Selena Blackthorn.
The hall was filled with light, but it did not reach me.
All I could see was Silas.
He stood at the center of the ceremonial circle, tall and calm, dressed in black and silver. My mate. The man I had loved since I was a girl. The man who once pulled me from death when everyone else failed to reach me in time.
The pack watched from every side. Nobles. Elders. Warriors. Their gazes brushed over me, some polite, some curious, others sharp with judgment.
I had grown used to it. The whispers about my body, my size, my worth. Today, none of it mattered.
Today, I was getting married.
I placed my hands in Silas's when the elder nodded for us to begin. His fingers were warm, steady. Familiar. My heart beat so loudly I wondered if he could hear it.
"I, Silas Sinclair," he said, his voice carrying easily through the hall, "accept Selena Blackthorn as my mate and queen. I swear loyalty to her blood, her crown, and the future we will build together."
My chest tightened. For a moment, grief pressed in. My father should have been here. The Alpha King who raised me, who protected me, who taught me strength even when the pack tried to strip it from me. I swallowed and lifted my chin.
"I accept," I said softly. "I choose you."
The bond flared faintly beneath my skin. The pack erupted in cheers. The sound washed over me, loud and overwhelming, but I smiled anyway. I was happy. Or at least, I believed I was.
After the ceremony, the hall filled with movement and voices. Congratulations. Bowed heads. Gentle touches I barely registered. Silas stayed close, his hand resting at my lower back, guiding me through it all.
When the sun began to dip, he leaned close to my ear. "We should go," he said. "The final rite must be completed before night fully falls."
I nodded without question. This was tradition. The Cleave of the Mountain. The place where our ancestors sealed their bonds and swore their rule to the land.
We left quietly.
The path to the mountains was long and winding. The higher we went, the colder the air became. The world grew quieter, as if the mountain itself demanded silence. I pulled my cloak tighter around me while Silas led the way, his steps confident, unhurried.
My wolf stirred faintly, a distant presence in my chest. She had always been quiet. Dormant. I thought nothing of it.
"This place," I said as we walked, "my father used to tell me stories about it."
Silas glanced back at me with a smile. "Then tonight, you will finally stand where kings and queens were made."
Something in his tone sent a small shiver through me, but I brushed it aside. I trusted him. I loved him.
When we reached the cleave, the land opened into a wide stretch of stone overlooking a deep, endless drop. The wind roared around us, tugging at my hair and dress. Clouds drifted far below, hiding what waited beneath.
Silas stopped near the edge.
He turned to me and lifted my face gently in his hands. His touch was familiar, almost comforting. "Selena," he said quietly. "Everything begins here."
My heart swelled. "I am ready," I whispered.
He leaned down and kissed me. Soft. Slow. Careful. For a heartbeat, the world felt right.
I smile at his gesture, warmth blooming in my chest.
"You're quiet," he says, glancing down at me.
"I'm nervous," I admit softly. "This place feels… overwhelming."
He chuckles, low and indulgent, and takes my hand. His grip is firm, grounding.
"You were born for this," he says. "Daughter of the Alpha King. My mate. My Luna."
My heart swells painfully at his words.
All my life, I have been told I was too fat to rule. Too emotional. Too gentle to wear a crown soaked in blood and war. But he never said that. Never to my face.
He always told me I was enough.
The moonlight reflects off the jagged rocks below, the sea roaring far beneath us. I step closer to him, trusting him to keep me steady near the edge.
"Once this is done," I say quietly, "everything will change."
"Yes," he agrees.
I turn to look at him, expecting reassurance. Expecting tenderness.
Instead, his gaze was distant. Calculating.
A strange unease curls in my stomach.
"What is the problem?" I asked.
"You really are as trusting as they say," he murmurs.
"They?" I echo.
He steps back, creating distance between us. The bond between us, always warm and reassuring, flickers. A sharp, unfamiliar pain pierces my chest.
"What are you doing?" I ask, panic creeping into my voice.
"This," he says, lifting his chin toward the moon, "is where it ends."
The air changes.
I feel it before he speaks the words. My wolf whimpers inside me, confused, distressed.
Under the Blood Moon, his voice carries power. Authority. Law.
"I reject you, Selena Blackthorn" he says clearly. "As my mate."
Pain explodes through me.
I gasp, dropping to my knees as the bond tears violently, like flesh being ripped from bone. I clutch at my chest, screaming as my wolf howls in agony.
Even in pain, I still couldn't believe this was real. It felt like a bad dream.
"You can't," I sob. "You need me. The law—"
"The law needed your bloodline," he corrects coldly. "Not you. And to be honest, no one in the pack believes you are anything special, like have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You are wolfless. Weak. Fat and ugly. Your father must have lied to everyone about you being special, with the hope of protecting you after his death"
His words hurt. They felt like a million needles slicing through my heart. My eyes stinged with unshed tears. I look up at him through blurred vision. "I loved you."
He sighs, almost bored. "That was your mistake. I never loved and never will."
Understanding crashes into me in brutal waves.
My father's sudden death.
The council's sudden support for him.
This trip. This cliff.
"You were supposed to stand beside me," I whisper.
"I was," he says. "Until you outlived your usefulness."
He steps closer, looming over me, his shadow swallowing mine.
"With you gone," he continues, "I will marry your sister who is already pregnant with my heir and together we will rule the pack without your weakness slowing us down."
I scramble backward, hands scraping against stone, terror finally overwhelming shock.
"You will not get away with this," I choked. I tried to move, but he was faster.
He gripped me and dragged me to the edge of the mountain.
"The pack will mourn you," he says. "Briefly," he says.
"Please, don't do this," I begged.
And for a moment, I thought he might hesitate.
He doesn't.
The push is firm and final.
The world disappears beneath me.
The wind tore the scream from my throat as the sky spun above me. My body slammed into stone, pain exploding through every part of me. My vision blurred, but I saw them. I saw him.
Silas stood at the edge.
Loretta, my adopted sister stepped beside him and pressed her lips to his, her eyes fixed on me with a smile full of victory.
Darkness closed in.
And then there was nothing.