The Mate They Called A Mistake

Veyra's POV

"Move!"

"Arrange the flowers!" The head maid shouted instructions to the servants who were trying to decorate the hall in which the mating ceremony would be held in a few hours.

I walked through the bustle carrying a bunch of white ribbons which nobody had hung. I didn't get a second look. That was fine. I was happy that way.

I was putting the last ribbon on the post closest to the platform for the elders when I heard my father's boots behind me. It was obvious when I heard his steps, his steps impatience, like the ground itself was wasting his time.

"Veyra."

I turned. "Father."

His eyes locked onto mine, then he scanned my face , down to my scar, and his mouth twisted in the same way it always did. Disgust mixed with disappointment.

"If you just attended the ceremony, cover your face," he said. "You know what, just don't attend it. Leave...now."

I blinked at him. "Why? Why can't I attend? I'll just be standing among other pack members."

"At the beginning it will be like that," he said, "you will be standing among the pack when it starts. They will see you, people will see you."

"So?" I scoffed to anger him.

"So, cover it," he snapped. "Would you like to spoil the evening for your sister?"

I put down the final ribbon and slowly. " How could my face spoil anything, Father?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

His jaw tightened. "Don't test me tonight, Veyra, everything has to be perfect. The elders, the visiting packs – do you comprehend what this means? And you want to be there with that face out, telling all, that you are a -!"

He checked himself, but I knew what he was going to say. I had heard it so many times that I finished it myself.

"To remind people of what?" I asked anyway. I don't know why. Perhaps my little, idiotic brain wanted him to say it straight out, just once, I hoped maybe he would say something different.

He provided me with what I requested. "Reminding everyone that your mother died the night you were born, hence the Moon goddess herself cursed you with that horrible scar. So yes, cover your face. I don't trust you to be capable of anything else when you came into this world killing the woman the moon goddess gave me!"

I didn't respond to him. There was nothing to say, that would make a difference, I had tried years ago with tears, arguments, and the desperate hope that only a child could have. I only wanted a little bit of love from my father. None of it had worked at that time. It wouldn't work now.

"Fine," I said. "I won't attend the ceremony."

He didn't have to wait to find out if I meant it. He was already strolling away, already giving orders to someone else, already forgetting that I was there.

I pulled the veil from my little satchel at my hip and held it up. Light, non-itchy, dark gauze. I placed it over my face and tied it behind my head, and I dragged my feet back to my room.

When the ceremony started, the ground was already full to capacity with pack members, all dressed in their finest and everyone had a lot of excitement. I found myself at the back, half covered by one of the older wolves, as I watched.

I mumbled my mantra to myself. "I'm here because I have no other place to be. Nothing myself. " I assured myself that the sensation in my chest was not because of the man at the heart of it all.

"Stop lying to yourself, you are here cause of him and nothing else." The voice in my head chimed in, and honestly it was not wrong.

I was here because of him...

Rhydian Vael stood beneath the Blood Moon. His broad shoulders, tall stature, dark hair pulled back from his face, and the mere presence of this man was enough to make anyone feel small and insignificant. I had seen him for years from a distance, at trainings, at the perimeter of practice fields, when he was close enough, laughing at something his brother said. I'd never spoken a single word to him. I never thought that I would. Men such as Rhydian Vael did not see omegas with scarred faces , who mended things and swept floors as people worthy of their time.

Elaris was standing beside him, glowing with certainty.

My half sister looked as beautiful as the moon itself. Golden hair pinned back with silver combs, chin lifted, a small satisfied smile on her lips as she waited for the elders to confirm what everyone in the pack already knew - she was Rhydian's destined mate, that the strongest Lycan King in the lands would soon be hers.

The older ones, both indigenes and guests, lifted their hands and started the star readings. Silence fell over the people.

The ritual light lit up between Rhydian and Elaris, thread of pale silver curling up into the air.

And then it sputtered. Flickered. Died.

There was a rumbling in the crowd.

But, nearby, someone whispered, "That's not possible."

Ysolde , one of the elders, frowned deeply and exchanged a glance with the other elders. "The stars prove a relationship, they lead mates to each other!" she said loudly to everyone. "This is the first time this has not worked out."

Elaris' smile was faltering for the first time. "There has to be a mistake," she said, her voice cutting through the mumblings. "Read it again."

"It won't be read again, that's a bad omen," Ysolde said. "We will let the wolf decide instead. Rhydian, release your essence. Let your wolf find what the stars could not confirm."

Rhydian's eyes darted to Elaris for a moment before he stepped forward and unfastened the clasp on his cloak, letting it fall behind him. I could see his jaw tighten, could see something else change on his face and then he closed his eyes.

