The Silver Wolf

Sable

The world narrows to a single, shimmering thread. It shoots from my heart to his, a silver cord of moonlight and magic snapping into place across the crowded hall. The music, the laughter, the heat of a hundred bodies celebrating my eighteenth birthday, it all fades to a distant hum. There is only him. Damon. His eyes, dark as a forest at midnight, find mine. The mate bond. It’s real. A wave of pure joy, so potent it makes me dizzy, crashes over me. It’s him. All my life, it was always him.

I take a step forward, my lips forming his name. A laugh bubbles in my chest. Of course, it’s you.

He doesn’t smile back. His jaw is a hard line, his shoulders tense beneath his perfectly tailored jacket. He looks like a king carved from stone. My king.

“Damon?” I whisper, the joy in my voice faltering, turning into a question. The silver thread between us pulses with my sudden anxiety.

He raises his hand, not to beckon me closer, but to silence the room. The music cuts off abruptly. Every eye swivels to us, the future Alpha and the Beta’s daughter, frozen in the center of the floor. My brother, Leo, grins from the edge of the crowd, thinking this is part of some grand romantic gesture. My parents stand beside him, my mother already dabbing at her eyes.

Damon’s voice rings out, cold and clear as a winter night. “I, Damon Blackwood, future Alpha of the Silvermoon pack…”

My heart soars. He’s doing the formal acceptance right here. Right now.

“…hereby reject you, Sable Vance, as my mate and future Luna.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. The air leaves my lungs in a silent gasp. The silver cord between us doesn’t break. It corrodes, turning black and venomous, pumping poison straight into my soul. A collective shock ripples through the pack.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. It feels like I’m moving through water. “No, this is a joke. Damon, stop it. This isn’t funny.”

He takes a step closer, his voice dropping low enough for only me to hear, but his eyes are hard enough for the whole world to see. “A joke? Look at you. Standing there in your pretty dress, expecting a fairytale. Our pack is on the verge of the Werewolf Games. We have a chance to secure our legacy for a century. And I am supposed to lead them with a wolfless cripple bound to my soul?”

Each word is a perfectly aimed dart. Wolfless. The one thing that has always separated me from everyone else. The one thing he always swore didn’t matter.

I remember us at twelve, hiding in the woods after I failed to shift on my first full moon. He had wrapped his arm around my shaking shoulders. “Your mind is sharper than any wolf’s claws, El,” he’d said. “We don’t need two brutes. We need a strategist and a warrior. That’s us. We’ll win everything together.”

“You promised,” I choke out, the memory a fresh wound. “You said it didn’t matter.”

“I was a boy,” he scoffs, his lip curling in disgust. “I’m a man now. An Alpha. And I need a mate who can fight beside me, not one I have to protect. I need a she-wolf of power, not a Beta’s pet project.”

The insult to my father snaps something in my family. Leo is moving before anyone can stop him, shoving through the stunned crowd. “You son of a bitch. You take that back.”

Two of Damon’s enforcers grab Leo’s arms, holding him back. My father’s voice, the calm and steady Beta command that has guided this pack for thirty years, cuts through the tension. “Damon. You are overstepping.”

I watch, horrified, as Damon’s father, Alpha Marcus, steps forward. He places a heavy hand on Damon’s shoulder, and for a heart-stopping second, I think he’s going to reprimand him. Instead, he looks at my father, his expression grim. “He is doing what is necessary for the pack, James. An Alpha must be strong. His Luna must be stronger.”

The betrayal is absolute. It isn’t just Damon. It’s the whole damn system. My life, our friendship, this sacred bond, it’s all just collateral damage in their quest for a trophy.

My mother is openly weeping now, her hand over her mouth. My father’s face is a mask of thunderous rage. I see the political chasm cracking open right here on the dance floor. My family, the pack’s respected Beta line, against their Alpha. It will tear Silvermoon apart.

Damon turns his back on me, addressing the pack as if I’m no longer there. “My priority is victory. My priority is the strength and honor of Silvermoon. I will not be weakened by a sentimental bond. The rejection stands.”

He doesn’t even look at me. He just turns and walks away. The crowd parts for him like he’s a god, leaving me standing alone in a circle of silence and pity. The burning, toxic cord between us stretches painfully, a leash yanking at my very essence.

I look from his retreating back to my family. I see my brother straining against the guards, my father’s hand on his weapon, my mother’s utter devastation. I see the Alpha’s cold resolve. I understand in an instant. If they fight for me, they will lose everything. My father will be stripped of his title. My brother will be branded a traitor. My family will be broken because of me. Because of a love that was just a lie.

A strange calm washes over the pain. A single, cold, hard thought. I can’t let him destroy them too. There is one move left on the board. My move.

I lift my chin, forcing my gaze to sweep across the silent, watching faces. I will not let them see me crumble.

He thinks I’m weak. He’s about to find out how strong a broken girl can be.