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Just as he did so, the front door flew open. Juniper jumped in shock and turned to the door. The pursuing young pack members rushed into the bar, and headed directly for her and Rowan.
“Alpha Rowan,” their leader, Nate, said as he stepped forward. He thrust a finger toward Juniper accusingly. “Thiswitchdares to claim that she’s your mate. We are all here today to prove it. Is she really your mate, Alpha Rowan?”
Juniper was caught in between the young wolves and Rowan. She turned to look at him hopefully, but he remained alarmingly quiet.
When Rowan did not immediately answer the question, Juniper felt her mind unraveling. She stared at him incredulously, suppressing the urge to scream.
At that point, the entire bar had gone quiet, and all eyes were turned toward the display in the middle of the room. Juniper could feel every eye on her, judging her, accusing her.
She began to feel small. The cold from her wet dress suddenly seeped into her bones, and she wrapped her arms protectively around herself.
She wanted to disappear. She wanted to escape all those eyes. She didn’t want to be here anymore and she wondered why she had thought it would be a good idea to come in the first place.
Juniper looked up at Rowan again with hurt in her eyes, begging him quietly. Her tears fell freely now as his silence stretched. She didn’t even realize that she had been holding her breath, too afraid to breathe.
Why?she thought painfully.Why won’t you acknowledge me? Do you think the same way they do?
As she watched Rowan, she saw the resignation on his face, and she knew. She saw his eyes grow cold and harden like flint. Her heart broke into a million different pieces and she felt something break inside her even before he spoke.
“Mate?” Rowan asked in a grinding, angry voice. “With a witch? Even if you wanted to tell a lie, couldn’t you have come up with something a little more believable?”
The laughter erupted from behind her, loud enough to bring down the roof. Juniper shut her eyes. It sounded like the whole world was laughing at her, mocking her.
She could hear chuckles from around the bar and saw several people shake their heads in pity, others in amusement. None of that mattered to her. Only Rowan.
She looked dead at him, questioning him with her eyes. In his cold eyes, she saw all the moments they had shared together in the past year flashing by.
Was it all a lie, then? