Mated to My Enemy

Chapter 2 Ashes of the Bond

The pain didn’t fade. It only grew.

I pressed my palms into the dirt, gasping as the rejection burned like molten iron in my veins. It felt as though the Goddess herself had ripped my soul in two and left the pieces to rot.

Around me, the courtyard erupted with whispers and laughter.

“The cursed girl thought she could be Luna?”

“How fitting. The Alpha of Bluerock rejecting her in front of everyone.”

“She should be grateful. He spared her the embarrassment of pretending.”

Each word struck harder than any slap Axel had ever given me.

“Enough gawking,” Alpha Gerard barked, his voice cutting through the noise. “Back to your places! The Summit is not to be disrupted by—this.”

This. That’s what I was. Not a wolf. Not a woman. Just a stain on the floor he wanted scrubbed away.

I tried to rise, but my body betrayed me. My legs trembled, collapsing beneath me again. My chest burned with every shallow breath.

“Get up, Teresa.”

The voice came from Axel, who leaned down, lips curled in a smirk only I could see. “Or would you rather crawl? Perhaps the Bluerock Alpha would like to see his reject on her belly.”

My throat tightened. Shame and fury warred inside me, but the pain was too sharp, the bond’s severing too raw. My wolf whimpered again, fragile and weak, as if her first breath of life had already been strangled.

Somewhere above, Terry Walter’s footsteps echoed as he strode away, uncaring. His rejection was final. To him, I was less than dust.

I bit down hard on my lip to keep the sob from escaping.

“Teresa!” Mara’s voice cut through the haze. She rushed to my side, slipping her arm beneath mine. “Come on. You have to move.”

“No,” Axel sneered, blocking her. “She stays until the Elders say otherwise. The Moon marked her, and she was found wanting. Let her rot in it.”

Mara glared at him, but she was powerless. All of us were.

With a cruel smile, Axel turned to the crowd. “Back to your duties! Leave the reject where she belongs.”

One by one, the wolves dispersed, though not without throwing me looks of disgust or pity. I wanted them all to vanish, to leave me to my misery. But their whispers clung to me like poison.

Finally, the courtyard emptied. Only the torches flickered, casting long shadows across the stones. I dragged myself to a corner, curling into the darkness.

For hours, I sat there, the rejection gnawing at me, until the sounds of the feast drifted from the hall—music, laughter, clinking goblets. Life continued as though my world hadn’t just shattered.

Tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I had cried enough in my life. And what good had it ever done?

I thought of my parents, their faces blurred by time. Were they watching from the Moon’s embrace? Did they see their daughter now, broken and despised?

“Why me?” I whispered to the night. “Why give me hope only to rip it away?”

The Moon above said nothing. But the air shifted.

A warmth bloomed deep inside my chest, faint but steady, like an ember refusing to die. My wolf stirred weakly, her voice a fragile echo.

Not over.

I froze. “What…?”

We are more.

Before I could make sense of it, a sharp c***k of thunder split the sky, though no storm clouds hung above. The torches flickered wildly. A silver glow rippled over the courtyard, brushing my skin like fire and frost at once.

I gasped, clutching my chest as a strange energy pulsed within me. It was not the bond. It was something else—older, deeper. A power that felt both foreign and familiar.

My blood hummed with it, answering some ancient call I didn’t understand.

Then, as suddenly as it came, the glow vanished. The warmth faded, leaving only exhaustion in its wake. I slumped against the wall, heart racing.

What was that?

Before I could think further, heavy footsteps approached.

I stiffened, shrinking into the shadows.

“Still breathing, I see,” Axel’s voice drawled. He stepped into the courtyard, carrying a lantern. The light glinted off his cruel smile. “Pathetic. The Goddess herself couldn’t have chosen worse.”

I stayed silent, not trusting my voice.

He crouched before me, his hand gripping my chin. “Do you know what this means, Teresa? No wolf will ever claim you. No pack will shelter you. Even the Moon has cast you aside.”

His fingers dug painfully into my jaw. “And when Alpha Gerard hears of your little… display, he’ll have no choice but to rid us of your curse.”

Fear clenched my stomach. “Rid… of me?”

“Oh yes.” Axel’s grin widened. “By sunrise, you won’t be a burden to this pack any longer. Consider it a mercy.”

The blood drained from my face. He meant to kill me.

He dropped my chin and straightened, lantern swinging as he turned to leave. “Sleep well, omega. It will be your last night.”

The courtyard door slammed shut behind him.

I sat frozen, heart pounding, the ember inside me flaring again. Mara’s words from earlier whispered through my mind—Maybe the Goddess will surprise us all.

If I wanted to live, I would have to act.

Because when dawn came, the Lichen Pack would not see me broken.

They would see me burn.