Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(18)
Dad stepped forward, and when I managed to tear my gaze away from Jordan, I realized my father was smiling. I’d seen him smile before, of course, but it was always directed toward Jackie or Wesley, never me. But now he was giving me that same look, almost as if he was proud of me.
Hope swelled in my chest, a strange and new feeling I almost didn't recognize, and at that moment I saw a different path ahead of me. I could bridge the gap between the Cancer pack and the Leo pack, finally ending the years-long hatred that led us to squabble uselessly. That was my destiny.
Dad stepped so that he was standing directly next to me, while Dixon, the Leo alpha, took his spot beside Jordan. Dixon looked on edge as if he was still expecting my father to try something here at the Convergence. I had a lot of work ahead of me, I could tell.
“I give you my daughter, Ayla,” Dad said, nodding his head to Dixon. My daughter. I don’t think I’d ever heard him say those words without it being an insult. “The Cancer pack offers her to you and cuts all pack ties with her. She is one of yours now.”
Dixon didn’t say anything, and I watched as a muscle twitched in his jaw. He held Dad's gaze for a long moment, before turning toward his son. Evanora brought the ribbon, and I held my hand out so she could wrap it around our hands. Jordan was breathing heavily, staring at the ground and anywhere but me. When he did look up, it was toward his father, who shook his head with the slightest motion.
That was my first hint that something wasn't right.
Jordan yanked his hand away, breaking the ribbon binding us together. He stepped back, and my instinct was to follow, to take a step forward to replace the one he put between us, but I held myself back through sheer force of will. This time when Jordan met my eyes, it wasn’t lust in his them anymore, but anger. And worse—hatred.
“A half-breed Cancer wolf is no match for the son of the Leo alpha,” Jordan snarled, low and intense. “I reject you as my mate.”
He shoved me away from him, hard. I fell to my knees, as the bond between us was torn asunder, like a piece of paper being ripped in half. Pain seared across my vision as his words sank in. The agony was somehow worse than the forced shift had been, like someone was reaching into my chest and ripping my heart out. I let out a wheeze, unable to scream, unable to do anything but feel the pain coursing through me. I couldn’t have held myself up, even if I wanted to.
A gasp went through the audience, the assembled shifters passing along the news. I heard the word rejected thrown around a few times, and it hit me like a bolt to the chest, knocking out all the air. Rejecting a mate was nearly unheard of—it went against everything we were taught our entire lives. It was like spitting in the faces of the gods and defying their plans for you. And worse, it meant that both shifters would remain unmated forever. Unable to join another pack. Unable to find love. Unable to have children.
That was the fate Jordan wanted for us.
Dad stepped forward, glaring at Jordan. “You will take Ayla as a mate,” he said, every inch the commanding alpha again. When Dixon stepped between him and Jordan, a low growl went through both alphas. Dad broke Dixon’s gaze first, turning to Evanora. “Make him accept her!"
I winced as I caught the tone. No one talked to the Sun Witches like that. Most of my focus was on Jordan though. I met his gaze, trying to beg him with my eyes to take me, to accept me. His face was cruel, unyielding, and he refused to even look at me. He’d made up his mind. He didn't want me, just like everyone else who was supposed to love me.
“It’s out of my hands,” I heard Evanora say, her voice resigned.
No. Surely this couldn’t be the end of it? We were mated, chosen by the gods to be together. I hadn’t wanted him at first either, but that didn’t matter in the end. We were meant to be together. I'd felt it. Hadn't he?
“My son deserves better than a half-human mutt," Dixon said, his tone so condescending it almost sent another wave of physical pain through me. "We don’t want her in our pack."
There really wouldn’t be a change in my fate. Everyone would always hate me for my half-human heritage—and I would never have a pack to call home.
“Your son is a halfwit who should take what he can get,” Dad snarled. “Ayla’s better than nothing, and that’s what he’ll have if you don’t let them be mated.”
The Leo alpha roared in response. "You dare to insult my son?"
“Calm yourselves,” Evanora said, her commanding tone cutting through the night. But no one listened.
Movement around me made me look up. Members of the Cancer pack formed up behind us, some in human and some in wolf form, supporting our alpha. The tension was shifting, roiling, and becoming even more dangerous. I watched Wesley step away from the group of remaining unmated males and take his place next to Dad, though he looked pained by what was happening. Jackie joined them too, standing proud as the alpha female of our pack. Wolves from the Leo pack responded, facing off on two sides of the circle, while growls resonated through the air.
As the two alphas started yelling, a few of the other packs began shuffling back, fleeing the conflict. Mira looked at me, eyes wide and dark, but before she could open her mouth to say anything, her mate dragged her away, their hands still bound by ribbon. She cast a helpless look over her shoulder before she vanished into the woods with the rest of the Pisces pack.
"You have insulted me for the last time," Dixon said. Then he threw back his head and unleashed his Leo lion roar—his pack's Zodiac power. The sound was horrible, sending true terror down my spine, and everyone around us either fled or cowered in fear. I covered my ears and felt like my eyes might bulge out of my face, my body unable to move as the roar echoed through me.