CHAPTER 2 - HUMILIATION SCENE
1361 Words
ELARA’S POV
Then she stopped the guards and her shadow fell over me before her hand touched me but I did not move.
Seraphina walked closer and I could hear the gentle sound of her heels on stone, the hall was silent again and everyone was watching.
She then stopped in front of me and then she lifted my chin with her fingers.
I wanted to pull away, but I froze, her touch was gentle and that made it worse.
She then studied my face like I was something she left behind in a room.
“You did well,” she said and her voice was smooth. “Keeping my place warm.”
Then laughter broke out from somewhere in the back, it was low and cruel and my ears burned.
I then pushed her hand away slowly. “I was not keeping anything warm. I was his wife.”
The word wife tasted bitter now and she smiled again. “For three years, that is all.”
Whispers then began .
“She was always too weak.”
“I knew it would not last.”
“She never conceived an heir.”
“Maybe the Moon Goddess never accepted her.”
Each word landed on my skin like stones and my hands moved into fists and then I looked at Kael.
He stood beside her and he heard them but he said nothing.
That silence hurt more than the scroll at my feet, more than the rejection and more than her hand on my face.
“You said you would stand by me,” I whispered to him and his eyes met mine.
“I stood by the agreement.”
Agreement?
That word again, it was not love, it was not bond, it was an agreement.
Seraphina then turned to the crowd. “Silvermoon Pack deserves a strong Luna.”
Her hand slid into Kael’s arm as if she had always belonged there.
“And I am home.”
The pack bowed their heads.
“To Luna Seraphina,” someone shouted and the title moved through the hall like fire.
Luna Seraphina, not me, not anymore.
Kael then lifted his hand and silence fell.
“Elara,” he said and my name sounded strange from his lips now.
“Remove the Luna necklace.”
My breath stopped.
The necklace.
The silver chain rested on my collarbone, the crescent moon pendant shone under the torchlight, he placed it on me three years ago.
Under the full moon, his hands shook that night and I thought it meant something.
Now he wanted it off and slowly, I lifted my fingers to the chain and wolf whimpered inside me.
“Do not.
Do not give it back.”
But my hands trembled and I tried to unhook it and my vision blurred and I could not see the clasp properly.
“Are you delaying?” Seraphina asked gently
“I am not,” I whispered and my fingers failed me.
Before I could try again, Kael stepped forward.
“Enough.”
His hands came up and he reached behind my neck, his fingers brushed my skin and my breath caught.
The moment his skin touched mine, the bond sparked, it was sharp and hot and it shot through my chest like lightning.
I gasped and his hand froze and then our eyes locked and he felt it too.
I saw it in the way his jaw tightened, in the way his breathing changed, the bond was still there, it was alive and fighting.
And then his wolf pushed against mine, it was confused and angry and mine answered but not with pain but with need.
For one second, the world disappeared.
It was just him and me.
Like the nights he stood outside my chamber door during storms, like the time he held my waist when I almost slipped on ice.
Like the first full moon after our bonding, when he watched me shift and said, “You are strong.”
I thought it meant something.
The spark faded and he pulled the necklace off, the chain slid down my neck and the air was different without it.
It was lighter but it was also wrong and he held it in his hand and then he turned away.
“You are no longer Luna of Silvermoon,” he declared and the words echoed across the hall.
My wolf moved inside me, she did not howl now but she made a small sound.
It was soft, broken.
But I didn’t not cry, not even in front of them.
Then an elder stepped forward with a parchment.
“The official separation decree,” he said and he broke his palm with a small blade and lets blood fall on the paper and the mark glowed faintly.
He then handed me the blade.
“For your signature.”
I took it and the metal was warm from his hand and then I looked at Kael one last time.
“Do you feel nothing?” I asked but he did not answer.
Seraphina squeezed his arm and that was his answer.
I then pressed the blade to my palm, pain bloomed.
I did not flinch and blood welled up, it was red and bright and it dripped onto the parchment.
My name then formed under the mark.
Elara Rowan.
Former Luna of Silvermoon.
The paper sealed itself and It was done.
Then I handed the blade back and when I stood, my legs was weak.
The hall spinned for a moment and I took one step and then another and a strange pain hit my abdomen.
It was sharp and sudden.
I then inhaled sharply and my hand flew to my lower stomach.
What is that?
It was like something twisting inside me, it was not like the bond, it was different and deeper.
“Elara?” one of the guards muttered.
“I am fine,” I said quickly.
But I was not fine, but I would not fall here, not in front of her.
I then straightened my back and I walked.
Each step was heavy and I kept my eyes forward.
I didn’t look back and I didn’t look at him.
The doors were ahead, they were so close and behind me, I heard nothing, no footsteps and no voice called my name, no command to stop but just silence.
My hand pressed harder against my abdomen and the pain faded slowly, but it left behind a strange warmth.
Like something alive.
No.
I shook the thought away and the doors opened and then cool air hit my face and I stepped outside the hall.
The night sky spread above me and the moon watched.
As I crossed the threshold, a deep growl ripped through the hall behind me.
It was loud, violent and it was not human and then I stopped.
It was Kael’s wolf and I knew that sound.
I have heard it during battles, during danger, dring threats.
It was not a calm sound, it was a warning.
Gasps filled the hall again.
“Alpha?”
“What is wrong?”
I did not turn and my heart beat fast.
Then another growl, it was stronger and closer.
For one second, I felt it through the bond.
His wolf was not accepting this, it was fighting and it was angry.
Angry at the rejection and at the separation.
“Elara,” I almost hear inside my head.
Almost.
Footsteps moved behind me, they were heavy and fast.
Is he coming?
Is he going to stop me?
Hope rose inside me before I could crush it.
Then another voice broke through.
“Kael.”
Seraphina.
It was gentle and close and footsteps stopped.
The growling lowered, it was not gone but held back.
I then closed my eyes.
Of course, of course he chose her.
I stepped forward again, away from the hall.
Away from the man whose wolf still called to mine and away from the bond that refused to die.
But one question burned inside me as I walked into the night.
Why does his wolf refuse the rejection?
- Writer
