Nyx's POV
My hands won't stop shaking.
"Breathe, Nyx," I whisper to myself, but my heart pounds so hard I think everyone in the Lunar Temple can hear it. Thousands of wolves surround me, their eyes burning into my skin. I've never felt so alone in a room full of people.
Tonight, my wolf should finally wake up. Tonight, I'll bond with my five Alpha mates and become the most powerful Luna in history. That's what everyone says.
But what if they're wrong?
I force myself to look at the platform where my mates stand. Kieran, the warrior with cold eyes. Cassian, the smart one who never smiles. Darius, who looks at me like I'm dirt on his shoe.
Riven, whose smile doesn't reach his eyes. And Zane, who's shaking almost as badly as I am.
They're supposed to love me. The Moon Goddess chose us to be together.
So why do they look like they'd rather be anywhere else?
"Begin the ceremony," High Priestess Morvanna's voice echoes through the temple. She walks toward me, her long silver knife gleaming in the moonlight.
My father stands in the crowd with his new wife and my stepsister Lyra. He doesn't look proud. He looks nervous. Like he bet everything on a horse that might lose.
Morvanna grabs my hand. Her fingers are ice cold. "Give me your palm, child."
I open my hand. The knife slices across my skin before I'm ready. I bite my lip to keep from crying out. Blood wells up, dark red against my pale skin.
"Let your blood call to your wolf," Morvanna says loudly, so everyone can hear. "Let the Moon Goddess awaken what sleeps inside you."
She turns my hand over. My blood drips onto the ancient stone altar, one drop at a time.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The temple goes completely silent.
I close my eyes and reach deep inside myself, searching for my wolf. I've practiced this a thousand times in my room. I know exactly what to do.
Please, I beg silently. Please be there. Please wake up.
Nothing.
I try again, pushing harder, reaching deeper.
Please!
Still nothing.
Just empty, terrible silence where my wolf should be.
My eyes snap open. Sweat drips down my back. Around me, people start whispering. The sound grows louder and louder, like a swarm of angry bees.
"Nothing's happening," someone says.
"Where's her wolf?"
"Is she broken?"
I look at Morvanna, panic rising in my throat. "I—I can't feel—"
"Silence." Morvanna's face is hard as stone. She turns to the crowd. "The wolf will not answer. The bond cannot form." Her next words hit me like a punch to the stomach. "She is incomplete."
No.
No, no, no.
This can't be happening.
I spin toward my mates, desperate. "Please, give me another chance. I just need—"
Kieran steps forward. His face could be carved from ice.
"I, Kieran Shadowbane, Alpha heir of Shadowpine, reject Nyx Evermoon as my mate."
The words slam into my chest. Pain explodes through my body, so intense I can't breathe. It feels like someone's ripping my heart out with their bare hands.
I fall to my knees, gasping.
But Kieran isn't done.
"She is too weak to lead my pack. Too fragile to survive what's coming. I will not bind Shadowpine to a broken bond."
Through my tears, I see Cassian step forward next.
No. Please, no.
"I, Cassian Silvercrest, reject Nyx Evermoon as my mate. She is a mistake. An evolutionary failure."
More pain. More tearing. I scream, but no sound comes out.
Darius moves like a predator. "I, Darius Bloodmoon, reject Nyx Evermoon. She is unworthy of my bloodline. She should have been culled at birth."
I'm dying. I have to be dying. Nothing could hurt this much and not be death.
Riven's voice is soft, almost gentle, which somehow makes it worse. "I, Riven Stormfang, reject Nyx Evermoon. You're beautiful, truly. But beauty isn't enough. I'm sorry."
Four rejections. Four pieces of my soul torn away.
Only Zane is left.
I look up at him through my tears. He's pale, trembling, his eyes wide with something that looks like horror.
"Please," I manage to whisper. "Please don't."
Zane's mouth opens. Closes. Opens again.
Then he says the worst thing of all.
"I, Zane Nighthaven, reject Nyx Evermoon as my mate." His voice breaks. "You're an abomination. I saw it in my visions. I'm sorry, but you'll destroy us all."
The fifth rejection breaks something inside me that can never be fixed.
I collapse completely, blood pouring from my mouth. My chest feels like it's caving in. Around me, people gasp and point, but I can't hear them anymore. There's only pain and the sound of my own heartbeat getting slower.
My father pushes through the crowd. Finally. He'll help me. He has to help me.
But when he reaches me, his face is twisted with rage.
"For the shame you've brought upon House Evermoon," he says clearly, loudly, so everyone can hear, "I hereby disown you. You are exiled to the Forsaken Lands. Guards, remove her."
Hands grab my arms. They drag me across the stone floor. I'm too weak to fight, too broken to even cry anymore.
As they pull me toward the temple doors, I see my stepsister Lyra in the crowd.
She's smiling.
Not just smiling—grinning like she just won the best prize in the world.
And then, just before the darkness takes me, I see something that makes my blood run cold.
Lyra's hand glows with a strange purple light for just a second before she hides it in her dress.
The same purple light I saw in my dreams last night.
The same purple light that felt like someone was holding my wolf down, keeping it trapped.
My eyes meet Lyra's across the crowd.
Her smile grows wider.
And I understand.
She did this to me.