Chapter 5: Shattered Glass
1292 Words
The words hit me harder than I ever expected.
“I reject you as my mate.”
They echo in the room like a thunderclap, reverberating through the floor beneath me, shaking me to the core.
I can’t breathe. I can’t think. I can’t move.
Kieran’s voice is steady, but there’s a coldness in it I didn’t expect—no hesitation, no flicker of emotion. His eyes are locked onto mine, but I can’t see him anymore. Not the way I used to. Not the way I wanted to. The world around me goes silent, the laughter, the murmurs, the energy of the ceremony—all of it fades away, leaving only his voice, hanging in the air like a poison that spreads through every part of me.
“I reject you as my mate.”
It feels like my heart is being torn out of my chest, like every piece of me is being shattered, piece by piece, in front of everyone. The pack is silent, watching, waiting for something I can’t even comprehend. They don’t know what’s happening inside me, they don’t see the weight of those words, the destruction they’re causing.
But I feel it. I feel it in every fiber of my being, in every nerve that burns with the realization of what he just did.
He rejected me.
His hand, the hand that just a moment ago felt so warm in mine, feels like it’s been replaced with ice. A coldness that radiates from him and makes my skin crawl, makes my insides freeze.
I can’t hear anything else. My mind is too loud with the sound of those words, reverberating in my skull, echoing again and again. The world feels like it’s falling apart, like the ground beneath my feet is no longer solid, like it could crumble away at any moment.
His eyes flicker toward me for just a moment, and that’s when I realize—he’s waiting for me to do something. Waiting for me to react, to say something.
But I can’t. My mouth is dry, my chest tight. I can’t move. I can’t speak.
“Selene?” Kieran’s voice is softer now, but it only makes the pain worse. It’s like a final blow, a wound too deep to heal. “I… I’m sorry.”
Sorry? Sorry for what? Sorry for rejecting me? Sorry for breaking my heart in front of everyone? Sorry for making me feel like nothing?
I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want his apologies, his empty words. Not when everything inside me is falling apart. Not when the bond that was supposed to tie us together is snapped, severed in an instant, leaving only the jagged edges of something that used to be whole.
I turn away. I don’t look at him. I can’t.
I can’t stand here anymore, pretending like I’m fine, pretending like nothing’s changed. My heart feels like it’s being ripped from my chest, each beat a reminder of how badly he’s shattered everything. How badly he’s shattered me.
I don’t care about the ceremony anymore. I don’t care about the pack, or the expectations, or the promises they think we’ve made. All I care about right now is getting away. Getting away from him, from the pack, from everything that’s suffocating me.
I hear the gasps, the murmurs, the whispers as I turn and walk away, but I don’t care. I’m already too far gone. Already slipping into the fog that’s closing in around me, pulling me under. I don’t care what they think, or what they say. I just need to get out.
I move fast, my legs carrying me toward the door, toward the woods, away from the pack house, away from everything. My breath is coming in shallow gasps, my chest tight, my head spinning. I’m not sure if I’m running from him, from the pack, or from the shattered pieces of myself that I can’t put back together.
The forest is the only place I’ve ever felt free. The only place I’ve ever felt like myself, even if that “self” is just a shadow of what I wish I could be. Even if the only thing I have left is the wildness in me, the wolf that’s still there, buried beneath the layers of hurt and broken promises.
I push through the trees, the branches tearing at my skin, but I don’t care. I don’t feel the pain. All I feel is the deep, hollow ache in my chest, the emptiness where the bond used to be. It’s like something is missing—like a part of me is gone.
I keep running, faster and faster, until my lungs burn and my legs threaten to give out beneath me. But I don’t stop. I can’t. If I stop, I’ll think. And if I think, I’ll break.
I need to keep moving. I need to outrun this feeling.
The woods are silent except for the sound of my breathing, the pounding of my feet on the ground, and the rush of the wind in my ears. The further I go, the more I can feel the pain in my chest. It’s sharp, like a wound that won’t close, a rawness that I can’t escape.
I don’t know how long I’ve been running, but eventually I stumble, my foot catching on a root, sending me sprawling to the ground. I don’t have the energy to pick myself up. I don’t have the energy to do anything but lie there, my body trembling with the weight of everything that’s happened.
I want to scream. I want to yell at him. At my father. At the pack. At the world that’s made me feel like I’m nothing. But I can’t. The tears are already in my eyes, blurring my vision, and I can’t hold them back anymore.
I let out a strangled sob, the sound tearing through the night air like a cry for help, but I know no one is listening. No one is coming.
The forest is my only witness.
And as I lie there, broken and alone, the pain starts to spread. It starts to grow, reaching deeper inside me, until I feel like I can’t breathe, until I feel like my heart might actually shatter into a million pieces.
I close my eyes, trying to escape it, trying to forget the words he said, trying to forget the way he looked at me like I wasn’t worth his time, like I wasn’t worth the f*****g air he breathes.
I don’t know how long I lie there, my body still shaking, the sobs coming in waves, but then I hear it.
A rustle in the trees.
A snap of a branch.
I freeze. My heart hammers in my chest, my breath catching in my throat.
I know that sound.
I know that presence.
I open my eyes slowly, my heart skipping a beat as I see him standing there.
Kieran.
His figure is illuminated by the moonlight, his face tense, his eyes searching the woods like a predator hunting its prey.
“Selene,” he calls my name, his voice tight, raw with something I can’t quite place.
I want to yell at him. I want to scream at him to leave me alone. To let me be.
But instead, I find myself standing, my legs unsteady beneath me. The anger that’s been building in me is a fire, but the hurt... the hurt is the coldest thing I’ve ever felt.
“Why?” I whisper, my voice barely audible. “Why did you do it?”
He doesn’t answer.
And in that silence, I know.
There’s no going back.
No way to fix this.
Not anymore.
- Writer
