Aria's POV
The pain is eating me alive.
I'm on my knees on the cold stone floor of the Grand Hall, and I can't remember falling. My chest feels like someone reached inside and ripped out my heart with their bare hands. The mate bond—gone. Just gone. Like it never existed.
"Aria!" Kira drops beside me, her hands on my shoulders. "Breathe! You have to breathe!"
But I can't. Every breath feels like swallowing broken glass.
Through the blur of tears I'm refusing to let fall, I see Thorne turn away from me. Away. Like I'm nothing. Like we were nothing.
He faces Selene instead.
"Selene Ravenwood," his voice booms through the silent hall, "I claim you as my chosen mate and Luna of the Blackwood Pack."
The crowd explodes. Cheering. Clapping. Celebrating.
They're celebrating.
Something hot and angry burns through the pain in my chest. I use it to push myself up, forcing my legs to work even though they're shaking so badly I might collapse again any second.
"Stand up," I whisper to myself. "Don't let them see you break."
Kira helps me, her arm around my waist. "We're leaving. Now."
"No." My voice comes out stronger than I feel. "Not yet."
I need to accept the rejection properly. Need to finish this, or the broken bond will poison me slowly, painfully, for the rest of my life. Elder Magnus taught me that when I was studying to be a healer.
I force myself to look at Thorne one more time. He's holding Selene's hand now, and she's practically glowing with victory.
Our eyes meet.
For half a heartbeat, something flashes across his face. Something that might be regret or pain or guilt.
But I'm done caring what he feels.
"I, Aria Moonshadow," I say clearly, loudly enough for everyone to hear, "accept your rejection."
The words taste like poison. But the moment I say them, the broken bond stops hurting quite so much. The sharp, stabbing pain becomes a dull, heavy ache instead.
I can breathe again.
The crowd goes quieter. Some people look uncomfortable now, like they're just realizing how cruel this is. Others whisper behind their hands, probably already spreading gossip.
Selene leans into Thorne, whispering something in his ear. He nods. She smiles wider.
That smile makes me want to scream.
Instead, I turn around with as much dignity as I can manage. Kira stays beside me as we walk toward the exit. Each step feels like walking through deep water, but I keep going.
"Aria, wait—" someone calls out.
I don't stop. Don't look back.
We're almost to the huge wooden doors when Kira suddenly grabs my arm. Hard.
"Aria. Look."
Something in her voice—pure terror—makes me freeze.
I look up.
Through the massive windows that line the Grand Hall, I see the night sky. The full moon hangs there, bright and beautiful like always.
Except it's not silver anymore.
It's changing.
The white-silver surface darkens, like someone's pouring red ink across it. Slowly at first, then faster. The color spreads and deepens until the entire moon glows blood-red against the black sky.
"What..." Kira breathes. "What is that?"
I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.
The moon shouldn't be able to turn red. Not like this. Not so fast. Not so wrong.
Behind us, someone screams.
We spin around.
In the middle of the Grand Hall, a warrior named Marcus collapses. Just drops to the floor like someone cut his strings. His mate rushes to him, crying out his name.
Then another wolf falls. And another.
Within seconds, people are dropping everywhere. Strong, healthy wolves suddenly on the ground, clutching their chests, gasping for air.
"What's happening?" Selene shrieks from the platform. "What's wrong with them?"
The pack doctor, Dr. Simmons, races between the fallen wolves. His face goes pale as he checks them one by one. "I don't understand. Their hearts are racing. Fevers spiking. But there's no illness, no poison—"
More wolves collapse. The screaming gets louder.
And then I feel it.
Something hot and electric surges through my body. Starting in my chest where the mate bond used to be, spreading outward like fire through my veins. My hands start to tingle. Then burn.
"Aria?" Kira's eyes go wide. "Your hands..."
I look down.
My hands are glowing. Soft silver light pours from my skin, getting brighter every second.
"No," I whisper. "No, this isn't—"
The wooden doors behind us burst open. Elder Magnus stumbles through, his ancient face twisted with horror and something else.
Fear.
He stares at me. At my glowing hands. At the chaos in the Grand Hall. At the blood-red moon through the windows.
"The curse," he gasps, so quietly I almost don't hear him. "By the Old Ones... it's real. It's actually real."
"What curse?" I ask, but my voice sounds strange. Distant. Like it's coming from someone else.
The silver light from my hands grows brighter. So bright people start shielding their eyes.
Through the windows, I see something worse.
The grass outside the Grand Hall is dying. Turning black and withering away in spreading circles. Trees crack and twist. The earth itself splits open with jagged cracks.
Everything the moonlight touches is dying.
And the light is coming from me.
"Aria?" Kira backs away, her face full of fear now. "What's happening to you?"
Before I can answer, Thorne's voice cuts through the chaos.
"EVERYONE STAY CALM!"
He's pushing through the panicking crowd, trying to maintain control. But even he looks shaken when he sees all the wolves on the ground. When he sees the dead grass spreading outside.
When he sees me, glowing like a star, standing in the middle of his dying pack.
Our eyes meet for the third time tonight.
This time, I see real fear in his face.
"Aria," he says carefully, like I'm a wild animal he doesn't want to spook. "What did you do?"
The question hits me like another rejection.
What did I do?
The heat in my chest explodes into rage. The silver light blazes brighter. Outside, another tree cracks and falls.
"What did I do?" I repeat, my voice shaking. "You rejected me. You humiliated me in front of everyone. You broke our bond. And now you're asking what I did?"
Thunder rumbles overhead even though there are no clouds.
Elder Magnus stumbles forward, reaching for me with trembling hands. "Child, you need to listen—"
The floor beneath my feet cracks.
Everyone screams and scrambles backward.
Everyone except Thorne, who stands frozen, staring at me like he's seeing me for the first time.
"The prophecy," Magnus whispers, tears running down his wrinkled face. "The Moonshadow curse. It was never a myth. And you..." He looks at me with something like awe and terror mixed together. "You just activated it."
"I don't understand," I say, but even as the words leave my mouth, knowledge floods into my brain. Ancient knowledge. Memories that aren't mine.
Images flash through my mind: wolves slaughtering a family under a blood moon. Screaming. Magic being stolen. A woman with my eyes cursing the pack as she dies.
If the last Moonshadow heir is betrayed by her fated mate, the stolen power returns. And everyone who benefited from the theft will burn.
"No," I breathe.
But the blood moon pulses overhead like a heartbeat.
The pack keeps falling.
And my hands keep glowing brighter and brighter, until the light is almost blinding.
Thorne takes a step toward me. "Aria—"
"STAY BACK!" I scream.
The earth splits open between us. A crack six feet wide, separating him from me.
Separating everyone from me.
I'm alone in a circle of dying grass and broken stone, glowing with power I don't understand, while the pack that always called me cursed finally learns what that word really means.
And somewhere deep inside, buried under the fear and confusion, a small voice whispers:
Good. Let them suffer like they made you suffer.
The thought terrifies me more than anything else.