Laughter and music filled the air, bouncing off the stone walls of the pack hall. I dug my fingers into the glass in my hand as the chill from the drink seeped into my fingers, grounding me. The pack members around me were either dancing or smiling, exchanging laughter and warm glances as they celebrated. It was a unifying night, one of strength to show and prove just how well we stood together. Yet, this weight upon my chest would not budge, and every breath felt as heavy as the last.
Across the room, Alpha Logan stood to his full height, his very presence an assurance of respect and awe, as it always had been. His dark hair fell across his brow as if without any effort, and his piercing gaze in those blue eyes made all who crossed his path those closest to him feel as though they were under scrutiny. I watched him speak to a few of the elders. He nodded now and again. His face was impassive. But when his eyes caught mine, there was no welcome there, no echo of friendship.
I shifted on my feet, my heart pounding harder the longer stretched the seconds. Tonight was supposed to be the night one I had dreamt of since the first time I felt the bond spark between us. My hands felt clammy around the cold drink while trying to push down the wave of hope rising. I lied to myself that I was a fool. But it could not be helped that the time had come that I was waiting for, that he would finally acknowledge our bond in front of the pack, and we would be more than whispers and glances stolen in the night.
A hush fell over the crowd as Logan stepped onto the small platform at the front of the room. The flickering light from the candles cast shadows across his face, adding a hard edge to his jaw, and making him appear even more untouchable. My stomach churned with a mix of anticipation and dread as his eyes found mine, holding them hostage for one long, tense beat.
Tonight," he began in a firm, commanding voice that echoed through the quiet hall. "We come together in praise of our pack's strength and unity. We honour those among us who have demonstrated loyalty, enduring strength, and bravery before every test set before them.
People around me nodded gravely. Once more, Logan's eyes traversed the circle before settling on me once more. Darkening, he said in a harder voice, "In every kind of justice, civil or common law- even the damned alternative systems throughout history-human life is not taken for lesser offences.
"There's something more I need to address," he said, weight in every word that pulled a knot tighter inside of me. "As Alpha, I make choices that are best for the pack, even if they may be hard choices. That is the duty I uphold."
My breath caught as a murmur went through the crowd. I made myself not move, fighting the urge to step back, to run. He couldn't mean—
"I forsake my bond to Aria," he said, his voice cold, hard as stone.
The words cut through my mind, heavy and raw blade to the chest. I felt the world had splintered beneath my feet. Gasps and shocked whispers filled the room, but it all faded into a hum as my focus narrowed down to Logan. His face was impassive; no emotion crossed his features, not even to acknowledge me as anything more than a stranger.
I wanted to scream, plead with him to take it back, to say he didn't mean it. Yet, the icy look in his eyes, the unrelenting line of his mouth, held me in place, immobile. As if all the warmth and affection I'd ever seen in him had vanished, leaving just this cold shell.
It was the bond between that invisible thread which once pulsed with life, with the possibility to snap, leaving a void so deep it threatened to swallow me in. My vision blurred and I blinked fast, not to show a break in front of anybody. Not here. Not in front of everyone. But the ache in my chest seemed only to grow, twisting tighter with every breath.
My hands were shaking, and the glass fell from my fingers, hitting the stone floor with a loud crash. It was as if the sound drew the attention of everyone in the room to us, eyes darting between Logan and me with expressions torn between pity and incredulity.
Logan didn't even blink, still staring down at me with those frozen, detached eyes. He didn't flinch at the sound of shattering glass, at the mess I'd made. And that hurt the most. I remembered all those stolen moments, those silent promises. Had I been wrong? Had I misread it all?
I was fighting the sob raking its way up my throat with a tearing pain that ripped through my chest. My head jumbled with impossibility, pain, and questions that would never find their answers. It all seemed so unreal, just a terrible dream from which I would wake up.
But Logan's rejection was real, as real as the sharp edges of glass scattered across the floor. As real as the looks of pack members who watched me with a mix of shock and pity.
Desperation clawed at me, urging me to reach out to him, to plead for an explanation. My lips parted, but no words tumbled from my lips. How could I ask why, when he'd already decided I wasn't worth an answer? I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. The metallic taste of blood, coating my tongue, kept me from shattering completely.
Whispers rose loud, dissolving into a noise that could not be borne, which crushed me. I could not stand here anymore; I could not bear the look of indifference in his eyes. Wordless, I turned and left, the weight of every gaze pressing on my back as I went out from the hall.
The night air outside was crisp, with the stars distant and cold, mirroring the same emptiness inside. My breathing came in ragged gasps, each more painful than the last. I stumbled forward, my hands clenching into fists as the weight of reality settled in, like a suffocating shroud, that Logan had rejected me.
In him, I had believed in the bond that existed between us. Real, I had thought it was, something worth fighting for. Tonight, he had proved just how less I meant to him than all my desperate clung-to illusions.
A sob finally tore asunder the silence of the night. Raw, with all the hurt and all the love I had foolishly held for him. Every fall of a tear felt like a released piece of the bond that had tethered me to him was breaking, fading away.
I dropped to my knees and let the cold, dewy grass push against my skin, anchoring me as I cried. Nothing in the night brought comfort, no warmth that could soothe the ache in my heart. Only the sharp, undeniable reality that Alpha Logan had rejected fractured and alone in a way I never thought possible.
And in the witnesses of the stars to my pain, I silently vowed unto myself that I would never let his rejection be the definition of me. This too would heal. Though the bond had been torn, I would find some way to stand on my own two feet, even if it meant stitching my heart together shard by painful shard.