Chapter 5

　　Sienna's POV

　　The marble was cold against my knees, biting through the wet silk of my gown until the ache reached bone. My legs had given out and I hadn't even felt them go.

　　White spots crawled at the edges of my vision. Tears ran down through the powder on my face. Every eye in the hall was on me. Nobody moved to help. Nobody even

　　pretended they might.

　　I looked down at the wine soaked into my bodice, dark under the light. I smoothed my palms against the ruined silk anyway. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.

　　A moon symbol flared against the back of my hand. Juvien was awake, close to the surface, waiting. I flinched, my breath catching.

　　For a second I wasn't in the hall at all. I was in a forest, running barefoot through

　　summer grass, Lucas laughing behind me. I shook my head until the memory let go.

　　"What was that?" My voice came out barely more than a rasp.

　　I smelled her before I heard her footsteps. Wine, and something sharper underneath it. Ivy came into view, unhurried, the wine in her glass sloshing near the rim without spilling. She looked me over slowly, pleased with what she saw. I kept my chin down and gave her nothing.

　　Her fingers hooked under my jaw and pulled my face up to hers. "Oops." The corner of her mouth twitched. "My hand slipped."

　　The glass tipped before I saw it move. Wine hit my chest in one splash and soaked through the thin fabric. The sound that came out of me wasn't quite a gasp and wasn't quite a sob.

　　Laughter started with one noble near the front and spread through the hall.

　　"Do you honestly think," she leaned in, her perfume too sweet, "that Alpha Lucas would choose you? A fated mate?" She giggled. "You're a puppet mate, Sienna. Actually, I take it back. You're just a puppet."

　　I held her stare for three seconds and didn't blink first. Then I looked past her shoulder toward the dais. Lucas stood there with his arms crossed, watching. His face gave nothing away. He didn't move.

　　"I'm not playing this game with you, Ivy." I kept my voice sharp. "Keep your mate. I hope the ceremony is everything you deserve."

　　Her smile dropped and her eyes narrowed. She crossed the space between us fast, too fast, and hit the marble hard enough that the sound cut through the laughter.

　　The whole hall froze. Servants stood mid-step, trays tilting.

　　Ivy propped herself up on one elbow, eyes going wide and wet right on cue. Her lip trembled.

　　Then she screamed.

　　"She pushed me!" Her voice cracked at exactly the right moment. "She hates me because I'm the Luna of Silver Fang!"

　　I caught a flash of triumph on her face before she hid it in her hands.

　　Lucas crossed the hall and stood over me, and in that same moment, the bond between us broke. I felt it go, sudden and complete.

　　"Why would you do this, Sienna?" His voice dropped low enough that the lower-ranked wolves bowed their heads without meaning to. "Why are you so cruel to your own sister?"

　　He knelt down and lifted Ivy to her feet, gentler with her in that one motion than he'd been with me in longer than I could remember.

　　I watched him do it and said nothing. He used to tell me he'd always protect me. Now he stood beside the person who wanted to destroy me. My jaw was clenched so tight I

　　tasted blood.

　　"She's nothing but a worthless omega," someone hissed from the crowd. "Always a thorn in the side of the future Luna," another voice added.

　　"Lucas." My voice came out rough. "I get it. You hate me. I'm accepting the rejection and going. But."

　　I didn't get to finish.

　　Morrigan's cane struck the floor as she stepped forward, each tap slow and deliberate. "But what?" Her eyes were cold. "Were you planning to finish the job? Weaken our

　　Alpha's wolf for your own gain?"

　　Around us, the elders had gone quiet, waiting to see which way this would go. I wanted to lunge at her but locked my feet in place instead.

　　Her hand moved too fast for me to see coming. Her palm cracked across my cheek and my head snapped sideways, hard enough that blood hit the floor. I refused to cry and kept my jaw locked shut.

　　"Lucas." My hands shook so badly I had to curl them into fists. "You actually slapped me."

　　"Does she require another to find her manners?" Morrigan's voice stayed light, almost bored.

　　"Sienna is a servant of this pack now." Lucas spoke to the floor, to the crowd, to anyone but me. "She will perform every duty assigned to her. For any insolence, you are to teach her the lesson she clearly lacks."

　　He turned away and walked toward his father on the dais without looking back. Ivy was already on his arm, matching his stride.

　　"And you will not accept the rejection, Sienna," he called over his shoulder. "I haven't dismissed you yet."

　　Ivy leaned in close to him and pitched her voice to carry.

　　"You shouldn't have been so harsh," she murmured, eyes still on me. "She's my sister. I know she resents me, but I really wanted her to see us tonight."

　　She smirked once more, then looked away.

　　My throat had closed up. I wanted to scream after him and couldn't. The broken bond hurt somewhere deep in my chest, and inside my mind, Juvien let out a long, low howl.

　　Two servants gripped my arms hard enough to leave marks. I locked my knees and made them work for it.

　　Morrigan watched from the steps, satisfied. I kept my head up until the oak doors shut behind me.

　　Three seconds of silence passed before Adrian's voice cut through it. "A toast! To the Alpha!"

　　Glasses rose all around the hall. The applause started slow, then built, until it sounded like the whole pack agreed with what had just happened to me.

　　The corridor was narrow and damp and smelled faintly of standing water. Air slipped

　　cold under my ruined gown. I couldn't stop thinking about Lucas's hands, how they used to hold me, how different they'd felt reaching for me tonight. A laugh tore out of me before I could stop it.

　　"This is your reality now, omega." The first servant's voice was flat and bored. "You're down in the dirt with the rest of us."

　　"Our dear Luna," the second one mocked, giggling.

　　"She's the Alpha's pet servant," the first one corrected, shoving me toward a door swollen with rot. Mildew hit me the second it opened, thick enough that I had to breathe through my mouth. The other one laughed again, delighted with herself, and didn't

　　bother lowering her voice.

　　I nearly hit the doorframe headfirst but caught myself, then turned around and laughed again, louder this time. The sound bounced off the stone walls.

　　Neither of them had an answer for someone who laughed back. They left without another word, their footsteps fading until the shadows swallowed the sound.

　　Alone in the dark, I refused to sink to the floor. My eyes burned but the tears wouldn't fall. I made myself keep standing.

　　I pushed further into the room, cobwebs brushing my face. This was a storage room, not somewhere anyone was meant to live. Old crates were stacked against one wall, and a single bare bulb hung from the ceiling, dead. A broom leaned against the far corner, forgotten. I wiped the cobwebs away and forced the rusted bolt shut, the metal screeching in protest.

　　A cracked mirror hung on the far wall. I crossed to it slowly, my legs still unsteady under me. My reflection came back in pieces, a stranger staring at me. Her cheek was swollen and red. Her gown was reduced to a rag. I stood there and looked at her, trying to decide if I still recognized the girl in the glass.

　　Then her eyes changed. Brown gave way to silver. My hair lifted on its own, and the moon mark on my hand lit up. Light filled the small room.

　　Your mate is coming, Sienna.

　　Juvien's voice was steady and certain.

　　I was shaking, not from the cold, but from something I didn't want to name yet in case naming it made it worse. I looked at my own eyes in the broken glass and laughed at the girl looking back at me.

　　"It's a fantasy, Juvien." My voice barely carried. "Rejection kills the soul. Who would want what's left of me?"

　　Silence was the only answer.

　　The room tilted, and everything went dark before I hit the thin, lumpy mattress waiting to catch me.