THE NIGHT OF BROKEN DREAMS

Myra’s pov

Today was my eighteenth year birthday, and tonight my mating ceremony, the day I would get rejected by my mate and my life would change.

The reflection in the mirror didn’t look like me.

My hair was pinned up, dark curls falling in loose tendrils around my face, and a thin silver chain circled my brow, a single moonstone resting at the center of my forehead. I should have felt beautiful. Regal. Like a Luna about to claim her destiny.

But all I saw was the hollow look in my eyes, the stiffness in my smile, the way my fingers trembled as they smoothed down the fabric of my dress.

“Stop fussing. You look perfect,” Aria said softly, coming up behind me and squeezing my shoulders. My best friend’s reflection met mine in the mirror. Her bright blue eyes, usually so full of mischief, were gentle tonight, full of hope for me. “He’s going to see you and remember why the Moon Goddess chose you to be his mate.”

I swallowed hard. “If only everyone else believed that.”

Aria’s smile faltered, just a little. I couldn’t blame her.

I knew what the pack thought, what they whispered when they thought I wasn’t listening. The orphan girl. The Beta’s daughter who couldn’t even shift. The future Luna with no wolf, no strength.

They pitied me. And worse they doubted me.

The only reason I stood here tonight, preparing for my mating ceremony, was because of my parents’ honor. My father and mother had died protecting the Alpha King during the great rogue invasion seven years ago. They’d been heroes. Respected, everyone loved them.

And I was what was left.

“I’ll prove them wrong tonight,” I whispered, more to myself than to Aria. “I’ll be a good Luna. I’ll serve the pack. I’ll make Malik proud.”

Aria’s hands slid down my arms, and she hugged me from behind. “He already is, Myra. And after tonight, everyone else will be too.”

I nodded, trying to draw strength from her words, from the soft warmth of her embrace. But as I turned from the mirror, I caught the faintest sound voices outside the chamber.

“She looks the part, but we all know it’s a joke,” someone murmured.

“A Luna who can’t shift? What will she protect us from? Goddess above, we are werewolves…” another snickered.

They thought that because I couldn't shift I didn't have werewolf perks like enhanced senses, but I did. I could hear every single word of their whispers.

Aria looked like she wanted to go defend me, I didn't want a fight today so I just caught her wrist and shook my head.

Aria’s eyes flashed with anger. “Fucking assholes, ignore them. They don’t matter.”

But their words burrowed deep, echoing every secret fear I’d tried so hard to bury.

I squared my shoulders. “Let’s go.”

---

The clearing was alight with torches, the full moon high above, casting silver over the gathering of my pack.

Hundreds of eyes turned to me as I stepped onto the sacred stone path.

There were stiff polite nods with tight, forced smiles on their faces as they watched me walk down the aisle.

But Malik would come. He would take my hand, and everything would change.

I lifted my chin, my heart pounding in my chest like a drumbeat.

And I waited.

And waited.

The minutes stretched, endless. Murmurs rose among the crowd. I could feel their eyes on me…

Where was he?

Why hadn’t he come?

Was he… changing his mind?

I clenched my hands together, trying to still their shaking. I felt Aria’s presence behind me, steady, a silent support, but it wasn’t enough to stop the cold dread creeping through my veins.

The crowd stirred.

A figure broke through the trees at the edge of the clearing, his dark form outlined by the moonlight.

Malik.

His hair was tousled, his ceremonial tunic rumpled and half-unfastened, his boots dusty as if he’d been running. His face was pale, jaw tight, dark eyes stormy as they met mine.

He staggered towards me like a drunken man.

The whispers grew louder.

What had happened? Why did he look… like this?

Malik walked toward me. My heart had leapt at the sight of him, but the joy was short-lived, drowned beneath the weight of the expression on his face.

Resolve.

“No…” I breathed, before he even spoke. I knew what was going to happen.

