Chapter 3

Charlotte POV

The day of the Ascension Ceremony dawned with a sky like bruised iron-gray, heavy, and oppressive.

The entire Sullivan territory buzzed with a frantic sort of anticipation. Banners in the Pack colors-deep forest green and burnished gold-fluttered from every lamppost, snapping in the biting wind.

I wasn't in the main house. I had spent the night in the gardening shed, curled into a tight ball beneath a scratchy burlap sack, trying to conserve warmth.

Two warriors found me at sunrise.

"Alpha's orders," one of them grunted, his fingers digging into my arm as he hauled me up. "You attend the ceremony."

"I don't have clothes," I whispered, my voice hoarse from disuse.

He tossed a gray bundle at my feet. It was a maid's uniform. Old, stained with grease, and hanging loosely in all the wrong places.

"Wear this."

They marched me to the town square like a prisoner of war. A massive wooden stage had been erected in the center, dominating the space. The entire Pack was there-hundreds of wolves, draped in their finest silks and suits.

I was shoved into the crowd, forced near the back, hidden behind the overflowing garbage bins.

"Look at her," someone whispered, the sound sliding through the air like a snake. "Pathetic."

"I heard she tried to kill the new Luna," another answered, their voice dripping with feigned scandal.

I kept my head down, wrapping my arms around my torso, trying to make myself invisible.

Music blasted from the speakers, vibrating in the ground. The crowd erupted into cheers.

Gabe walked onto the stage.

He looked magnificent in a black tuxedo, his Alpha aura rolling off him in suffocating waves. But his face was pale, drained of blood, and his jaw was set so tight a muscle ticked beneath the skin.

Next to him stood Harper. She wore a white gown that hugged every curve, the fabric shimmering with embedded diamonds. She didn't just look like a queen; she looked like she had already won the war.

And standing beside them, preening like peacocks in the limelight, were my parents.

"My Pack!" Gabe's voice boomed, amplified by the microphone, echoing off the surrounding buildings. "Today marks a new era for the Sullivan Pack. We are strong. We are wealthy. And soon, we will be unstoppable."

The crowd roared its approval.

"But strength requires sacrifice," Gabe continued. The crowd quieted instantly. "It requires cutting off the dead weight."

My heart stopped in my chest.

Gabe turned. His eyes scanned the sea of faces until they locked onto me with the precision of a weapon. Even from this distance, I felt the glacial chill of his gaze.

"Bring her forward," he commanded.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea before Moses. Two warriors grabbed my arms and dragged me toward the stage. I stumbled, scraping my knees raw on the pavement, but they hauled me up without a second thought.

They threw me at the foot of the stairs like a sack of refuse. I looked up at Gabe, desperation clawing at my throat.

"Gabe, please," I whispered. "Don't do this."

Harper leaned over the railing, a cruel smile playing on her lips. "Go on, Gabriel. Set yourself free."

Gabe took a ragged breath. He looked down at me, and for a fleeting second, I saw an abyss of pain in his eyes. His inner wolf was fighting him. I could feel it through the fraying bond-his wolf was howling, scratching at the walls of his mind, screaming NO!

But Gabe was a man who loved power more than his own soul.

He raised his voice, ensuring every wolf, every guest, and every spy from neighboring packs could hear him clearly.

"Charlotte Jennings," he began.

The silence was deafening. Absolute.

"You are Wolfless. You are weak. And you are unworthy."

I shook my head, tears flying from my cheeks. "I love you. I built this Pack for you!"

He ignored me. He gripped the microphone, his knuckles turning bone-white.

"I, Gabe Sullivan, Alpha of the Sullivan Pack, reject you, Charlotte Jennings, as my mate."

The words hit me like a sniper's bullet.

Then came the sound. A physical, sickening SNAP that echoed through the square. It was the sound of my soul breaking in half.

"ARGHHH!" I screamed, clutching my chest. It felt as though a rusted hook had been driven through my ribcage and ripped my heart straight out.

The pain was blinding, white-hot and consuming. I curled into a ball in the dirt, gasping for air that refused to fill my lungs. The bond, that golden thread that had tethered our souls for years, shriveled and turned to ash.

Gabe staggered back on stage, clutching his own chest. His wolf was tearing him apart from the inside.

"Accept it!" Harper hissed at him. She grabbed his arm, aggressively rubbing her scent over him to mask the distress, to soothe the shock.

I lay in the dirt, my vision blurring at the edges. By Pack Law, I had to complete the ritual. If I didn't, the rejection sickness would kill us both-slowly, painfully.

I looked up at him through swollen eyes.

"I..." I choked, tasting copper. "I, Charlotte Jennings... accept your rejection."

The connection severed completely. I felt cold. Not just physically, but existentially. It was as if the sun had vanished from the universe, leaving me in eternal winter.

"Take her away," Eleanor's voice rang out, sharp and imperious. "Get that trash out of my sight."

"Wait!" Harper stepped forward. She looked down at me with a performance of pity. "She is carrying a child. Or so she claims."

The crowd murmured, a low ripple of shock.

"A bastard child," Eleanor declared loudly, seizing the narrative. "Probably a rogue's spawn. It cannot be born on Sullivan land."

"No," I moaned, trying to crawl away, my fingers digging into the dust. "No, he's yours, Gabe! He's yours!"

Gabe looked away. He turned to his back on me.

That was the moment I died. Charlotte the wife, Charlotte the architect, Charlotte the dreamer-she died right there in the dirt at the foot of that stage.

"Take her to the clinic," Eleanor ordered the guards. "Clean her up. Make sure she leaves this territory... empty."

My blood ran cold. Empty.

"No!" I screamed, finding a reserve of strength in my sheer terror. "You can't! It's illegal! You can't force me!"

"On my land, I am the law," Gabe said, his back still turned.

My parents watched without flinching. My mother adjusted her diamond necklace, checking the clasp. My father checked the time on his gold watch.

Two burly warriors hoisted me up.

"Don't struggle, girl," one whispered, his breath hot against my ear. "It'll only hurt more."

They dragged me toward a black van waiting at the edge of the square like a hearse. I kicked and screamed, but I was a weakened Omega against trained killers.

As they threw me into the dark interior of the van, I saw Gabe one last time. He was kissing Harper, desperate to drown out the pain of the rejection in her lips.

The door slammed shut, plunging me into total darkness.

"I will kill you," I whispered to the dark, my voice trembling with a new, cold resolve.

"I will kill you all."