*Chapter 8:
ALESSIA
The hall held its breath. Every wolf, every servant, every traitor who’d watched me bleed for three years waited for the sound to finish echoing off the vaulted ceiling.
`I, Alessia Costa, reject you, Liam Greystone, as my mate.`
The words weren’t loud, they didn’t need to be. They cut through pack law, through vows spoken at nineteen with shaking hands, through the part of me that still checked for his footsteps at night out of habit instead of fear.
Something inside me tore. Not clean,Jagged and was Bone-deep. My vision whited out for half a second and I tasted copper, sharp and metallic, like biting down on a penny during a transfusion. My knees almost gave. Across the marble, Liam staggered like I’d driven a blade between his ribs, hand flying to his chest, dr
