Shattered Reality

Vesperia's POV

My heels caught on the dirt as my legs buckled, dragging me away from the filthy pane. The sight had burned straight into my retinas, refusing to wash out.

This couldn't be real. It couldn't be happening.

I bolted from the rear of the tavern, not knowing where my feet were taking me, only that stopping wasn't an option.

"That had to be Gideon," I panted under my breath, clawing for any lie to keep from shattering. "His twin. That's why he looked identical. It had to be."

Yet Tamsin’s smug grimace and Roderick’s slack jaw as he lost himself in her skin shredded the lie to pieces. Had she manipulated him into this? She was always hunting for ways to twist people.

Or did Roderick turn to her because I pulled away near the water last night?

No. Deep down, I knew better. Roderick had chosen her outright.

Water flooded my eyes, blurring the rough ground ahead. Inside my chest, the mate connection let out a ragged, howling cry that tore through my ribs. Why would he do this? Why pick her?

Tamsin's warning from yesterday rang in my ears like a slap: *You need a dose of reality, and I know exactly how to serve it.*

Before I realized where my legs had carried me, the tree line thinned into the outer territory, near the roar of the falls. Even the spray of the water couldn't flush the image of them tangled together out of my mind.

"Vesperia."

A voice reached out in a tight murmur, cutting through the haze. I froze where I stood, feeling completely hollowed out. A slight figure stepped from the brush, revealing Mirella, our maid's girl.

"I’ve been looking all over for you," she whispered, stepping up to press a wet, cool cloth right over the swelling on my cheek.

"What do you want?" I turned my face down, mortified to let her look at me like this. If someone caught her showing me decency, the pack would tear her apart.

"I saw what Beta Cormac and Roderick did," she murmured, her throat tight as she patted the dampness from under my lashes. "I'm so sorry."

That snapped whatever held me upright. I slumped forward, sobbing helplessly against her shoulder like a child who had lost everything. I wanted to stay hidden right there, away from the world.

"Listen to me, Vesperia," Mirella insisted, her hands gripping my arms with sudden, frantic force. "You can't go back to the manor. Beta Cormac and Tamsin are cooking up something bad, and you’re right in the middle of it."

"What?" I sniffled, squinting through the tears. "What are you talking about?"

I had never seen Mirella this rattled, not since Cormac took me into his house. Her eyes darted into the surrounding shadows, sweat glistening along her hairline.

"They're going to—"

Voices barked out my name through the trees, swallowed almost immediately by the thud of heavy boots closing in from all sides.

"Get out of here!" Mirella hissed, shoving a hard shape deep into the pocket of my skirt and giving my back a hard push toward the thicket.

The warning came too late.

Thick fingers clamped around my biceps, yanking my feet right off the leaf litter. When I twisted against the hold, a guard snarled into my ear, his breath foul against my neck.

"Quit thrashing, bitch! The Alpha wants your hide."

They hauled me across the territory without letting my feet touch the earth, hauling me straight up the palace steps. The doors swung wide, and they threw me forward. I hit the flagstones in the middle of the grand chamber on my hands and knees.

Rows of pack members lined the benches, watching me like vultures waiting for a carcass.

Alpha Bramwell’s command crashed down from the raised platform, shaking the stone beneath my palms.

"You stand accused of soliciting Roderick," the Alpha boomed. "Multiple witnesses saw you pawing at him without shame, stalking him at every turn."

Soliciting? Me?

I forced words past the tightness in my throat.

"My Lord... that's a lie. I never went after him. Gideon was there, he saw—"

Bramwell's jaw set hard, his brow dropping into an iron glare. "Do not bring my other son into your filth! Gideon is out on pack duties, and you dare use his name to spin excuses?"

"No," I stammered, dropping my chest closer to the floor. "Please, Alpha. Roderick is my mate. He told me so himself..."

"Everything spilling from her mouth is complete fiction, Father."

The smooth cadence sliced across the chamber. Roderick strolled out from behind the council pillar, looking down at me with practiced, condescending pity.

My chin lifted, my throat locking up. "Roderick... what are you doing?"

"I tried to show her basic sympathy," Roderick announced to the hall, his tone mournful. "To treat her like anyone else despite the stain on her bloodline. But she mistook my charity for affection and began trailing me like an obsession."

The sheer nerve of the lie pinned the breath in my lungs. Cheating on me in the dirt wasn't enough; he had to bury me under this. I scrambled forward to grab his trouser leg, but the Gamma lunged, slamming a massive forearm across my spine and shoving my face flat to the rock.

"With the council's blessing," Roderick proclaimed, raising his chin, "I am proud to introduce my true mate, the future Luna of this pack... Tamsin!"

The words struck like an iron bar across my spine. He had promised yesterday: *I'll announce my mate.*

He never said he would announce me.

Tamsin walked into the open with a radiant tilt to her chin. Roderick took her fingers, lifting them up with a reverence he had never once offered me in private.

"Tamsin carries the strength and grace required to lead our people," Roderick declared to the gallery. "She will make our pack thrive. She is my partner, my equal, and my mate."

Alpha Bramwell leaned back against the high seat, nodding with wide approval. "You made the right choice, son. Tamsin, you are family now. You will lead them well."

Tamsin glanced over her shoulder, her eyes cutting down to mine. That same mocking curl pulled at her lips, the exact face she wore over him on that filthy cot. Beside her, Myrna sneered, while Beta Cormac leaned in to whisper something agreeable into the Alpha's ear.

"Did you... did you ever care?" I managed to push the words through the dust on the floor, fresh tears burning my scrapes. I waited for him to break the act, to say this was a loyalty test, some cruel joke to check my devotion.

"I have no idea what sick fantasy convinced you we were destined for each other," Roderick answered cleanly, looking down his nose. "But I will put an end to your delusions right now."

He spread both hands wide before the assembly.

"I, Roderick Bramwell, formally sever every thread tying you to my name. I strip away whatever claim or hope you dared to invent."

The words struck home like lead.

A violent rupture ripped straight through the core of my ribcage, as if something vital had been torn out by the root. The thread I had clung to in the dark snapped clean through, going cold and dead in an instant.

I sucked in a sharp, ragged breath, my chest heaving against the floor as the air refused to fill me. But before I could even grasp the agony of the broken bond, the next order dropped like a hammer.

"The verdict is death!" Alpha Bramwell roared, rising from his chair. "Carry it out now!"