Chapter 2: The Rejection
995 Words
# Chapter 2: The Rejection
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The clearing was full of wolves.
Hundreds of them. Packed shoulder to shoulder around the ceremonial platform, their eyes gleaming in the torchlight. They'd all come for this. Every member of Blood Moon Pack, from the oldest elder to the youngest pup. Even the neighboring territories had sent representatives.
And me.
I stood at the back of the crowd, invisible. Just another shadow among shadows.
My hands were shaking.
*Don't hope. Don't hope. Don't—*
The torches flared higher, and the crowd quieted.
Alpha Marcus stepped onto the platform.
He was beautiful. He'd always been beautiful, with his auburn hair and amber eyes and the kind of confidence that came from never doubting yourself for a single moment of your life. He wore the ceremonial armor—deep crimson leather trimmed in silver—and the Luna Crown sat on a velvet cushion beside him.
My heart stopped.
The Luna Crown.
Tonight, he'd place it on someone's head.
And I wanted it to be me so badly my chest ached.
"Wolves of Blood Moon."
Marcus's voice rang out across the clearing, and the crowd fell silent.
"Tonight, I stand before you as your Alpha. Tonight, I do what no Alpha has done in a generation—I choose my Luna."
The crowd erupted. Cheers and howls split the night air, and I felt the ground vibrate under my feet. Under the noise, under the celebration, I pressed my hand to my chest and felt the bond thrumming there.
*Please.*
Marcus raised his hand, and the crowd quieted again.
"I have thought long and hard about this decision," he said. "The future of our pack depends on the strength of its leadership. I needed someone who would stand beside me. Someone worthy of the title. Someone—"
He paused.
"—who reflects everything Blood Moon stands for."
My breath caught.
*It's going to be me. It has to be me. The bond—*
"I choose Olivia Sterling."
The name hit me like a physical blow.
I blinked. The world tilted. Around me, people were clapping, cheering, and I couldn't—I couldn't understand what I'd just heard. Olivia. He'd said Olivia. Not Raven. Not—
Olivia stepped onto the platform.
She was perfect. Of course she was. Golden hair, blue eyes, a dress that probably cost more than I'd earned in five years of scrubbing pots. She smiled at Marcus like she'd always known this moment would come, and maybe she had. Maybe everyone had.
Everyone except me.
Marcus took the Luna Crown from its cushion. Turned to Olivia. Lifted it above her head.
And then—
He stopped.
His eyes found me in the crowd.
The whole clearing went silent.
I felt it. The bond. The connection between us pulling taut, demanding to be acknowledged. He felt it too. I could see it in the way his jaw tightened, the way his hand froze mid-air.
Say something. *Please.* Say you made a mistake. Say you choose me.
"Raven Blackwood."
My name. He said my name.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
"Step forward."
The crowd parted around me. People I'd known my whole life, people who'd called me Wolf-less and pushed me into the mud, they stepped aside like I was contagious. Like my presence here was an embarrassment.
I walked forward on legs that didn't feel like my own.
When I reached the platform, I looked up at him. At my fated mate. At the man who was supposed to love me.
His eyes were cold.
"Raven Blackwood," he said again, and his voice carried across the entire territory, "I reject you as my mate."
The words hit me like a blade.
I felt the bond inside my chest—*snap*. Like a rope breaking. Like something vital tearing loose from my ribs. A scream tried to claw its way out of my throat, but I couldn't make a sound.
I couldn't do anything but stand there as the warmth drained from my body.
"I reject the bond between us," Marcus continued, his voice flat, rehearsed. "I reject any claim you have on me. From this night forward, you are nothing to me."
Nothing.
I was nothing.
The crowd was murmuring. I heard whispers. *Wolf-less. Deserved it. What did she expect?*
Someone laughed.
And then Marcus turned back to Olivia, and he placed the Luna Crown on her head.
"Welcome, Luna Olivia."
The crowd exploded with cheers.
I don't know how long I stood there. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. The world moved around me in a blur of colors and sounds. I saw Olivia kiss Marcus's cheek. I saw the pack members rushing forward to congratulate them. I saw Mira in the back of the crowd, her hand over her mouth.
And I felt—
I felt the bond breaking.
Not just snapping. *Breaking.* Unraveling inside me like thread pulled from a seam. The pain was building, spreading from my chest to my limbs to my bones, and I couldn't—
I couldn't—
I opened my mouth, and finally, finally, the sound came out.
But it wasn't a scream.
It was blood.
Dark red. Hot. Spilling from my lips and running down my chin and staining the ground in front of me.
I fell.
My knees hit the dirt. My hands followed. I was on all fours, coughing, choking, my body trying to expel something that was already gone. The bond. A piece of my soul. Dead and rotting inside me.
No one noticed.
No one stopped cheering.
No one looked at the girl bleeding into the mud while they celebrated the new Luna.
I pressed my palm against my chest and felt my heartbeat stutter.
*Please. Someone. Help me.*
Another cough. More blood.
The torches flickered above me.
And the last thing I heard before the darkness took me—
"Is someone going to take out the trash?"
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**End of Chapter 2**
- Writer
