Hazel's POV
MATE
Eva screamed, her voice vibrating through my bones.
MATE! OUR MATE!
Inside my mind, Eva was leaping. Mate, mate, mate! she chanted. For eighteen agonizing years, I had felt completely alone an unwanted burden to the world and a punching bag for Lunas Crest. But the Moon Goddess hadn't forgotten me. She had saved someone just for me. Someone who's going to love and protect us.
Slowly, I raised my eyes. Standing at the far end of the corridor was Silas.
I froze in place.
He was looking straight at me. His intense eyes locked onto mine with unwavering concentration that made my pulse race. Beside him stood Hailey, her hand looped snugly through the crook of his elbow, her head leaning casually against his shoulder as she chattered away. But Silas wasn't listening to her. His jaw clenched tight as he inhaled deeply.
He felt it too.
Before Hailey could even finish her sentence, Silas unhooked his arm from her grip and started walking toward me.
My heart pounded a frantic rhythm against my ribs. A surge of disbelief and pure happiness bloomed in my chest. Silas. The future Alpha. Was it really possible? Could the Goddess truly give a girl like me someone so bright? Could someone like him ever look at someone like me with love?
As he closed the distance between us, his long strides quick and purpose-driven, I swallowed hard, trying to smooth down my sweater and push my hair out of my face. I felt so painfully out of place standing in his path.
Silas stopped right in front of me. Up close, his scent was so intoxicating it made my head spin. I looked up timidly into his handsome face, hoping against hope to see a flicker of warmth, or maybe a soft look of recognition.
Instead, he wrapped his hand tightly around my wrist and looked at me with an expression of pure, unadulterated disgust.
"Silas?" a voice said behind us.
"Babe, what are you doing?" Hailey asked, her tone dripping with sweetness. "Why are you holding her hand? The car is waiting outside. We're supposed to go home for the pack dinner, remember?"
"Go wait in the car, Hailey," he growled, his voice tight and strained, and staring intensely at me.
Hailey took a step closer, her sweet smile dropping into a disgusted sneer as she gestured at me. "Silas, don't be ridiculous. Whatever this trash did, let the guards handle it. You don't need to waste your breath on a wolfless loser-"
"I SAID GO WAIT IN THE CAR!"
The words boomed through the hallway with the crushing weight of an Alpha's command. The air vibrated with raw power. The sheer authority behind his voice slammed into Hailey and me like a physical strike.
Hailey gasped, her mouth snapping shut as her knees buckled slightly under the obedience of the command. A flash of shock crossed her face. She looked at Silas, then threw a venomous glare at me, before turning on her heel and hurrying down the hallway, her posture rigid with humiliation.
Silas shoved me into the empty classroom and kicked the door shut. The heavy door slammed with a loud thud, locking us in the empty room.
As soon as we were alone, Silas tore his hand away from my arm as if my skin was coated in poison.
"Fucking dammit!" he roared, slamming his fist straight into the wooden teacher's desk. The force of it shattered the corner of the wood.
I flinched violently, taking a step back until my back hit the wall. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to make my body as small as possible.
Silas began pacing back and forth in the room. He ran both hands through his hair, pulling at the roots and cursing endlessly under his breath. He looked furious, his ocean-blue eyes filled with disappointment.
"Silas...?" I squeaked out, my voice barely a whisper. "What's... what's wrong?"
He stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned his head to face me.
"What's wrong?" he repeated, his voice dangerously low, laced with bitter sarcasm. "You're asking me what's wrong? The Moon Goddess must be having a sick, twisted joke with me. You. Of all the people... you are supposed to be my mate?"
Eva whimpered softly in my head.
"But, Silas... we...we're mates..."
"Shut up!" he barked, stepping into my space. "Don't you dare say that word! You think I'm going to stand in front of my pack, in front of the world, and introduce you as my future Luna? A pathetic omega?"
Every word hit me like a stone, but the worst part was... a small voice in my head whispered that he was right. How could I have ever been so foolish? How could someone like me stand beside the Silas River? I didn't deserve him. I didn't deserve any of this.
"Look at you, Hazel," Silas spat, gesturing distastefully at my face. "You're weak. You have zero power, zero status. You are a stain on this school, and you would be the utter embarrassment of my pack. Hailey is the daughter of an Alpha. She brings power, beauty, and respect. You bring nothing."
"I'm sorry," I sobbed out, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I pressed myself harder against the wall, bowing my head in complete shame. "I'm sorry, Silas... I didn't ask for this... I'm so sorry..."
"I don't care about your apologies!" he shouted into the quiet room. Then drew in a harsh breath, taking two steps back. The air in the room grew suffocatingly heavy around us.
"Listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once. You're not my mate, and you'll never be one, Hazel." He said.
"I, Silas River, future Alpha of the Half Moon Pack,reject you, Hazel DeRose, as my mate and my future Luna."
It felt as if my entire soul was being forcibly torn apart. A blinding, searing agony flared in my chest, so intense that my legs gave out completely, collapsing onto the cold floor, clutching at my shirt over my heart as a ragged scream tore from my throat. It felt as if someone had plunged a blade into my chest and twisted it slowly. I curled into a tight, trembling ball, sobbing hysterically as the agony consumed me. Eva whimpered in absolute despair, retreating into the deepest, darkest corner of my mind, broken and silent.
"Please... please stop..." I wept, suffocating on my own tears. "It hurts... please..."
Silas stood over me, looking down at me. There was no pity in his eyes. Just the quiet relief of a man who had just discarded a worthless burden.
He adjusted his shirt, brushing a speck of dust off his sleeve.
"Get over it, Hazel," he said coldly. "And if you ever tell a single soul about what happened in this room today, I will make sure you and your addict mother are banished from this territory to starve in the rogue lands. Do you understand me?"
I couldn't even form words. I just lay there on the floor, trembling violently, and clutching my aching chest as my quiet sobs filled the empty room.
Without another word, Silas turned on his heel and walked out, living proof of how disposable I was to him. He left me alone on the floor, slamming the door shut behind him. His footsteps echoed down the corridor until they faded into total silence.
I lay there on the floor for what felt like hours, squeezed against the wood, waiting for the pain to stop. The room grew darker around me.
He threw us away, Eva whimpered weakly in the silence of my mind. Because we aren't enough.
We never were, I thought back, tears silently soaking into the sleeve of my sweater.
Silas was right. I was just a wolfless omega with a mother who barely remembered my name. Of course the future Alpha couldn't have me as his Luna. It was foolish of me to even hope, even for a single second, that the Moon Goddess had saved something good for me. I was meant to be at the bottom. I was meant to be forgotten. This was simply my place in the world.
Slowly, I dragged my weak body up off the floor. My chest throbbed with a dull, hollow emptiness. I wiped my tear-stained face with the back of my shaking hand and stared blankly at my worn-out shoes.
He didn't want us. He rejected us because I was a mistake. And who was I to argue with an Alpha?
I squeezed my eyes shut, letting out a small, broken breath. If this was what was meant for me, I had no choice but to accept it.
"I... I, Hazel DeRose accept your rejection, Silas River," I whispered quietly into the empty room, my voice trembling with defeat. "And I... I reject you too."I picked up my backpack from the floor, slinging the heavy strap over my weak shoulders. I turned toward the door, my head hanging low, hugging myself tightly to keep from falling apart completely.
I pulled the door open and stepped out into the dark, empty hallway.
