Zara

There is blood everywhere. On the grass, on the chairs that my now dead clan members were seated on, on my shirt.

My wolf's cries merge with mine as I look upon the chaos that has been unleashed on a day that should be fondly remembered.

Now, it will only be remembered with pain and horror.

I look up at my father and stepmother, who stand in the middle of the carnage, unfazed.. They wanted this all along. This was the opportunity they had been waiting for.

But the pain I feel when I look at them is incomparable to what I feel when I look at the man I love. Even now, when I know that he's the cause of this bloodshed, I'm still willing to give him the benefit of doubt.

I still can't bring myself to believe that he is truly at fault. That's how much I love him.

"Why?" I ask him. My voice is empty and thich with the tears I'm trying so hard not to shed. "Why did you do this? Just tell me why."

His responding laugh is cruel and sends shivers down my spine.

"I no longer have any use for you, Zara. You have given me what I want, and what happens to tools that are no longer needed? They become useless." He says.

A shard of pain cuts through my heart at his words. "What?"

I stagger to my feet, trying to block out the screams of the last of my clan getting butchered like chickens. It's no use, the agonized cries of my people call out to me, and my wolf claws underneath my skin, trying to break free.

"How could you do this to me, Jared? We are mates. Mates are supposed to care for each other, not . . . this." I gesture to the carnage all around us.

He huffs and dusts off his shirt. His expression is one of boredom. "Yeah, you see, about that. I'm no longer interested in being your mate."

At his words, the wolf within me whimpers. "No. Stop right there—"

"I reject our mate bond, Zara Monroe. I reject you." He speaks over me, completely cutting me off.

"No!" I scream, trying to move away from him as though putting distance between us will make a difference. His claim has been heard by the heavens, and there is no going back now.

I can't prepare myself enough for the pain that falls upon me and shoots through my whole body at once. I bite my lip so hard that my mouth fills with the metal taste of blood. It's like I'm getting ripped apart piece by piece.

He has broken our mate bond which connected us at the Mate Matching Ceremony. Our sacred union is now nothing but ashes.

And even worse, my wolf will not easily recover from this. Mate bonds are not meant to be broken. If it is, the more invested wolf will suffer the most.

My wolf in this case.

A scream rips out of my throat as the pain reaches a new peak, and I am pulled down to my knees. I place both hands in the grass to steady myself, breathing deeply through my nose.

Through my hazy vision, Jared walks over to where my stepsister, Sharon, stands. He picks up her hand, looking into her eyes with emotion so intense it breaks my heart even more.

He never looked at me like that.

Jared brought Sharon's hand to his lips and kissed it, before turning to face the members of our pack. "As the new Alpha ruler of the Moonstone pack, I hereby choose Sharon Monroe as my one true Luna."

A woman clad in black t-shirt and jeans walks out of the crowd and comes to stand before the two of them. The black tattoo criss-crossing around her neck is pure evidence of who she is. A witch.

She must be the one here to initiate the new pack leader and his Luna. All werewolf ceremonies are usually ordained by a witch, although werewolves are naturally weary of their kind.

I try to stand up, but my body feels like it'll simply fall apart if I even try to move from my current position. The pain I feel isn't as bad as before, but it is still bad enough that I can barely move.

The witch raises a hand into the air, and the moonlight cascading into the clearing seems to flash for a split moment. She brings down her hand slowly, and a heavy gust of wind blows past us.

It is done.

The wind only carries the thick smell of death to me, and I swallow repeatedly to stop myself from throwing up.

"What a shame that it had to end like this. But the existence of your clan is so unfair, and disgusting. You're a half-breed, and shouldn't even be allowed to see the light of day." As he speaks, the other pack members nod in agreement.

"You are all abominations that have to be exterminated for the good of all werewolves. See your death as an honorable sacrifice," Jared says. He signals to the witch with a quick tilt of his head.

"Cut her face and destroy that wolf of hers before you finish her off," he orders, and starts to pull Sharon away.

The witch looks at me, face expressionless, and starts to walk in my direction. She pulls out a knife from her back pocket, and the metal glints in the moonlight.

I swipe and roar to keep her at bay, but my reflexes are not fast enough, as I'm still in pain. She dodges my attacks, and gives me a smug smile just before she dashes forward and rams her boot into my face.

I groan as I fall onto my back, my face pulses with so much pain.

Before I can catch another breath she's atop me and digs her knife into my skin. Her eyes are crazed as she watches me scream in agony.

When I think she's done, she wraps her hand around my neck and begins to mutter a spell.

My wolf. She's trying to kill my wolf.

I shake my body violently, trying to get her off me, but it's no use. I can feel my wolf getting ripped away from me. Her pained howls rattle my brain and distort my eyesight.

After moments of the worst agony I've ever experienced, the witch releases me and gets up to her feet. She wipes the blood off her knife with my shirt and slides it back into her pocket, waiting for Jared's next orders.

I don't even know how I still have the strength to speak after the death of my wolf, but I do. "Why did you do all this? I trusted you. I loved you. You chose me as your mate." My voice is so empty, like the void in my soul.

He doesn't reply, and simply watches me, rubbing Sharon's belly lovingly as they move away. It disgusts me that as my life slowly seeps away, this is the last thing that I see.

With one last pained gasp, I succumb to my mortal and emotional wounds, and embrace my death.