Alpha's Broken Luna's Heart

Chapter 7

The white silk of my wedding dress felt like sharp thorns against my skin.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing the woman who looked back at me. The traditional luna gown hugged my frame, intricate silver embroidery tracing patterns across the bodice, ancient symbols of the moon and pack unity.

My dark hair had been swept up, adorned with small white flowers that had been woven through the strands with careful fingers. I looked like a bride. I looked like a luna.

No…

I looked like a sacrifice.

"You're so beautiful, Amber," Mia whispered, her hand gentle on my shoulder. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, though I couldn't tell if they were from joy or something closer to grief.

"Stunning," Silvia, my other friend, agreed, but her voice wavered. She busied herself with adjusting my dress, her movements more nervous than necessary.

They were trying so hard to be happy for me. My friends, my sweet, loyal friends who knew the truth of what this marriage really was.

This is happening. This is really happening.

My hands trembled as I smoothed down the fabric of my dress. The room suddenly felt too small, too warm, despite the cool autumn air drifting through the open window.

I could hear the murmur of voices outside, pack members gathering for the ceremony. It was meant to be small, intimate. Just close family and friends, Uncle Marcus had said. But for a pack as large as Silvercrest, "small and close" still meant dozens of witnesses to my fate.

"I can't breathe," I whispered, my fingers moving to my throat.

"You're just nervous," Mia said quickly, though her grip on my shoulder tightened. "Every bride feels this way."

But not every bride is being forced to marry a man who despises her very existence.

The thought cut through me sharp and burning. I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself, trying to find that place of calm I'd cultivated over the past few weeks.

This was bigger than me. Bigger than Steven. This was Alpha's dying wish, his final command to ensure the pack's future. And I was moon touched, blessed by the goddess herself, or so they said. The perfect match for the next Alpha.

The perfect tool for pack politics.

“You're lucky Amber, you've found your mate,” Silvia mumbled slowly.

I glanced at her sad face as she bit her lower lip. Silvia hadn't found her fated mate yet. She was just waiting for him. It was not easy to live without any mate. I could understand her pain but I knew finding a mate who hated you was worse than living without a mate. I was a live example of this. Steven loathed me being his mate now.

The door opened, and my uncle's presence filled the room before I even turned around.

"Ladies," Beta Marcus's voice was warm but firm. "Could you give us a moment?"

Mia and Silvia exchanged glances before quietly slipping out. The door clicked shut, and I was alone with the man who'd raised me after my parents died, who'd fed me and clothed me.

"You look radiant," he said, stepping closer. His eyes swept over me with something that might have been pride or might have been satisfaction. "Your parents would be so proud."

My jaw clenched. My parents would be horrified.

"It's time," he continued, extending his arm. "Everyone is waiting."

But definitely not my mate. Steven probably wanted me to disappear. I wished I could disappear from this but I knew I couldn't.

My uncle's words should have filled me with anticipation, with the flutter of nervous excitement that any bride should feel. Instead, they settled in my stomach like stones.

I placed my hand on his arm because I had no choice. I'd had no choice in any of this.

The walk to the ceremony clearing felt both endless and far too short. My uncle led me down the corridor of the pack house, past walls decorated with the portraits of past Alphas and their lunas, all of them looking stern and powerful and utterly sure of their place in the world. Would my portrait hang here someday? Would future pack members look at my face and see strength, or would they see the truth written in my eyes?

We stepped outside, and the assembled pack turned to look at me.

The ceremony space had been prepared in the traditional way. There was a circle of ancient stones beneath the sprawling branches of the Great Oak, the tree that had witnessed countless pack rituals over the centuries.

And there, at the center of it all, stood Steven.

My breath caught and my heart hammered.

He was devastatingly handsome in his dark suit that emphasized his broad shoulders, his powerful frame. His jaw was set, his expression carved from granite as he stared straight ahead, refusing to even look in my direction.

His dark hair was swept back, revealing the sharp angles of his face, the cruel beauty that had half the unmated females in the pack throwing themselves at him.

‘Now you aren't any different,’ I thought bitterly.

My wolf was going crazy with the happiness of finding her mate. I didn't want to lose control of myself but my wolf was in another mood.

I glanced at Steven carefully. Even from this distance, even through the wall of his hatred, I felt it, the pull.

The bond that had snapped into the moment, the invisible thread that connected us whether we wanted it or not. The mate bond that the Moon Goddess herself had woven between our souls.

The bond that Steven wanted to reject with every fiber of his being. I wanted him to be brave enough to reject me in front of his pack.

‘It will kill you, Amber,‘ my wolf screamed. ‘It will kill us.’

I knew that was why I decided to not to take this step. I was not a coward who gave up her life just for him to be free.

If he wanted to be free from our bond, he should be responsible for this. Not me. I wasn't going to kill myself for him.

My uncle led me forward, and with each step, that pull grew stronger. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, yearning toward him despite everything, desperate to be close to our mate. It was a physical ache, a need o be with him.

‘Traitor,’I thought at her. ‘He hates us.’

But instinct didn't care about hate.

We reached the circle, and Elder Gianna stepped forward, her ancient eyes knowing as she surveyed us both. She'd performed this ritual countless times, binding alphas to their lunas, sealing the fates of mates. Did she see the cracks in this union? Did she care?

My uncle placed my hand in Steven's.

The contact was electric.

Fire raced up my arm, through my chest, settling somewhere deep. Steven's fingers tightened around mine, his sharp intake of breath telling me he felt it too.

The undeniable desire between us.

For just a moment, one brief, precious moment, his stoic mask slipped, and I saw the conflict in his beautiful blue eyes. The mate bond pulled him toward me even as everything he believed about me pushed him away.

Then the cold distance slammed back into place, and his expression turned icy once more.

"We gather today," Elder Gianna began, her voice carrying across the clearing, "to witness the union of our future Alpha and his chosen luna. To bind them before the pack, before the Goddess, before the very moon that watches over us all."

Chosen. The word was almost funny. Nothing about this had been a choice.

"Amber," the Elder Gianna turned to me, "do you accept this bond? Do you swear to serve this pack as luna, to stand beside your Alpha, to honor the sacred connection that the Moon Goddess has blessed you with?"

My mouth was dry. Every eye in the clearing was on me, waiting. I could feel Steven's barely contained tension, could sense his wolf prowling just beneath his skin.

"I do." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "I swear before this pack that I will serve as their luna. I accept this bond and honor it."

The words tasted like ash, but they were true. Despite everything, I meant them. This wasn't about Steven or me anymore. This was about the pack, about Alpha Derek's final wish, about the duty that had been bred into my bones since birth.

"Steven," Elder Gianna turned to him, and I felt his fingers twitch in mine. "Do you accept this bond? Do you swear to cherish your luna, to honor the sacred mate bond, to bind yourself to her before the pack and the Goddess?"

The silence stretched. I thought he might refuse, might reject me publicly and damn the consequences.

I was ready for his rejection.

‘Please hurry up and just reject me,’ I mumbled.

My wolf snarled inside, warning me against the idea. I knew it was a death wish for me. But how could I be blamed for this?

"If he rejects us, it will kill us. We won't survive it. You know that, right?" my wolf murmured, a shudder running through her voice.

Yes, I did know. And I was already prepared for the worst.

I would never want to be separate from my mate. But it was he who didn't want me in the first place.

His jaw worked, his whole body rigid with barely suppressed rage.

Then he said the impossible…..