His wolf essence came up from his chest in silver-blue shimmer like smoke in a wind. Loud gasps echoed throughout the crowd. I had never witnessed a wolf essence like this come out before - not from such a powerful source as Rhydian. It drifted, it went, it moved at its own will, over the heads of the pack gathered, searching.

It drifted first towards Elaris.

My stomach twisted. It was obvious that it would pick her. It would support their collective belief, of course.

The essence approached her, swirling just above her upturned face.

Then it continued its journey.

It went right over her head, close enough to brush her hair and it went on into the crowd.

Elaris's smile was gone by now. "Wait-" she began, but no one was listening to her. All eyes in the crowd followed the essence as it danced amongst the wolves, moving deeper in the crowd, past faces that followed with open confusion.

It was coming toward the back. Towards where I stood.

Toward me.

I did not have time to move out of the way, to shrink, to do all the things I do normally to remain unseen. The essence closed the gap in one breath, before I knew what was happening, it came, and it sank into my chest.

It was so strong, I couldn't breathe. My knees gave way, my hands rose immediately and I instinctively tried to grab on to something and the veil fell from my face and onto the ground.

I heard no more whispers.

I raised my gaze, gasping, straight to my father's eyes over the crowd.

He looked as if he were struck in the face, his mouth agape, everything about him now becoming unrecognizable.

"Veyra?"

Veyra's POV

I was still on my knees where I had fallen, the veil was wrinkled next to me, and each and every face in that crowd looked at me like I had another head. I heard my father's voice above the whispers somewhere.

"Get her up," Caedmon said, moving forward, his voice trembling with rage, which he was not hiding. "Take her up and bring her to the council chambers now."

My arms were gripped by rough hands, and pulled up to my feet. I stumbled, my mouth opened to beg them to be gentle but no words came out, legs shaking from the shock of what just had taken place, and was hauled toward the elders platform as the whole pack looked on.

"Father, I didn't..." I began, but he was not paying me attention. His face twisted with rage and humiliation he was looking at Ysolde, at the other elders.

"She's done something," said Caedmon. "She has disrupted the ceremony, I want to know how!"

Ysolde raised her hand, but the wolves holding me didn't drag me anymore, they just held me in front of the platform. Her eyes scanned me slowly, absorbing the scar that was now exposed, the veil that had fallen to the ground forgotten, the fact that I was still breathing.

Ysolde replied, "Veyra Noctelle. What just happened?"

I said, "I don't know. I swear it, I don't know. One minute, I was standing in the crowd the next the essence approached me and then it just..." I gulped. "It just came to me, I didn't call it, I didn't do anything to make it come to me. Please you have to believe me."

"After the stars themselves rejected a wolf as noble as Elaris, you expect us to believe that?" Caedmon asked. "Rhydian's own wolf abandoned its intended match to choose you .. an omega instead?"

" I don't expect anything from you." I said, keeping my voice down. "It's what really happened and I have no other answer to give you. All I said is the truth."

"If the truth has to give you a king, it's convenient," said one of the other elders, a chunky fellow named Baltram.

"I don't want this. I don't really understand what this is." I begged, frustration finding its way into my voice.

"Sister why? Why did you do this to? Is it my fault you're an omega? Is it my fault that the moon goddess blessed me and not you? Did you do this cause you hate me?"

I said quietly, "I never hated you. I've not been able to hate anyone, Elaris, I've been trying to stay out of everybody's way my whole life. I don't care about you or whatever you think you have that I don't."

"Then tell me about this," Baltram said, pointing at me as if I were a specimen on a table, "Describe how a cursed omega, untrained, without any standing, and no magic of her own, managed to steal a Lycan King's Wolf essence from his destined mate."

"I can't say anything,l I said. "I don't know, I don't have an answer to that, I don't know what happened."

The council was arguing at the same time, their voices overlapping, some pointing at me, others at Rhydian, who stood off to the side, his expression I didn't have time to read - somewhere between confusion and something more, something I didn't have time to study before Ysolde raised her hand again for silence.

"That's not an issue which can be solved with accusations," Ysolde replied. "If magic was used to disrupt a sacred bonding ceremony, we need evidence before punishment, bring the seer."

An echo reverberated through the mob. I didn't know very much about seers - they were rare, kept to themselves, summoned only when the pack itself could not find a solution. A few minutes later, a woman, older than Ysolde, was escorted through the crowd, wearing dark unadorned robes, her eyes an unsettling shade of pale grey that appeared to look through people rather than at them.

Ysolde said, "Seer Ilyenne. We need your sight, something has disrupted the ceremony between Rhydian Vael and Elaris Noctis, his wolf essence has selected this girl." She gestured to me. "We must find out whether there was magic and who it was."

