"I, Liam Parker, son of Alpha James Parker and Luna Grace Parker, reject Elizabeth Donovan as my mate."
Liam Parker, my mate and childhood friend, stood before me and everyone else in the Crimson Pack. The hushed whispers from the people who came to listen and witness the first rejection that has ever happened in our pack reached my ears. They couldn't believe what they just heard, but then again, they already expected this to happen ever since Liam brought another woman in the picture.
"You can't do this, Liam! I am your mate!" Before I could stop my mouth, the words I wanted to swallow were already out and heard by everyone. I couldn't believe this was happening to me right now.
I always thought that Liam and I were meant to be even before we knew we were mated to each other. We were always together, did things together, and adored each other. No one in the pack could understand him better than me, and it was the same for him towards me.
It was two months ago when everything changed. He had to go to the Edge, the place where non-magic and every non-supernatural being lived. He was ordered by Alpha James, his father, to investigate the rogue who had killed his parents and ran away to the human world. The story after that… I had no idea.
When I finally met Liam again after two months, he did not only bring the rogue all beaten and tied up back to the pack, he also brought back a girl with him.
At first, I hadn't really thought much about it. After all, what kind of magic would that girl possess to enchant my mate into liking her and bound him to her forever? I was mated to him and not her.
But never would I have ever thought that this would happen to me. Having my own mate reject me in front of everyone else. It was a public execution without the gore and blood splattering everywhere. No executioner to slice off my head nor a sweeper who will carry my lifeless body from the public's curious gazes.
Instead, I stood there as if I was naked, watched by everyone as Liam humiliated me and rejected me, turning me into a laughingstock.
''You can't do this to me… You can't reject me..." I said in between a whisper and a desperate plea for him to revoke his words and tell me this was just a mistake.
"I can, actually," he said, his voice dripping with indifference, not a shred of remorse or concern how his words would cut me—or my wolf. His next words were difficult for me to swallow and was like a slap to my face. "I was trying to handle this discreetly, but you just had to make a scene, didn't you, Lizzie? Let me go. You and your pitiful excuse of a wolf are not worthy to be my mate."
A gasp slipped from my mouth as pain surged out as each word cut deeper.
I listened to his every word and images of our younger self immediately passed by my vision. I could see him running around with that cheeky smile and dimples I fell in love with, the way he would hold my hand gently as we took a walk in the middle of the woods, and when he almost kissed me on the lips before my father called me for dinner.
It hurt that the man who shared the sweetest moments of my life would now look at me with disgust.
"Anyway… even if you tie me up and force me to be with you, I can no longer mark you as my mate." His words struck me like a blow, and I raised my head in disbelief. He didn't mean that … right? But Liam proved my thoughts wrong as he continued, "I already marked someone else as my mate."
A sharp gasp came out of already parted lips when I heard him say he already took someone else as his mate. It didn't matter to me who it was, what mattered was that he was willing to give me up and make someone else his mate.
My body felt light, my throat tightened as if I were choking on lead. The shame and betrayal were nearly impossible for me to endure.
Liam bowed his head to his father and mother, the Alpha and Luna of our pack, and turned on his heels to walk away. They didn't stop him. No one did. I stepped forward to block him, hoping he'd reconsider. But as I watched him stretch his arm out toward a beautiful girl standing amongst the crowd, my body froze and my steps faltered.
"Let's go home, Avery."
Hearing him say another woman's name, my heart shattered into tiny pieces of shards underneath my feet.
When Liam and Avery left, the watchers also left with them. They had enough of the show we displayed before their eyes. No one even stayed behind to know if I was alright and didn't even pretend to be angry at what Liam did to me.
I felt a hand pat me on my shoulder and raised my head. Alpha James stood beside me. I had expected him to give a few words of comfort and reassurance that he would talk to his son. Perhaps, if he did, Liam could rethink his decision on rejecting me as his mate. But I was met with a pair of unconcerned eyes of the leader of Crimson Pack. "Child, I'm sorry for what my son did. But you must understand him. He is my son and the future Alpha of the Crimson Pack, having a latent wolf as his mate, I don't think he can accept that."
After saying that, he left with his wife, leaving me behind, alone and scarred, to hold myself together.
Of course. How could I ever forget who and what I was?
I am the daughter of a drunkard in the pack, a girl who was born with a latent wolf, someone who failed to turn into her beast form. On the other hand, Avery was the daughter of Beta Robert, who had been missing for the past two years.
Besides that, Beta Robert's wife was influential in the human world, making the trade between the Crimson Pack and the humans go easily.
After everything had dawned on me, I felt my feet starting to move. It brought me back home, to the small barn where I lived together with my sister and father. I kept walking until I saw the familiar back of my sister, Isabelle, and father, Brandon.
When they saw me walking over to them, I couldn't even open my mouth before my father's thick and rough palm landed on my right cheek.
"You pathetic little runt! Didn't I tell you to just give up on that nonsense? What the hell were you thinking? Not only did you get rejected, but you also dragged our name through the mud in front of the entire pack! What a disgrace!" My father shook my shoulders as he hollered at me.
I was too tired and broken to respond, that I didn't even feel the pain when he slapped me across the face. My blank stare was the only answer I could muster as hot tears streamed endlessly down my cheeks.