"They're all going to pay for humiliating us. For hurting you."
The voice echoed deep in Zaya's subconscious — fierce and low, like thunder trapped inside her soul.
"Who are you?" Zaya asked through the mind-link, still dazed.
"I'm Sura. Your wolf."
Sura's growl vibrated with barely contained hatred as she advanced on Natasha. Her eyes burned red with fury, bright as living coals.
"How... How did she shift? Her wolf is just as weak as she is." Freya's voice was incredulous.
"My wolf will finish you — just like I finished Zaya!" Natasha charged.
Sura leaped to attack, but something slammed into her mid-air. The impact was brutal.
Alpha Varg had launched himself at her, driving the white wolf violently into the ground. The earth shook beneath Sura's body.
Then, suddenly, he froze.
His body went rigid. His muzzle rose slowly, drawing in the air.
"What is that scent?"
His wolf stirred inside him — restless, insistent — until the word every wolf feared and desired most echoed through him, heavy with power:
"Mate..."
The murmur rippled through the crowd like wildfire.
Varg approached Sura, still sprawled on the ground.
"No! It can't be!" Freya screamed, hatred twisting her face.
"Zaya can't be your mate, Varg! She's useless! She can't be Luna!" Natasha screamed, equally outraged.
Zaya and Sura both went still. They'd felt it too — the overwhelming force of the bond tying them to the alpha.
With difficulty, Sura rose to her feet. Her body ached from the fall, every step an effort, but she pressed forward.
"Mate..." she whispered, her voice thick with hope.
She believed.
She believed that now she'd be protected. Respected. Loved.
"Don't call me that."
Varg's voice came cold, hard, laced with revulsion.
"But... we're mates..."
"I never asked for you. A weak, deformed wolf like you will never be my mate."
"Exactly, Varg. That worthless thing isn't fit to rule beside you." Freya smiled in triumph.
By then, the entire pack watched the spectacle in cruel silence.
Malakor, the Beta, stepped forward.
"What's going on here?"
"Dad... I'm the alpha's mate?" Zaya's voice cracked.
He stared at her, stunned.
"Zaya? Is that you? How did—"
"I don't want this deformed wolf as my mate, Malakor." Varg's contempt was unmistakable.
"My alpha, it's your right to choose a Luna worthy of the pack. Zaya isn't fit for that role. She doesn't have what it takes." Malakor's tone was ice.
"See, Zaya? Even Daddy knows you're worthless." Freya taunted.
"No... Dad, please..."
Voices erupted from the crowd.
"She's not fit to be our Luna!"
"Freya is the right choice!"
Varg raised his voice:
"I, Alpha Varg, before all—"
"No, please!" Zaya begged, tears streaming.
"I reject you, Zaya, as my mate." His voice was a killing blow.
A suffocating pain struck Zaya's chest, as though a dagger had been driven straight through her heart. The air left her lungs, and she screamed — but only inside — while her wolf howled in agony.
The pain of being rejected by a fated mate — the one her heart recognized as destiny — was devastating. It wasn't just sadness. It was as if her soul were being torn apart, piece by piece, by the shattered bond.
Zaya collapsed to her knees, feeling the weight of the rejection reverberate through every fiber of her being. The bond that should have shielded her now consumed her, leaving nothing but pain and emptiness.
"I won't have a weak Luna at my side. As of today, you're expelled from the Western Pack."
A deathly silence fell.
"You're a rogue now. If you return or come anywhere near the pack, you'll be sentenced to death."
"No! Dad! I won't survive alone in the forest!" Zaya screamed, desperate.
"That's your fate." Malakor's voice held no emotion.
He shifted into a massive brown wolf and, without hesitation, dragged Sura into the forest.
The white wolf's body was hurled brutally onto the cold ground.
"Daddy... please... don't abandon me..."
Malakor paused for a second, but he didn't look back.
"Don't call me that anymore. You're no longer my daughter."
Zaya was alone.
On the frozen ground.
In the darkness of the forest.
* * *
Meanwhile, Freya was speaking with her mother, away from the chaos they'd caused.
"Mom, that wretch has finally been kicked out of our lives for good."
Fiora narrowed her eyes, thoughtful.
"Who took the necklace off that worthless girl?"
Freya frowned.
"Mom, Zaya's been expelled from the pack. Why are you so worried about some insignificant necklace?"
A slow smile spread across Fiora's face, dripping with malice.
"Because that necklace was enchanted. I'm the one who gave it to her, telling her it belonged to Layla — her mother."
Freya's eyes went wide.
"Enchanted?"
"Yes. I found a witch. She cast a spell to keep Zaya from shifting."
"And if the shift ever did happen... the first time, her wolf would emerge ugly, deformed, unrecognizable. Only the second transformation would be normal." A wicked gleam shone in her eyes.
Freya swallowed hard, impressed.
"Can you imagine if she hadn't been expelled? The shame it would've brought on the pack?"
Freya smiled, full of admiration.
"You're incredible, Mom."
"It was Natasha who ripped the necklace off. And now Zaya will never come back."
Fiora's grin widened.
"She won't survive the forest."
"She'll die alone. Hurt, weak... with no one to help her."
The two exchanged a knowing look.
And smiled.
Convinced they had won.
* * *
While her sister and wicked stepmother celebrated Zaya's destruction, she lay on the cold ground, swallowed by the silent darkness of the forest.
In her trembling hands, she still held the necklace.
The same necklace she'd believed, until that moment, had belonged to her mother.
Tears fell without end.
We're not going to die, Zaya. You need to find out what they did to your mother... and make them all pay for it. Sura's voice echoed firm in her mind.
Zaya closed her eyes, feeling the weight of loneliness crush her chest.
"We don't have anyone left, Sura. We have nowhere to go."
A brief silence.
Then the wolf answered, quieter, darker:
There is one place.
Our last option.
Zaya swallowed hard.
Where?
The answer came heavy with mystery and danger:
The Darkness Pack.
***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***
Updated 60 Episodes
Download
Like this story? Download the app to keep your reading history.
Comments