I forced myself to stand my ground and not move away from her under her stare as I turned to her.

"Come closer," Ilyenne said and I did.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Veyra Noctelle."

"Explain to me, Veyra, what happened, from the start, don't leave anything out." She said in a gentle voice that made me almost trust her.

"I was helping set up the ceremony grounds," I said. "I stood at the back of the crowd watching like everyone else, when the star-reading failed between Rhydian and Elaris and then the elders told Alpha Rhydian to release his wolf essence, it went toward Elaris first, but it passed her and moved through the crowd until it reached me, then it went into me. That's all I know."

Ilyenne looked at me silently for a long time. Then, she touched me and applied two fingers lightly to my temple, next to the edge of my scar. Her touch was cool, I felt something move under my skin though, like she was looking through more than my face.

"Have you ever practiced magic?" she asked. "Have you been tutored by anyone? Went anywhere, made any incantation, made any bargain?"

"No," I said. "Never, if I tried I wouldn't know."

"Have you ever wished for something like this? Wanted to steal what didn't belong to you?" She asked again.

I was stung but I didn't break my voice. "No, I've never wished to be with the Lycan King."

Ilyenne lowered her hand and stepped back, her face unfathomable. She went to Ysolde and the other council members.

"I can't tell you what exactly happened here," she said, "but I can tell you one thing for sure. There's magic here, I can feel it, but it will take me time to see who created it, who's hands did it, and I'll have to perform a deeper ritual, one that looks at the girl and the essence of the wolf."

"What will it take, how long?" Caedmon demanded.

"As long as it takes," Ilyenne replied without a care in the world. "Rhydian, I need you to come with me to set up the ritual circle, too-the essence of Rhydian is something I need to view."

All the people were moved back to make room and I was forced to kneel in the middle of a circle that was hastily marked out in the dirt, with herbs and old bone charms scattered around the circle. Rhydian was forced to stand at the other end of the circle, so close that I could feel his eyes on me but not look into them.

Ilyenne was kneeling between us, her hands moving in slow, rhythmic patterns, speaking in a language I didn't understand. One by one, the charms around the circle started to illuminate, and something tugged at me, unpleasantly, at my ribs.

I didn't move. I didn't dare.

The ritual was a strange experience in terms of time. I don't know how long it lasted, minutes or hours - every minute seemed to follow the next, as Ilyenne's chanting changed, the charms danced and faded and came back to me, and the people around us stood in frozen silence, waiting.

After all, the sparkle dimmed from the charms and Ilyenne opened her eyes.

She slowly stood up, dusted the dust from her robes and looked at the council. Each one of those people on that platform bent forward a little bit, waiting.

"Well?" Ysolde asked. "What did you discover?

Ilyenne's eyes were white and darted from Ysolde to Caedmon to Rhydian and back to me.

"It's black magic."

Veyra's POV

For a long time no one spoke at the meeting until Baltram spoke.

"Black magic," he said again, slowly, as he tried to test their weight. "Explain yourself, Seer. Exactly what does that mean?

Ilyenne folded her hands in front of her. I mean exactly what I said. "The magic of darkness intruded upon the ceremony, and redirected Rhydian's wolf essence from its intended match to Veyra."

"Forcing it," Ysolde repeated. "So it was not just the essence that selected her.

"No," Ilyenne said. "The bond has a foreign thread in it, a dark one, it shouldn't be there."

"Then it's just the way I've said." I heard Caedmon's voice rise loud and victorious. "She took Elaris' mate with magic. I told you-"

"No, I didn't say that," Ilyenne interrupted her with a level but firm voice. "The bond had been disturbed was what I said, and I have yet to discover where the magic comes from. Its traces were properly covered, I can't read it no matter how hard I've tried."

"Who else would need this but her," replied Caedmon, "whether it is hidden or not? For the rest of her life she's always been jealous of her sister, and now she's standing in her place."

I said, "I didn't do this! I didn't ask for the essence to come to me, I didn't want any of this."

"Liar," Elaris snapped, stepping forward with her hands balled into a fist. "You've always dreamed of what I have, you don't have to pretend otherwise."

"I didn't want this," I said to her squarely. "I never wanted your life Elaris, I just wanted to be left alone."

Ysolde lifted her hands to say, "Enough. This will not be resolved by accusations. Council, we need to figure out what to do."

The old folk huddled together, purring to each other as I stood in the middle of the pack with dirt caked on my knees, all of their eyes looking at me. I could hear bits of what they were saying: dangerous, unprecedented, cannot be allowed to stand - and it was all grim news.

As Ysolde resumed to turn and face the group, her face had grown stern.

