long, anguished howl that echoes through my soul.
Then silence.
I look up at Alexander through my tears, at Emberly still wrapped in his arms, at Elena's satisfied smile, at the pack that has already condemned me.
And I smile.
It's a broken, terrible smile, but it's mine.
"You'll regret this," I whisper. Not a threat. A promise. "When you finally remember the truth, you'll regret this for the rest of your life."
Then I turn and walk out of the great hall, leaving bloody footprints on the pristine marble, leaving behind seven years of pain and hope and shattered dreams.
Leaving behind the mate who was supposed to protect me but became my destroyer instead.
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