The cold stone beneath my knees bit through my torn dress as Marcus dragged me across the pack square. Dawn was breaking over Shadow Pack territory, painting the sky the color of dried blood—how fitting. My wrists burned where his claws had dug in, but that pain was nothing compared to what was coming.
"Everyone out!" Marcus's voice boomed across the square, echoing off the surrounding buildings like thunder. "Every member of Shadow Pack will witness this!"
Pack members stumbled from their homes, some still in nightclothes, their faces a mixture of curiosity and dread. I kept my eyes fixed on the ground, watching droplets of my own blood fall onto the ancient stones. Each drop felt like a countdown to my destruction.
The whipping post stood in the center of the square like a monument to suffering. How many others had been broken against its weathered wood? How many had begged for mercy that never came?
Marcus's grip tightened as he hauled me to my feet. "Look at them," he snarled in my ear, his breath hot against my neck. "Look at your pack. See how they stare at their failed Luna."
I lifted my head slowly, meeting the eyes of wolves I'd once considered family. Elena, the baker's daughter, covered her mouth in horror. Old Thomas, who'd taught me to hunt, looked away in shame. Children clung to their mothers' skirts, sensing the violence that was about to unfold.
"Strip her," Marcus commanded.
My heart hammered against my ribs. "Marcus, please—"
His backhanded slap sent stars exploding across my vision. "You lost the right to speak my name the day you failed to give me an heir."
Rough hands tore at my dress, the fabric giving way with sickening ease. The morning air hit my bare skin like ice, and I heard the collective intake of breath from the crowd. They could see everything now—every scar, every mark of Marcus's previous "lessons." The crescent-shaped bite on my shoulder from our mating ceremony, now twisted with scar tissue. The thin white lines across my ribs where his claws had "corrected" my behavior. The burn mark on my lower back from when I'd dared to question his decisions.
I was a map of his cruelty, displayed for all to see.
"Behold your Luna," Marcus announced, his voice dripping with disgust. "Four years of marriage, and what does she have to show for it? No children. No strength. No worth whatsoever."
He bound my wrists to the post with silver-laced rope that burned my skin on contact. I bit my lip to keep from crying out, tasting copper as my teeth broke through flesh.
"One hundred lashes," Marcus declared, and the crowd fell silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. "For every month she has failed to conceive, she will receive the punishment she deserves."
The silver-tipped whip sang through the air before I saw it move. The first strike landed across my shoulders, and the world exploded into white-hot agony. Silver burned like liquid fire, searing through skin and muscle. I couldn't stop the scream that tore from my throat.
"Count them," Marcus ordered. "Let everyone hear you acknowledge each failure."
"One," I whispered, my voice barely audible.
The second lash crossed the first, creating an X of torment across my back. "Louder!"
"Two!" The word came out as a sob.
By the tenth lash, my back was on fire. By the twentieth, I could feel blood running down my legs, pooling at my feet. The silver in the whip prevented my wolf healing from kicking in, leaving every wound raw and burning.
Somewhere around the fortieth strike, I stopped screaming. My voice gave out, leaving only hoarse whispers as I counted each blow. The crowd had grown restless, some turning away, others watching with the morbid fascination of those witnessing an execution.
"Fifty," I gasped, my forehead pressed against the rough wood of the post.
Marcus paused, breathing heavily from his exertion. "Still conscious? You always were stubborn." He walked around to face me, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him. "Do you know what I realized last night, Celeste? You're not just barren—you're cursed. Cursed to bring nothing but disappointment to everyone around you."
Tears mixed with blood on my cheeks. "Marcus—"
"What was that?" He cupped his ear mockingly. "I didn't hear you beg properly."
Something inside me, some last ember of pride, flickered to life. "I won't beg you anymore."
His eyes flashed with rage. "Then you'll suffer for every single one of the remaining fifty."
The next fifty lashes were delivered with renewed fury. Each strike felt like it was flaying the skin from my bones. I lost count somewhere in the seventies, my consciousness flickering in and out like a dying flame. The taste of blood filled my mouth as I bit through my tongue to keep from screaming.
When it was finally over, I hung from the post like a broken doll, my legs no longer able to support my weight. The rope cut into my wrists, the only thing keeping me upright.
Marcus walked around to face me again, his chest heaving with exertion and satisfaction. He grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking my head back so I had to look at him.
"I, Marcus Stone, Alpha of Shadow Pack," he announced to the silent crowd, "reject you, Celeste Rivers, as my mate and Luna. You are nothing to me. Nothing to this pack. Nothing to anyone."
The mate bond stretched between us like a taut wire, ready to snap. I could feel it pulling at my very soul, preparing to tear away a piece of me forever. But as I looked into his cold, merciless eyes, I realized something: I wanted it gone. I wanted every trace of him ripped from my being.
"I, Celeste Rivers," I whispered through bloody lips, "accept your rejection, Marcus Stone."
The bond shattered.
It felt like lightning striking my chest, like my heart was being torn in half and set on fire. The pain was so intense that for a moment, I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't exist beyond the agony of our connection being severed forever.
I screamed then—not from the whip, but from the soul-deep anguish of a mate bond breaking. The sound echoed across the square, raw and primal and utterly broken.
Marcus spat on my face, the saliva mixing with my tears and blood. "Get out of my sight. Get out of my territory. If I see you again, I'll finish what I started here."
He cut the ropes binding me to the post, and I collapsed to the stones like a discarded puppet. My back was a symphony of fire and agony, and I could feel my life's blood seeping into the cracks between the ancient stones.
But I was free.
Broken, bleeding, and dying—but free.
I began to crawl.
