"Here." I pressed the heavy, silver-wrought box into Kai’s chest. "Just like you asked."

The music of the Full Moon Campus Gala thumped through the academy courtyard, but I only heard the steady rhythm of Kai’s heartbeat. Above us, the massive crystal boards projected our faces to the entire school.

Kai took the box. His fingers brushed mine, cold and quick. He popped the latch. The Lunar Amulet—my family’s only ancient wolf relic—glowed against the velvet lining.

"The Mercer family heirloom," Kai murmured. He didn't look at me. His eyes stayed locked on the glowing stone.

"My father didn't want to hand it over," I said, stepping closer, seeking the warmth he had freely given me for the last six months. The late-night study sessions, the jacket draped over my shoulders, the whispered promises. "But I told him we are fated. I told him you needed it for the Alpha trials."

Kai snapped the box shut. The sharp crack echoed over the courtyard, somehow cutting through the bass of the music.

He finally looked at me. The gentle, adoring gaze I had memorized over the past half-year was gone. A flat, empty stare replaced it.

"Thank you, Brielle," he said. His voice amplified across the courtyard. He was using his Alpha tone, projecting it so the crystal boards picked up every syllable.

"Kai?" I reached out, my fingers grazing his sleeve. "What are you doing?"

He stepped back, dodging my touch.

"I'm doing what I should have done the moment the Moon Goddess made a mistake," he announced.

The courtyard went dead silent. The music cut out. Every student, every elder, every camera turned toward us.

"I, Kai Thorne, future Alpha of the Crescent Ridge, reject you, Brielle Mercer, as my fated mate."

The words didn't just hang in the air. They slammed into my chest like a physical blow.

"No," I gasped.

The mate bond—a golden thread connecting my soul to his—snapped.

Fire ripped through my veins. My knees hit the cobblestone hard. I gripped my shirt, clawing at the fabric over my heart. The pain was blinding. It felt like someone had shoved a rusted blade between my ribs and twisted.

"Kai!" I choked out, a cold sweat breaking across my forehead. "Please. The bond..."

"Stop making a scene," he sneered, towering over me.

He didn't offer a hand. He didn't flinch at my agony.

A pair of silver stilettos stepped into my blurry line of sight.

"You heard him, Brielle," a sweet, melodic voice chimed.

I forced my head up. Sloane. The academy's golden girl. The she-wolf Kai used to stare at before he found out I was his mate.

Kai reached out and laced his fingers through Sloane’s. He lifted her hand, kissing her knuckles right in front of the cameras.

"Sloane is my chosen mate," Kai declared, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "She is the only one fit to rule by my side."

"You used me," I whispered, the realization tasting like ash in my mouth. "Six months. The dates. The promises. All of it... just to get the Amulet for her?"

"You were an easy mark," Kai replied, his tone bored. "You wanted a fairy tale. I needed the relic to secure my rank. Now we both have reality."

Laughter erupted from the crowd. It started as a low rumble and swelled into a deafening roar.

"Look at her crying!" a voice shouted from the back.

"Pathetic. She actually thought Kai Thorne wanted a weak Beta-line freak."

"Talk about delusional. She basically handed over her family's only treasure just to get dumped on live TV!"

I stared at the crystal boards. My own face stared back—pale, sweating, twisted in agony, kneeling at the feet of the boy I loved and his new queen. The chat scrolling across the bottom of the screen was a blur of mocking emojis and cruel jokes.

*Clingy.*

*Desperate.*

*Laughingstock.*

My vision darkened at the edges. The rejection sickness was setting in. Without the bond, my wolf was tearing herself apart from the inside. I slumped forward, my palms scraping against the rough stone.

"Get up, Brielle," Sloane said, a fake pout on her lips. "You're embarrassing yourself. And you're ruining our celebration."

"Someone call the janitor," Kai joked, turning his back on me. "We have trash on the dance floor."

More laughter. More jeers.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the darkness to take me. I couldn't fight it. My body was giving out.

Then, the laughter abruptly stopped.

A heavy silence fell over the courtyard. The kind of silence that only happens when a predator enters the room.

"Move."

The voice was low, rough, and carried a dangerous edge that made the hair on my arms stand up.

I pried my eyes open.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea. Students shoved each other out of the way, lowering their heads in submission.

Elias Thorne.

Kai’s older brother. The outcast. The ruthless enforcer of the pack who had been banished to the borderlands for three years, only returning this semester. Kai hated him. Everyone feared him.

He walked straight toward the center of the courtyard. He wore a dark leather jacket, his jaw set in a hard, unforgiving line. His piercing gray eyes didn't look at the crowd, at the cameras, or at his brother.

