For a frozen eternity, the only sound in the Great Hall was the frantic, panicked beat of Aria’s own heart. Damian’s words echoed in the cavernous space, each syllable a hammer blow against the fragile shell of her world. This union will not proceed. The words made no sense. They were a language she couldn’t comprehend, a reality she refused to accept. The bond, their sacred, fated connection, pulsed between them—a raw, open wound.

No, she gasped, the word a breath of sound. She inched forward, her arm outstretched, a desperate, pleading gesture. "Damian, what do you mean? This is our night. The Goddess.".

He did not even glance at her. His gaze was fixed on the shocked pack, his face carved out of stone. "There has been a shift in accord. In the power and future of this pack, a new bond must be formed."

Aria's blood ran cold. Alliance? This was not about alliances. This was about soul mates, about sacred union between two halves of the same soul.

As if called by his voice, a person emerged from the shadows by the big doors. A tall, imposing woman with hair the rich color of blood and eyes that shone like chips of green ice. She moved in a smooth, feral grace, her red dress a violent, jagged slash against the subdued colors of the hall. All the wolves parted for her, their heads lowered not in respect, but in a sort of awed wariness.

It was Lilith Blackthorn, the Alpha daughter of the Crimson Fang pack. An adversary.

She stepped forward to stand with Damian, her body exuding a victorious haughtiness. She put her arm into the bend of his elbow, a move of possession so brazen that it took the air from Aria's lungs. Damian did not back away. He did not move away. He remained there, a granite statue of an Alpha, and allowed it to happen.

The scene was a violation of sorts. The relationship between Aria and Damian, strained to the breaking point, snapped.

Pain, white and absolute, burned through her. Not the neat pain of a blade, but the jagged, ripping pain of a soul ripped in two. A scream rose in her throat, but was drowned by the howl that burst in her mind. MATE! Selene screamed, a sound of raw, unadulterated agony that shook every cell of Aria's body. The floor beneath her feet seemed to tilt, and the silver moonlight shattered into a thousand glittering fragments. She staggered away, her hands clapped to her chest as if she could literally hold herself together.

Whispers erupted along the corridor, a sibilant, hushed tide of shock and morbid curiosity.

"Forsaken…"

"He rejected his preordained partner…"

"For a Blackthorn?" This is an abomination…

The words were knives, each one lodging in her bleeding heart. She scanned the crowd for a familiar face, for someone who would look at her with understanding. But there was nothing. Her packmates, the friends she had known her entire life, turned away. Their faces were a combination of pity and fear—fear of the Alpha, fear of being linked to the one he had so brutally rejected. She was no longer Aria Blackwood, future Luna. She was an outcast. A sign of the Goddess's displeasure.

Lilith leaned in and spoke in Damian's ear, her scarlet lips curving into a satisfied smile. His jaw clenched, but he gave a short, barely perceptible nod.

Elder Silas, his own face set in a mask of shocked horror, at last found his voice. "Alpha… by the holy laws, you will not just… she is your destiny. To call a curse down upon us all is madness!"

Damian's silver eyes finally shifted, but they did not fall on Aria. They glanced across the hall, icy and unyielding. "My responsibility is to the pack. My word is absolute. The union with the Crimson Fangs will protect our border and double our resources. It is an unavoidable sacrifice.

Sacrifice? He called her a sacrifice. She wasn't a political pawn. She was his other half.

He turned around, his eyes locking with hers. The icy coldness in his eyes was more terrible than hate. He was looking at a stranger, a tiny annoyance that he had to shoo away. There was no struggle, no remorse. There was nothing.

That blank stare eradicated the last shreds of hope she had. The love that had been the bedrock of her existence became sour and bitter. Her grief engulfed her to the extent of seeming to devour her, but under it all, something else began to smolder. A slow, lethal ember of rage.

Selene's hurt faded, replaced by a low, furious growl vibrating deep in Aria's heart. He is not our mate, the wolf snarled, venom in each word that Aria had never, ever heard from her. A true mate would never leave behind his other half. He is nothing.

Straightening her back, Aria lifted her chin. She was not going to provide them with the satisfaction of her tears. She was not going to break down before the woman who had ended her life, or the man who had broken her soul. She locked eyes with Damian for the last time, revealing all her hurt and new anger building within her.

And then, wordlessly, she turned her back on him, on the Heartstone, on her whole life. She strode from the dais, her feet steadfast and even, as the world around her fell apart. The pack fell away from her again, but this time they moved away from her as if she bore a plague.

She did not pause until she had reached the great oak doors. When her hand reached the cold iron handle, Damian's voice boomed down the hallway for the final time, a command as bitter and as biting as a shard of ice. "She will be exiled. Drive her away from Nightbane property by dawn."