14

He’d drugged my wine as seamlessly as a human magician made a coin vanish.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to focus on what was important: my ceremony. When I looked at Jayson, I almost faltered. He didn’t have the customary runes and symbols painted on his face. I kept walking but wondered why. Maybe the Ninth Pack wasn’t as traditional as others. Still, he was dressed in some of the nicest clothes I’d ever seen, and as I approached, he stepped forward to face me. My worries quickly faded.

We stood facing each other for several awkward seconds. Traditionally, the male mate spoke first, but Jayson was looking around, almost as if he was uncomfortable. Had I ever attended a Ninth Pack mating ceremony? Did they do things differently? Maybe.

Inwardly rolling my eyes, I decided to take the reins and get things started. I was sure the goddess would overlook such a small change to protocol.

Pulling my shoulders back and lifting my chin, I began. “I, Kira Lana Durst, bring myself to bestow my body and soul to my fated mate, Jayson Chadwick Fell. My future is his, as his future is mine. Every full moon, every breath, and each day, I will be held under his sway as he will be under mine. I claim him as my mate fully and completely. I do this under the eyes of my pack and his. I speak these words beneath the gaze of the Moon Goddess Heline herself. May she bless us if you so claim me as well.”

Throughout the entire recitation, I’d tried to keep my eyes on Jayson’s, but his gaze had fixed on a spot in the crowd. A quick glance showed me he was looking at Wyatt. Nervous energy suddenly flicked through me. Sweat gathered in my armpits, and my palms became clammy. My inner wolf burrowed even deeper into the shelter I’d built around her, almost like she was trying to hide from the entire spectacle. Her worry was overwhelming.

Jayson looked uncomfortable, like he wasn’t sure what to do next. My gods, had he not learned the words? Was that the problem? My irritation and worry gave way to anger.

I leaned forward and hissed, “You can start anytime now.”

Jayson cleared his throat, then cast an uncomfortable glance over his shoulder at his father and brother. The knot in my stomach quickly clenched into a stone of doubt. This was not how things were supposed to go. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

Jayson’s father gave an imperious nod. Jayson turned back toward me, though he still couldn’t look me in the eyes. I was suddenly very nauseous.

“I, Jayson Chadwick Fell, son of the alpha of the Ninth Pack, under the gaze of the Moon Goddess Heline, do reject this mate as dishonorable and lacking in devotion.” His voice boomed out across the crowd.

My whole world tilted on its axis. My stomach dropped. Shock and disbelief overtook me, and it was all I could do to keep my legs from giving way. A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my chest, almost as bad as the knife wound. It settled into my bones, my guts, my heart. That was when I knew he was serious. He’d truly severed the fated bond between us. This wasn’t his idea of a stupid, ill-timed joke. The magical connection had been broken.

Angry shouts erupted from the Eleventh Pack. Curses and screams of rage came so fast, they turned into a single sound, almost like static. My entire future had been upended in an instant. I was still trying to get Jayson to make eye contact, to see if I could read something there, but he turned away and walked back to his father’s side.

Ignoring the shouts, Jayson’s father stepped forward and shouted over the commotion.

Pointing an accusatory finger at me, he shouted, “We were willing to overlook this woman’s bizarre inability to shift, but we cannot allow the future alpha of the Ninth Pack to tie himself to a woman who is loose with her body. A whore is not an acceptable mate for an alpha.”

“Fuck you, motherfucker!” Kolton’s voice rang out, audible above anyone else.

A whore? Loose? I was losing my battle with my legs and slowly sliding to the ground. It was like I’d been kicked in the chest. My breath wouldn’t come. I couldn’t breathe. Was I suffocating? Everything had been shattered in an instant.

Zoe’s voice broke through. “She’s not a whore! If you think that, you’re an idiot.”

Her chastising the alpha of the Ninth Pack was met with angry jeers from both sides. As neither a member of either pack nor a wolf shifter, Zoe had no place here and no right to speak. I worried for her safety, but I couldn’t shake myself out of this haze.

Jayson’s father spoke again. “She went into her heat in the arms of another shifter. A filthy lone wolf, of all people. The very fact that the Eleventh Pack is weak enough to align with such rabble is more evidence that they are beneath us and unworthy of our alliance.”

The ceremony devolved into chaos. High-ranking members of the Eleventh Pack shouted that they’d banish me from the pack, expel me as a lone wolf, whatever it took to get back into the Ninth’s good graces. Some of these people were relatives, some I’d thought were my friends. Now they were offering me up as a sacrifice. I glanced around and saw Kolton shoving one of the men who’d shouted out the offer. My father, face gray and eyes dazed, stared at the ground in shock as if it had vanished under his feet. Mom sobbed into her handkerchief, her eyes never meeting mine.

The council members, looking disgusted, turned away; Carter and Douglas had a mixture of pity and disappointment in their eyes as they turned their backs on me. Everything was falling apart. It was like my entire life had been a balloon and Jayson’s words a pin. I had to fix it. There had to be a way. This had been my one chance to make my pack proud.