Liora POV:

I froze, my hand hovering inches from the door, my heart a leaden weight in my chest. And then I heard his voice, laced with a casual cruelty that gutted me more than Selena’s betrayal.

"She's just an Omega. A little reassurance and she'll be fine. Her value doesn't compare to the loyalty of Selena's father and his warriors."

The words were a poisoned blade, twisting in a wound I hadn't even known was there. The bond between us didn't just sting anymore; it felt like it was being ripped apart, thread by painful thread. My Omega disguise—the test I'd designed to ensure his love was pure—had become the very reason he was discarding me. The irony was a bitter, nauseating pill.

"Exactly, Kade," another voice chimed in. I recognized it as Jace Thorne, his second-in-command. "An Omega Luna? It's practically unheard of. She'd be a liability, a weakness our enemies would exploit."

My fists clenched, my nails digging so deep into my palms that I felt the sting of breaking skin. The pain was a welcome anchor, a physical sensation to focus on as I fought to suppress the surge of raw Alpha pheromones threatening to erupt from me.

"But she's your Fated Mate, man," a more hesitant voice argued. Finn Reed. He'd always been the more compassionate one. "To reject a gift from the Goddess... that brings bad luck."

Kade laughed, a cold, sharp sound devoid of any warmth. "The Goddess gave me strength, Finn, not a leash to be held by a weaker wolf. This pack needs a powerful matriarch, not a decorative flower that needs constant protection."

*He dares!* Lyra’s roar of outrage in my mind was not for our rejection, but for his blasphemy. For the way he spoke of the Goddess's sacred bond as if it were a mere inconvenience.

"Liora is docile," Kade continued, his voice dripping with condescending certainty. "We'll give her some compensation, let her stay in the pack. She won't go anywhere. She needs my protection to survive."

That was it. The last fragile shard of hope I'd been clinging to shattered into dust. He wasn't just rejecting me. He planned to keep me here, a broken toy to be stored away, a constant, living monument to his betrayal, trapped under the rule of the woman who had replaced me.

A wave of revulsion washed over me. The man I had loved, the man I had been willing to give my entire self to, was arrogant, selfish, and utterly ruthless. Every ounce of love I’d ever felt for him curdled, transforming into an icy, potent hatred.

A plan began to form in the cold, clear space of my broken heart. But first, this had to end. Publicly.

I let go of the tight leash I held on my power, but only partially. I allowed a wave of pheromones to emanate from me, not the commanding scent of an Alpha, but the overwhelming, heart-wrenching scent of an Omega shattered by grief.

Inside the room, the chatter stopped.

"There's someone outside," Finn said, his voice sharp with alarm.

I heard Kade's frustrated sigh. He smelled it, of course. My unique scent of rain-soaked forest, now drenched in agony. I heard the scrape of his chair as he stood, his heavy footsteps approaching the door. He was coming to deal with the "trouble."

I took a deep breath, letting the tears I’d been holding back stream down my face. I needed them to see the madness of a spurned Omega. It would be the perfect cover for everything that was about to happen.

Just as his hand touched the doorknob from the inside, I drew my foot back and kicked.

The heavy oak door flew open, slamming against the interior wall with a deafening crack.

I stood in the doorway, my beautiful dress a mockery, my face streaked with tears, but my eyes... my eyes burned with a fire he had never seen before. I stared straight at him, my voice low and shaking with fury.

"Everything you just said... do you have the courage to say it again to my face?"

Liora POV:

Kade’s face, a mask of annoyance just a second before, shifted to stunned surprise. He hadn't expected this. He had expected a weeping, pleading Omega, not this storm of fury breaking down his door.

Jace and Finn scrambled to their feet, the atmosphere in the room instantly charged, thick with tension.

I ignored them. My world had narrowed to the man standing before me. I took a step into the room, then another. The sharp click of my heels on the polished hardwood floor sounded like a war drum in the sudden silence.

With every step, a memory flashed, sharp and cruel.

*The two of us, kissing for the first time by the moonlit waterfall. His vow to always protect me, to cherish the unique scent of ‘rainforest’ that was mine alone.*

Now, I could smell her on him. The cloyingly sweet scent of vanilla that belonged to Selena clung to his skin, a sickening perfume of his betrayal.

*My first shift, the agony of my bones breaking and reforming. I’d lost control, my wolf wild with pain, and he had been the one to hold me, his own body a shield, his warmth calming the raging beast within me.*

Now, his eyes held nothing but cold calculation. He looked at me as if I were a stranger, a problem to be managed.