"It is a decision that the council has made," she said. "Considering the gravity of tampering with the sacred bonding ritual with dark magic, the council suggests for execution."

The thought pierced me like a gunshot. This time it wasn't even the wolf essence that made my knees almost buckle.

"No, I said, but my voice hardly reached their ears.

"She has not been charged with any crime, none that has been proven yet. "Rhydian's voice rang out among the silent crowd for the first time today. I looked around and found him standing up, his eyes glaring at the council. "The seer herself said the source of the magic is hidden. You can't kill someone for a crime that you haven't confirmed she committed."

"My lord," Baltram replied "The situation is self-explanatory."

"Circumstances are not proof," Rhydian said. "I'll not permit an execution based on speculation."

Caedmon stood up and his jaw was clenched. "What do you think you should do, Rhydian? That we just let her go, after everything she has done to my family's honor?"

"I didn't say that," Rhydian replied. "I said I'm not going to let her die without proof."

"Then, put her in jail," Elaris said quickly, taking the chance. "At least keep her locked up where she can't cause any more damage if you will not let her die. And in the meantime I'll find proof..."

I heard some people nodding along with Elaris' suggestion, and I saw a few of the elders nodding along. But before Ysolde could speak, another elder, an older man I didn't know, spoke up.

"Before any punishment is determined," he said, "the wolf essence must be taken out of her. It has no place inside her body, no matter how it got there."

Ysolde nodded slowly. "Okay, do the removing ritual."

I didn't get to ask what that meant before Ilyenne was kneeling in front of me again, the charms from before in a tighter circle than they had been. I was bound by two of the council's wolves' arms, and the same cool grip of Ilyenne's fingers was pressing against my chest, over my heart.

"This might hurt," Ilyenne said, her voice lacking sympathy. "Stay still."

It did more than hurt.

Ilyenne started to chant and within me something began to writhe, as if claws were being dragged under my ribs , his wolf panicked in me looking for something to hold on to. I was paralyzed, my body went limp and forward, but the wolves that held me were still holding me. The throb came in waves, each one more intense than the previous, and I found myself crying out, unconsciously.

"Almost there," Ilyenne whispered, but to who? I couldn't tell.

The third wave of pain was as if someone ripped my roots out of me. I cried out, everything blurred around the edges of my eyes, and then suddenly the pressure was gone, and I was shaking and gasping for air on my knees, feeling empty and hollow.

A silver-blue shimmer arose from my chest-the same spark of light I saw as the essence entered me and glide through the circle-hovering in the air above the circle.

I wondered for a few seconds if it was going to just melt away.

Instead, it moved.

It pulled away from me this time, and this time it was faster and more certain and it crossed the space straight to where Elaris stood watching. It was before she could withdraw, before anyone could take any notice, and the essence went out into her chest.

Elaris's knees buckled, one hand reaching to clutch the front of her dress as she cried out, stumbling.

The people were stunned and began to mumble.

Baltram said, in disbelief, "It's back in her. The bond has returned to its rightful place."

"Then it's confirmed," Caedmon said, rounding on me as I was on my knees and shaking "It was her magic that tampered with the bond. now it's back, and it's time for her to be punished. I demand her execution."

"Father," I was able to say, my voice hoarse. "I told you, I didn't do this."

He didn't look at me. He was observing Ysolde, and the rest of the council, waiting for their agreement.

I looked at the circle and didn't see a single face that would reason with me for any of the reasons. The look on Rhydian's face was once again impervious, his jaw clenched, his eyes staring somewhere just beyond my view. This time even he did not say anything.

I wouldn't expect anyone to listen to me. No one had ever been going to believe me.

Eventually, it was Caedmon's turn when Ysolde turned to him. "As her Alpha and father, it's your final call, Caedmon. What do you think?"

Caedmon studied me for a long time, and I think that the little pathetic part of me that was still hoping for something different went to sleep in that silence. "Execute her-"

"I said no." Rhydian's voice forced my father to swallow the rest of his sentence.

I felt a flash of relief.

"She would be exiled, rejected by this land, and her family. An exile of no return. This is my final decree." Rhydian said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

No one objected. No one at all stood up for me.

I was too weak to argue, too emptied by the ritual to do anything other than a slow, single, nod, and let the wolves let go of my arms. I stood up shakily, not wanting to look at any of them, toward the wooded edge of the field, the wooded edge of the world, the wooded edge of the only home I'd ever known.

I was just a few steps away when I saw Elaris in front of me, her body still as white as paper, her fingers lightly resting on her chest, home to the essence.

She studied me for a moment, there was a coldness in her eyes, a roughness.

"This is not over."