He stormed over to me, his towering figure casting a long shadow that seemed to swallow me whole. “The Moon Goddess must be mistaken. Even if Gloria is dead, she’s the only one I’d ever acknowledge as my mate. Not you—a worthless, weak slave!”

I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt like they were collapsing under the weight of his words, his hatred. I kept my head down, tears slipping onto my trembling hands, mixing with the dirt and grime. 'What did I ever do to deserve this?' I lost everything—my parents, my sister, my pack—and now I was losing even the last shreds of my dignity.

Lucas’s voice rose, echoing in the great hall, each word a knife digging into my flesh. “I will never accept a slave as my mate. Never.”

I was trembling, not from fear but from something that had been building inside me for so long—anger. I was tired. Tired of being stepped on, spat at, degraded. Tired of being nothing but a shadow of my sister. 'Why was I born to suffer this?'

I felt something stir inside me, a flicker of warmth in the deep cold that had settled in my bones. I raised my head, my vision blurring with tears, but there was a clarity in my heart that hadn’t been there before. I straightened my back, my posture shifting from submission to defiance.

Lucas sneered at the sight of me daring to meet his eyes. “Don’t even think about it. I will never accept—”

But I cut him off, my voice trembling but fierce. “And I, Nadia Ambersy, daughter of Alpha Victor Ambersy, reject you, Alpha Lucas Casimir of the Lockheart Pack, as my mate!”

A shocked gasp rippled through the crowd. Lucas’s eyes widened, the anger momentarily replaced by something like disbelief, and then fury.

“You dare—”

“Yes, I dare!” I shouted, my voice louder than it had ever been in this pack. “I’d rather die than be bound to you. I’d rather die than live another day in this hell you’ve created for me!”

There it was—the truth I’d been too afraid to speak. I wasn’t living; I was surviving, and barely at that. What did I have to lose? I’d lost it all already. I raised my chin higher, meeting Lucas’s furious gaze with all the strength I could muster. “I reject you, Lucas Casimir. May the Moon Goddess curse this bond and free me from this torment.”