our posture, your scent. You smell like complete weakness."I flinched. Each word sounded even more painful than the whips that Peter had dealt me earlier."I had expected that the Moon Goddess would have more sense than to do this to me," he muttered more to himself than to anyone else. "But I guess not."As if to make things worse, his eyes landed on Peter whose smile had completely faded from his face."And you," he said. "You were my father's beta before you went against his orders and betrayed him in the process. How am I supposed to be mated to your daughter with such history?"I was frozen. My feet were rooted to the floor, even with how badly I wanted to turn around and run out of there. It felt like my heart had been open, and Alpha Kaelen had wasted no time to crush it."I, Alpha Kaelen Spear of Crimson Wood Pack, reject you as my mate."Gasps filled the air in the hall, followed by silence as they all stared at me.I waited there with my breath held for the bond between us to snap as I had been told it would if someone was rejected. I had heard it was supposed to feel like a wire breaking in your chest and a gaping hole there.But nothing came.There was no snap. There was no emptiness. There was only the sharp, echoing silence in the hall and nothing more, leaving me even more confused than anything else."What..." I trailed off, looking over at Alpha Kaelen to see if he felt it too. If the bond was still there for him. But before I could get a good look at his face, he was turning around and walking away without giving me a second glance."That's so embarrassing for her," I heard someone whisper in a low, cruel tone. It was followed by laughter from whoever the person was talking to."I can't believe she thought he would accept her, knowing the history between her father and his father," someone else said.Soon, all I could hear was how foolish I was to expect anything from Alpha Kaelen. How hopeless I was.I was laughed at, pointed at, and they all had no sympathy for me. Not even in the slightest."I can't do this," I said as I turned to Peter, who was glaring at me as if he was only se