The moonlight hit me like a slap.

I stood at the edge of the Claiming Circle, my white ceremonial dress catching the wind. Two hundred wolves watched from the shadows. Waiting. Judging.

This is it. The moment I've been waiting for since I turned sixteen.

Alpha Kael Voren stepped into the circle, and my heart forgot how to beat.

God, he was beautiful. Dark hair swept back from a face carved by cruel angels. Eyes like molten gold that had haunted my dreams for three years. His black ceremonial robes made him look like a king.

My king.

He was supposed to be, anyway. The mate bond had snapped into place on my eighteenth birthday, a golden thread connecting my soul to his. I'd felt it like lightning in my veins.

He'd felt it too. I'd seen it in his eyes.

But he'd walked away. Said he needed time. Said the pack wasn't ready for an omega Luna.

I'd given him time. Three years of it.

Now I was twenty-one, and tradition demanded he either claim me publicly or—

Don't think about the alternative.

"Kira Voss." His voice rolled across the circle like thunder.

I lifted my chin. "Alpha Voren."

Something flickered in his golden eyes. Pain? Regret?

Good. Feel it.

"You stand before this pack as my fated mate," he continued, his voice carrying to every wolf present. "The moon goddess herself bound our souls."

My wolf stirred beneath my skin, whimpering with need. She wanted to run to him. Submit. Bare her throat and beg him to finally, finally accept us.

I kept her leashed.

"Three years ago, I asked for patience." Kael's jaw tightened. "The pack faced enemies on all sides. War with the Northern clans. Betrayal from within. I couldn't afford the distraction of a mate."

Distraction.

The word landed like a knife between my ribs.

"But the wars are over now," I said, keeping my voice steady. "The Northern clans signed the treaty six months ago."

"Yes."

"And you're still not claiming me."

Silence stretched between us. The watching wolves shifted uneasily.

Kael's expression shuttered. "Kira—"

"Just say it." My voice cracked. "Whatever you dragged me here to say, just say it."

He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the gold had hardened to amber.

"I, Kael Voren, Alpha of the Shadowmere Pack, reject you, Kira Voss, as my mate and Luna."

The bond screamed.

I doubled over, gasping as invisible claws raked through my chest. My wolf howled in agony, thrashing against my control. The pain was blinding, white-hot, like someone had reached into my soul and started tearing.

No. No, no, no—

"I sever the tie between us," Kael continued, his voice rough. "I release you from any claim, any obligation, any—"

"Stop." I forced myself upright, tears streaming down my face. "You don't have to finish. I get it."

But he kept going. Every word was another wound.

"—any bond of fate or flesh. From this moment forward, you are nothing to me."

Nothing.

The golden thread inside me snapped.

I screamed. Couldn't help it. The pain drove me to my knees, my fingers clawing at the dirt. Distantly, I heard gasps from the watching pack. Someone called my name.

This is what dying feels like.

"Kira." Kael's boots appeared in my vision. "I'm sorry. But this is for the best. For both of us."

I looked up at him through a haze of tears. "For the best? You just destroyed me."

"You'll survive." His voice was cold. Distant. Like he hadn't spent three years making me believe that someday, someday, he'd want me. "You're stronger than you know."

A laugh bubbled up from my chest. Hysterical. Broken.

"I waited for you." The words came out ragged. "I turned down other suitors. I defended you to everyone who said you were stringing me along. I believed in you."

"That was your choice."

"My choice?" I staggered to my feet, fury cutting through the pain. "The bond isn't a choice, Kael. I didn't ask to be tied to you. I didn't ask to spend three years feeling half-alive because my mate refused to complete the claim."

"Which is why I'm setting you free."

"Free?" I laughed again, the sound scraping my throat raw. "You think rejection sets me free? Do you have any idea what happens to an omega whose bond is severed?"

His jaw tightened. "You'll heal."

"I'll die."

The words hung in the air.

Kael's mask slipped. Just for a second. Something like horror flickered across his features before he locked it down.

"That's not—" He shook his head. "The healers said—"

"The healers lied to you." I smiled, and it felt like baring teeth. "Or maybe they just told you what you wanted to hear. But omega bonds don't work like alpha bonds, Kael. When you reject us, you don't just break our hearts. You break our wolves."

I could already feel it happening. My wolf, who had been so vibrant just minutes ago, was fading. Retreating into some dark corner of my soul where the pain couldn't reach her.

Where she would slowly wither and die.

"No." Kael grabbed my shoulders, his grip bruising. "That's not—I didn't know—"

"Didn't you?" I searched his face. "Or did you just not care?"

"I would never hurt you like that. Kira, I swear—"

"Then why?" Tears spilled down my cheeks. "Why reject me in front of everyone? Why make it official? You could have just kept ignoring me like you've done for three years."

His hands dropped from my shoulders.

And that's when I saw her.

Lyra Ashwood stepped out of the shadows, her red dress clinging to curves I'd never have. She moved like silk and sin, her dark hair cascading over bare shoulders.

She walked straight to Kael.

And put her hand on his arm.

Oh.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Lyra said, her voice dripping with false sympathy. "But Kael and I have been together for months now. He was just too kind to tell you."

My gaze snapped to Kael. "Is this true?"

He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Answer me!"

"Lyra is..." He swallowed. "She's carrying my child."

The world tilted.

His child. She's carrying his child.

"You've been sleeping with her." My voice sounded far away. "While I waited. While I hoped."

"The pack needs an heir," Lyra said smoothly. "And you weren't providing one."

"We weren't mated."

"Exactly." Her smile sharpened. "You weren't. And now you never will be."

Something cold settled in my chest. The pain was still there, but it was distant now. Muffled.

This was planned.

The realization hit me like ice water.

"You knew." I looked at Kael. Really looked at him. "You knew rejecting me would kill me. That's why you waited until now, until the ceremony made it official and irreversible. That's why you let me believe there was still hope."

"Kira, that's not—"

"You're not just rejecting me." My voice hardened. "You're executing me. And you're doing it in front of the whole pack so everyone thinks it's just a broken heart."

Kael's face went pale.

But Lyra—Lyra was smiling.

"Clever little omega," she murmured. "Too bad you figured it out too late."

The ground lurched beneath my feet. My wolf whimpered, her presence flickering like a candle in a storm.

I'm dying.

They planned this.

He planned this.

The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Kael's face.

And the guilt that told me everything I needed to know.