Alpha Ashford steps forward with a sneer. “You think you have any ground to make demands of me, orphan?” His hand moves quick as a rattlesnake and he slaps my hands so hard that my hands almost hit my face. That wakes my wolf up. She snaps her teeth and I know he sees it if the way his face darkens is anything to go by.
“Threaten me again and I’ll send your witch away in pieces.”
I look past him to Maud. She has a sad smile on her face but she tips her head at me encouragingly, the way she does when I’m trying to master a new skill but I’m scared of messing it up. I can almost hear her speaking to me like she did while I fashioned my first knife.
“Go on. See it through.”
“P-please, banish me.” I take a deep breath and lower myself to my knees in front of him. My bloody knees scream at me when the cobblestone bites into them but I stay kneeling. “I’m begging you. Banish me. Not Maud. She had nothing to do with any of this.” I hesitate because I can barely get the words out. I know Keiran is watching me with his new mate. The entire pack is watching me. For once, the weight of their stares is almost enough to make me break.
“I-you won’t ever see me again. Let Maud stay and I’ll vow to cut ties with Keiran. You have my word.”
“You give your word?” The Alpha’s eyes narrow and he leans over me. “I don’t give a fuck about your word, bitch. You’ll go because I decree it and it won’t be you cutting ties with Keiran.He will be the one rejecting you,”he snarls.
Keiran’s already rejected me, hasn’t he? It’s true. He has and I shouldn’t flinch at his words but I do anyhow because my heart is a bleeding raw thing when it comes to Keiran Ashford. It always has been.
“Keiran,” he barks. The command in it is plain. The time is now. Alpha Ashford is calling my mate to reject me while the entire pack watches.
I don’t move a muscle as Keiran approaches. I stay kneeling and keep my eyes on Maud. I take what strength I can from her familiar face before I look at the moon and wrap my arms around myself. I can do this. I know I can. I have to.
I’ve made it through every terrible thing before, haven’t I?
Alpha Ashford spits. “Filth like you mated to my son? Never gonna happen.”
I don’t look away from the moon until Keiran speaks. The second I see him, I wish I’d kept my eyes on the night sky. Keiran isn’t alone. Bella is pressed up close to him. She turns into his side and frowns at me. I want to scream at the expression pulling at her delicate features. She sighs at me like I’m the one that shouldn’t be here.
Like I’m the one that doesn’t belong.
She’s right. I don’t belong here.
I never have.
“You will leave the pack tonight, do you understand me? Run far from these lands after tonight and never return.” Keiran’s voice is sharp, like the edge of a knife. I can’t tell the difference when they cut me just the same. I swallow hard and force myself to look him in the eye. There’s no trace of the true mate that held me and shared what we knew about our future together. Not for the first time that night my idiot heart aches. That future is never going to happen now. Luna, why do I still want him even though I know what’s coming?
“Keiran-” I start but Bella bares her teeth at me.
“You don’t speak to my mate, whore.”
I ignore her and keep my eyes on Keiran’s. I don’t know what I’m going to say but I have to say something. “Keiran, it doesn’thave to be like this.” It’s true. It doesn’t. I’ll do anything for Maud. We both know it.
“Doesn’t have to be like what?” he asks with a mean smile. He’s playing with me now. He has a mean streak when he has a mind to it. When he decides to pretend he’s his father’s son, Keiran can be heartless but still I press on.
“Cruel,” I say and look at Bella who’s wrapped herself around his arm. I hate how good they look together. They look perfect. Like they were meant for each other. I nod at the she-wolf. “You have the mate you want. The alliance is yours, just like the future of the pack. Just let me go quick and I’m gone. You’ll never see me again. I swear it.”
He barks out a laugh. “Make it quick? Oh no,Cordy.I’m going to take my time and fucking enjoy this. A whore like you? Filthy fucking orphan that leeched off this pack for years? No, you don’t deserve quick. I’m going to do what I should have done a long time ago, the second I saw you in my dream and rip you out of me from the root.”
My eyes water because I hear the truth in his voice. The second he saw me in his dream? My stomach drops and if I wasn’t already on the ground I’d probably end up falling down to right where I am. He saw me. Hedreamedme.
This whole time Keiran knew I was his mate. And not just because of a feeling, he knew without a doubt that I was his mate. The moon goddess showed him and he never said a word to me about it, and now here he was with his new mate about to sever our bond. My hands shake and I have to press them against my thighs to stay upright.
No matter what happened tonight, no matter how it played out with Alpha Ashford we were always going to end up just the way we were now. With me not having the strength to reject him and Keiran hurting me right up until the last minute. The ache in my body is nothing to the way I can already feel the fledglingbond between us fraying and coming apart. It’s so new that it hasn’t even truly taken root in me and Keiran’s every word cuts into it with the kind of brutality I’ve seen in the Alphas all my life.
Even when I told myself what Keiran and I had would never last I always lied to myself that he wasn’t like them.
I swore he was kind and gentle.
“I promise you, Cordy. I’m going to make this place safe for you. I swear I will.”
A sob crawls its way up and out of me. I fight it but it’s no use. My body shakes as the tears come and my cursed heat bears down on me until I can hardly breathe. Even now with Keiran looking at me with disdain and another she-wolf on his arm, I still want to reach out to him. I want to beg him to save me, to get me through my heat and Luna, I still want his knot. Shame burns bright in me as Keiran and the pack watch me.
