7 days till Heartbreak
Day 3 - Tuesday

3 years ago ~ January 17th ~ Day Before Rejection

Willow was jittery the entire meeting. The usual thirty-minute torture seemed to have increased each minute ticking by felt like an hour. Drayn had not looked at her again, focusing his eyes on his father who addressed the pack. She attempted to not stare but it was almost impossible, her eyes rebelling from what she wanted them to do and wandered back over to him. She pulled on her bracelet, a nervous habit to help deal with her overthinking. After ages, the Alpha dismissed the meeting and people began to file out.

A nudge in her mind made her open the link. Meet me in the small chamber His voice filled her mind which made her wolf purr. You’re already lovesick? She sent the thought only to her wolf who raised her head looking prideful. He is mate, The connection is instant. Willow rolled her eyes but couldn’t deny the feeling swelling within her. She slowly stood and slipped around the people currently leaving heading towards the small chamber off to the right. Pushing the door open she slipped in letting the door close softly behind her. The room had a table and chairs in the middle, often used for consultation with the Alpha.

It was a few minutes of standing awkwardly in the middle of the room before the door opened again. Drayn stepped through, his eyes focusing on her as he did he approached practically made of confidence until he was a few feet in front of her. “Willow.” He said her name carefully as if testing it. He tilted his head and looked over her, his blue eyes seemed to scan her. “Drayn.” She returned the sentiment feeling a shiver come over her as she said his name. His response was instant, his lips forming a thin line. “That’s Alpha to you.” She made a small step backward. “What? We’re mates. Mates don’t use titles with each other.”

He snorted and for the first time that day, she could see the emotion within his eyes. Disgust. He was disgusted by her? But why? She was a good pack member, she followed the rules, she had given her all in everything. Her wolf attempted to get close to his, only for his wolf to snarl at her in warning. “We will not be mates. In fact, tomorrow we will perform the unbonding ceremony.” She nearly choked on her spit.

The unbonding ceremony was one rarely used. It relied on you calling the goddess and presenting your case for unmating. Most do it because they have found another that fits them better than their own mate. It was an extreme route to go, it was knowledge gifted to wolves when centuries ago the royal family would abuse any mate who was not to their standard. They would present themselves before the goddess and summon her through a sacrifice. Both mates are given a chance to speak about why they want to break the bond. If the goddess agreed and saw that you were speaking truth she would grant them the ability to break their bond.

This took time however, the bond was something strong between wolves and it would need to be unraveled slowly, and carefully. In extreme cases, it can be done within a year but it was dangerous. The sudden snap would cause backlash between wolves and cause them to go feral. When it came to abused mates Mayari would go to lengths to remove her children from that situation, but if the reasoning was not something so disastrous there is a risk of offending her. Offending Mayari was considered a crime of grave consequences, she held love for her children. But she did not take such a betrayal of breaking the mate bond due to something as silly as He just isn’t what I want. Mayari would deny the breaking of a bond for such a small thing.

Willow stared at him her heart beginning to crack. “Why?” She struggled out a whisper. “Why? It’s simple, you are not fit to run a pack. You can not fight, you don’t have leadership qualities, you are unable to run as fast as us. You would be a liability, a Luna is meant to protect her pack, a Luna is meant to lead, to stay back and fight while the children flee for safety. I have seen you during training, you are taken down by your fellow omegas, you have no strength, no backbone.” She wanted to deny it, she wanted to fight back but her whole being felt like it was being torn apart. Her body began to shake as her eyes began to grow misty.

“I can be better.” She tried her eyes looking at him hopefully. “We’re ma-” his hand grabbed her throat and squeezed threateningly cutting her off. “You’re lucky I don’t condone hitting those unable to defend themselves. You will not call us such things, there is no us, We. Are. Not. Mates." His voice was cold and uncaring as he removed his hand. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, her heart burned as it felt like he was tearing it apart.

Present-day - Tuesday - 9:00 am - 5 days until rejection finalizes.

Willow

Her eyes flickered to the front door as the knock sounded. She didn’t want to speak to him, but what choice did she have? After fleeing from his sister she had a feeling they would grow more persistent. She spent half the night thinking over what Val had said. Uncertainty clawing at her bones, that was the second night of barely any rest. At least today was her day off, but apparently it was not her day off from this drama.

She opened the door, “Alpha.” He was alone, that was surprising. A part of her suspected that he would bring his sister to have someone on his side. He also seemed to be holding something, flowers. She grimaced, Willow was never a fan of flowers, being gifted with something that was dead and would only grow to look worse was not something appealing to her. Drayn didn’t seem to notice her discomfort at the sight of the flowers, instead, he held them out to her. “Hello, Willow. How are you?” Why was he handing her flowers? Not wanting to be rude she accepted the flowers trying to keep the look of discomfort from being obvious.

