Prologue - Rejected

Mina POV

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The mud clung to her bare feet as Mina ran, her pursuers hot on her tail. Wolves she had been about to lead, only an hour ago, gunning for her life. Tears streaked down her face as their insults hurled through the night air, their sharp bite hurting more than the cold wind whipping her cheeks. These wolves were her family, or they had been. She had grown up with them, been adored by them since she was a pup, and now they had thrown her away as if she was nothing. No, it was worse than that. Not only had they rejected her from her role and the pack, severing her connection to them all, they were hunting her. Eager to see her blood spilt to pay for the murder of the Clear Blue Luna.

Except she hadn’t done it. She hadn’t killed her mother.

The blood coating her hands, its sticky heat keeping the horrifying moment alive in her mind, did little to dissuade them. She had motive, she had been found with the body, she was guilty. That what they all thought, so that’s what she was. Her pleas of innocence couldn’t penetrate the decision they had already made.

Mina’s chest was tight. Every breath a harsh wheeze that reminded her she needed to train more, but there was also a heavy weight clutching her lungs. She couldn’t take a full breath. Each time she tried, she choked on a sob. Her tears battled her fears. One wanted her to stop, to succumb to the warriors' bloodlust, the other pushed her to survive. Stripped of her role, her power, her family and home, she didn’t know what life beyond the pack’s borders would look like, but her will to live pushed her on. It was a desperation that clawed at her, one that drove the rushing heartbeat in her ears, that promised her someone in the nation would believe her truth.

Her feet ached as they sunk into the cold mud, but they didn’t falter. The sickening squelch of each footfall turned her stomach, the sound dragging images from where she had pushed them into the dark corners of her mind. Her mother dying in her arms, blood bubbling on her lips as she gurgled on weak words. Her brother wounded and out cold, his arm out as if to protect his family. Greif tore through her, sharp and unrelenting. He’d be okay, she had to believe it. She couldn’t lose the last of her family. She had to believe Sam would recover and prove her innocence to the pack. He was her only hope.

The hairs on her nape stood on end. The warriors were closing in, but the border was in sight. An urge pushed from the back of her mind. Her wolf was trying to break free, to get her to safety, but Mina ignored it. She didn’t dare to shift and destroy the last of her belongings; what she wore and the contents of her pockets. It was all she had to survive on. Her only solace was that she had given Sam the Clear Blue heirloom before she left. With it, the pack would continue to thrive with the power of a Legacy Luna, even with her being gone. It would keep the pack safe until she came back to reclaim it.

As Mina crossed the boundary of her home a wave of nausea crashed through her. The last of her connection to the pack snapped and, in one fatal blow, her fate was sealed. She was a rogue. A Legacy Luna unwanted by her wolves. Isolation chilled her, its edges bitter and sharp, cutting at her resilience. She fell to her knees, unable to feel the cold as the night seeped into her bones. The mud was a welcomed cushion as she curled into a ball and let everything collapse around her.

Deep, gut-wrenching sobs rocked her body, pulling from the very depths of her soul as she cried against the injustice of it all. It crushed her, keeping her locked to the ground as if bound by silver chains.

That’s how he found her.