My fated Alpha kissed another female at our betrothal ceremony

"Stand straight, Elowen," Elder Thorne told me, adjusting the gold chain pinned to my silk lapel. "The Moon Goddess chose you to stand beside our next Alpha. Don't look like a trembling pup."

"I'm not trembling," I said, lifting my chin.

The crimson torches flickered along the hall walls, casting jumping shadows across hundreds of pack members. Heat hummed under my skin, sweet and steady. The fated bond pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat, pulling my gaze toward the arched entryway.

Kyle was finally coming.

"Look at him," a girl whispered near the front row. "Alpha Kyle looks breathtaking tonight."

"She’s lucky," another murmured. "To be his fated mate... it’s an honor half the women in this territory prayed for."

I believed it, too. I believed fate gave me Kyle because we were meant to rebuild this pack together.

Kyle stepped into the hall. His broad shoulders cut through the amber light, his dark suit crisp, his jaw set in a hard line. His eyes swept across the room, tracking straight toward the dais where I stood waiting.

My lips parted. "Kyle."

He didn't slow down. He didn't smile.

He didn't even look at me.

Kyle swept past my outstretched hand, his sleeve brushing my silk dress as if I were nothing more than a wooden post.

"Kyle?" The word died on my tongue.

A hush washed through the banquet hall, choking the music into silence.

Kyle walked five paces beyond the dais and stopped in front of Lila.

She stood near the perimeter pillars, dressed in delicate cream lace, her wide doe eyes glittering with unshed tears.

"You shouldn't have come," Kyle said, his voice carrying clearly in the dead quiet.

"I had to see you," Lila whispered, clutching a lace handkerchief to her chest. "One last time, before you belong to someone else."

"Kyle, what are you doing?" I called out, my voice cracking through the hall. "The ceremony is here."

Kyle ignored me. His large hand slid around the nape of Lila's neck, his fingers tangling roughly in her hair.

"I don't belong to anyone else," Kyle declared.

Then, before the elders, before our families, before three hundred pack members, Kyle dragged Lila toward him and crushed his mouth over hers.

A collective gasp ripped through the hall.

"Is he insane?" someone hissed.

"At his own betrothal?"

The mate bond shattered inside my chest. It felt like a red-hot blade gouging through the marrow of my bones. Fire surged down my collarbone into my ribs, tearing every tether of warmth we shared into raw, bleeding ash.

My knees buckled. I caught the edge of the stone altar, my fingernails digging into the polished rock until they threatened to snap. Cold sweat broke across my forehead, blinding me.

*He's rejecting me in his heart,* my wolf wailed, scratching against my ribs. *He's tearing the thread!*

Lila whimpered into the kiss, her small hands resting against Kyle's chest, but she didn't push him away. She arched into him, letting every wolf in the room watch her conquer an Alpha.

When Kyle finally let her go, his chest rose and fell in heavy heaves. A smug flush painted Lila's cheeks, though she ducked her head, playing the innocent victim.

"Kyle," I rasped, my throat raw from holding back the scream burning in my lungs. "Look at me."

Kyle turned slowly. His gaze landed on me, cold and bored, devoid of the connection fate was supposed to guarantee. He wiped the corner of his lip with the back of his thumb.

"Don't make a scene, Elowen," he said.

The humiliation hit harder than the physical pain.

"A scene?" I choked out, pushing myself upright despite the tremor wracking my spine. "You just kissed another woman in front of the entire pack! This is our betrothal!"

"Lila was distressed," Kyle said flatly, stepping between her and the crowd like a shield. "She needed reassurance."

"She needed reassurance?" My voice spiked, sharp and disbelieving. "So you break our bond on the sacred altar?"

"Nothing is broken unless you keep shrieking like a harpy," Kyle snapped, his brow furrowing with disdain. "You're getting the title. You're getting the ring. You will be my Luna. Stop acting like a spoiled brat because I care about someone who held my heart long before fate forced you onto me."

"I am so sorry, Elowen," Lila piped up from behind his shoulder, her voice shaking with fake remorse. "Please don't be angry with Kyle. It was my fault. I... I couldn't bear losing him."

"Shut your mouth, Lila," I snarled.

"Watch your tongue, Elowen!" Kyle's tone dropped into a warning growl, the Alpha aura rolling off him to press against my bruised chest. "You will not speak to her like that. Apologize to Lila right now, or this ceremony ends before it even begins."

Murmurs rippled through the spectators.

"He's choosing Lila over his fated mate."

"Pathetic... she can't even hold his interest for ten minutes."

"Look at her shaking. She has no pride."

Every mocking word felt like salt poured into an open wound. The bond between Kyle and me violently twisted again as he turned back to whisper something softly into Lila's ear, brushing a tear off her cheek.

My stomach lurched. The agony inside my veins grew so intense I tasted iron on my tongue. I had bitten through my own lip.

"I won't apologize," I whispered.

Kyle didn't even bother to look back. "Then find somewhere else to sulk."

I turned on my heel and ran.

I shoved past the gawking wolves, ignoring the pitying stares and the muffled laughter. The heavy wooden doors slammed shut behind me, cutting off the suffocating heat of the hall.

My feet carried me down the stone corridors, down the worn steps, out into the bitter air of the deserted training grounds.

Rain had left the gravel slick. I tripped, my knees slamming into the hard dirt near the high perimeter wall. I dragged myself into the shadow of the stone corner, curling tight, clutching my chest with both hands.

*It hurts. Goddess, it hurts.*

Inside the hall, Kyle’s aura flared again—warm, protective, entirely focused on Lila. Each spike of his affection for her drove another spike of agony through our bond. The pain twisted my guts, leaving me gasping for air against the wet stone.

"Why give me a mate just to let him rip me apart?" I whispered to the empty dark.

My fingers clawed at my chest, right over the pulsing agony in my heart.

A dark, terrifying thought crept into my mind.

*What if I reject him first?*

The elders said severing a bond without mutual consent could kill a wolf. The backlash of shattered magic could tear a soul to shreds.

*Could I survive it?* I wondered, squeezing my eyes shut as tears finally spilled down my cold cheeks. *Or would it be better than living as his unwanted shadow?*

"You won't survive the backlash," a deep voice cut through the dark. "Not in the state you're in."

The heavy cadence of footsteps crunched across the gravel, slow and unhurried.

I snapped my head up, my wolf bristling in defense.

A tall figure stepped out of the fog, dwarfing the shadows around him. Broad-chested, imposing, and radiating an authority so heavy it made the air turn dense.

It wasn't Kyle.

It was Kyle’s older brother.

Alpha Rhett.