The crowd roared again as the cage was lifted onto a wagon. I gripped the bars so tightly that my knuckles turned white, my breath coming in panicked gasps.
Then—
“Wait.”
Owen’s voice sliced through the chaos, silencing the crowd. The wagon came to a jarring halt. A cold wave of dread crashed over me.
What more could he possibly want?
He stepped forward, his gaze locked onto mine. “There’s still something missing,” he mused, his voice dripping with cruelty.
I swallowed hard, my pulse hammering.
Owen stopped directly in front of the cage, his expression eerily calm. Then he said the word that sent ice through my veins.
“Rejection.”
My entire body stiffened.
The bond. The sacred mate bond.
Rejection wasn’t just a severance—it was torture. A brutal, agonizing torment that could break even the strongest wolves.
I had witnessed it before. A warrior had once rejected his mate, and she had screamed in agony for three days before her wolf finally succumbed to the pain, leaving her an empty shell.
Owen’s smirk widened. “You see, Ariana, I’ve been saving this moment. If I reject you now, the pain will linger until you reach the Night Walker Pack. And in your weakened state, well… we all know what happens to the weak there.”
My blood ran cold.
The Night Walkers had no use for the weak. Those deemed unworthy were either cast into the wilds to die alone or used as entertainment in their sadistic games.
I gripped the bars, shaking my head violently. “Owen… please. I’m begging you. We were meant to be forever.”
His expression remained indifferent. “Forever?” he repeated mockingly, before straightening and speaking loud enough for everyone to hear.
“I, Alpha Owen, reject you, Ariana James, as my mate and future Luna.”
Agony. Pure, unfiltered agony. It ripped through me like a thousand knives plunging into my heart, tearing apart the bond that had once tethered us together. A raw, ragged scream was ripped from my throat as my body convulsed from the sheer force of it.
The crowd watched, some turning away in discomfort, others leaning in with morbid fascination.
Gasping through the pain, I forced the words out through trembling lips. “I… Ariana James… accept your rejection.”
And with that, the bond shattered completely.
The emptiness that followed was worse than the pain. It was a void so deep, so consuming, that for a moment, I thought it might swallow me whole.