He stopped before me, towering, his scent cedar and smoke filling my senses, familiar and beloved. I reached for his hand, but he didn’t offer it.

“Myra Sunrose,” he said, his voice carrying across the clearing, steady and clear.

I shook my head, unable to stop the tears that burned my eyes. “Please—Malik—”

“Stop…No…please.” I tried.

“I, Alpha Malik Nightshade,” he continued, voice hardening, “reject you as my mate.”

The words hit like a blade, slicing clean through me, leaving me hollow.

A gasp rippled through the crowd. Aria let out a soft cry behind me.

“No,” I whispered again, but I could feel the bond the beautiful thread that had tied my soul to his, fraying.

The pain came, swift and brutal, searing through my chest, my head, my very bones. My knees buckled. The world spun.

The last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me was Malik’s face, haunted and broken.

---

The world returned slowly, blurred and full of ache.

I was lying on a cot, the soft glow of lanterns casting shadows on stone walls. My chest throbbed. My head pounded.

“Malik…” I croaked, the name torn from my lips without thought. My heart called for him, the bond shredded but the longing still raw and alive.

I heard a small sharp laugh.

I turned my head, vision swimming, and saw her.

Evelyn Ashe.

The she-wolf who had always hovered at Malik’s side. Very popular in the pack, she was everything I wanted to be, beautiful, graceful, fierce.

She sat beside the cot, arms folded, a smirk twisting her perfect mouth.

“Why would our Alpha choose a weak girl like you to be our Luna?” she said, voice dripping with venom. “Someone who can’t even shift? Someone who has always been a weak pampered little brat? You don't deserve Malik.”

The words stung more than they should have. I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn’t obey.

Tears blurred my sight. I wanted to be strong, to tell her she was wrong, to fight back. But I couldn’t.

I was weak and useless.

And he had seen that. He had rejected me.

Sobs tore from my throat, ragged and unstoppable. The grief, the humiliation, the shame all of it crashed over me like a wave, pulling me under.

Evelyn’s laughter followed me as I wept, as the pain dragged me down into darkness again.

Earlier that day

Malik’s POV

The ceremonial tunic clung to my chest, freshly pressed. My mother had sewn it before she passed, and I had kept it for this day the day I would mark Myra as mine, as Luna.

I stared at myself in the mirror, running a hand through my hair for what must have been the hundredth time. My wolf paced just beneath my skin, restless but content.

With anticipation.

For Myra my mate.

She’d looked so radiant last night when I saw her, her eyes wide and bright, full of hope. My destined. Chosen for me by the Moon Goddess herself.

I touched the pendant around my neck the Luna’s mark I’d have to tie around her throat during the ceremony. A vow not just before the pack, but before Selene.

A knock shattered the quiet.

“Alpha,” came a guard’s clipped voice through the door. “The Council has summoned you. Urgently.”

I blinked. “Now?”

“It’s important Alpha.”

It was hours until the ceremony. What could be so important?

“I’ll be right there.”

I tossed on a cloak, left the tunic behind. A cold prickle had formed beneath my skin. I couldn’t explain it—but something about this wasn’t right.

The Council Chamber was cloaked in shadow. Candles lined the walls.

The five Elders were gathered.

And in the center stood a figure.

An old woman, I didn't recognise.

She was hunched, veiled in tattered gray cloth. Her eyes were blindfolded with silk. Her hands shook as she clutched a gnarled staff, and she muttered under her breath in the old tongue.

The air was thick with incense. I resisted the urge to cough.

“Alpha Malik,” Elder Karr said, voice grave.

“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes flicking to the Seer. “Why call me now, just before my—”

“She is a seer and she has come with a warning,” Elder Remi interrupted.

The Seer lifted her head slightly, as if she saw me with something beyond her eyes.

“Speak, prophet,” Remi said.

“A Luna without a wolf shall bring a pack to ruin.”

Silence fell like a blade.

I blinked. “What?”

