Chapter 2 Whispers in the morning

The sun rose cruelly bright.

Golden light spilled across the servant wing's narrow corridor, as if daring me to leave the fragile darkness of my room. My eyes felt raw, heavy with sleeplessness and grief. I hadn't shifted. I hadn't eaten. My bones ached with the weight of what Damon Spears had said-of what he'd done.

He was my mate. And he had rejected me in front of half the pack.

Not formally, not with the ceremony and words that would sever the bond completely-but with enough contempt to make it clear.

I didn't belong.

I never had.

And now, I never would.

But life in Silver Hollow didn't stop because an omega's heart was torn in half. There were linens to wash. Floors to scrub. Breakfast to be served. Maura had pounded on my door at dawn, her voice gruff with concern masked as anger.

"If you don't come out, they'll talk worse than they already are," she'd said. "You show your face, keep your spine straight, and act like you don't care. Or they'll eat you alive."

Too late.

They already were.

I kept my head down as I entered the kitchen, but it didn't matter.

The whispers started the moment I stepped through the door.

"She actually came."

"Has she no shame?"

"An omega, the Alpha's mate? Goddess must've made a mistake."

I ignored them, or tried to. My fingers trembled as I picked up the tray of breakfast rolls meant for the training hall. My wolf, still licking the wounds of the night before, stirred weakly. She didn't have the strength to fight back. Neither did I.

"Must be nice, huh?" someone muttered as I passed. "Throw yourself at the Alpha, get your scent all over him-maybe she thinks that's enough."

"She's probably faking it. How could someone like her be fated to him?"

A sharp laugh followed. "If I were the Alpha, I'd reject her too."

I flinched but kept walking.

My chest burned with humiliation. My palms sweated against the edges of the tray. I hadn't thought it was possible to feel worse than I did last night-but this was a different kind of pain. The kind that dragged you down in pieces. Slowly. Publicly.

The halls echoed with voices as I made my way toward the training field, where the warriors would be gathering. My path took me past the main corridor-the one that overlooked the courtyard. There, I caught sight of him.

Damon Spears.

Training with two of his lieutenants, bare-chested and gleaming with sweat under the morning sun. Movements fluid. Controlled. Lethal.

But it wasn't his body that made me freeze.

It was the way he avoided looking up at the window I stood behind, as if he knew I was there. As if he felt it.

The bond still pulsed, even now-weak, strained, but alive.

He didn't want it.

And yet... he hadn't rejected me fully. Not in the way that would truly break it.

Why?

Before I could answer the question in my own head, a sneering voice rang out beside me.

"Careful, Ava. Wouldn't want your poor little omega heart to flutter again."

I turned to see Liana.

Tall. Golden-haired. The Beta's daughter. She was draped in silk and smugness, sipping a glass of juice like it was fine wine. Two of her friends flanked her, all dressed too nicely for breakfast.

"Or maybe," she added, leaning in, "you're hoping he'll change his mind. That if you mope around enough, cry in enough corners, he'll suddenly decide you're worthy."

I said nothing. I didn't have the energy.

Liana clicked her tongue. "You're not. You're nothing, Ava. An orphan no one wanted. A stray mutt taken in by pity."

Something inside me snapped-not fully, not loudly-but it shifted.

I set the tray down, slowly.

"I didn't ask for this," I said, voice low. "I didn't want to be his mate."

Liana scoffed. "No? Then why were you at the party?"

"Because I was sent. Maura made me go. I had no idea the bond would snap that night."

She stepped closer. "Doesn't matter. You still thought you had a chance, didn't you?"

I looked her in the eye. "I didn't. And I still don't."

For a moment, she faltered.

I picked up the tray again. My voice was steadier now.

"But don't mistake quiet for weakness, Liana," I added. "The Moon Goddess chose me. You can question it all you want. It won't change the truth."

Her eyes narrowed. "You think that makes you Luna?"

"No." I gave a bitter smile. "It makes me dangerous."

Then I walked away.

The words echoed in my head all the way to the training hall. I didn't know where they'd come from. I didn't even know if I believed them. But for a brief, burning moment, I felt taller.

The whispers still followed me through the corridors-snide remarks, glances, the low hiss of judgment slithering through the air. But I kept moving. I had work to do. I had breath in my lungs. That was enough.

For now.

But something was shifting. I could feel it beneath the skin of the pack. A tension. A tremor. As if something had cracked loose the moment the bond was revealed-and now nothing could go back to the way it was before.

By midday, the gossip had spread far beyond the kitchens.

I heard my name on the lips of guards. I saw warriors look me over with thinly veiled curiosity. Some with disgust. A few with pity.

But one glance from Beta Marcus said it all-cold, assessing, like he was calculating whether I was a threat.

By dusk, I knew the storm was only beginning.

And Damon?

He hadn't sought me out once.

Not to explain.

Not to finish the rejection.

Not to apologize.

He was waiting. Watching. And for reasons I couldn't understand yet, he was holding back.

Which meant he still felt the bond.

Still hadn't let me go.

The question wasn't if he would.

It was when.

And whether I'd survive it.