Chapter 65: Desperation

Selene’s POV

I didn’t want to look desperate in front of everyone, but I was.

The wedding was about to start as we made our way down to the ceremony grounds. We had made sure all our evidence was in check ... every detail accounted for ... so we wouldn’t walk in there looking like fools. We had everything.

People were already gathered, waiting to witness the first procession of the wedding.

"It seems we’re late," Ms. Ashlyn whispered to me.

I didn’t let that weigh me down. I was going to make my plea known whether the wedding had started or not.

"We have something to say!" I screamed into the crowd.

Every head turned in my direction. I walked shamelessly to the front where the elders sat and placed the document before them ... a piece of paper bearing the matching details of me and Lucian. Evidence. Proof. Then I walked back down and waited.

The entire crowd went silent. Tessa went silent too. She had to have been raging on the inside, but she didn’t show it. Her face gave nothing away.

"So you’re saying here that Lucian and Tessa are not fated mates ... only betrothed?" one of the elders finally spoke.

"Exactly, sirs," I answered.

"What makes you think we’ll believe this piece of formulated trash?" another elder asked.

"It’s not formulated," Ms. Ashlyn cut in firmly. "As we all know, I am an experienced mate discoverer. My work is built on years of study, history, and research. I followed every protocol ... exactly as it was done in the old ways, which remain just as potent today. The results are clear. Selene is Lucian’s fated mate."

The elders laughed.

The crowd echoed their doubt with a collective murmur.

"We have been around far longer than you, and we know how these things can be manipulated," one elder said. "Lucian and Tessa will marry today."

"You cannot destroy or separate what the goddess has put together," Ms. Ashlyn said.

I glanced over at Lucian and Tessa in their wedding attire. Lucian already looked exhausted and the ceremony hadn’t even begun. Poor Lucian. I pitied him. I just wanted to jump back into his arms and pull him far away from all of this.

The crowd began murmuring again. I liked that. A wedding couldn’t hold with that kind of noise stirring beneath the surface.

"Silence, everyone!" one of the elders commanded.

"Selene does not belong in Winterwood. She was only claimed by the Alpha, so whatever feelings exist between them are irrelevant here. They will not be counted. We follow rules."

"But sir..." Ms. Ashlyn started again.

"That is not an issue," the elder cut her off. "People from different territories mate, marry, and raise pups all the time. That is not grounds for contesting this union."

He smiled ... that slow, calculating smile that made my skin crawl.

"This has turned into a court hearing, hasn’t it? The fact that you conducted a test and claim to have received a word from the goddess is not sufficient ground to validate your assertion."

"We have been betrothed for years," Tessa’s mouth opened before I could react. "Everything you’re bringing here is trash."

Who gave that treacherous, murdering bitch the right to speak?

"I am a living fulfilment of prophecy," I said, cutting through the noise. "I came here for that purpose. I only recently discovered that I am Lucian’s fated mate, and we are bound to follow what the goddess has ordained."

"You are his fated mate and a fulfilment of prophecy ... yet you were the very tool used to bring mass destruction upon lives and properties in this pack," a different elder said. "The only reason you still stand here is because the Alpha permits it. To me, you are nothing more than a weapon of destruction."

The crowd erupted in agreement. Their applause for that man’s words turned my stomach.

"You’re all wasting my time," Lucian finally spoke, his voice flat and impatient. "Handle this quickly. I am not a monument for people to stand around and stare at."

A ripple of hushed tension moved through the crowd.

"We cannot keep the Alpha waiting," one elder said. "To settle this matter once and for all, we will conduct the fated mate test ourselves. Let the goddess speak again ... this time concerning Lucian and Tessa."

The crowd erupted in shouts.

I stood there thinking ... why? A trusted mate discoverer had already given them her results. Why did they need to do it again? But then it hit me. When they did it again and got the same result, that would be proof twice over. Right twice. For me and Ms. Ashlyn both.

They brought forward another discoverer. Ms. Ashlyn leaned close and told me the man had been trained under her, then taken to the royal chambers for palace duties. He began the process ... it mirrored exactly what Ms. Ashlyn and I had done. He collected strands of hair from both Lucian and Tessa.

I was already smiling on the inside. The truth was about to reveal itself to everyone.

He completed the ritual and they moved outside, where a fire had been prepared, waiting for the goddess to respond.

It took longer than expected, but it didn’t unsettle me at first. Ours had taken time too.

Then it kept going. And going.

Tension crept into my chest.

Can the goddess not respond twice? Just confirm what she already told us. Shame these self-serving elders once and for all.

"I don’t think the goddess would like to repeat herself," I said, unable to keep quiet any longer. "Why don’t we simply take the results already presented and proceed from there?"

"Shut up, Selene," an elder snapped.

And then the fire roared.

It burned high ... higher than the flame Ms. Ashlyn and I had worked with indoors. The strands of hair rose and drifted toward each other.

Tessa’s strand pointed to Lucian’s.

Lucian’s pointed back to hers.

My stomach dropped.

"Do you see it?" an elder bellowed, turning to the crowd.

The people lost their minds.

Ms. Ashlyn and I stared at each other. Neither of us said a word.

"Lucian and Tessa! Lucian and Tessa!" The chanting started and didn’t stop.

It was rigged. I told myself that immediately. They had chosen a discoverer they already knew, someone loyal to their agenda. Of course the result would say what they wanted it to say.

"So you see, outcast ... you are not Lucian’s mate. Proven."

"Don’t call her an outcast again," Lucian said quietly.

The elder fell silent.

"Now that this obstacle has been addressed and cleared, we may proceed with the wedding."

The crowd surged. People moved in every direction, pushing and shoving. Ms. Ashlyn and I could barely make our way through. Their chanting was so loud it felt like the sound was pressing into my skull, trying to crush me from the inside out.

I couldn’t stand there and watch Lucian marry Tessa. A woman who had killed my friends. Who had killed my baby.

Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. That was the goddess’s irony ... and I wanted nothing more to do with her.

Whether that test had been real or rigged, she could have stood by me. She didn’t.

I turned and walked away, tears burning down my face.

The first procession was almost over. They had been presented before everyone. All that remained was the final ceremony binding them together.

I couldn’t stay. But where would I go? What would happen to the prophecy over my life if I left Winterwood?

Maybe there never was a prophecy. Maybe it had all been a lie I told myself to survive.