Chapter 6 - Rejected in Front of Everyone
The words landed harder than the slap had. Seraphine felt them settle into her chest and rooted there. It would be a constant stigma for the rest of her life. This was the closest thing to the truth her father had ever offered her, and it was delivered to her in front of the whole pack so there could be no mistaking it later.
She looked past him to where Philip stood frozen the whole time; his face was pale with an expression she couldn't read. All this while he stood there watching the woman he claimed he loved being destroyed in front of him and didn't utter a word.
"P-Philip," Seraphine spoke softly, although deep down, she had already known what the outcome would be, but part of her wanted to hope for something. "Please, tell them the truth."
He didn't move, his eyes scanning the hall, and his hands clenched tightly before returning to Seraphine.
"Ser… I-I don't fully understand what happened tonight," he said, his voice shook, and Seraphine couldn't tell if it was from distress or simply because he was a coward who would break true love for something that would benefit him. "I care for you, Seraphine, I really do, but when Thea said what she said… when I saw what just happened here… I felt it. Something shifted in here," he said while gripping his chest tightly. "I felt something tighten between us."
His eyes shifted from hers towards Robert and towards the family whose favour would shape the rest of his life in this pack, rather than being with a lady whose father had publicly disgraced.
"If I am being honest, I think Thea has always had more to offer than you ever did. I didn't want to see it before, even though I had seen the signs and felt it eating me raw. I didn't want to hurt you, but right now, seeing the truth right in front of me, I don't think I want to pretend anymore. I am tired of pretending and lying to myself."
The words landed harder than anything else said all evening. 'Thea has more to offer than you ever did.' he didn't make mention of fate or the bond; he made note of the comparison between Thea and Seraphine, and he had concluded who was best for him, and in front of the whole pack he had placed a verdict on her worth. He had torn her to pieces, the one person who was supposed to have chosen her above everyone else in the world.
"You don't think you can pretend anymore," Seraphine repeated his words. "Is that explanation after everything you just watched, after being hit by my father because of you and yet you still chose her, and the best you could come up with is that you can't pretend any more?"
Philip's jaw clenched; he looked at Seraphine with disgust before turning to Robert, the Alpha whose favour he would need for the rest of his life, the one who would pass the Alpha title to him once he got married into the family.
"I-I think," he said carefully, not to cross paths with Robert, "that fate doesn't always make sense to the people living through it," he said, and Seraphine chuckled.
"Say it," Seraphine whispered, and her voice finally broke as tears and blood mixed on her lips. "If you are going to do this to me, at least man up and grow balls to say it plainly.
Philip sighed before looking at Seraphine and said the words that would shatter her completely.
"I, Philip Rivera, reject you, Seraphine Remington, as my mate. I will not have you, not now and not ever. From this moment, the bond between us is severed, and you are free to seek another," Philip said, and it suddenly came crashing. The excruciating pain crushed through Seraphine's body, and her knees buckled. She muffled the scream that tried to escape her lips. She wasn't going to give him or anyone in this hall the sick pleasure of her break.
Philip didn't give her a second glance as he walked towards where Thea was still held tightly by Martha. She was no longer trembling; she was now calm. Why won't she be? She has succeeded in ruining her sister's life.
"Thea," Philip said, his voice steadier now, "I accept you as my mate; I claim you before the Moon Goddess, your family, and the pack members present here. I choose you in this life and every life after. From this moment, you are mine, as I am yours."
Thea smiled as she accepted Philip's proposal. Someone made a small sound of triumph. It could be Martha or someone else, and then Thea, with her hands pressed to her lips as tears streamed down her face in excitement.
Seraphine felt it happen again, the exact moment the new bond took root, a new fresh wave of agony surge into her as her body and mind understood immediately that this wasn't just rejection; this was replacement.
"Seraphine," her father's voice spoke softly, "you have heard it. Do the needful, reject Philip, and save yourself the little dignity you have left."
Seraphine smiled; she looked at the man in front of her, someone who was meant to be her father and then her mother, who didn't care to glance at her but was already running to embrace Thea and celebrate the mate bond that had cost her other daughter everything.
She knew she wasn't welcome here and that from now on, she wasn't truly their daughter even if the DNA says otherwise because no family would hate on their own this way.
Wiping the blood from her lips and the tears from her eyes. She stood up straight, ignoring the pain that was slowly killing her.
"I, Seraphine Remington, reject you, Philip Rivera, as my mate. I will not have you, not not, and not ever. From this moment, the bond between us is severed, and you are free to seek another."
The moment the words left her lips, she felt everything slipping away, the bond finally gone and no trace of love left, just emptiness and a hollow in her chest. The Pack Elder was shaken by everything he had just experienced and turned towards Robert to confirm before speaking again.
"Then… by the authority granted to this Pack, and by the will of the bond as it has revealed itself tonight, the joining ceremony will proceed between Philip Rivera-" a pause from him as he stared at Seraphine one last time before continuing, "and Thea Remington."
Somewhere in the crowd, someone laughed, and Seraphine knew her life was over because a rejected shewolf is considered useless and a tool to be mocked and ridiculed.
She looked at her parents one final time. Martha still hadn't looked at her once, she was too absorbed in smoothing Thea's hair, murmuring comfort against her ear as though it had been Thea, and not Seraphine, standing bloodied in the centre of the hall. Robert's expression held no guilt, shame, or remorse, but instead, it was high with the pride of a man who believed he had done nothing wrong at all.
Seraphine touched two fingers to her split lips, felt the blood there, warm and real, the only honest thing that had happened to her all night.
'So this is what I am to them,' she thought, 'not a daughter, not someone they loved, just the one they never chose, the one they finally told the truth of it to my face.'
She turned and walked out of the Great Hall without another word because it was of no use. Nobody cares about her, and now she has fully understood that her torment and suffering are far from being over.
