Chapter 5
1101 Words
ADRIANNA.
Sunlight filtered in through the tall window, soft and pale. It painted the room in silver and warmth, but none of it reached the knot twisting in my stomach.
I blinked against the light and stretched slightly, confused for a moment until I remembered where I was. The large bed. The lingering scent of him on the pillow beside me. The way he’d whispered my name like it meant something.
Theron.
I sat up slowly, clutching the blanket to my chest as if it could shield me from reality. My heart still fluttered at the thought of last night, his lips on mine, the way he touched me with reverence, as if I mattered.
It felt like a dream I didn’t want to wake from.
But reality didn’t give me a choice.
A sharp knock on the door shattered the fragile peace. I stiffened.
“Theron?” A woman’s voice. Smooth, confident, and far too familiar with him.
The door opened without waiting for a response.
A tall, graceful she-wolf stepped in, her dark auburn hair twisted into an elegant braid, her green eyes flicking across the room before landing on me.
She didn’t hide her surprise. Or her disdain.
“Oh,” she said coolly. “I wasn’t aware you had... company.”
Theron emerged from the bathroom behind her, towel slung around his neck, his hair damp.
“Lyria?” he asked, stopping in his tracks. His eyes darted to me, then back to her. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you,” she said, her voice turning sweet like poison laced in honey. “You missed your meeting with the council this morning. They’re beginning to worry about their new Alpha.”
She walked further into the room, ignoring me completely now. As if I was invisible. A mistake. A shadow.
My mouth was dry. My hands clutched the blanket tighter. “Who is she?” I asked quietly, even though I knew.
Lyria turned back to me with a slight smile.
“I’m his betrothed,” she said, and the word slammed into me like ice water.
Betrothed.
My chest tightened.
Theron rubbed the back of his neck, his jaw tense. “Lyria…”
“No need to explain, darling,” she cut in smoothly, her smile brittle. “We’ve only been promised since we were pups. I’m used to little... delays.”
The door opened again. A few others filed in, some pack officials, warriors, even an elder. And behind them, a pair of maids who stood by the threshold, wide-eyed and whispering.
I stood, not caring how naked my shame looked. I had to get out. I had to leave this room before it crushed me.
But then it happened.
The moment my foot hit the floor and I tried to pass him…
Our arms brushed. It flared.
A spark. A burn. A thread of pure fire laced through my veins.
My breath caught. His eyes locked on mine, golden and wide. Shocked.
The room froze. Everyone seemed to feel it.
Lyria gasped. “No.”
“No,” one of the maids echoed in disbelief. “She’s his…?”
“No,” Lyria repeated again, more forcefully this time. “That’s not possible.”
But it was.
The mate bond had awakened.
I staggered back, my heart slamming in my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
He was mine.
And I was his.
But Theron... he didn’t move. He didn’t step toward me. His face twisted, not in awe, not in acceptance, but in somethign stricken but then turned to something hard. Cold.
“Adrianna,” he said, voice low, “this isn’t supposed to happen.”
My lips trembled. “What do you mean?”
“You’re wolfless. An orphan. You don’t belong in this world,” he said, and each word sliced like a blade. “This bond... it’s a mistake.”
The maids gasped behind their hands. Lyria’s mouth curved in smug satisfaction.
“I, Theron Ragnor , reject you,” Theron said sharply, looking directly into my eyes. “Adrianna, as my mate. As anything.”
I couldn’t breathe. I stared at him, the mate bond tearing apart and shaking my head as if that would undo what just happened.
“You don’t mean that,” I whispered. “Theron, you said…”
“I said what I needed to say to get you into my bed,” he said, brutally indifferent. Something pained flickered in his eyes but he went on. “It meant nothing.”
Tears stung my eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should,” he snapped, turning away from me. “This is the only mercy I can offer. You’re dismissed.”
Lyria stepped forward like she owned the room. “Shall I have someone escort her back to her little corner of the pack?”
The laughter from behind me, maids or warriors, I didn’t know was the final blow.
I turned and fled before they could see the tears fall.
The hallway blurred. Every step felt like I was walking through water, thick and heavy. The whispers followed me.
“She really thought she belonged.”
“An orphan? A mate to the Alpha? What a joke.”
“He rejected her like she was dirt.”
I didn’t stop until I was outside. I didn’t stop when I reached the edge of the woods near the orphanage. I didn’t stop even as my lungs burned and my heart cracked in my chest.
When I stepped through the gates of the orphanage, the first thing I saw was a group of children staring at me from the windows. Word had traveled fast. Their snickers. Their pointing fingers.
She thought she was special.
Not anymore.
I stumbled into the room where I’d slept on the cold floor for years. My knees gave out, and I crumbled.
Everything hurt.
I thought I could survive anything. That if I just held on, one day I could leave this place whole.
But I’d been wrong.
He broke me.
He shattered every hope I had dared to build in the silence of my heart.
I curled up on the floor, fists clenched.
Never again.
I wouldn’t stay.
I wouldn’t remain where I wasn’t wanted. Where I was mocked, and used, and tossed aside like I didn’t matter.
I stood, wiped my fac
e, and began to gather the little I owned.
If this pack didn’t want me then they’d lose me.
Tonight, I would leave Silverton behind.
Forever.
- Writer
