"Why?"

The word escaped my lips as barely more than a whisper while I leaned heavily against the cold metal bars that were the only thing keeping me upright as my legs threatened to give out beneath me.

I watched in complete horror as Owen and Cynthia kissed right in front of my cell, their bodies pressed together in a way that spoke of intimacy that had clearly been building for much longer than just tonight.

Owen finally pulled away from Cynthia gently and turned to look at me with eyes that held no warmth or love, only cold calculation and satisfaction at seeing my pain.

"I gave you everything, Owen," I said as tears began streaming down my cheeks. "I gave you my trust, my loyalty, my love. I even shared the secret about my wolf with you when I knew that revealing it to anyone could get me killed, because I trusted you with every part of my soul."

"Your wolf!" Owen cut me off sharply, his voice rising with fury that made me flinch backward. "That secret showed me exactly how much of a threat you truly are to me, Ariana Nightfall. You have the same strength that your father had running through your veins, the same dangerous Alpha power that made him unstoppable."

"But I never—" I tried to protest desperately.

"Yes, but you are such a threat whether you intended to be one or not," he interrupted without mercy. "I never loved you, Ariana, and I never wanted anything to do with you beyond keeping you under control. You are the daughter of a traitor and you carry a strong Alpha bloodline, so I just had to keep you close enough to know exactly what kind of danger I was dealing with."

"Her wolf..." Cynthia coughed delicately, her eyes widening with surprise. "You never mentioned that part of the truth to me when we were planning all of this together."

The way she called him "my love" made my stomach turn as I realized how deep their betrayal went.

"I saw through all your pretense of being weak during the training sessions, Ariana!" Owen's voice grew louder and more aggressive as he slammed his fist against the metal bars. "You are every bit as dangerous as your father was, and I refuse to underestimate what your bloodline is capable of!"

The fury in his eyes made my heart jump in my chest with genuine fear.

"Owen, I took the fall for you when you killed Mara," I said desperately as my voice broke. "I confessed to a murder I didn't commit and let this entire pack torture me because I believed in you and the future you promised we would have together."

I slid down to my knees on the filthy floor. "I was going to do anything for you."

"Mara was just a victim who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Owen replied with a casual shrug. "She saw you that night when you shifted into your wolf form, and she came running to me saying she wanted to clear your name by telling my father what she had witnessed."

A cold smile spread across his face. "I couldn't allow her to reveal your secret before I figured out how to eliminate you as a threat, so I invited her to my room during the ceremony and killed her while everyone was distracted. And then you took the blame for everything without me even forcing you. It was such a perfect plan."

"What about the promise you made to me?" I asked as one last desperate flicker of hope tried to ignite in my heart. "You swore you would save me once you had the power."

Owen's expression shifted into something that looked almost like amusement. "Wait until tomorrow, Ariana, and then you'll see exactly what I plan to do for you."

He reached out and took Cynthia's hand, lacing their fingers together. "Come, my love, we have more important things to attend to than standing here watching this traitor's daughter cry over her well-deserved fate."

I watched through my tears as they walked away together, their footsteps echoing through the dungeon until the sound faded completely and I was left alone in the darkness with nothing but my shattered dreams.

*********

"Execute her! Execute the murderer! Execute the traitor's daughter!"

The crowd's voices rose in a deafening chant that echoed through the clearing as what seemed like the entire pack gathered to witness my punishment.

I was dragged from my cell and out into the cool night air where hundreds of angry faces waited. The moon hung full and bright in the sky above us.

"Ariana Nightfall, you stand before this pack to face judgment for your crimes!" Elder Thomas proclaimed. "Tonight, the Moon Goddess herself shall bear witness to the punishment that will be delivered upon you for the brutal murder of Mara Thornwood!"

The crowd erupted in cheers and angry shouts as they pressed closer.

I lifted my eyes and found Owen standing at the front beside the council members, wearing his new Alpha robes. Our eyes met across the distance and I searched his face for any sign of the man I had loved, any trace of compassion that might suggest he would keep his promise.

But all I saw staring back at me was emptiness and coldness, and in that moment I knew with absolute certainty that he was never going to keep his promise to save me.

"The penalty for murder is death according to our ancient laws!" Elder Thomas continued. "What say you, Alpha Owen? Shall we proceed with the execution?"

The crowd fell silent as everyone turned to look at Owen, waiting to hear their new Alpha pronounce my death sentence.

"Wait!" Owen's voice suddenly rang out with Alpha command that made every person freeze in place. "Don't execute her!"

The crowd erupted in confused murmurs as they tried to understand why their new Alpha would intervene.

"But Alpha Owen, death is the penalty that our laws demand for murder," Elder Thomas said with confusion written across his face. "The pack has spoken and the judgment has been passed."

"Death would be far too merciful a punishment for a traitor's daughter and a cold-blooded murderer," Owen replied with steel in his voice as he stepped forward. "She deserves something much worse than the quick release that death would provide."

My stomach dropped as I realized he wasn't saving me at all.

"Send her to be flogged with thirty strokes in this clearing where everyone can witness her suffering!" Owen commanded with authority. "And then cast her out as a rogue into the Silver Claw Pack's territory.

