The Rejected Luna: The Bond That Refused To Break

IA'S

melly

rse

he corridor before I even se

p wal

ould only

brushes the side of my neck beneath my clo

lk in silence, as if I am something that mu

aside before

sed to treat

y parents

hey smiled. They remembered what

look th

tighter and keep

the bondi

t, they will see me standing b

under my skin, not with pain, but with a strange aler

wal

crescent bloomed on my neck, and at the same moment, a gray-

, I thought the Moon

emory hits me

sked f

eam

crashing

clamped around mi

Hot. Thick. Impo

Saria.

mage

k. Stone walls. Torchlight. The

n pieces, leaving behind only fear and the feeling that some

ly died, ever

sce

hift

rk burns when

ves' eyes when they t

words they

rup

e-sc

toni

tonight belon

th before anyone not

killed

ho believes I

ve to the whole pack that I

at was what

nd warm light spills across th

p thr

kind of night me

rriors stand in neat rows around the courtyard. The council waits near the altar with folded ha

parents sacrificed e

I would never stand alo

y smiles

ily friend

omises chang

them have already deci

t my

ngs above us, br

I see

Tall. Still. His dark hair falls over his brow. The

t once, and what I feel i

n waiting years for this moment. The invisible

els i

, but his eyes soften

h to make m

er

what I c

re I sur

r once saved whe

hat night, holding him in her arms after she was stabbed protecti

whisper

ward him, and the warm

it va

ens behind th

k puls

tirs in

look at me

ot ask

cause there is no

he does not take my ha

everyone is watching. Darian

d beside

ff. The ceremonial fire brightens, and the carved

resolve the fate of th

lowers th

shifts r

Darian. He

Almost painful. I can feel his wolf beneath

aw ti

drops t

sses a hand to his chest, and for a second, st

ee

very time he looks at my ma

ace, but resistance. Some

t it, he ended training early

l not walk away

l right?" I

s not

ghtens and become

invocation chant. Their voices rise toge

w, stretched too tight. It is like the bond is no

. The mark throbs with

s from my skin bef

ong and

around us i

man re

r covers

a child back i

sees al

s tighten

and. "Step forward," he says to

steps

at I feel the h

wolf rises hopefull

to take my hand and finish the

us heartbeat, I

and l

ch me. Just enoug

, like he almost reac

return to

nial fire

t my neck, su

stare

sappears. The fire disappears. The wor

hroat

aks, his vo

..

ething in me before

whispers, "Somethin

ads fast throug

I see it in the movement of his hand, the way i

ll, final shak

ches up. His wolf pulls away from

my chest so suddenly t

ken as they

n I und

ot hesi

gain, I already kn

s out heavy, like it

toward the council be

ack," he says, "I reject yo

t, my mind refus

one broken s

ond begins

ing in it