Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
+3 Point
Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
(Celeste’s POV)
The world spun around me in slow, painful circles. My body was nothing but burning, searing pain. Every breath I took felt like inhaling shards of glass.
I tasted blood–sharp, metallic–still pooling in the corners of my mouth.
Whispers rose above the silence of the courtyard, cutting through the suffocating air.
“She deserved it,” someone muttered.
“She’s not even truly from the Winters bloodline,” sneered another.
“That’s what happens when you betray the pack,” came a disgusted voice.
My head swam as their words merged into an endless, scornful hum. Spite–filled glances flickered across dozens of faces, wolves I once called family.
Those same faces I had greeted with smiles at ceremony after ceremony
as if they hardly recognized me.
Or maybe as if they’d rather forget they ever did.
– now, they stared
Silver burns painted streaks of agony across my skin, spreading worse than any whip lash. It crawled down my back and arms like wildfire, but I refused to let it bring me to tears.
I wouldn’t cry for them.
My wolf whimpered weakly, not out of pain, but refusal. She wouldn’t break, not here, not
before them.
I tried pushing myself upright. My trembling hands pressed against the cold moonstone ground as unfamiliar wolves‘ jeers continued rattling above me.
“After all Lucas has done for her…”
“She thinks she can challenge pack tradition?”
“She might’ve been a pampered wolf before, but now…”
Each mocking voice added to the weight pressing down on my chest. My fingers faltered against the stone as white–hot stabs of pain shot through my body, but I forced myself up
anyway.
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Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
Slowly, painfully, I moved until I was sitting, despite the fire rippling through my injuries.
I scanned the crowd, faces swimming around me like shadows under water. Some stood
staring with morbid fascination. Others outright sneered. And then… I found the ones I knew
all too well.
Diana’s expression was viciously smug, her lips curled into a cold, pitiless smile.
Emma stood slightly behind her, plastering on an apologetic look that didn’t fool anyone.
Scarlett… oh, Scarlett. Tears streamed down her perfect, flawless face. Her big emerald eyes
brimmed with pity, staring at me as if she held the burden of my suffering in her delicate
hands.
But I caught the flicker of satisfaction shimmering beneath them.
And then there was Alexander. His ice–blue gaze pierced through the distance separating us, his expression unreadable. Cold. Isolated.
Watching everything unfold like a ghost standing at the edge of it all.
My lips pulled into a trembling line. Forcing myself further upright, I turned toward Lucas at
last.
The brother who once protected me. Cherished me. Promised he’d never let harm come to me.
Now his golden wolf eyes flashed with unrecognizable fury, the Lucas I once knew buried
beneath years of resentment and something darker.
Gone.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” The words slipped harsh, sharp from my mouth before I
could hold them back.
Lucas blinked at me, his wolf still crackling with unspent dominance.
But I couldn’t stop. “Wasn’t it you, years ago, who made your wolf wrestle mine under full
moons because I was too nervous to shift before the pack? Wasn’t it you, Lucas, who said no wolf would ever think less of me after I shifted for the first time?” My voice cracked, hysteria
lacing the edges.
And then… Then I started laughing.
The sound broke through the still night air, sharp, erratic.
“This…” I gestured faintly to the crowd, to my broken body under him, the judging sneers surrounding me.
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Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
“This must be what you meant about not letting anyone hurt me, right, brother?” My bitter laughter grew louder, spinning wildly out of my control.
Lucas stiffened. His gaze flickered–first with shock–then something I couldn’t name. Even the crowd stirred, unsettled, while Diana frowned in visible confusion.
The venom bubbling inside me finally snapped loose. I forced myself up. Fighting through the fire ripping through my back, through my arms and legs. I gripped the last shred of strength. holding me together, using it to push back against the pain.
One step forward. My wolf crying within me, but I didn’t let her stop.
Second step. Each movement agony that screamed.
I raised one shaking hand to point at those gleaming, moon–blessed healing stones dangling around Scarlett’s delicate neck. The stones Lucas had once carved… for me.
“Do you see those, Lucas?” My voice quivered but couldn’t mask the acid dripping beneath it. You engraved those healing stones by hand for my first shift ceremony. Said they were meant to remind me that even the smallest wolves could shine under the moon’s blessing.”
His brows furrowed, his golden eyes widening just a fraction before narrowing again.
“But she’s wearing them now,” I snarled low, nodding toward Scarlett’s hand reaching to clutch. the stones protectively.
“And those seeds. The ones you brought back, fighting rogues for months in the Northern
Ranges. Remember? ‘Moonflower seeds to strengthen her wolf, you said.”
I paused, searching for his face through the blurry haze of my swimming vision. “They were
mine. But now…now yours are planted in Scarlett’s garden.”
As my words twisted deeper through the air between us, I watched the cracks spread across Lucas’s armor. His wolf twitched visibly, struggling like the ground beneath him had shifted.
I wasn’t done.
“You crafted silver chains to weigh me down. Not stones or seeds to help me rise. But I’m still here,” I whispered bitterly. “Don’t you see, Lucas? You already gave everything I once had to Scarlett. All that’s left for you is whatever blood you rip from me now.”
His shoulders jerked, his wolf jolting almost violently against his control. The tension boiling
beneath his skin shook through the crowd.
And still, I wasn’t finished.
”
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Chapter 36: My Chosen Mate
“Have at it, then.” I shifted downward, curtsying mockingly low as if submitting before him. My
stomach burned, ribs screeching at the motion, but I leaned deeper into the gesture. “Finish
what you started. Repay every seed, every stone. Beat the debt out of me if it helps you sleep at night.”
Lucas reeled, visibly horrified not by my words themselves, but the cutting laughter that
followed.
But it was when I spoke next, my voice hollow, that I felt something inside his wolf fracture
completely.
“Because we’re done. This is where it ends.”
Something shattered inside his gaze. His steps faltered, almost stumbling with the weight of
everything left unspoken between us.
He searched my expression desperately for answers–anything left to cling to.
Instead…
Instead, a new presence burned into the courtyard.
The suffocating dominance that surged through the evening air swept over the pack like fire
beating against a field of dry grass.
Each wolf’s head turned sharply. Every whisper snapped silent.
And there, standing at the temple’s edge, marked with royal violet eyes gleaming like molten
fire–was Marcus Blackwood.
His wolf’s Alpha aura–undeniable, violent, intolerant–crushed everything beneath it.
“I am here.” His voice cut through every lingering shred of tension with ease, loaded heavy
with unshakable command.
Stillness swallowed the courtyard whole, wolves bowing their heads unthinkingly against the
overwhelming force.
And then his next words dropped like stone:
“Who dares continue this assault on my chosen mate?”
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