They locked onto me.

"Elias," Kai barked, dropping Sloane’s hand. "What are you doing here? You're not welcome at the Gala."

Elias ignored him. He stopped right in front of me.

He crouched down, his large frame blocking out the glaring lights of the crystal boards. Up close, he smelled like pine needles and impending rain.

"You look like hell, Mercer," Elias said, his voice a low rumble meant only for me.

"I'm dying," I wheezed, blood rushing to my ears.

"Not today."

Without another word, Elias slid one massive arm under my knees and the other around my back. He stood up smoothly, lifting me against his chest as if I weighed nothing.

The heat radiating from his body was intense. It didn't cure the agonizing pain in my chest, but it anchored me. It kept me from floating away into the dark.

"Put her down, Elias!" Kai shouted, stepping into his brother's path. His face flushed red with anger. "She is a rejected wolf. She belongs in the gutter."

Elias didn't raise his voice. He didn't even shift his stance. He just tilted his head, glaring down at Kai.

"If you don't step aside, little brother," Elias said, the threat vibrating through his chest and into mine, "I will snap your neck on live television."

Kai froze. The Alpha command in Elias’s tone was absolute.

Sloane shrank back, pulling Kai by the sleeve.

Elias stepped around them, carrying me straight through the center of the courtyard. The cameras tracked our every move. The entire academy watched in stunned silence as the terrifying older brother walked away with the discarded mate.

My head rolled against his shoulder. The pain was still tearing me apart, but a strange numbness started to creep in.

"Why?" I managed to whisper, gripping the lapel of his jacket.

Elias looked down at me, his gray eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn't read.

"Because my brother is an idiot," Elias muttered, tightening his grip on me. "And because you and I need to have a talk about that Amulet."

My eyes fluttered shut as we left the courtyard, the sounds of the academy fading into the night.

But Elias’s next words yanked me right back from the edge of unconsciousness.

"You're not dying, Brielle," he whispered against my ear. "You're just mutating."

"Delete the post, Trent, or I will snap your phone in half!"

Maya’s voice pierced the thin walls of my dorm room.

I pulled the blanket off my face. My chest throbbed. A dull ache had replaced the fiery agony of last night’s rejection.

*You're not dying. You're just mutating.*

Elias's rough voice echoed in my skull. I did not feel mutated. I felt hollow.

Maya stomped into my room. Her fingers gripped her phone so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"Do not open the campus forum," she ordered. She tossed her device onto my mattress.

"How bad is it?" I asked. I sat up, wincing as a sharp twinge hit my ribs.

"They are calling you the Academy’s biggest joke," she admitted. Her shoulders dropped. "There are memes, Bri. Videos of you crying on the cobblestones. People are saying you faked the mate bond just to get close to Kai."

"I gave him my family's Amulet," I whispered. I rubbed my sternum.

"I know. And I am going to make him pay for it." Maya grabbed my arm. "But right now, you need to get dressed. They kicked you out of the study group chat this morning. If you hide in this room, they win."

"I refuse to give them the satisfaction," I said.

The chatter died instantly when we walked into Alpha History.

Every head turned. A girl in the front row scoffed. She slid her chair away from the aisle as if my presence might infect her.

"Look who decided to show her face," a guy sneered from the back row.

"Thought she would be in the gutter where she belongs," another chimed in.

Maya slammed her textbook onto the nearest desk. "Say one more word, Liam, and I will rip your tongue out."

Liam rolled his eyes but stayed quiet.

Professor Higgins walked in, adjusting his glasses. He paused at the front of the room, his gaze landing on me.

"Miss Mercer. I see you decided to attend," Higgins said, his tone thick with condescension. "I assume you will be transferring out of the Alpha track by the end of the week?"

"I earned my spot in this track," I replied. I gripped my pen.

"We will see," Higgins dismissed me, turning to the whiteboard.

I took my seat. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, ignoring Maya's earlier warning. The campus feed was flooded.

*Kai and Sloane: The True Royal Couple.*

A photo showed them at breakfast. He was feeding her a strawberry, smiling like he had won the lottery.

My stomach churned.

After class, Maya went to the restroom. I waited by the lockers.

Footsteps echoed down the hall. I looked up.

Kai.

He was alone. No cameras, no Sloane, no adoring fans. The golden boy image vanished the second our eyes met. His posture was rigid. His fists clenched at his sides. He did not look victorious. He looked like he had not slept at all.

He closed the distance between us in three long strides. He slammed his hand against the metal locker right next to my head.

"Where did he take you?" Kai demanded. His voice was a harsh rasp, completely stripping away his polished Alpha tone.

I flinched, pressing my back against the cold steel. "What?"

