Chapter 2
1438 Words
The worst thing about being publicly rejected by your mate was not the rejection itself, because there were still several levels of humiliation available to me and the Luna seemed personally determined to introduce me to every single one before the night ended.
I was still on my knees when the hall started emptying.
The blood from my palm had mixed with the wine on the floor until everything beneath my hands was sticky and red, and every time I tried to pick up a piece of broken glass, my fingers slipped because they were shaking so badly that I had to press my wrist against my dress to stop it, which only smeared more blood across the already ruined fabric.
Nobody helped me. A servant stepped around me with a tray balanced on her shoulder and muttered something about disgusting Omegas making trouble, while two warriors laughed near the doorway, and one of them actually looked down at me before deliberately kicking a piece of glass closer to my knee as if he thought I had somehow missed it.
I stared at him.
He grinned.
“Since you're already down there, bastard, you might as well pick that one too.”
My throat burned, but I reached for it anyway because arguing with a warrior was a good way to end up with another bruise, and I already had enough of those to start collecting them by color.
I had bruises on my wrists from carrying firewood.
A scar across my shoulder from the time the kitchen mistress threw a metal bowl at me because I was too slow.
Burn marks along two fingers from pulling a cooking pot off the fire after another servant deliberately left it boiling.
There was an old cut above my eyebrow that had never healed properly because nobody had bothered taking me to the pack healer when I was twelve, and the bruising around my ribs from yesterday was still painful whenever I breathed too deeply.
But apparently the blood on the floor was the emergency.
I was picking up another piece of glass when I heard footsteps behind me.
My body went stiff.
Asher.
I didn't look up, cause I could smell him before I saw him, and the stupid bond that he had just destroyed was still leaving enough of an echo inside my body to make my stomach twist whenever he came close.
He stopped beside me.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then his gaze dropped to my hand.
“You're bleeding everywhere.”
I almost laughed because what exactly was I supposed to do, applaud myself for it?
I pressed the cloth harder against my palm and kept picking up the glass while saying, “I noticed, Alpha.”
His jaw tightened.
“You should have gone to the healer.”
I finally looked up at him, tears still drying on my cheeks, and something bitter crawled into my chest when I saw the faint tension around his eyes because he looked annoyed rather than concerned.
“I wasn't permitted to leave until the floor was clean.”
His eyes moved toward the Luna.
She was standing near the entrance, speaking quietly with my father.
Asher looked back at me.
“Get up.”
I stared at him.
He sounded like he was giving an order to a soldier, not speaking to the woman he had just destroyed in front of hundreds of people.
“I haven't finished.”
“Leave the glass.”
“The Luna told me to clean it.”
Something dark flashed across his face.
For one ridiculous second, I thought he was going to tell her to stop.
Instead, he looked at my bloodied fingers again and said, “Then finish it.”
That hurt more than I wanted to admit.
I lowered my head.
“Of course.”
He walked away.
I hated him. I hated him so much that my chest hurt. Unfortunately, my wolf was still stupid enough to miss him.
I wanted to rip her out of my body and throw her into a river.
When the last piece of glass was finally gone, I pushed myself upright, but my knees buckled immediately because I had been kneeling too long, and I caught myself against the table before I fell.
Someone laughed, but I didn't turn around.
I just walked. I made it three steps before the Luna's voice stopped me.
“Where do you think you're going?”
I turned slowly.
She was sitting beside my father again, looking perfectly composed while I stood there barefoot, bleeding, exhausted, and wearing a dress that looked like somebody had dragged me through a butcher shop.
“To my room.”
She smiled.
“You don't have a room.”
My stomach dropped.
My father finally looked at me.
“Your belongings have already been moved.”
I stared at him.
“Moved where?”
He didn't answer.
The Luna did.
“To the servant quarters.”
I actually laughed then, except it came out wrong, shaky and ugly, because the servant quarters were where I had lived when I was thirteen before my father decided even that space was too good for me.
“You moved me back there?”
“You should be grateful you have somewhere to sleep.”
“I am your daughter.”
The hall went quiet.
My father looked at me for a long moment before his expression hardened.
“You are my mistake, Aria, and I have tolerated enough of your mother's legacy tonight.”
My lips parted, then the Luna stood.
“Take her belongings downstairs.”
Two servants immediately moved toward me.
I stepped backward.
“No.”
The word came out before I could stop it.
The Luna's eyebrows lifted cause I had never refused her before.
“Excuse me?”
I wiped my face with the back of my wrist, smearing blood across my cheek.
“I said I won't sleep there.”
My father slammed his hand onto the table.
“You will sleep wherever you are told, and you will remember that the only reason you are still under this roof is because I have not decided what to do with you yet.”
My eyes burned. I looked toward the doorway.
Outside, the night was dark, cold, and enormous.
And leaving sounded less frightening than staying.
I turned and made it halfway across the hall before a hand closed around my wrist.
Asher.
I looked at him in shock.
His fingers tightened around the exact place where the guards had bruised me earlier, and his eyes dropped to the marks.
Something changed in his expression.
It was so quick that it was almost nothing, but I saw it.
His thumb moved over the purple skin.
His breathing changed, then his eyes lifted to mine.
“Where are you going?”
I pulled my wrist from his hand.
“Anywhere that isn't here.”
His face hardened.
“You don't leave my territory without permission.”
I stared at him, genuinely confused.
He had rejected me.
He had humiliated me.
He had ordered his guards to remove me.
And now he was standing there acting like I was trying to steal something from him.
“You rejected me.”
“I did.”
“So why do you care where I go?”
His silence lasted too long.
The Luna stepped forward.
“Asher, she is no longer your mate, and she has no place here, so let her go.”
His eyes remained on me.
Then he said something that made every hair on my body rise.
“She can leave tomorrow.”
I frowned.
“Tomorrow?”
His grip returned to my wrist.
“You will spend tonight inside my territory.”
“Why?”
His eyes darkened.
“I don't like the idea of you walking out of here while my wolf is still reacting to you.”
My heart stopped.
Then he leaned closer, his voice dropping so only I could hear.
“And if another Alpha touches you before I decide what to do with this broken bond, Aria, I swear I will tear his f*****g throat out.”
I stared at him then he released me.
Then the Luna smiled.
“Take her downstairs.”
Two guards seized my arms.
As they dragged me toward the servant corridor, I looked back at Asher one last time, expecting him to turn away again.
He didn't. He was staring at my bleeding wrist.
And his wolf was staring back through his eyes.
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