Chapter 1 The Breaking

• The Moon hung low the night her destiny shattered.
• Jenna had dressed with trembling hands that evening. Her nerves buzzed beneath her skin, but she told herself it was excitement. She wore a white gown chosen carefully a dress elegant but not ostentatious, soft enough to move with the wind, fitted enough to make her feel beautiful. The lace detail at the sleeves was hand-stitched by her mother. A silver ribbon, the color of her family's crest, was tied at her waist.
• She was nervous, yes, but beneath that was hope. This was the night she would be claimed. The night the Moon Goddess’s gift would be fulfilled. The night the boy she had known for years, her mate, would accept her not just as tradition dictated, but as his.
• She had believed in it. In him.
• Jenna stood in the ceremonial clearing, the damp grass chilling her bare feet, the hem of her ceremonial robe heavy with dew. Dozens of eyes watched her from the edges of the circle, her pack, her family, her so-called future. They were all waiting for the moment the bond would be sealed between her and Alpha Sean. The moment the Moon Goddess's will would be honored. The moment their marriage contract, forged years ago by both families, would be fulfilled in sacred union.
• It had always been decided. Long before she and Sean knew they were mates, their union had been arranged. An alliance between two powerful bloodlines. She had tried to find peace in that certainty, to trust that fate and duty would one day align.
• But fate, it seemed, had no mercy.
• Sean turned to her with a sneer, his voice laced with contempt. “This is what I’m supposed to accept as my mate?” he said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. “An omega who can barely shift? Look at her! She’s weak. Fragile. Pathetic.”
• Gasps rippled through the crowd.
• Jenna froze. Her breath caught in her throat. She looked around, confused, humiliated. She knew this wasn’t just rejection, it was calculated cruelty.
• Remi whimpered in her mind, confused, hurting. What is he doing? Why is he saying this?
• Sean didn’t stop.
• “She’s not Luna material. She’s a burden, soft, pitiful. And her wolf? A ghost of what it should be.”
• “I need a mate who can lead beside me. Who is fierce. Strong. Beautiful. Not a trembling little girl still waiting to prove her worth.”
• Then he smirked and turned to someone in the crowd.
• Jenna followed his gaze and froze.
• It was Maris. Her childhood friend. The one who had held her hand through every bad time shes ever had, who had promised she would always support her.
• Maris stepped forward, arms folded, a smirk tugging at her lips. “You should’ve seen this coming, Jenna,” she said, her voice loud and cruel. “You were never going to be enough for him. You could barely keep up with me, let alone be Luna.”
• Jenna’s heart cracked further. “Maris… why?”
• “Because he deserves better,” Maris snapped. “And you? You were just the girl clinging to a future written in pity. The pack will finally see the truth.”
• Sean laughed and stepped forward.
• And struck her.
• The back of his fist cracked across her face, sending her staggering. Pain exploded behind her eye as the pack gasped, but no one moved to stop him.
• “You think I’d bind myself to this?” Sean growled, circling her like a predator. “You disgrace my name just standing there. You don’t deserve my blood, my name, or my bed.”
• As she began to rise He struck her again, kicking her in the stomach.As she stumbled back he kicked her legs out from under her. She hit the earth hard, and this time she didn’t rise.
• Still, he continued. “Let them all see how weak she really is! Let them see what the Moon Goddess wasted on me.”
• He pulled her up by the hair, his voice a hiss in her ear. “This way, when I break the bond, no one will question it. No one will want the shattered thing I leave behind.”
• Tears blurred her vision. Blood filled her mouth. But worse than the pain was the betrayal, by him, by her friend, by the pack, by fate.
• “I reject you,” Sean declared, voice booming through the clearing, “as my mate. As my Luna. And as anything that ever belonged to me.”
• The matebond tore.
• It was not a clean break. It was a violent, soul-splitting agony that raked through her chest like claws. Her heart buckled under it. She screamed, but no sound came. Every thread of the bond snapped, one by one, tearing through her ribs, her spine, her mind. It felt like being skinned from the inside out. The world blurred into red and white and nothingness.
• Remi shrieked in her mind. No, no, don’t leave us,
• Her wolf collapsed inside her, the light dimming.
• It hurts, it hurts so much, I can’t,
• Remi’s howl cracked into silence.
• Jenna collapsed.
• The ground swallowed her. Her breath shuddered. The cold seeped into her bones.
• She heard someone shout, “Enough!”, a voice not loud, but cutting through the haze like a blade.
• But Sean only scoffed. “If she survives, you can have her, Alexander.”
• Jenna tried to lift her head, to see who had spoken, but all she could make out was a black silhouette at the edge of the clearing. A shadow with golden eyes. Her vision blurred as blood trickled past her lips and tears streaked her cheeks.
• And as her world slipped into darkness, her soul still bleeding, pain was the only thing left. It tore through her like fire and ice, unraveling everything she had ever known. Her limbs went numb. Her heartbeat slowed. The sounds of the pack faded, swallowed by the cold.
• And then, nothing.