Chapter 3

I looked at Boris with wide eyes.  Shocked beyond words.  

Boris rejected me. 

I could not believe that he would throw the mate bond just like that. 

For what?  Because he sees me as a liability more than an asset to his ambitions?

Does his ambition to become the next Beta weighed much more than us?

“I thought you loved me?”  

Boris threw his head back and laughed.  There was a wild look on his face that I had not seen before. 

“Love? Do you think you are worthy of love when your family could not even look at you without contempt in their eyes?”

That shut me up. 

Boris is right. How can anyone love me when even my own family could not?

Slowly, I sank on my knees. 

Boris was my only hope.  I thought he loved me, but as it turned out, his love is shallow. He could not love me as purely as I needed to be loved. 

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision.  A pain so deep seared into my heart.  I could not breathe.  My nose and throat were clogged.  My chest felt constricted. Beads of sweat dotted my forehead and other parts of my body. 

The pain was too intense.  It was horrible, much worse than learning about the circumstances of my birth and the rejection of my family. 

Boris’ rejection felt like a part of me had been brutally severed. 

The burning pain was so intense.  It continued to assault me, coursing through every vein until I was reduced to a heap on the floor.    

“Oh, goddess!”  I cried in my mind.  I howled in pain, clutching at my chest, asking for immediate relief. 

And then, I saw Boris looking down on me with a puzzled look on his face.  I reached out my hands, in a last-ditch effort to appeal to him.

“Undo the rejection, Boris.  I know you still love me.  Please?” 

Boris turned a deaf ear to my plea.  He crossed his hands over his chest and turned his head away from me. 

The excruciating pain continues to assault me. I bucked on the floor, writhing in pain, as I continued to hold on. 

“Boris don’t do this.  I am your mate.”  I appealed to him once more, allowing tears and sweat to mix and drench my face. 

Impatience spread all over Boris’ face.  He looked downright nasty and different.   He looked like Boris, but not the one I treasured in my heart. 

“You are not my mate. You are a disgrace to your family.” He snarled, putting into words the realization I came to a while back. He enunciated every word like he meant to punish me for misleading him into thinking he was marrying an Alpha’s daughter, only to learn about my lurid past. 

I am like a fake gold in his eyes.    

The look of disappointment in his eyes made me look at myself in shame.  What makes the feeling worse is when he grabbed Lyla’s hair and declared, 

“This is my mate. The future heir to the Alpha throne is my mate, not some disgusting bastard!” 

I shut my eyes to ward off the pain caused by his words, but Boris seemed to revel in my pain. 

“You are nothing but a disgrace!  A b”tch who would lie to her teeth to coat her skin in gold. Luckily I saw through your plan, you worthless piece of a*s!” He spat angrily.

While his eyes were trained on my suffering, Boris forced his lips on my sister’s. He kissed her lustfully and Lyla kissed him back, uncaring that I was there to witness their betrayal.   

I heard my sister whimpering in surprise, but it very quickly turned into pleasure. She was in heat. 

The sound made me cringe inside.  So this is how it felt to be betrayed by your own mate. I now fully understand Luna Bella’s pain.  It was excruciating.  I almost wish that Luna Bella succeeded in killing me that night. 

Then another pain hit me, not in the chest but in my lower belly. 

I  watched in agony while Boris ground their lips together, their bodies undulating in unbridled passion.  My face burned upon hearing my sister’s mewling sounds of surrender. She was so enjoying their foreplay that she had forgotten all about me. 

I watched as they tore at each other’s dress, overtaken by their own desires to mate and fulfill the mate bond. 

Boris lustfully dug his face into the valley of Lyla’s b*east. Lyla’s involuntary moan of delight caused a different reaction from me.  My body jerked like it was being flagellated countless times. 

“Ah!”  I felt the first time Boris penetrated her and cried as I doubled over in pain, hearing their moans and groans fill the entire room, shouting in their fulfillment.  

Then, it happened. I felt rather than hear them mark each other. I felt Boris’s sharp tooth sink into Lyla’s neck and felt like I had died countless times.

He marked her. Boris marked my sister as his mate. They are one.  Their wolves intertwined leaving me alone - with nothing. 

______

“Erin, where are you? Are you alright?”  

I groaned, finding myself curled into a ball in the darkest part of my mind, feeling as if I was run over by a ton of bricks.  My head feels woozy.  I looked at myself and saw my skin  coated in white almost pink fur. 