“The mate you have chosen is broken,” she hissed. “Incomplete. The Moon has turned her face from her. Bind yourself to her… and this pack will rot from within.”

My hands clenched.

“That’s a lie,” I snapped. “Myra is kind. Strong in her own way. And she is mine.”

The Seer’s breath came in heaves. “You will see your fields die. Your newborns will fall still in the womb. The blood of your people will stain the earth.”

“Enough,” I said through my teeth.

But she was relentless.

“You were not meant to claim her. She is cursed. She will tear down your legacy and drown your line in sorrow.”

“She’s my fated,” I growled. “The Moon Goddess gave her to me!”

A pause. A silence so sharp I could hear the beat of my heart.

Then

“The Goddess has changed her mind.”

I took a step back.

“No,” I whispered.

“She is not meant to lead. She will bring only darkness. If you love your people, Alpha… choose duty over desire.”

And then, with a final rattling breath, the Seer collapsed.

Gasps filled the chamber.

Elder Naren rushed forward and caught her just before her skull struck the stone.

Her final words hung in the air like a curse.

“Mark my words, Alpha. That girl will cost you everything.”

They carried her out.

And I was left, trembling, in the heavy silence.

The Elders closed in.

Elder Karr’s voice was the first to pierce through.

“She fainted at training last week, didn’t she?”

I stiffened. “She was tired. Pushed too hard—”

“She’s always tired, Malik,” Elder Vanto said. “No wolf. No strength”

“Other packs already whisper,” Naren added. “That our Luna is shiftless. What message does that send?”

“Rumors can’t dictate my future,” I said, trying to sound sure. “She was chosen for me—”

“And if that choice dooms us?” Elder Remi’s voice cut like glass. “Will you bury your people because of a crush?”

“It’s not a crush,” I said tightly. “It’s the bond. The Moon Goddess—”

“Does not always know what is best,” Vanto said bitterly. “Even Selene has made mistakes.”

I reeled.

These were my Elders. The ones who raised me after my father died. Who had trained me, stood beside me during my trials.

And now they looked at me like I was a child. A fool.

“She’s not a mistake,” I whispered.

Elder Karr stepped forward. “Your father would have been ashamed to see this weakness. To see you throw away our future for a girl who cannot even shift.”

My jaw tightened.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to hit something. But most of all, I wanted Myra.

I wanted to see her standing in the garden, smiling, her hair catching the sun.

Elder Remi placed a hand on my shoulder. Cold. Heavy.

“If you mark her tonight,” she said, voice low and final, “you fracture this pack’s future.”

They all walked out, one by one.

And I was left alone.

Alone with the silence.

With the flickering candles.

And the weight of my pack resting on my shoulders.

I leaned against the cold wall outside the chamber. My chest was tight, my thoughts a storm.

Myra. My wolf howled for her. But my pack… my people…

I closed my eyes and whispered, barely audible…

“I’m sorry Myra, I have no choice.”

Myra's pov

The first thing I felt was the pain.

It wasn’t sharp or fleeting. It was a deep, gnawing agony that started in my chest and spread outward, as if my soul had been ripped from my body and nothing but emptiness remained.

I gasped, but the air did nothing to ease it. My lungs burned. My throat felt raw, as though I had been crying or screaming.

My eyes fluttered open to darkness, shadows flickering on the stone walls of the infirmary. The room was cold. Silent.

Where was Aria?

Where were the healers?

Did nobody at all even care just a little about me?

I turned my head, the simple motion sending a wave of dizziness through me. The room was empty. Only me, lying alone on a narrow cot, the thin blanket twisted around my legs.

The door to the infirmary stood ajar. The faint light of the moon spilled through, pale and cold.

I tried to sit up, but my body protested. My muscles felt weak, as if the rejection had drained every ounce of strength I possessed. My head spun, and I had to grip the edge of the cot to steady myself.

