as forced to take. The damp stench of the dungeons still clung to her clothes, but as the guards shoved her th

traditional coronation. Instead,

asks of pure rage. The very people whose wounds she had stitched, whose children s

om the front row, hurling a half-rotten

he tried to mur

! Hang th

he metal touched, forged with silver traces meant to suppress a wolf's strength. She searched the crowd for a single familiar face, a s

above the crowd on a dais of carved w

s, coronations, and the blessing of newborn pups. Today, however, a massive sl

ide the ston

blood. Beside him, wrapped in shimmering ivory Luna silk, stood Sienna. She leaned heavily against Connor's side, a delicate veil covering her face,

base of the altar steps. The rough stone scraped her skin, but the physical pain wa

No shadow of the male who had held her beneath the pines on Moo

hment scroll. He raised his hand, and the roaring

e light of the morning sun not to celebrate a single union, but to preserve the very survival of our

innocent!" she shouted, her voice raspy, desperate, yet carrying across the front rows. "

o her eyes. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead

the law of Pack Preservation, an Alpha cannot harbor a poisoner. Nor can he

t, stomping their feet against the cobbles

mson cape, snapping it back like a banner of war. He drew a long, silver dagger f

r deep inside her mind. A mate rejection was not just words; for a wolf, it was a literal tear

gh the stones beneath her knees, cold, precise, and devoid of a single drop of mercy. "You have br

shes, cutting clean tracks through the dirt on her ch

ed the palm of his right hand, letting the dark Alpha b

gh her desperate pleas, "I, Connor of the Shadow-Fang, hereby sever all ties, promises, and bonds

ve of energy burs

he invisible thread linking her wolf to his snapped with a brutal, tearing force. It felt as though

olf shrieked inside her mind, curling into a tight, shivering ball of despair before falling dead silent. The faint bond they had shared-th

r Evelyn to see. Through her tears, Evelyn caught the tiny

orders and ensure our survival against the Crimson-Fang, High Alpha Connor hereby executes th

n's shattered breaths. Connor didn't hesitate; he turned to Sienna, taking her hand and pl

the rejection worked its way through her veins, leaving her feeling utterly h

h sweat and tears as she glared up at the dais. "You took everything..." she whispered, he

e dark silver blood still dripping from his palm. He looked down at Evelyn lying broken in the d

to silence once more. The cheers died

ls with ruthless finality, "execution would be a mercy you do not deserve. You are stripp