Alex POV
I had found a temporary shelter in an abandoned hunter's cabin tucked away near the border of the Pack lands. It was risky, being this close, but I couldn't leave without Kennith and Kaelynn.
I spent the morning burning everything I had brought with me.
The clothes Gavyn had bought me. The photos I had saved.
I threw them into the rusted fireplace, watching the flames curl around the edges of a picture of us. Gavyn was smiling in the photo, that charming, lying smile.
"Burn," I whispered.
The fire crackled, blistering the glossy paper before consuming his face.
Suddenly, the air shifted. The birds outside stopped singing, silenced by a predator's presence.
A scent hit me. Rain and ozone.
My heart hammered against my ribs. Not out of love, but out of terror.
The door to the cabin exploded inward.
Splinters of wood rained down around me as I scrambled backward, grabbing a fire poker as a pathetic shield.
Gavyn stood in the doorway.
He looked deranged. His hair was wild, his eyes glowing the bright gold of his wolf.
"You," he growled. The sound vibrated in my chest, triggering the ancient, biological instinct to submit. I bit my tongue until I tasted copper, fighting the urge to bare my neck.
"Get out," I said, holding the poker steady.
He laughed, a harsh, barking sound. He stepped into the room, kicking the debris aside.
"Get out? You are on my land, Alex. You are my property."
"I am not your property! I am not your Luna!" I shouted.
"You dared to try and steal my children!" he roared, closing the distance between us in a blur of speed.
He grabbed my throat, slamming me against the rough wooden wall.
The fire poker clattered to the floor.
"I didn't steal them!" I choked out, clawing at his hand. "I came back to save them from her! From you!"
"Liar!" He squeezed tighter.
Black spots danced in my vision. "Iliana told me everything. You were planning to take them to the Rogues. You were going to sell my heirs!"
"She... is... lying..." I gasped.
"Silence!"
"Submit!"
The Alpha Command hit me like a physical blow.
It wasn't just a voice; it was a crushing weight that snapped my knees together and forced my head down. My body betrayed me, going limp against the wall. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.
Tears of humiliation streamed down my face. This was the man who promised to cherish me.
"You are pathetic," Gavyn sneered, leaning close. "An Omega trying to play Alpha. You deserve nothing."
My wolf whimpered inside me, curled into a ball of agony. The bond... the bond was screaming.
I looked up at him, through the haze of pain. I saw no love. No regret. Only the arrogance of a man who thought he owned the world.
Something inside me snapped.
Not a bone. Something deeper. A chain.
"I..." I forced the words out through the crushing weight of his command.
Gavyn frowned. "What?"
"I... Alex..." My voice gained strength, drawing from a reserve of power I didn't know I had. "I reject you, Gavyn Dunlap, as my Mate!"
The air in the cabin seemed to freeze.
Gavyn's eyes widened. He staggered back, clutching his chest as if he'd been shot. The rejection of a fated mate, spoken with true intent, causes physical pain to both parties.
I screamed as the bond shattered.
It felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped out my heart with a rusty hook. I fell to the floor, curling into a fetal position, vomiting blood.
"You... you bitch," Gavyn gasped, falling to one knee. His face was pale, sweat beading on his forehead. "You actually did it."
"I accept... your rejection," I whispered, completing the ritual.
The link snapped. The silence was deafening.
Gavyn roared, his wolf surfacing. He stood up, his eyes murderous. He raised his hand, claws extending. He was going to kill me.
Suddenly, his Mind-Link glazed over. He froze.
"What?" he barked at the air. "Iliana? Slow down."
He listened for a moment, his face twisting in panic.
"Rogues? At the nursery? The children?"
He looked down at me. I was lying in a pool of my own blood, my breath shallow.
I was dying. The severance of the bond, combined with the Alpha Command crushing my weak Omega body, was too much.
"You're lucky, Alex," he spat. "My children need me. Rot here."
He turned and ran out of the cabin, shifting into his massive grey wolf mid-stride.
He left me. He left me to die alone.
The darkness crept in from the edges of my vision. My body felt cold, so cold.
My babies, I thought, a single tear sliding into my ear. I'm sorry.
As the last of the light faded, I felt a strange sensation.
A heat, starting in my marrow.
It wasn't the fever of death. It was... silver.
My skin began to itch. My bones began to crack.
A howl built up in my throat, but I had no air to release it.
