Selena POV:
I drifted like a shadow behind Silas's sleek black car as he drove back to his massive estate.
His home was a fortress of glass and steel, sitting on the most expensive land in the Alpha's territory.
It stood in stark opposition to the damp wooden cabin we once shared, a place that always smelled of wet earth and decay.
As soon as he walked through the heavy double doors, Freya ran barefoot across the heated marble floor.
She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face in his chest.
Silas caught her easily, his large hands resting on her waist as he kissed the top of her head.
They sat at the long dining table, surrounded by human servants who silently served them.
Freya chattered excitedly about her upcoming Luna coronation ceremony and their grand wedding.
Silas listened patiently, offering her the perfect emotional support, nodding and smiling at all her ideas.
Freya cut a piece of the roasted meat she had prepared and held it up to his lips.
"Open," she beamed. "Is this not the finest thing you have ever tasted?"
Silas took the bite, but his chewing suddenly slowed to a halt.
I knew exactly what was happening in his mind.
He was remembering the burnt, tough pieces of wild rabbit I used to roast for him over our tiny fire in the old cabin.
His eyes darkened, and his breathing hitched for a fraction of a second.
To cover his reaction, he quickly released a wave of his Alpha scent.
It was a heavy, oppressive presence, like the air before a thunderstorm, thick with the smell of crushed pine needles.
The scent was designed to soothe and protect, and Freya immediately melted into her chair, intoxicated by his power.
"It is perfect," Silas lied, his voice smooth.
He then wiped his mouth and told her he had to leave for a few hours to visit the pack's exclusive high-end club.
He needed to personally hand out the VIP wedding invitations to the upper-class members of their society.
Freya pouted, her high-ranking female wolf instincts flaring up as she gripped his sleeve, not wanting to share her Alpha.
Silas chuckled softly, patting her hand and promising to return before midnight.
I floated near the ceiling, looking down at the beautiful couple, feeling the massive, unbridgeable gap in our destinies.
Silas arrived at the towering, neon-lit club in the center of the city.
My ghostly heart squeezed tightly in my chest, because I recognized this place immediately.
This was the very place where Silas and I had our last, tragic encounter two years ago.
Inside the luxurious private room, the air was thick with the smell of expensive alcohol and cigars.
The Betas, who were the second-in-command officers, and the elite Warriors all stood up to bow their heads respectfully.
These were the same men who used to spit at Silas's feet when he was poor.
Now, they poured his drinks and laughed loudly at everything he said, desperate for his favor.
Silas sat in the center of the velvet sofa, his posture relaxed but his eyes cold and distant.
His gaze kept darting toward the heavy wooden door of the room, as if he was searching for a ghost.
Halfway through the night, a drunk Beta raised his glass, trying to flatter Silas.
"To the Alpha!" the Beta cheered. "Risen from the ashes! In truth, it is a damnable good thing that pathetic Omega Selena informed on you. Her betrayal was a blessing in disguise-it freed you to become the king you were meant to be!"
The temperature in the room plummeted instantly.
A low growl, born of pure, visceral agony, rumbled from Silas's chest, a vibration so deep it made the crystal glasses on the table tremble.
The memory of his darkest hour, the moment I abandoned him when he was facing execution, was his ultimate reverse scale.
Silas forced a cold, cruel smile onto his face, agreeing with the Beta's words.
But his eyes were dead, filled with a violent storm that promised destruction.
He snapped his fingers, and the club manager rushed over, trembling in fear.
Silas's voice dropped into the deep, echoing resonance of the Alpha's Command.
It was not a request but a physical weight in the air, a pressure that locked the bones of weaker wolves into submission.
"Find Selena," Silas commanded. "The former serving girl of this establishment. Drag her before me. Now."
What would he do when he found out the girl he wanted to punish was already rotting in the earth?
Selena POV:
I floated near the crystal chandelier, looking down at Silas on the velvet sofa.
His knuckles were bone-white where he gripped his whiskey glass, and the ice cubes within audibly cracked under the sudden, unnatural pressure of his hand.
I could feel the suffocating waves of his hatred radiating through the room, directed entirely at me.
Looking at his furious face, my mind was pulled back to the darkest day of my living life.
The day I destroyed his heart to save his life.
Eight years ago, it was not me who conspired with the violent, packless rogue wolves.
The true mastermind was Julian, the cruel and powerful Alpha of the rival Silver Crest Pack.
Julian had cornered me in the hospital where my mother lay dying of a mysterious spiritual illness.
She desperately needed a rare healing herb called the Moonflower to survive the night.
Julian held the only Moonflower in the entire region in his hand.
He leaned in close, inhaling the scent of wild berries and fresh snow from my skin. "You are scented too sweetly for a cur like him," he whispered, his eyes dark with a sick, possessive hunger.
He smiled like a demon and told me I had two choices.
I could watch my mother die and let Silas be executed by the pack council for a crime Julian had framed him for.
Or, I could confess to the crime myself, take the blame for dealing with rogues, and publicly reject my mate.
Julian admitted he was doing this to clear the path for his sister, Freya, who was obsessed with Silas. But the way his gaze assessed me, like a merchant appraising damaged goods, told me he wished to break me for his own perverse satisfaction.
He showed me the true cruelty of a high-ranking Alpha, crushing a bottom-tier Omega like a bug under his boot.
I had no choice but to nod, my tears falling silently as I signed the false confession.
Julian dropped the glowing Moonflower onto my lap and deliberately released his suffocating Alpha aura, forcing me to my knees to show his dominance.
At that exact moment, my mind-link snapped open.
Selena, please tell me this is a lie. Tell me you didn't do this!
Silas's voice echoed in my head, raw and broken, begging me to come back to him.
Julian stood over me, his eyes dark with warning, gesturing to the Moonflower.
I closed my eyes, forcing down the vomit rising in my throat, and opened the mental connection to my mate.
I pushed every ounce of cruelty I could muster into my voice.
"I, Selena, reject you, Silas, as my mate."
The words tore from my throat, and instantly, a pain worse than burning alive ripped through my chest.
It felt as if someone had reached into my ribcage and torn my soul in half with bare hands.
"You are a worthless, sniveling cur," I screamed into the link. "You do not deserve the dirt beneath my feet!"
Through the link, I heard Silas drop to the floor, his breathing turning into ragged, agonizing gasps.
He endured the brutal physical and spiritual torture of the severed bond.
When he finally spoke, his voice was completely dead, devoid of any light or hope.
"I, Silas, accept your rejection."
The invisible tether between us, already frayed, snapped with a finality that only a soul can hear. It did not shatter; it corroded, like a steel cable eaten through by acid, leaving only a silent, echoing void.
I stayed by my mother's hospital bed, feeding her the Moonflower, praying for a miracle.
But her weak body rejected the powerful medicine, and she took her last breath just as the sun rose.
I had lost everything in a single night.
I ran frantically to the borders of our territory, desperate to see Silas one last time before his exile.
I found him standing in the snow, his body trembling violently as he stood on the edge of his very first Shift.
His bones were breaking and reforming, his muscles expanding in the agonizing process of becoming a wolf.
I reached out to him, crying his name.
He turned his glowing, feral eyes toward me and laughed, a sound so full of venom it made me step back.
"Keep away from me, traitor," he snarled, his voice thick with a monstrous distortion. "The very sight of you sickens my wolf."
He turned his back on me, and Freya stepped out from the trees, wrapping her thick fur coat around his shaking shoulders.
They walked away into the freezing forest, never looking back.
I was left alone in the snow, shivering and empty, wondering—how long could a broken heart beat before it stopped forever?
