Eight Years Bound, One Night Rejected.

Chapter 3.

Naomi’s POV

Tears of panic and sweat tangled in my hair, my hands pressed to my chest, trembling. Bloodbright, warm, sticky, clung to my palms, though I had no scratches, no wound. My breath came in ragged bursts, and my wolf stirred beneath my skin, coiling with fury I had never felt before.

I had to move. I had to get out. I needed… I didn’t know what I needed, but staying here would kill me faster than any pack member’s scorn.

I pressed my palms to my face, wiped at the phantom blood, and forced myself to stand. Each step toward the door felt like wading through thick mud. My chest burned, fever-hot, every muscle ached, and yet I moved forward.

When I stepped into the corridor, the first pack members I saw froze mid-step. Their eyes widened, then narrowed, and whispers followed me like shadows.

“Naomi…”

“She’s still breathing…”

“Look at her… her hands…”

I clenched my fists, jaw tight, forcing my steps to be steady. But before I could get past the first hallway, Lila appeared. Smooth, graceful, like a predator gliding through her territory.

“Good morning, broken Luna,” she said softly, deliberately, letting her words hang in the air like poison.

Lila’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I hear the council is calling for you this morning. Something about… ‘restoring order.’” She tilted her head, watching me struggle to keep my balance. “I wonder what they’ll do when they see you like this… feverish, trembling, weak.”

My wolf growled beneath my skin. It wasn’t whining, it wasn’t scared. It was sharp, coiled, and angry. “Stay out of my path,” I said, voice tight, raw.

She laughed softly, like the sound of broken glass. “Or what? You’ll bite me?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. I forced my steps forward, ignoring the ache in my chest, ignoring the way my legs threatened to collapse beneath me.

The council chamber was filled already. Elder Majik, Elder Haren, and the rest of the betas were seated, their eyes cold, dissecting. Caleb’s absence was strange, he had not followed me yet but that didn’t lessen the weight in my chest.

“You’re late, Luna,” Elder Majik said, voice like gravel.

I took a step forward, head bowed, ignoring the burn in my throat. “I..” I tried to speak, but the words caught. Fever, weakness, the remnants of the dream… everything conspired to make me small.

“You’ve caused unrest among the wolves,” Elder Haren cut in, voice sharp. “The pack senses it. Whispers of disobedience, confusion. You have violated the trust of your Alpha and the harmony of Redwild.”

My stomach twisted violently. My wolf stirred angrily. “I… I have done nothing wrong,” I managed to say, voice trembling.

Lila glided closer, her skirts whispering against the stone floor. “Nothing wrong? The pups you lost, do you call that nothing?” Her words were soft, almost intimate, and yet they cut deeper than any blade. “Eight years, and all you’ve brought is shame. And pain. For yourself. For the pack. For the Alpha who trusted you.”

I doubled over, clutching my stomach. A wave of sharp, unnatural pain tore through me. My wolf hissed, fierce and loud, making Lila step back slightly, but her smile didn’t fade. She knew. She had intended it.

“You see?” she whispered, tilting her head. “Even now, the pack remembers your failures.”

I straightened, trembling, forcing my shoulders back. “You’re… cruel,” I said, low, dangerous. “And you will pay for this someday.”

Elder Majik’s eyes narrowed, cutting through the tension. “Enough! Lila, sit. Naomi, you will answer only to the council. Speak, if you can.”

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. I wanted to scream, to shake them all, to demand justice but my body still ached, fevered and weak.

Then I saw him. Beta Derrick. My guardian. My anchor. He stood near the back, eyes cold, unreadable. My throat went dry. “Please…” I whispered, voice breaking. “Tell me… why? Why did you let this happen?”

He stepped forward slightly, hand raised. “Naomi… silence. You speak too much and you will only make things worse.”

I shook my head, fury flaring hotter than my fever. “Worse? Worse than this? Worse than being called cursed, broken, worthless?” My voice cracked. “I trusted you! I… I trusted you more than anyone!”

He flinched, just slightly. “I… I did what I thought was necessary. You must stay quiet. Survive. That is all I can do for you now.”

Betrayal hit me like a fist. He had been part of it. He had let them, Caleb, Lila, the council decide my fate. And now he spoke of survival as if that were enough.

I turned toward the council, anger coiling tighter than ever. “I will not plead,” I said, voice trembling but firm. “I am not guilty of what you accuse me of.”

Elder Haren’s lips curled. “The pack suffers because of you. You have failed as Luna, as a mate, as a wolf. Punishment is warranted.”

The room thickened with tension. My wolf roared low beneath my skin, sensing the injustice, wanting to tear apart their calm, clinical order.

Elder Majik finally spoke, voice heavy.

“Naomi, the council has decided. You may choose: public punishment for your disobedience and failure, or exile from the Redwild Pack. Choose now.”

A silence stretched, the kind that makes your chest ache. Every whisper, every glance, every shadow of the hall pressed against me.

Public punishment. Humiliation in front of the pack. Chains, laughter, pains, exile, freedom and isolation. The unknown. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, coiling and snapping, ready to leap forward. My heart was hammered. My body was weak, but my mind was clear.

“I choose… exile,” I said, voice steady despite the tremor in my limbs.

The council murmured, but no one stopped me. They could not.

I turned, walking toward the boundary, every step a battle between weakness and will. My wolf howled beneath my skin, a sound that shook the air and rattled the trees.

I felt Caleb behind me, somewhere, the bond flaring violently, his chest heaving as if my absence tore something from him. I didn’t look back. Not once.

The wind tugged at my hair, the trees bending like they recognized the first step of a woman who would no longer be broken.

I crossed the line. For the first time, I felt my power fully awaken beneath my skin, not fear, not grief, not obedience but fury, freedom, and something ancient, relentless.

I whispered to the wind, more to my wolf than to anyone else:

“Whatever he broke in me that night… had just begun to wake up.”

And I walked on.