"Elias." He spat the name like poison. "Where did my brother take you last night?"

"Why do you care?" I shot back. I lifted my chin. "You rejected me, remember? You got the Amulet. You got Sloane."

Kai’s jaw clenched. A muscle ticked wildly in his cheek. His eyes darted down to my lips, then snapped back to my eyes. They burned with a frantic, chaotic energy.

"Did he touch you?" Kai demanded, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Did my brother put his hands on your bare skin?"

"That is none of your business."

"It is my business!" he shouted. "He is a monster, Brielle. He was banished for a reason. You think he saved you? He is using you to get to me."

"At least he caught me when I fell," I shot back. "You just laughed."

Kai flinched. The truth hit him, but he immediately masked it with rage.

"I do not care about you," he snarled. His chest heaved as he leaned closer. The scent of rain and pine—Elias’s scent—still lingered on my jacket. Kai’s nostrils flared. He grabbed my lapel, his knuckles brushing my collarbone.

"You reek of him," Kai hissed.

"Take your hands off me," I said, my voice steady despite the hammering of my heart.

"You think I am jealous?" He laughed, a brittle, ugly sound. He released my jacket and took a step back, dragging a hand through his perfectly styled hair, ruining it. "I am not. I just hate him touching my things. That is all this is."

He was talking fast, pacing a tight circle in front of me.

"I do not love you," Kai muttered, pointing a finger at my chest. "I never did. I just hate someone else taking what belongs to me. It is an Alpha pride thing. Nothing else."

I stared at him. He was trying to convince himself, not me. The panic in his eyes was raw. He had thrown me away, but the image of Elias carrying me off had clearly shattered his perfect reality.

A strange, bitter laugh escaped my throat.

Kai froze. "What is so funny?"

"You," I said, pushing off the locker. "You broke the bond. I do not belong to you anymore, Kai. I am not your thing."

"You are mine until I say otherwise!" he roared. He slammed both hands on the lockers, trapping me again. His face was inches from mine. "I decide when we are done."

"We were done the second you chose Sloane," I replied, my voice dropping to a whisper.

"Kai?"

The sweet, melodic voice echoed from the end of the hall. Sloane stood there. Her smile faltered as she took in our proximity.

Kai shoved off the locker as if I had burned him. He smoothed his shirt. The frantic obsession vanished behind a mask of cool indifference.

"Just taking out the trash, babe," Kai called out to her. He did not look at me again as he walked away, wrapping an arm around Sloane’s waist.

But I saw his hands. They were shaking.

Maya jogged up to me, her eyes darting toward the retreating couple. "What did he want?"

"He is losing his mind," I muttered.

Before Maya could ask what I meant, a sharp, searing pain shot through my spine. I gasped, dropping to my knees. It was not the dull ache of the broken bond. This was new.

My bones felt like they were melting.

"Brielle!" Maya screamed, dropping to the floor beside me.

"My back," I choked out, clawing at my shirt.

*You're not dying. You're mutating.*

The pain intensified, ripping a scream from my throat as something hard pushed against the skin just beneath my shoulder blades.

The smell of crushed pine and burning cedar pulled me from the dark.

My spine burned. I arched off the mattress, a harsh groan tearing from my throat.

Large, calloused hands pressed my shoulders down into the pillows.

"Stay still," Elias commanded.

I blinked against the dim light. Log walls surrounded me. A fire crackled in a massive stone hearth.

"Where are we?" I rasped.

"My cabin. Deep in the borderlands." Elias grabbed a damp cloth from a wooden basin. "Turn over."

I obeyed, gritting my teeth as a sharp spasm rocked my shoulder blades.

He pressed the cool cloth to my bare back. A freezing, numbing sensation seeped into my skin, instantly dulling the fire in my bones.

"You passed out in the hallway," Elias said. "Your friend Maya tried to fight off the campus medics. I stepped in."

"Why?" I asked, gripping the edge of the heavy quilt.

"Because the academy doctors would have locked you in an observation cell," he replied. "They treat bond mutations like a disease. I treat them like weapons."

I rested my chin on my forearms. "Kai said I belonged in the gutter."

Elias paused. The cloth hovered over my skin.

"My brother is a coward," Elias stated. "And you are a fool for believing a single word he ever said."

I stiffened. "I loved him."

"You loved a script." Elias tossed the rag into the basin. It hit the water with a loud slap. "Sit up. Look at me."

I pushed myself up, pulling the thick quilt over my chest.

Elias dragged a wooden stool to the edge of the bed. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His gray eyes locked onto mine, completely devoid of pity.

"I am going to tell you the truth," Elias said. "And you are going to listen without crying."

