Aria's POV
Pain explodes in my wrist.
Caspian's fingers dig into my skin like iron claws, and I can feel my bones grinding together. I stumble as he drags me forward, my borrowed shoes sliding on the polished floor.
"Alpha, please—" I gasp, but he doesn't slow down.
The crowd parts like water as he pulls me toward the center of the hall. Their shocked faces blur past me. Someone gasps. A child starts crying. But no one moves to help me.
Why would they? I'm just the cursed Emberly girl.
Caspian releases my wrist so suddenly that I nearly fall. I catch myself at the last second, my whole body shaking. When I look up at him, the mate bond pulses between us, begging him to see me, to feel what I'm feeling.
But his ice-blue eyes are colder than winter.
"Look at her," Caspian's voice booms through the silent hall. Every wolf can hear him now. "The Moon Goddess has chained me to this."
The word "this" hits me like a slap.
"My father is dead because of the Emberly family," he continues, his voice dripping with hatred. "They practiced dark blood magic. They cursed him. They killed him with their evil powers. And now the Moon dares to bind me to his murderer's daughter?"
"No!" The word bursts out of me. "My family didn't—we never hurt anyone! We were innocent!"
But Caspian isn't listening. His hand shoots up, and I feel his Alpha power slam into me like a tidal wave.
"KNEEL!"
My legs buckle instantly. The command forces me down so hard that my knees crack against the stone floor. Pain shoots up my legs, but I can't move. I can't even lift my head. His Alpha power holds me frozen like a bug trapped in ice.
Tears stream down my face. "Please," I whisper. "Please don't do this."
Through my tears, I see Mira in the crowd. She's crying too, her hand pressed over her mouth. She tries to step forward, but someone pulls her back.
"You are not worthy to stand beside me," Caspian announces to everyone watching. "You are not worthy to be part of this pack. You are not worthy to breathe the same air I breathe."
Each word feels like a knife cutting into my heart.
The blood moon pulses overhead, trying to remind him of our sacred bond. But Caspian raises his hand, and I know what's coming. The ancient rejection words that can never be taken back.
"No, no, no," I sob. "Please, I'm your mate. The Moon Goddess chose us—"
"The Moon Goddess made a mistake," Caspian says flatly.
Then he speaks the words that will destroy me.
"I, Caspian Blackthorn, Alpha King of the Crimson Wilds, reject you, Aria Emberly, as my mate and future Luna."
The world stops breathing.
"I sever this bond. I deny this fate."
The bond doesn't just break.
It explodes.
Fire erupts in my chest where the mate bond lived, burning hotter than anything I've ever felt. I scream, but the sound doesn't seem like it's coming from me anymore. It sounds like someone dying.
My hands claw at my chest as black cracks spread across my skin like spider webs. It looks like I'm made of glass and someone just smashed me with a hammer. The cracks glow with an eerie dark light, spreading down my arms, up my neck, across my face.
I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't do anything but scream and scream as the bond burns away inside me.
Through my blurring vision, I see Caspian turn around. He walks away, his back straight and proud, like he didn't just murder me in front of everyone.
He doesn't look back. Not even once.
My vision starts going dark at the edges. The pain is so bad that my body is shutting down to escape it. I collapse fully onto the cold floor, my cheek pressing against the stone.
Footsteps approach. A woman's expensive shoes stop right by my head.
"Poor thing," a female voice says sweetly. But there's something cruel hiding under the sweetness. "The rejection is killing her. Such a shame."
I try to look up, to see who's speaking, but my eyes won't focus.
"Don't worry, little omega," the voice continues, and now I can hear the smile in it. "You'll be dead by morning. The pain will stop soon."
More footsteps. Someone else kneeling beside me.
"We should move her to the healing den," a man's voice suggests. It sounds worried.
"No need," the woman responds. "Why waste healing supplies on someone who won't survive the night? Leave her here as a lesson. This is what happens when you reach above your station."
I want to cry out, to beg for help, but my voice is gone. My whole body feels like it's being torn apart from the inside.
The last thing I hear before darkness swallows me completely is the woman's voice, so quiet that only I can hear it:
"Finally. I've waited years for this moment, little phoenix. Your family should have burned completely the first time."
Phoenix?
The word echoes in my fading mind. What does she mean? My family were wolves, not—
But then something inside me answers.
Deep in my chest where the bond used to be, where everything hurts and burns and breaks, something else wakes up. Something ancient. Something made of pure fire.
And in that last second before I pass out completely, I feel it.
Wings.
Not wolf. Not broken. Not dying.
Wings of flame.