His voice echoed in my mind, over and over, like a curse I couldn’t escape.

I, Alpha Malik Nightshade, reject you as my mate.

The memory of it crushed me anew, the humiliation, the betrayal, the disbelief. I clutched my chest, as if I could hold together the pieces of my shattered heart.

I couldn’t stay here. I had to see Malik, I needed to know what had changed between us. Why he had rejected me.

I stood up and took a shaky step.

One step after the other.

The pain followed me, relentless, but I pushed it down. I reached the door, my hand brushing the wood as I leaned on it for support.

I stepped into the corridor, the chill of the night air wrapping around me like a cloak of ice. The walls of the pack house seemed to close in, the shadows heavy.

Voices reached me low and familiar. I froze, pressing myself against a column, hidden by the deep shadows.

I recognised the voices instantly, it was Jennifer and Blake. My friends. The ones who had laughed with me as children, who had promised loyalty when my parents died.

“It was shameful, but necessary,” Jennifer said, her voice low but clear. “Having a Luna with no wolf, as weak as her, is dangerous as hell.”

“Malik had no choice,” Blake agreed. “We’d have lost respect in the alliance if he accepted her.”

“She should just leave,” Jennifer added. “She’ll doesn't belong here..”

My breath caught in my throat. The weight of their betrayal pressed down on me.

Was I really that bad. I would have devoted my whole self trying to be a good Luna, but I guess that doesn't matter.

I had thought… I had hoped…

I turned away, the tears I had fought so hard to hold back spilling down my cheeks.

Malik.

I had to see him. I had to make him see reason.

This couldn’t be the end.

The Alpha’s house loomed before me, dark and imposing. I crossed the courtyard, each step slower than the last. My strength was failing, but my will kept me moving.

The front doors were open. I climbed the stairs, the carved wood of the banister cold beneath my fingers.

I found him on the balcony, the wind stirring his dark hair, his broad shoulders tense as he stared out over the pack lands.

I stopped at the threshold, my heart in my throat.

“Malik,” I said, my voice barely more than a breath.

He didn’t move at first. Then he turned, his eyes finding mine in the moonlight.

For a moment, I saw the man I knew the one who had smiled at me, who had promised to stand beside me. But the moment passed. His face hardened, his gaze distant.

“Why?” I asked, my voice trembling. I stepped closer, every part of me aching. “Please, Malik. Tell me why.”

He looked away, his jaw tight. “I did what I had to do. The pack comes first. You know that.”

“I would have been a good Luna,” I said, the tears falling freely now. “I will be strong. I can prove it. Just give me a chance.”

His eyes closed, and for a moment I thought he would yield. But when he opened them again, the distance between us was a chasm.

“You don’t understand,” he said softly. “You never will.”

Footsteps echoed behind him. Evelyn emerged from the shadows, her golden hair shining in the moonlight. Beautiful like I would never be. She slid her arm around Malik’s, her smile as cold as the night.

“Run along, Myra,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “Before you embarrass yourself further.”

The final blow.

I fled, the sound of her laughter following me, my heart shattering anew with every step.

The forest swallowed me, the cold air biting at my skin. My strength gave out at last, and I sank to my knees, the earth hard and unyielding beneath me.

The pain inside me was too much to bear. I curled in on myself, the tears silent now, the sobs gone. There was nothing left.

Nothing.

The world blurred. My eyes drifted closed.

And then light soft and silver.

I opened my eyes to see her a figure bathed in moonlight, her hair like threads of silver, her eyes endless pools of night. I knew her immediately.

The Moon Goddess.

She knelt beside me, her touch gentle but powerful.

“The night has stolen much, child,” she said, her voice like the wind through the trees. “But you will not fall. You will rise above this, because you are the true Luna. My chosen one.”

Her image shimmered, fading like mist at dawn.

And I let the darkness take me, the words of the Goddess a faint echo in my mind as sleep claimed me on the cold forest floor.