“I, I am fine Alpha, thank you for the flowers it’s very kind.” He looked pleased when she accepted the flowers. “That’s good.” Silence uncomfortable silence, she should probably invite him in. Widening the door she motioned inside, “Sit in the living room, I should put these in water.” Not that it mattered they were dead anyway. Willow made her way to the kitchen and plopped the flowers in the nearest container filled with water. That looked about right. Turning she walked to her living room where Drayn was currently sitting, she sat in the chair opposite him trying to be as far away as possible from him without being rude.

He looked to her with uncertainty, “My sister told me she spoke to you?” Willow tensed up and nodded. “She did, she told me some interesting things.” She kept her tone formal. A part of her wanting to jump at him and beat him up. But Willow would not get far, besides, his wolf already hated her it would just give an excuse for punishment. She had to stay on his good side until she left, just until then. She could not risk him doing something to her paperwork before she had a chance to leave and never come back.

He suddenly grabbed a chair and dragged it to in front of her, sitting down he leaned forward causing her to sink into the fabric. “What are you.. What are you doing?” His hand reached up and brushed a piece of her hair the tips of his fingers grazing her check sending pulses through her. “I don’t think I have ever realized how beautiful you are.” He was close enough that she felt his warmth, the heat of his body as he hovered over her. Trapping her into her loveseat, her heart was threatening to explode into pieces from that moment. Her wolf began to growl, not liking that he was using the bond to pull her strings, attempting to get her to soften up to him. Willow could feel the tingle of his breath on her cheek as he spoke, “I know it is hard to understand, but you must know that I did what I thought I had to. I thought I was in the right, I was trying to put the pack first.”

Like that he seemed to strike up a match within her. Something was itching within her, as if preparing for a fight. Her mind playing his words over and over, He was trying to justify his actions! There was no apology, that confirmed it, he simply wanted her to end his suffering. Not because he wanted her it seemed to cause a stabbing pain within her heart once more. “And rejecting me was putting the pack first?” Her voice was layered with bitterness and sadness. He sighed and moved back in his chair, but stayed in front of her.

“Despite what you think, yes. I didn’t want to weaken the pack. And you were not the best choice at the time.” She narrowed her eyes a growl emitted from her throat. “Is this meant to be an apology? " Disbelief and anger, that was her new set of emotions, it felt like a roller coaster. It honestly felt like he was trying to use the bond as a way to distract her from his words. He winced and rubbed his face with his hand. “I. yes, I am trying.” “You’re failing.” She said flatly. He gripped the edges of his hair in frustration. But it wasn’t her fault he was awful at this, he spoke again only to dig his grave deeper. “Look. An Alpha isn’t meant to apologize, we have to put the pack first, that’s what I was trying to do. I know now that the pack needs it’s Luna, it’s rightful Luna. I was in the wrong, but understand my side of things.”

"YOU’RE SIDE?!” The itching feeling exploded into full-blown fury. Her voice raising as she jumped up and glared down at him a rage unknown to her made her hands shake, claws threatening to come out. He looked at her in surprise, she never lost her temper and yet here she was yelling at him. “You rejected me. You told me I wasn’t fit to leave. You threatened me. So forgive me, Oh holy Alpha. If I don’t consider your side of things when I was the butt of every joke, every prank when I was shoved off to the side so that the pack could forget that they had a useless pack member. And now, you waltz in here 3 years later expecting me to forgive you? Expecting me to end the rejection? Not only that it is 5 days until it is finalized. You knew your pack was cursed, you knew how to take the curse off, you knew, you fucking knew. And you chose to stay away, you chose to put your pack through whatever crap they went through. That’s on your shoulders, Alpha.”

He stood up as she ended her rant not liking the challenge behind her words. Drayn easily towered over her narrowing his eyes. “You think you were the only one to suffer? Do you think I had it easy? I had to deal with wolves weakening, the pack link fading in times of need, I had to be the laughing stock of other Alphas who knew what the goddess had done. We have had our defenses chipped at, we have gone to war, tell me. How would you have handled being kidnapped and tortured Willow? You would’ve crumbled, you would’ve died.”

She turned around for fear of actually attacking him. “And who’s fault is it that we’ve had to deal with that?” she said softly, before storming out and up to her room. Slamming it closed with such force it shook the walls. Drayn placed his head in his hands and collapsed onto the sofa. That was not how he planned that to go at all.