The Bait of Betrayal

Rhea POV

The Lunar Convergence Ceremony was breathtaking. 

The hall was filled with its exquisiteness, lightened gold chandeliers hung high from the towering hall sparkling like fallen stars. Shades of blue and golden themes colored the room, the air tensed with the mingling scents of wolves from within and neighbouring packs.

But my focus was on just one person.

Damon. 

The events of my horrible life right from the death of my parents, the night with Damon and his father this morning, the strange text from Ria's phone kept reeling through my mind as I sat at the bar lounge of the hall, holding onto a bottle of beer to clear my head.

My heart still pulsing from the event. The hope of what seemed to be like redemption from my horrible life. The hope of Damon and his father coming to the realization that I was just a good pack member with no evil intention of ruining their family.

Then, the cacophonous noise grew silent. 

I turned just in time to see him descending the tall stairs—powerful, commanding that reflected the Alpha he was destined to be.

Beside him, his father's towering statue enclosed the area around him, an assuring smirk playing at the sides of his lips.

My grip tightened at the bottle of beer on my hands as my eyes rested on Damon. Zomen, as though she wanted to leave my being to run to her mate, but I couldn't let that happen, sending a race of breath through my lungs as drops of sweat formed on my forehead.

"Please just be cool and don't create a scene." I murmured to my wolf, Zomen.

"You all are welcome," Alpha Alric's authoritative tone cutting through the cacophonous noise that filled the hall. "Tonight we celebrate the 161st Lunar Convergence Ceremony of the Moonveil pack."

Murmurs of agreement filled the hall, but I barely heard them over the pounding of my own heartbeat. 

"The main event," he continued, "is the ascension of my son Damon Blackthorn as the new Alpha of the Moonveil pack."

A shocking jolt rippled down my spine. 

This was it. 

The time. The time my agony finally came to an end–I believed.

"The rule of the Alpha must always be balanced with the strength of a Luna," Alric said. "So tonight, we also recognize the one who will emerge as our Luna."

The air turned charged, becoming more viable on my skin.

"With no further announcements, can we call upon Rhea Elwood to move right to the middle of the hall." 

My knees almost gave out.

For the first time in my life, I felt noticed. Felt identified. 

I lifted my chin and took slow, measured steps toward my mate, my Alpha. 

My movements were fluid and deliberate as I couldn't let another nightmare happen again. But what muffled through my ears as I moved towards Damon were the voices of rejection from the pack members.

"She is just a lunatic." 

"She disgusts me." 

"A disgrace to her family lineage." 

"She'll end up like her parents—the ones who fought for a course that led them to their early grave." the voice reverberated deep inside my head, making me flinch for a flick second, holding myself from falling.

My body went rigid, and my gaze shot toward the crowd, searching for the source of that last sentence. Who could that be?

But all I could catch was a hooded figure standing in the midst of the crowd, her face concealed beneath the dark shadows of a black cloak.

And then, I still made it to the middle of the hall. My face in pity, my two hands folded together into a fist.

Damon shot me a warm, unreadable smirk as he closed the distance between us, his face rippled in something that mixed with happiness and disdain.

"I need you, Damon," Alric's voice reverberated, "to say your pledging words to your mate." 

I struggled to lock my eyes to his but what filled his eyes was joy as he held my already trembling hands. My heart brimming with hope and anticipation. 

Waiting. 

Anticipating. 

Then, in a voice as sharp as ice— 

"I, Damon Blackthorn, the future Alpha of the Moonveil Pack, reject you, Rhea Elwood, as my mate." 

The words hit me like a punch bag to my face. 

The world seemed to spin, the earth cracking as though to quake.

A thick silence spread through the grand hall, like the moment before a storm destroys everything in its way.

I trembled, my lungs losing its air that I thought I might choke up.

"No. No. No. You can't do this to me." I exclaimed, holding his cloak from the already forming agony that had taken over my being. 

But Damon didn't even flinch. 

His strong face turned grim as though carved from a rock, his cold eyes watching as my soul shattered at his feet.

"You are nothing but air. A disdain. A sex toy as I will always say. " Damon's whisper penetrated through my ear like a spear. "What made you ever think you would be my Luna and rule with me over this great pack?" He sneered.

I had lost all the words from my mouth for what to reply, the first streams of tears streaming down my cheeks, my hands trembling as my knees lost its hold.

But Alric's voice never stopped throwing at me the dumps of pain it had deposited to my heart.

"May I welcome Miss Ria Thaddeus to step forward for the marriage coronation with Damon and the Luna of the Moonveil pack." Alric venomous words slithered the already tensed air.

The words cut through my soul like a two-edged sword. My breath caught in my gut, and for a flick moment, it felt as though I was levitating. The weight of the world pressing against my ribcage, making me gasp for the little air left in my lungs, crushing the last remnants of my soul.

My vision blurred, my body trembled, and an icy numbness spread through my limbs as Ria turned to me, giving me a warm, malicious smirk.

"Looser!" She demonstrated with her lips, winking her fingers in what looked like farewell.

Not only had my mate rejected me, but my own relative had betrayed me.