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The words hit like a blade straight through my chest. The mate bond cracked open so violently I almost dropped to my knees. Every soft curve the elders had sneered at suddenly felt like a brand of shame under the full moon and the entire pack’s staring eyes. My wolf—what little of her a human could claim—howled in pure agony. I locked my spine and forced my face to stay blank. I would not give him the satisfaction of watching me break.
“I, Maya Reed, accept your rejection.”
The final cut. I saw Kael’s shoulders flinch, his hand briefly press against his own chest before he straightened and looked at me like I was already nothing.
“You will not speak of this to anyone,” he said coldly. “I will not have the territory know their Alpha was tied to something so… soft.”
Then he turned and walked away.
I left the clearing with my head high and my heart in pieces. Only when I was alone in the dark, far from every judgmental eye, did the barriers finally shatter. I sank to the ground, arms wrapped tight around the soft body he had just publicly called unworthy, and cried until there was nothing left. Fated mates were supposed to choose each other. He was supposed to protect me, cherish me, look at me like I was enough.
Instead I had never felt more unwanted in my life.