The whip cracked against my back for the thirtieth time, and I collapsed onto the blood-soaked ground, my body unable to withstand any more punishment.

Every nerve in my body screamed in agony as the leather had torn through my thin dress and into my flesh, leaving deep gashes that would scar forever. The pack members who had gathered to witness my flogging cheered with each strike, their voices blending into a horrible chorus of hatred and satisfaction.

"That's what traitors deserve!" someone shouted from the crowd.

"Her parents were murderers, and now she's proven she's just like them!" another voice called out with cruel satisfaction.

I tried to push myself up from the dirt, but my arms gave out beneath me and I fell face-first into the mud that had been created by the mixture of my blood and the damp earth. My vision blurred as darkness threatened to pull me under, but I forced myself to stay conscious because I refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing me completely broken.

The guards grabbed my arms roughly and dragged me across the clearing, my feet leaving twin trails in the dirt as they hauled me toward something that made my stomach drop with fresh terror.

A rusty metal cage sat on the back of a wooden wagon, its bars covered in old bloodstains that told stories of previous prisoners who had been transported in this same horrible container.

"No… please…" I whispered weakly as they lifted my battered body and threw me into the cage with such force that I crashed against the far side and felt something crack in my ribs.

The heavy door slammed shut behind me with a sound that echoed , and the guard locked it with a thick chain that rattled as he secured it tightly. I wrapped my trembling fingers around the cold metal bars, trying to find some kind of comfort in their solidity even though they represented my prison.

The crowd pressed closer to get a better look at me in my cage, their faces twisted with disgust and satisfaction as they pointed and whispered about what would happen to me in the Silver Claw Pack territory. I heard fragments of their conversations floating through the air like poison.

"I heard the Lycan King uses slaves for entertainment in his arena, making them fight each other to the death while he watches."

"No, I heard he works them in the mines until their bodies give out and then throws them into mass graves without even a proper burial."

"My cousin's friend escaped from there once and said the women are used for breeding programs and never see daylight again."

Each word was like another knife being driven into my heart, but I forced myself to listen because I needed to understand exactly what kind of hell I was being sent to. The Silver Claw Pack was legendary for its cruelty, and everyone knew that being sold there as a rogue slave was essentially a death sentence delivered slowly over months or years of unimaginable suffering.

The wagon driver climbed onto his seat and took hold of the reins, preparing to begin the journey that would take me far away from the only home I had ever known, even though that home had never shown me anything but cruelty and hatred.

Just as the horses began to move forward, a commanding voice cut through the noise of the crowd like a blade.

"Wait!"

The procession stopped immediately, and every head turned toward the source of the command. My heart sank even further as I saw Owen striding toward my cage .

The sudden silence that fell over the courtyard was more terrifying than all the shouting had been, because I knew that whatever Owen had planned would be worse than anything that had come before.

"I think we're forgetting something important," Owen announced loudly as he stopped directly in front of my cage, his voice carrying across the clearing so that everyone could hear every word he spoke.

I felt ice-cold fear crawl down my spine as I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but Cruelty Staring a cruelty staring back at me. What more could he possibly want from me when he had already taken everything I had to give?

Owen moved closer to the cage until his face was only inches from the bars that separated us, and when he spoke again his voice was low enough that only I could hear the venom dripping from every syllable.

"Rejection."

The single word hit me like a physical blow, and I felt my wolf whimper in terror deep within my consciousness. No. No, no, no. He couldn't be serious about this. Rejection wasn't just about severing the mate bond—it was torture of the worst kind.

"You can't," I whispered desperately as tears began streaming down my dirt-covered face. "Owen, please, we were supposed to be forever. You promised me that we would stand together as Alpha and Luna, that you would protect me and cherish me for the rest of our lives."

But Owen just smiled that cold, cruel smile that I was beginning to recognize as his true face, the one he had hidden from me during all those months of lies and false promises.

"You see, Ariana," he said conversationally, as if we were discussing the weather rather than my complete destruction, "I've been saving this moment for exactly the right time. Rejection causes immense physical and emotional pain, especially when the rejected wolf is already weakened from other injuries."

He gestured toward my bloody, beaten body with casual dismissal.

"In your current state, the agony of rejection will consume what little strength you have left. You'll arrive at the Silver Claw Pack broken in body and spirit, completely useless for any kind of work or service they might require from you."

Owen's eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he continued.

"And we both know what happens to useless things in the Silver Claw Pack, don't we? They discard them like garbage, throw them into the wilderness to die slowly of exposure and starvation, or if they're feeling particularly creative, they use them for sport in their fighting pits."

"Please," I begged shamelessly, pressing my face against the bars as sobs wracked my broken body. "Please don't do this to me, Owen. I gave you everything. I sacrificed my freedom, my dignity, my entire future for you. Doesn't that mean anything to you at all?"

For just a moment, something flickered in Owen's eyes—was it guilt? Regret? But then it was gone, replaced by that terrible coldness that had become so familiar.

He straightened to his full height and raised his voice so that every single person in the courtyard could hear the words that would shatter what remained of my soul.

"I, Alpha Owen Steele, reject you, Ariana Nightfall, as my mate and future Luna of the Silver Moon Pack!"