The full moon hung high above the Crescent Moon Pack grounds, silver light bathing the clearing where hundreds of wolves had gathered. The air was thick with tension, the whispers of the crowd slicing through Lyra Hale's fragile heart like knives.
She stood barefoot in the cold grass, trembling—not from fear, but from the eyes that burned holes into her soul.
Her mate stood before her.
Alpha Kian Blackwood.
Tall, commanding, flawless in his dark ceremonial suit, Kian looked every bit the leader the pack worshiped. But tonight, the warmth she'd once felt in his presence was gone. Only frost remained.
"Lyra Hale," he began, his voice sharp and controlled, echoing through the silent courtyard. "I, Alpha Kian Blackwood of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject you as my mate."
The words struck harder than claws.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Lyra's breath hitched as her heart cracked in two. For weeks she had prayed the rumors were false—that her mate bond, the sacred connection between souls, couldn't be denied. But the bond burned inside her now, screaming in agony.
"You can't…" she whispered, her voice trembling. "You can't reject your fated mate."
Kian's silver eyes met hers. There was no mercy there.
"I just did."
Her knees nearly gave way. She clutched her chest, feeling the invisible thread between them fray and snap, leaving a hollow void inside her.
From behind him, Evelyn, the Beta's daughter and Kian's rumored lover, smirked. "Poor omega. Did you really think our Alpha would claim someone like you?"
Laughter erupted from the crowd. Wolves she had grown up with—wolves she had healed and helped—now mocked her openly.
"I loved you, Kian," Lyra said, her voice breaking. "Even when no one else did. Even when they said you were too cold to love anyone—"
"Enough!" he snapped. His aura exploded outward, forcing her back. "I will not have my pack weakened by someone who cannot even control her wolf."
Lyra flinched. She had struggled to shift since birth. Her wolf was small, timid—a reflection of the weakness everyone saw in her.
Kian turned his back. "By my decree, Lyra Hale is hereby banished from the Crescent Moon Pack."
The words echoed in her ears. Banished. Stripped of her home. Her identity. Her mate.
Two enforcers stepped forward to drag her away, but Lyra lifted her chin, tears glimmering in her eyes.
"Don't touch me."
Her voice was soft but carried a strange power. For a moment, the enforcers hesitated. Even Kian turned, something flickering in his gaze—surprise, maybe guilt.
But she didn't wait for his pity.
"I hope," Lyra whispered, "the Moon Goddess shows you the same mercy you've shown me tonight."
She walked past him, her scent fading into the forest.
Kian didn't move. But deep inside his chest, something snapped—the same bond he thought he had severed.
Hours later, thunder rolled across the mountains. The pack slept soundly, unaware that beyond their borders, a dying girl's blood soaked into the sacred soil of the moonstone glade.
As her heartbeat slowed, a faint voice whispered through the night:
"Child of two worlds… rise."
A silver light flared—blinding, wild, divine.
Lyra Hale's body vanished into the moonlight.
And when the storm cleared, the forest was empty.