THE ASHES OF THE FORSAKEN LUNA

Chapter 3: What the Bond Refused

POV: Lyra Vale

I woke up on the floor.

For a few seconds, I couldn't remember why. Then my chest reminded me. Pain.

Not the sharp agony that had dropped me to my knees beneath the Blood Moon. Not the unbearable torment that had nearly ripped my wolf apart.

This was different. A dull ache. A constant reminder. Like a bruise pressed beneath my ribs.

The rejection, Kael, the ceremony, Selene. Everything came rushing back at once. I squeezed my eyes shut.

For a moment, I wished I could forget. Just for one day, one hour, one minute or anything. But the memories refused to leave. And so did the bond.

I sat up slowly. Morning light spilled through my window. The celebration outside was gone. The pack had returned to its normal routine. Silvercrest kept moving. It always did, no matter who got left behind.

My wolf stirred weakly. Not asleep, not dead, not gone. Alive. The realization should have comforted me. Instead, it terrified me.

Rejected mates weren't supposed to have this. The bond should have shattered completely. My wolf should have begun separating herself from Kael. The connection should have disappeared.

Yet it hadn't. I could still feel him faintly, like a distant heartbeat hidden beneath layers of fog.

There. Always there waiting. I hated it. At least, I tried to. The problem was that hatred would've been easier, cleaner and simpler.

Instead, every time I felt that connection, something twisted painfully inside me, because part of me still remembered who he used to be. Or maybe who I had imagined him to be.

I rose from the floor and moved toward the mirror hanging beside my bed. The girl staring back looked exhausted.

My eyes were swollen, my face pale. Dark shadows lingered beneath my eyes. I looked exactly how I felt. Broken.

The future Luna of Silvercrest. What a joke. A bitter laugh escaped me; the sound echoed through the empty room.

For years, I had built my future around one person. One bond, one dream. And now all of it is gone. Or at least it should have been.

My fingers curled against the wooden frame of the mirror. Why wasn't the bond gone? The question wouldn't leave me alone.

I knew the stories. Every wolf did. Mate rejections were rare, painful and sometimes deadly. But they were final.

Once rejected, the bond died. The wolves healed eventually, and life continued. That was the natural order. So why wasn't it happening?

A sudden pulse brushed against my emotions, and I froze. The sensation vanished almost immediately. Gone before I could fully understand it. But it had been there.

A feeling. Not mine, not entirely. Confusion. I frowned.

"What was that?" My wolf lifted her head.

Mate.

"No." The answer came too quickly. Too sharply. And she retreated slightly. Guilt immediately followed. She wasn't the enemy. Neither of us understood what was happening. But every time she mentioned him, pain followed.

The door outside creaked. Voices drifted down the corridor. I moved closer to the wall instinctively.

Years of experience had taught me one thing. People talked more freely when they thought I wasn't listening.

"...still can't believe he did it." A female voice. Young and curious.

Another voice answered, "Believe it. Everyone knew she wasn't good enough."

Laughter followed. Not cruel, and not loud. Somehow that made it worse. The casualness, the certainty also. As though my humiliation had become ordinary conversation.

"Did you see her face?" More laughter. I closed my eyes. Each word dug deeper.

"The poor thing looked shocked." "She should've seen it coming." "Kael deserves someone stronger." The voices faded as they continued walking.

Silence returned, but the damage remained. I slid down against the wall. The room suddenly felt too small. Too suffocating, and too full of memories.

I had spent most of my life trying to earn a place in this pack. Trying to become someone worth acknowledging, someone worth respecting, someone worth loving. And none of it had mattered. Not even in the end.

My chest tightened. The bond stirred again. This time, I felt something strange. Not pain, not confusion, but determination. It lasted only a second, then vanished.

I sat upright immediately. My heart raced. That wasn't mine. It couldn't be. The feeling had arrived too suddenly and too clearly. Like a flash of lightning across a dark sky, a glimpse of something before the darkness swallowed it again.

Kael.

The realization settled heavily inside me. I was feeling fragments of him. Not thoughts or memories. Emotions. Small pieces. Tiny cracks leaking through a bond that should no longer exist.

A shiver crawled down my spine. That wasn't normal. As a matter of fact, nothing about this was normal.

Hours passed, I tried reading, yet I failed. I tried sleeping, and still failed. I tried convincing myself I didn't care. That failed most of all.

Every few hours, another emotion slipped through. Brief, incomplete, frustration, irritation, restlessness. Then nothing.