The pain must have been too much for me that I had to pass out, retreating into a shell, and Maya had to take over, being the stronger creature between us. 

I looked at the skies above.  It’s twilight. The mating ritual is over. By now, everyone knows that Boris chose Lyla to be his mate. The Alpha daughter and his soon-to-be-Beta.  What a match! I sniffled, my gut twisted as bitter tears rolled down my cheeks. 

A sense of loss pervaded my whole body. It’s over.  

Maya continued to run with the wind, only stopping when we reached a clearing, but still within the Red Stone Pack territory.  

It was dark - as dark as I felt at the moment, where everything I turned looked bleak. Nothing seemed to take on a meaning anymore. 

I felt like a castoff. Nobody wanted me.  My family deserted me and my mate shunned me, took my sister as his substitute mate, and rejected me. Everybody I loved betrayed me!  I cried at the moon goddess, lamenting the broken pieces of me.

“Get a grip on yourself, Erin.” Maya talked to me, her voice in my head sounding urgent like she was going to lose me.  Maybe, she does.  I am suddenly so tired of getting up from the curled-up position in my mind. 

I whimpered.  “I have nothing, Maya.  Everybody left me.” I said, trying to shut her off.  I don’t want to talk anymore and would rather retreat inside, but Maya would not let me. 

My wolf coaxed me, reaching out to that isolated part of my brain where I hid myself in, drawing me out of the abyss where I lay hidden in the shadows. 

“I am still here,”  Maya assured me.  “I will never leave you, Erin.”  She added, telling me that she’s my only ally, my friend, and the only family in this world.

But it had no meaning to me right now, as I continue to clam up, plunging into the abyss of helplessness. 

Maya was still running, I could feel the wind slapping our fur. She was now going past the cabins that pack members inhabit and is now ready to cross the border. 

“Where are we going?” I was suddenly curious about where Maya is going to take me.  

“We have no place in the Red Stone Pack, Erin. We should leave.”

My breath hitched. The sudden realization that Maya and I do not belong to any pack hit me hard. In just one night, I lost my identity. I am a nobody - a packless wolf. 

Maya stopped running. She sat on the mossy green grass to lick her paws.       

“What are we going to do now?”  I asked my wolf, unable to think past the helplessness and the pain I felt. 

Suddenly, we hear strange sounds.  Maya’s ears perked up, picking clues from the subtle changes in the wind’s direction and the crackling sound of dried leaves being stepped on. 

It alerted us to danger.  Maya and I stood up when we saw a group of werewolves crossing the border!  They didn’t look friendly, in fact, they looked and smelled like rogues. 

We hid between the woods, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, afraid to make any sound lest we attract their attention. 

When they were gone, I realized they were going in the direction of my old pack. They were now crossing the border and were aiming for the territory. 

“We need to warn them,” I told Maya, but she was not moving. 

“It’s not our problem anymore.  Let them be attacked by rogues. They deserve it for treating us shabbily, for forcing us to run away  like thieves.”  Maya said, relishing our small revenge, but my conscience would not let me abandon my old pack. 

Alpha Leo, despite the pain he caused us, is still our family. We could not just let them die at the hands of those rogue wolves. 

“They may abandon us, but we are not like them, Maya.  We can’t let our old pack be slaughtered and live with our conscience afterward.”  I tried to convince my wolf of my way of thinking. 

“Is this only about Alpha Leo?”  I heard Maya talking in my head. 

“Of course,”  I told her, quickly defending my decision, but I could sense the doubt in Maya’s.

“This decision is not in any way connected to our traitor mate?” She asked while I slowly hid again from the shadows. I did not want to lie to my wolf. 

Despite what he did, a part of me still cares about Boris.  

Maya was silent in my head.  I worried she would not agree to my plan, but in the end, she agreed.    “Let’s just warn them and then we will be off.” 

I smiled, partially coming out, “It’s not just about Boris Maya, Alpha Leo is still our father. Luna Bella is still our mother, and Lyla is our sister.”

I heard Maya’s snort of disdain, but then she got out of our hiding place and turned around to run toward the direction of the pack territory. But just before we could sprint, something hit us.  I heard a grunt and our body went rigid like our strength suddenly deserted us.  It happened in a flash, without warning, and then everything around us became black.