Elara's POV
"She's going to jump."
I heard the words behind me. Two women. Guests. They didn't know I stood close enough to hear.
My hands tightened on my bouquet. White roses. Kael's favorite. I'd spent three hours picking them myself.
Ninety-nine times.
That was the number burning in my head. Ninety-nine times Seraphine had threatened to die. Ninety-nine times Kael had run to her. And now, on our wedding day, she was doing it again.
I didn't turn around. I kept my eyes on the church doors. Kael would walk through them any minute. He would see me in this dress, the one I'd starved myself to fit into, and he would choose me.
This time he would choose me.
The doors opened.
Kael stepped through. Black suit. Gold eyes. Beautiful and cold as winter sunrise. He looked at me. For one second, I saw love there. Or I thought I did.
Then his phone buzzed.
I watched his face change. The way it always changed. The tightness around his mouth. The guilt in his eyes. He looked at the screen. Looked at me.
"Elara—"
"Don't."
My voice came out steady. That surprised me. Inside I was screaming. Inside I was the girl who had loved him since she was nineteen. Inside I was dying.
But my voice stayed steady.
"It's Seraphine," he said. "She's on the roof. She says she'll jump."
"She won't jump."
"Elara, please. I have to—"
"You have to what?" I stepped down from the altar. My heels clicked too loud in the silent church. "You have to leave our wedding? Again?"
Guests were staring. I felt their eyes like heat on my skin. My mother's friends. Kael's pack. People who had whispered for five years that I was foolish to wait. That I was pathetic to stay.
Maybe they were right.
"She's serious this time," Kael said. He reached for my hand. I pulled back. "She sounded different. I have to check."
"Different how?"
"Elara—"
"Answer me."
He blinked. I never pushed. In five years, I had never pushed. I accepted his apologies. I accepted his marks that faded too fast. I accepted that his best friend would always come first.
I was tired of accepting.
"She said goodbye," he said quietly. "She said she couldn't watch me marry you."
The church held its breath.
I looked at this man. This Alpha. My fated mate. The wolf who was supposed to love me above all others. I saw the truth in his face. He believed her. He would always believe her. Not because she was honest. Because he needed to be needed.
I wasn't the one he needed.
"Go then," I said.
"Elara—"
"Go."
He hesitated. For one moment, I saw conflict. I saw the man who had promised me forever. Who had cried when he proposed. Who had sworn this time would be different.
The phone buzzed again.
He looked at it. And he walked away.
The church doors closed behind him with a sound like a gunshot.
I stood alone at the altar. White dress. White roses. Red heart beating too fast in my chest.
Ninety-nine times.
This made one hundred.
Someone coughed. A baby cried. The priest shuffled papers. I heard the whispers start again, different now. Pity instead of envy. Poor Elara. Poor stupid girl.
My hands shook. I looked down at the bouquet. White roses. His favorite. I had spent three hours picking them. Three hours on flowers for a man who left me standing in front of God and everyone.
I dropped them.
The roses scattered across the marble floor. Petals broke off. They looked like blood on the white stone.
"Elara." The priest touched my shoulder. "Perhaps we should wait? He may return."
I looked at the doors. Kael had walked through them five minutes ago. He could still walk back. He could realize his mistake. He could choose me.
The doors stayed closed.
I reached up. My fingers found the veil. Crystal beads. Delicate lace. My mother's veil. She had worn it marrying my father. I had worn it dreaming of Kael.
I tore it off.
The sound filled the church. Fabric ripping. Dreams ripping. The comb caught in my hair and I pulled harder, not caring, feeling the pain sharp and sweet and real.
The veil came free in my hands. A white wreck. A pretty lie.
"I'm not getting married today," I said.
The priest stared. "Miss Vance—"
"I'm not getting married ever." I dropped the veil on top of the roses. "Not to him."
I walked down the aisle. The guests blurred. Faces I knew. Faces I didn't. All of them watching me fall apart or come together, I couldn't tell which.
My hand found the door handle. Cold metal. Real.
I pulled.
Outside, the sun hit hard. Spring air. New beginnings. I stood on the church steps in my white dress, no veil, no bouquet, no groom.
My phone buzzed.
I looked at it. Kael's name. A text. Probably an apology. Probably a promise. Probably the same words he'd said ninety-nine times before.
I turned the phone off.
A car pulled up. Black. Familiar. The window rolled down.
Mira looked out. My best friend. My only friend who hadn't told me to leave him. She had waited. She had known I needed to see it myself.
"Get in," she said.
I got in.
She didn't ask if I was okay. She didn't ask what happened. She looked at my face, at my empty hands, at the church doors behind me.
"Ninety-nine times," she said.
"One hundred," I answered.
She nodded. Put the car in drive. "Where to?"
I looked out the window. The sun was bright. Too bright. My eyes hurt.
"Home," I said. Then, "No. Not home. He'll come there. He'll think I'm waiting."
"Are you?"
I looked at her. Mira's face was fierce. Protective. She had hated Kael for five years. Quietly. For my sake.
"No," I said. The word felt strange in my mouth. New. "I'm not waiting anymore."
She reached over. Squeezed my hand. Her skin was warm. Real.
"Good," she said.
The car moved. The church got smaller in the mirror. My wedding. My disaster. My choice.
I didn't cry.
I would cry later. I would scream later. I would remember every promise, every touch, every time he said he loved me and left anyway.
But right now, I didn't cry.
I watched the road unfold in front of us. Open. Empty. Mine.
My phone stayed off.
My hands stopped shaking.
And somewhere deep inside, where my wolf lived, something woke up. Something angry. Something hungry.
Something that had waited long enough.