Page 11

More voices join the outcry, years of prejudice finding outlet.

The crowd surges forward, anger and fear thick in the air.

There are suddenly bodies all around me.

Someone shoves me from behind. Another person spits at my feet.

Ruby tries to stand between me and the worst of it, but she's pushed aside.

"Enough!"

Nic's command cracks through the clearing like a thunderbolt, his voice so loud and low it breaks the air. He raises one hand, and the crowd freezes. Pure Alpha power rolls off him in waves, demanding submission. Even I feel the weight of it, though I've never responded to wolf dominance.

"The lottery has chosen." His voice is perfectly controlled, emotionless. When his eyes meet mine, they're colder than midwinter frost. "Its decision is sacred and binding."

"Brother, you can't seriously accept this!" Melissa gestures at me like I'm something she found on her shoe. "She'll taint our bloodline! Weaken the pack!"

"The ancient laws are clear." He might as well be discussing the weather for all the feeling he shows. "All candidates knew the risks when they agreed to participate."

All candidates. Not Luna. Not his former lover. Not the woman he once claimed to want forever. Just another candidate, to be dealt with according to pack law.

Agreed to participate. I want to be sick. I want to throw up. If I threw up right here, maybe they’d take pity on me and throw me out again.

"She's right, though." A male voice calls from the crowd. "How do we know the witch didn't use magic to influence the choice?"

Fury and humiliation war in my chest. After everything I've survived, everything I've built, I'm still just hybrid scum to them. Still something to be feared and hated.

My magic responds to my emotions, exploding outward before I can stop it.

Blue-white power crackles around me like lightning, making the nearest pack members stumble back.

The display would normally exhaust me, but something about the ceremony's lingering power feeds my own, amplifying it beyond anything I've experienced.

For a heartbeat, awe replaces fear on the faces around me. Even Nic's mask cracks slightly, something like recognition flickering in his eyes.

Then Melissa ruins it. "Thirty seconds in, and she’s attacking our pack members—”

The shouting kicks right off again at that, everywhere, so very loud and cruel.

More accusations follow, but I barely hear them. I'm too focused on Nic, on the way he watches my magical display with those distant eyes. Does he remember how my power used to respond to him? How it would surge whenever he touched me, whenever he whispered promises against my skin?

"Your magic knows me," he'd said once, after it had shattered every window in his cabin during a particularly passionate encounter. "Just like my wolf knows you."

Now, he looks at me like I'm a stranger. Like the past never happened. Like his wolf hasn't been going crazy in my presence since I returned.

Through it all, Victoria stands silent by the altar, watching with knowing eyes. She doesn't seem surprised by my naming, magical display, or any of it.

"The ceremony is concluded." Nic's voice cuts through the continuing chaos. "The lottery has chosen. Preparations for the trials will begin tomorrow."

Shit. The trials. Gods know what they’ll do to me.

I was so sure it wouldn’t be me. I was certain.

The Alpha turns and strides away without another word or glance in my direction.

His honor guard follows, then the Elders, then the rest of the pack.

They give me a wide berth as they pass, but I still receive sneers, insults, glares.

I used to think I was used to it, that nothing could hurt me anymore.

But suddenly, I’m weak again. I feel so small.

Soon only Ruby and I remain in the clearing. My magic still crackles fitfully, responding to my turbulent emotions.

"Luna?" Ruby touches my arm carefully. "Are you okay?"

Am I okay? I've just been chosen to mate the man who broke my heart. The pack that rejected me now has to accept me as Alpha female. And Nic...

Nic looked at me like I was nothing.

"I can't do this." My voice breaks. "I can't mate someone who's ashamed of me. Who won't even look at me properly."

"Maybe there's more going on than we know." Ruby squeezes my hand. "Victoria seemed—"

"Victoria can keep her secrets." My magic finally subsides, leaving me drained. "I need... I need to be alone. I need to be alone before the trials—before whatever they want to do to humiliate me even more.”

She hesitates, then nods. "I'll be at the shop if you need me."

I wait until she's gone before sinking to my knees in the ceremonial circle. The altar still glows faintly, my name written in fading silver light.

The lottery is supposed to know what the pack needs. But how can the pack need this? How can it need me, when everything about me goes against their precious traditions? And how can I possibly mate someone whose eyes hold nothing but ice when he looks at me?

The moon watches silently as tears fall, my magic curling around me like a shield against the world. Against the memory of Nic's cold gaze. Against the knowledge that tomorrow, everything changes.

The lottery has chosen. Now, we all have to live with the consequences.