*The day he’d given me the silver chain with his family’s crest. “This is for my future Luna,” he’d said, his voice thick with emotion. “Our names will be written in the pack’s history, together.”*

Now, my eyes fell on the Alpha-candidate pin on his chest, and I understood. Every promise, every whispered word of love, had been in service to that piece of metal, to securing his power.

The memories didn't just hurt; they fueled me. They were the kindling for the inferno of my rage, forging my broken heart into something hard and sharp.

I stopped directly in front of him, so close I could see my own tear-streaked reflection in his wide, shocked eyes. The weak, pathetic Omega he thought he knew.

His brow furrowed, and he lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "Liora, don't make a scene. We can talk about this later." He was trying to command me, to reassert his control. It was the Alpha way.

A laugh escaped my lips, a broken, watery sound dripping with scorn. "Later? There is no later, Kade."

*Tear him apart! Make him pay for his lies!* Lyra’s rage was a perfect mirror of my own.

I raised my hand. He flinched slightly, expecting a slap. Jace, behind him, actually let out a small, relieved sigh, as if to say, *See? Predictable.*

But I didn't strike him.

Instead, I gently cupped his cheek, my touch as soft as a lover's caress. He froze, his expression turning to one of confusion. He thought this was me breaking, that I was about to beg.

My fingers traced the line of his jaw, a path they knew so well. But then they drifted lower, coming to rest on the pulse fluttering in his throat. I applied the slightest pressure, just enough for him to feel it.

My eyes, when they met his, were no longer filled with tears. They were as cold and sharp as chips of ice.

"I came here to get back what's mine," I said, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "And then, to cut you out of my life like the cancer you are."

Liora POV:

My fingers left his throat, darting to the silver chain around his neck—the one with his family crest, the one he had given me. Before he could react, I grabbed it and yanked. Hard.

The chain snapped with a sharp *ping* that echoed in the dead silent room.

The sound was a declaration. Everyone in the study, Kade included, drew a sharp, collective breath. This wasn't the act of a pleading lover. This was a challenge. A public desecration of his authority.

Kade’s face went from shocked to thunderous. "Are you insane?" he snarled, grabbing for my wrist. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

I ripped my arm from his grasp with a strength that made his eyes widen for a fraction of a second. He would dismiss it as a hysterical outburst, I knew. He wouldn't see it for what it was.

I opened my hand. The broken chain and the heavy silver crest lay in my palm, a glittering symbol of a shattered promise. My gaze swept the room, taking in Jace’s dumbfounded expression and Finn’s look of genuine alarm, before landing back on Kade.

I lifted my chin, and in a voice that was perfectly clear, ringing with a power they couldn't comprehend, I began the sacred rite of rejection.

"I, Liora Varg, in the name of the Moon Goddess, do hereby reject you, Kade Hayes, as my Fated Mate."

The words hit the room like a lightning strike. A rejection had to be initiated by the higher-ranking wolf. For an Omega to reject a future Alpha was not just unheard of; it was impossible.

Kade’s mind simply short-circuited. The concept of being the one *rejected* was so foreign to him, it didn't compute. His entire world, built on a foundation of superiority and control, began to crack.

The instant the formal words left my lips, the bond between us didn’t just fray; it violently tore. A scream of pure, spiritual agony ripped through us both.

Kade grunted, clutching his chest as the color drained from his face. My own body trembled with the force of the pain, a white-hot poker searing my very soul, but I gritted my teeth, my eyes never leaving his.

Fighting through the agony, I threw the broken necklace to the floor. It clattered against the hardwood with a final, discordant sound.

"You can't reject me!" Kade roared, his voice cracking with pain and disbelief. "I am the one—"

He never finished the sentence.

In a single, fluid motion, I spun around, grabbed the half-full bottle of expensive whiskey from his desk, and swung.

The heavy glass bottle connected with the side of his head with a sickening thud. It shattered on impact, amber liquid, blood, and shards of glass exploding outwards.

A river of whiskey and blood streamed down his temple.

The room fell into a silence so profound I could hear the blood roaring in my own ears. Jace and Finn were frozen, their faces masks of pure shock. They had never, in their entire lives, seen an Omega do something so… violent.

I stood over a dazed and bleeding Kade, the jagged neck of the bottle still clutched in my hand. I pointed it at him, completing the final part of the rite.

"Now, it is your turn," I rasped, my voice raw with pain and fury, yet imbued with an undeniable tone of command. "Accept. My. Rejection."

I didn't wait for an answer. I let the broken bottle fall from my fingers, turned my back on the chaos and the wreckage of my past, and walked out.