Chapter 4

Liv POV:

Rough hands dragged me from the darkness into the unforgiving sunlight.

The sudden brightness seared my retinas, blinding me. I was limp, my bare feet dragging through the sharp gravel of the pack courtyard. The fresh air should have been a relief, but my lungs were too constricted by the Wolfsbane to take it in; every breath was a shallow, burning struggle.

The entire pack had gathered. Hundreds of eyes bore into me. Watching me. Judging me.

They threw me down at the foot of the Alpha's platform. I landed hard on my injured side, coughing up a mixture of bile and blood into the dust.

Marcus towered above me. He looked like a deity of judgment, tall and terrible. Izzy stood beside him, her face composed into a carefully crafted mask of tragic sorrow. She was holding his hand.

That touch. It was a privilege that should have been mine.

Marcus stepped forward. The crowd fell into a suffocating silence.

"Olivia Hayes," his voice boomed, amplified by the crushing weight of his Alpha authority. "You have been found guilty of treason. You have conspired with Rogues to endanger the Obsidian Pack."

"No," I whispered, my denial lost in the dirt. No one heard me.

"For your crimes," Marcus continued, looking down at me with eyes as cold as the silver cuffs biting into my wrists, "I hereby strip you of your rank. You are no longer Omega. You are nothing."

That was a sentence worse than death. Being a Rogue was a death sentence, but being 'nothing' erased my very existence. Yet, what came next was the true execution.

Marcus took a deep breath. His broad chest heaved. I saw his hand twitch at his side.

Was his wolf fighting him? Did the beast know the truth even if the man refused to see it?

But Marcus was a man of iron will. He crushed his instincts beneath his duty.

He locked his gaze with mine, and I felt the bond between us stretch, taut and painful, like a violin string pulled to its breaking point.

"I, Marcus Thorne, Alpha of the Obsidian Pack, reject you, Olivia Hayes, as my mate."

The world stopped.

It wasn't a metaphor. The pain hit me like a physical shockwave. It started in my chest-a tearing, ripping sensation, as if someone had reached inside my ribcage and pulled my heart out by the roots.

My inner wolf threw back her head and screamed. A sound of pure, unadulterated agony that shattered against the inside of my skull.

NO! MATE! NO!

I convulsed on the ground, my back arching involuntarily. It felt like the marrow in my bones was dissolving. The bond, that beautiful, golden thread that had tied my soul to his, turned black and shattered.

The backlash hit Marcus, too. He staggered back, clutching his chest, a look of genuine shock crossing his features.

But Izzy was there instantly, whispering in his ear, steadying him. "It's okay, Marcus. It's just the bond breaking. It proves how deep her deception went. It proves she used dark magic to mimic the tie."

I lay gasping in the dirt, my vision greying out at the edges. I had to finish it. If I didn't complete the ritual, the lingering pain would kill me slowly over days. I had to sever it now.

I looked up at him. Through the tears and the blood, I looked at the man I had loved since I was a child. The man who had just destroyed me.

I summoned every scrap of strength remaining in my broken body.

"I, Olivia Hayes..." My voice was a broken rasp, wet with blood. "...accept your rejection."

Snap.

The connection vanished. The silence that followed was deafening. It left behind a hollow, empty void where a soul used to be.

I collapsed, darkness rushing in to claim me.

"Get her out of here!" Marcus roared, though his voice sounded strained. "Dump her at the border. If she returns, kill her."

"NO!"

A blur of motion. A feral growl.

My father, David Hayes, broke through the line of guards. He was an Elder, an older wolf, but rage had given him the speed of a warrior. He shoved a guard aside and fell to his knees beside me.

"Liv! Livvy, look at me!"

He touched my face with trembling hands. He saw the burns. He smelled the acrid stench of Wolfsbane.

He looked up at Marcus, and for the first time in his life, there was no respect in his eyes. Only hatred.

"You did this," my father snarled, gathering my broken body into his arms. "You blinded fool. You didn't just reject a traitor. You tortured your own Mate."

"She is a spy, David!" Marcus shouted, though he was leaning heavily against the podium, his face pale.

"She is my daughter!" David stood up, lifting me effortlessly. I was so horrifyingly thin now. "And I am done with this pack. I am done with you."

"If you leave with her, you are Rogue," Marcus threatened. "You lose everything, David. Your pension. Your home. Your rank."

My father looked down at me, brushing a strand of dirty hair from my face.

"I have everything I need right here."

He turned his back on the Alpha. He turned his back on the pack.

And he walked away.

As my consciousness faded completely, the last thing I saw was the moonstone. It had fallen out of my pocket during the struggle. It lay in the dirt, dull and grey-just a worthless rock.

Just like me.