CAUGHT IN A DIRE-BOND

CHAPTER ONE SOLEIL The laughter in the huge hall faded, every single eye turning on me. I was burning from the inside out, my wolf pacing inside my head as it growled and howled, begging for me to take the last step and connect it with its... "Mate!" I screamed again, much louder this time. You could hear a pin drop, and maybe that should have been enough to make me stop and retreat, but I wasn't in control of my body right now. "What did you just say?" Velma asked. Her blue eyes were pools of lethal ice as she watched me. I swallowed, my eyes moving from her to Mattias. Her Mattias. "He is my mate. Mattias is my mate. He feels it too. The bond is snapping into place." It wasn't a lie. Mattias' face was pale, his huge brown eyes watching me with a mixture of shock and disgust. He was, after all, the heir to the Golden-Fang throne. How was it possible that he was fated to the lowest of lowly wolves? Me. A wolf without a rank. Velma released a laugh that didn't hold even a single drop of humor. "You've got to be shitting me. The moon goddess is either high on expired drugs or she's taken some sort of leave and her lackeys are screwing things up, because..." She ran a frustrated hand through her hair. "Should I f*****g remind you that Mattias is mine?!" The echo of her anger bounced off the walls and I shrank back as much as I could given that I wasn't in full control of my body. Whispers started to float from every corner. The hall that was supposed to be rich in merriment had just taken a dangerous turn, and I was at the center of the chaos. "Do something about this, Matt. You better f*****g do something about this. There's no way in hell I'm losing you to this thing." My heart squeezed inside my chest and pain started to rush through me. My wolf stiffened, halting mid-pace. We could both already feel the shift, and we knew what was coming. Mattias stepped forward, all dark hair and arrogant grace. "I, Mattias Ward of the Golden-Fang Pack, reject you, Soleil Ashbourne, as my mate." The moon seemed to burn my skin as pain lanced through my chest and settled in the space between my heart and lungs. Breathing became a difficulty, and despite my best attempts to stay on my feet, I couldn't. I fell to the ground, clutching my chest as the pain continued to spread through me. "Please," I begged desperately. "Please, don't do this. I can't... I won't..." My wolf wasn't the strongest of the bunch, and such brutal rejection could easily consume and kill us both. Mattias stepped closer to me. "A rankless wolf could never be Luna. And a powerless woman could never be my bride. I bestow on you the mark of restitution. My wolf would never again be compatible with yours, and should you try to force your way into my life," The pause was deliberate, making anticipation cloak us alongside the wicked tension in the room. "The penalty would be death." My heart cracked, louder than the faint gasp that escaped my mouth. My vision blurred, my wolf howled, and all the life started to drain out of me. I watched as Mattias stepped back, wrapping an arm around Velma's waist just before he kissed her neck and then sank his fangs into the side of it, marking her. "Velma Conroe, the Gamma wolf of Claw-Cliff, is my chosen mate, and soon to be Luna of Golden-Fang." Cheers erupted in the room, all the students bowing to their king and queen. I bowed too, but not to them. I bowed into the arms of the unconsciousness that was fighting for me. But just before I slipped under, I whispered, "I, Soleil Ashbourne, accept your rejection." And then it all went to black. ******* "You're finally awake," Sera said as soon as my eyes fell open. Everything looked hazy, but I didn't need much else beside the smell of antiseptic and the pristine whiteness of the space to know where I was. My head throbbed, and my body felt like it had been rammed against a wall multiple times. I swallowed, wincing when I felt just how parched my throat was. Sera was out of her seat instantly, her long dress swishing against her legs as she moved. She helped me up into a sitting position before she reached for a jug and poured some water out for me. I accepted the cup gratefully, enjoying the smell of burnt sage as it rose into the air. "How long was I out for?" I asked after the cool water softened the rawness in my throat. "Three days." She winced and offered me a sympathetic smile. I forced a smile I didn't feel onto my face. I didn't want her to feel bad for me. I mean, no one would be able to feel worse than I did, anyway. "How did I manage to survive such a brutal separation?" I knew what I was, and I knew what I felt. It was a huge mystery to me that I was still alive. Sera smiled at me, this one more genuine than the first one had been. "I healed you." My eyes shone with surprise. "You're kidding. How?" She pointed at my cup. "Burnt sage. My wolf gave me the recipe." Her face shone a bright red as she said that part. My interest was immediately piqued. "You found your mate, didn’t you?" I asked her, changing the subject. Her eyes bounced up to meet mine, her blush deepening significantly. She nodded with so much vigor, a happy smile blooming on her face. But then she remembered and it died. "I'm so sorry your mate... you know?" She pointed at me. "I'm sorry about what happened." I tried to hide the pain that was lodged in my heart. It's not like I was in love with Mattias or anything. I took note of his attractiveness, and that was that. It just sucked balls that I was once again on the receiving end of such brutal humiliation. Or the fact that I didn't have a mate. Tears started to prick my eyes but I forced them down. "It's fine, Sera. I will be fine." "Maybe you'd find a second chance mate?" She sounded hopeful. For a second, I wished that I could contract that hope, but it was a pointless exercise. It was that same hope that had put me in this condition, in the first place. Before I could think of a response, the door to the infirmary was kicked open, its wooden frame connecting with the wall in a loud bang. Sera and I jerked in shock, both our eyes swinging to the door just as Velma walked in. She was flanked by her mean cronies, Ava and Monique. All three of them smiled at us, but it was the kind of smile that immediately made you recoil in fear. "Look who's awake," Velma started. "I thought you were going to die from the shame of aiming higher than you're allowed." Her followers snickered, but all I could do was swallow. It wasn't my fault that Mattias had been chosen for me by the Moon Goddess, but none of that was going to matter to her. I had been placed in the same league as her, the most powerful female wolf in all of Wolvaris, and that wasn't to be tolerated. She stepped closer to me, making the air in the space feel suffocating. "You have to pay for that stunt of yours. You know that, right?" "I... it wasn't... I wasn't..." "Shh." She held her finger up to her lips. "Dying would've been a better option for you, freak. But since you've somehow escaped that, I have an even better punishment for you." There was silence in the room, thick and heavy. But then when her words sliced through them, I felt the world tilt under me. "I lost something in Delvarys. And you're going to help me get it back."