Axel stepped forward, moving in a glazed daze. His head was tilted slightly, his eyes fixed on the ritual stone with a haunted intensity, as if he were walking in his sleep.
"What are you doing?" Alpha Vexton snapped. His eyes narrowed, his predatory instinct instantly picking up on his son's change in posture.
Axel continued forward as if he had not heard a word. The pull was unbearable, a brutal anchor dragging him toward the ritual stone step by step. His heart pounded against his ribs with a frantic, hollow rhythm that he could feel in the tips of his fingers. His breath came in shallow, jagged pulls. His legs moved entirely without his consent, breaking away from his position at his father's side even as Vexton's voice thundered like a landslide behind him.
"Axel!"
The boy did not stop. Each step he took toward the stone felt like breaking through a physical barrier of thick, resistant glass. His skin prickled as though the air itself had turned into a field of static.
"Axel, get back here this instant!" Vexton's voice lost its edge of command and sharpened into a snarl of impending fury.
Axel ignored him. His entire world had narrowed to a single point of focus: the trembling girl kneeling on the cold marble.
On the sidelines, Ember's hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. A hot, toxic fury twisted her features as she stared at Axel's retreating back.
"It cannot be," Ash muttered, his voice thick with a mix of shock and dawning horror. "Axel is her mate?"
"Will you just shut up!" Ember snapped. Her eyes remained fixed on Axel with a desperate, predatory intensity. Ash flinched at the venom in her tone, glancing sideways at his sister. Her obsession with the Alpha's son was no secret. He had watched her preen and posture for years, building a golden future in her mind that was now being dismantled by a girl who didn't even have the strength to awaken a wolf. Impossible, that thing will not take Axel from us.
Axel stopped a few feet from the ritual stone. His breath was uneven, his chest heaving as he stared down at Nevaeh. The realization crashed into him, visible in the way his broad shoulders slumped and his blue eye widened with a terrifying clarity.
"Mate?" he whispered, the word barely audible.
Nevaeh lifted her head, her vision swimming through a haze of tears and pure exhaustion. The heat in her chest had reached a fever pitch, an agonizing light that seemed to recognize the boy standing before her.
"No," she whispered, her voice cracking into a jagged sob. "No, not you. Please, not you." Nevaeh already knew how this was going to end. why must it be Axel of all people?
Axel's brow furrowed as he looked at her, confusion flickering with a strange, dawning awareness.
Was that sadness or disappointment?
Nevaeh thought, her mind spinning in frantic circles. Definitely disappointment. I too would be disappointed if the Moon Goddess tied me to someone like myself.
She tried to stand, her fingers clawing weakly at the surface of the stone, but her legs gave out completely. She collapsed back into a kneeling position, her breath coming in short, panicked bursts.
Axel must be ashamed to see she's his mate. Who in their right mind would not be devastated to be paired with a curse? What was the Moon Goddess even thinking, tethering the life of the pack heir to a girl who had just been proven worthless? For years, she had watched him in secret, nursing a crush that felt like a shameful secret. To have it confirmed now, in the wake of her greatest failure, was the ultimate cruelty. She wanted him, but she knew with a soul-deep certainty that he could never want her.
Aurora's gaze darted between them, worry etched around her mouth.
"You're… my mate?" Axel asked, disbelief in his voice.
The clearing erupted. Outrage and disbelief rippled through the pack, hundreds of voices rising in a jagged, angry swell.
"He is the future Alpha!" someone screamed from the back of the ring. "He cannot be paired with a worthless curse!"
"It has to be a mistake!"
"Axel Vexton!"
The Alpha's shadow fell over them as he stormed toward the ritual stone. Vexton's face was flushed crimson, his eyes burning with an unstable amber glow.
"Step away from that cursed girl," Vexton commanded. "I will not have my bloodline tainted by this trickery. She is cursed and useless."
He grabbed Axel, spinning him roughly, fingers digging into his shoulders with bone-deep force. "Reject her. Now. This instant."
"I always trust the Alpha not to let me down," Ash said from the sidelines, his voice regaining its smug, oily edge. Ember exhaled, her eyes cold as she watched the drama unfold. Even if the Alpha didn't handle it, she would have taken care of the trash that thinks she can take what does not belong to her.
Seriously, what kind of sick joke is fate playing on me? Nevaeh wondered, her heart breaking in time with the insults. Why did the universe keep offering her a hand only to pull it away? First the stirring of a wolf that resulted in nothing, and now a bond to the one person she truly cared for but cannot have.
"Father," Axel said, his voice slicing through Nevaeh's spiraling thoughts. "Please, calm down."
"Calm down my foot!" Vexton roared. "Reject this disgusting girl—now!"
"But the Goddess destined them," Aurora interjected, her voice sharp and defensive.
"The Goddess destined nothing!" Vexton snapped at the Zeta. "I will not allow this treachery. This is a mockery of my bloodline!"
He fixed Nevaeh with a lethal glare, his power surging outward like a crushing force, pressing her shoulders down and stealing her breath.
"You used some foul curse on him," he hissed, voice low and predatory. "You tethered yourself to him to save your own pathetic skin."
The pressure intensified, the clearing thick with a leaden weight. Nevaeh gasped, hands clawing at the cold marble of the ritual stone as darkness crept at the edges of her vision.
"Stop it!" Aurora shouted, stepping between them. Her body shielded Nevaeh. "You're hurting her! Stop!"