I lifted my chin. "I am out of tears."

"Good." He tapped his fingers against his knee. "Kai never felt the mate bond."

The words hit me. I did not flinch.

"He told me the Moon Goddess paired us," I argued, though my voice lacked conviction.

"He lied," Elias said, his tone steady and merciless. "Six months ago, the pack elders told Kai he lacked the ancestral backing to take the Alpha title. He needed a relic."

"The Lunar Amulet," I whispered.

"Exactly. Your family holds the last one." Elias tilted his head. "Do you really think it was an accident that he bumped into you outside the archives?"

My stomach twisted. "It was pouring rain. He offered me his umbrella."

"He checked the weather forecast," Elias corrected. "He waited in the administration building for two hours until you walked out."

I stared at him. The memories I had cherished—the foundation of my entire relationship—began to warp.

"The late-night study sessions?" I asked, my voice hardening.

"He paid the librarian to keep the east wing open," Elias answered. "He needed you isolated."

"He gave me his jacket when I shivered."

"Scent marking," Elias countered. "He coated you in his scent so no other wolves would approach you. He needed zero competition while he ran his con."

My hands formed fists under the quilt. My nails dug into my palms.

"What about the letters?" I challenged, testing the limits of the lie. "He wrote me handwritten letters every week."

Elias scoffed. "His Beta drafted them. Kai copied the words. He complained about his hand cramping."

"The promise ring?"

"Bought by Sloane," Elias replied. "She picked it out because it matched her favorite necklace."

A cold, sharp clarity washed over me.

The hollow ache in my chest stopped throbbing. The desperate, clinging girl who had sobbed on the courtyard cobblestones was gone. Dead.

I did not feel heartbroken. I felt stupid. And I felt a burning, absolute rage.

"Sloane knew everything," I stated. It was not a question.

"She helped him plan it," Elias confirmed. "They laughed about your texts in the pack house. They mocked your devotion."

I closed my eyes. The last thread of my pathetic, romantic fantasies snapped. It was not a severed mate bond. It was a cheap string of lies.

"All of it," I said, opening my eyes. My voice dropped to a flat whisper. "Every touch. Every promise. A transaction."

"A heist," Elias corrected. "He played the perfect prince, and you handed over the keys to your kingdom."

I threw the quilt off and swung my legs over the side of the bed. The cold floorboards shocked my bare feet.

"Where are you going?" Elias asked, standing up.

"Back to the academy," I said. "I am going to rip his throat out."

Elias let out a short, rough laugh. It was the first time I had heard him make a sound that wasn't a threat.

"Sit down, Mercer. You wouldn't make it past the tree line."

"Watch me." I took a step forward.

A blinding spike of pain drove straight down my spine. My knees buckled.

Elias caught me before I hit the floor. His massive arms wrapped around my waist, hauling me flush against his chest.

"I told you," he murmured, his jaw brushing the top of my head. "You are mutating. The rejection broke your human shell."

I pushed against his leather jacket, trying to stand on my own. "Make it stop."

"It has to run its course." He steered me toward a tall, antique mirror standing in the corner of the room. "But I can show you what you're becoming."

He turned me around to face the glass.

I stared at my reflection. My face looked paler, sharper. My eyes, usually a soft hazel, now flashed with rings of pure, glowing gold.

But that was not what made my heart hammer against my ribs.

I turned slightly, looking over my shoulder at my bare back.

Right beneath my shoulder blades, the skin had split. Two jagged, obsidian-black bone ridges jutted out from my spine, piercing the flesh. They were not bleeding. They pulsed with a faint, shadowy energy.

"What is that?" I breathed, reaching a hand back.

Elias caught my wrist before my fingers could touch the bone.

"That," Elias said, his eyes meeting mine in the mirror, "is the mark of an Alpha-killer."

I stared at the black ridges. The fear I expected to feel never came. Instead, a dangerous thrill curled in my stomach.

"Can you teach me how to use it?" I asked.

Elias dropped my wrist. He crossed his arms over his chest, a slow smirk spreading across his face.

"I thought you would never ask."

He walked over to a heavy wooden trunk at the foot of the bed and kicked the lid open. Metal clanged against metal.

"We start tonight," Elias said, pulling out a pair of silver-bladed daggers. "Kai thinks he stole your power. We are going to show him he just unlocked it."

I turned away from the mirror and faced him.

"I don't just want the Amulet back," I said, my voice echoing in the quiet cabin.

"What do you want?" Elias asked, tossing one of the daggers onto the mattress.

"I want his crown."

Elias picked up the second dagger. He tested the edge against his thumb, drawing a single bead of blood.

"Then we are going to need to break a few more of your bones," he said.