Each glimpse only left me more confused. If he had rejected me, why was this happening? What had gone wrong?

Or perhaps the more terrifying question was: What had gone right?

A knock sounded against my door. I tensed immediately. No one visited me anymore. Not unless they wanted something.

The knock came again. But slower this time. Careful. Almost hesitant. I didn't answer. A few seconds later, footsteps retreated.

I waited. Then moved cautiously toward the door. When I opened it, nobody stood outside. Only a small basket rested on the floor. It contained bread, fruit and water.

My lunch. Someone had left it without speaking, without looking at me, without acknowledging me.

I stared at the basket for a long moment. Then I laughed softly. Yesterday, I was the future Luna. Today, people delivered food like I carried a disease.

The humiliation never stopped. It simply changed shape. I picked up the basket and returned inside.

The day dragged on slowly, heavily, and unforgivingly. As evening approached, storm clouds gathered above Silvercrest. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The air smelled of rain.

I sat beside the window watching darkness spread across the forest. For the first time all day, the pack seemed quiet and peaceful.

My wolf shifted restlessly. She didn't like storms, neither did I. Too many things hid in darkness. Too many memories.

A familiar pulse brushed against my emotions again. Stronger this time and I inhaled sharply. Anger, raw and violent. Not mine.

The intensity of it startled me. It disappeared almost immediately. But not before I felt something else beneath it. Conflict.

I frowned. What was happening? Where was Kael? Who was he angry at? The questions multiplied faster than answers.

Rain began falling. Soft at first, then harder. Droplets streaked across the glass, lightning flashed, and thunder followed.

The storm grew stronger, and somehow, the bond did too. Each pulse felt clearer and closer, as though whatever barrier existed between us was weakening. Or maybe I was simply becoming better at noticing it.

Neither possibility comforted me. Night settled fully over Silvercrest and I finally crawled into bed.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on my body. My eyes burned, my chest hurt, my wolf remained restless. Sleep didn't come easily.

When it finally did, it arrived in fragments. Broken pieces, half-dreams and half-memories.

At some point, I woke suddenly. The room was dark. Rain hammered against the roof.

For a second, I didn't understand what had awakened me. Then I felt it. The bond: stronger than ever before.

My breath caught. Emotion surged through the connection. Not one feeling. Several, rapid, chaotic, anger, frustration and pain.

I sat upright. The intensity startled me. Kael. Something was happening and I could feel it. Neither clearly nor enough to understand. But enough to know he wasn't calm, he wasn't sleeping and certainly wasn't at peace.

The emotions kept coming. Sharp and unstable, like waves crashing against rocks.

I pressed a hand against my chest. The bond pulsed again. And suddenly I realized something. He was hurting. Not physically. Emotionally.

The discovery should have satisfied me. Maybe part of me wanted it to, after everything he had done. After the humiliation, after the rejection, and after destroying my future beneath the Blood Moon.

He deserved pain. Didn't he? Yet the satisfaction never came. Only confusion. Because if he truly believed he had done the right thing, why was he suffering?

Another pulse. This one is stronger. My wolf lifted her head immediately.

Mate.

"No." But my voice lacked conviction. The emotion pouring through the bond shifted again. The anger faded, the frustration followed. Something heavier remained, something quieter, something infinitely more dangerous.

I froze, because I recognized it instantly. Even before fully feeling it, even before accepting it. The sensation wrapped around my heart like cold fingers. My breathing stopped.

"No..." The whisper barely left my lips. It couldn't be. It made no sense. Not after yesterday. Not after everything.

Yet the feeling remained. Growing stronger, clearer and impossible to misunderstand.

Regret. A deep, crushing regret. Not mine, his. Alpha Kael Draven. The man who had rejected me before the entire pack. The man who had looked me in the eye and destroyed me. The man who had chosen my shame.

Through the bond, I felt his regret. And for the first time since the Blood Moon Ceremony, I wondered whether the rejection had hurt him too.

The thought settled heavily inside my chest. Dangerous, terrifying and impossible.

Outside, thunder shook the sky. Inside, the bond pulsed once more. Stronger than ever.

And somewhere within that overwhelming wave of regret, I felt something else trying desperately to reach me. Something I couldn't quite understand, that made my wolf rise to her feet. Something that felt almost like a warning.

Then the connection snapped silent. Leaving me staring into the darkness. Wide awake and heart racing. Because if Kael regretted rejecting me after only one night, then what exactly had happened after I collapsed beneath the Blood Moon?

And what was he hiding?