Talia’s POV
Jaxon’s jaw clenched as the severing bond’s agony finally subsided.
His mouth curved into a merciless smirk, every word dripping with contempt.
“You actually believed the Moon Goddess would curse me with someone like you?
A broken, wolfless disgrace?”
The ballroom erupted in cruel amusement.
This wasn’t how I imagined tonight would unfold.
I’d dared to hope the moon goddess might finally grant me her blessing.
Instead, she delivered this devastating blow.
Now every werewolf in attendance understood my shameful truth.
I was cursed and rejected.
No pack would welcome me.
Even my own blood had turned their backs on me first.
Hot tears threatened to spill, but I held them back as Jaxon clasped that woman’s fingers and retreated from me.
Absolutely not.
I wouldn’t shed a single tear before these vultures.
Not before him.
But when I thought the mortification couldn’t deepen, my pheromones exploded outward in an untamed rush – the unmistakable scent of a distressed female.
Every male in the vicinity reacted instantly.
Heads snapped toward me, wolves growling deep in their chests.
Bodies went rigid, eyes dilating as primal instincts awakened to my scent.
A man by the champagne table drew a sharp breath.
Another’s knuckles whitened around his crystal glass.
One actually stepped forward before catching himself.
Then the whispers shifted.
“God, that scent is intoxicating…”
“Something’s seriously wrong with her.”
“Get a grip!
The Alpha’s here!”
“She’s deliberately releasing those seductive pheromones right after being rejected.”
“Look at her trying to bewitch every man here with those wild hormones!”
“What an embarrassment to the Moonstone Pack.”
“I’d choose to be barren before accepting a cursed offspring like Talia.”
“Poor Blackwood family.
They’re bearing the shame of her disgraceful behavior.”
Terror seized my chest.
Not here, not now.
I fumbled for the perfume bottle in my purse, desperate to suppress the scent that sent males into frenzy.
But before I could reach it, vicious fingers tore away my veil.
The ballroom gasped in horror.
Cool air hit my damaged cheek – the twisted, hideous scar that destroyed my former beauty – now exposed for everyone to see.
Before I could cover myself, someone shouted with deliberate cruelty.
“Shameless slut!”
Laughter exploded like wildfire, harsh and suffocating.
Each mocking sound pierced through me, every snicker cutting deeper.
“How dare you attempt to seduce men looking like that?” Jade, Alpha Rowan’s daughter from the Briarwood clan and my college tormentor, snarled as she positioned herself before me.
She was the one who’d ripped off my veil, and now she seethed because my hideous scar had somehow captured male attention she craved.
Without my veil, I felt exposed, disoriented and defenseless.
My breathing grew shallow as anxiety crept in, but Jade wasn’t finished.
Not nearly.
She intended to drown me in humiliation beyond anything I’d endured since the Astral Curse claimed me.
Jade drove her finger into my chest and when I remained silent, turned to leave after I’d gathered some courage.
As I knelt to retrieve my veil, she shoved me violently from behind.
The next moment, I found myself stumbling before crashing onto the marble floor without grace.
Pain shot through my lips as my hip bone connected with the unforgiving surface.
Then the ridicule, accusations, and contempt from the surrounding crowd unleashed like gunfire.
Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to release them.
Not for these people.
Not for this pack that had already discarded me.
Someday, they would rue this moment.
From across the room, I glimpsed my father’s clenched fists at his sides.
He witnessed my public degradation before hundreds of watching eyes.
Surprisingly, he began moving swiftly toward me.
He was coming to intervene, not from any remaining love for me, but because he served as Beta of our Moonstone Pack, and I was his child.
Having me openly humiliated and scorned by others insulted his reputation and threatened his standing.
But suddenly, my brother Maddox materialized from nowhere and seized his arm, halting his advance.
My father’s eyebrows drew together as he looked at Maddox, silently demanding explanation, but Maddox only shook his head and whispered, ‘Stay back, father.’
He was instructing our father to abandon me, his youngest daughter, while others tormented me during the Astral ball.
The anguish in my heart multiplied as tears clouded my sight, but I endured, clinging to my final fragment of dignity.
I wanted to flee.
I wanted to vanish.
But my limbs wouldn’t respond.
Amid my shame, agony and raging pheromones, my breathing stopped briefly as reality blurred around me.
Then suddenly, a different scent pervaded the space.
Not just any fragrance, but one radiating authority, dominance and control.
The type of scent that made wolves cease breathing.
That compelled Alphas to bow their heads in automatic deference.
The entire ballroom went silent.
A deep, frigid voice cut through the stillness.
“What the hell is happening here?”
My pulse froze.
Jade’s sneer vanished.
The crowd separated immediately, and then I glimpsed him.
Caspian Vanderbilt.
The Alpha of the Umbra Wilds.
The future Werewolf King.
And the most formidable man present.
His imposing figure wore a midnight, impeccably fitted suit, his amber eyes surveying the scene with glacial indifference.
Then those amber eyes found me.
Everything halted.
Including time itself.
My pheromones – the ones I’d never controlled – suddenly disappeared.
Like extinguishing flames.
Like surrendering completely.
As Alpha Caspian began approaching me, my breathing stopped.
I forgot how to breathe.