He Married Me For Revenge, I Stay Calm

Chapter 4

That night, I sat in the garden for a long time.

Selene sobbed inside me without stopping. The pain of it was so violent I could barely breathe.

A rejected mate bond is the cruelest punishment a werewolf can endure.

And we hadn't even been formally marked yet.

"Elena?"

A soft voice behind me.

I turned. My mother was standing in the moonlight, her eyes full of something that ached to look at.

"I heard," she said gently, coming to wrap her arms around my shoulders. "Baby, I'm so sorry."

I didn't say anything. I just leaned into her.

And finally, the tears came.

"Mom, why?" My voice was barely a sound. "Why would the Moon Goddess give me a mate who doesn't want me? Why does being an Omega make me worth less?"

She stroked my hair slowly.

"Elena, some wolves let power and status blind them. They forget what the mate bond actually means." She paused. "But your worth isn't determined by someone else's opinion of you."

I looked up at her.

"What do I do? He said if I don't leave on my own, he'll reject me in front of everyone."

Something complex moved through my mother's eyes.

"I can't make this decision for you," she said carefully. "But whatever you choose, I'll support you."

She paused again.

"There's one thing I want you to remember, though."

"What?"

"Leaving isn't losing." She looked at me with steady eyes. "Sometimes you leave so you can get stronger. So you can come back and prove that the people who underestimated you were wrong."

That night, I made my decision.

The next morning, I went to the Elder Council chamber.

With all the elders as witnesses, I signed the papers.

"I, Elena Grey, voluntarily apply to dissolve the mate bond between myself and Ethan Crescent."

My voice was steady. Not a single tremor.

"From this moment on, we have no further connection."

The moment my pen lifted from the page, a pain tore through my chest.

The agony of a breaking mate bond nearly buckled my knees.

But I locked my jaw and didn't make a sound.

I didn't want anyone seeing my weakness.

Especially not Ethan, who was standing in the corner with a blank face.

"Elena Grey." The head elder's voice echoed through the hall. "Under pack law, you have dissolved your mate bond with the Alpha heir. You may choose to remain in the pack or leave."

I raised my head.

"I choose to leave."

My gaze swept the room and settled, finally, on Ethan.

"There's nothing left for me in Crescent Pack."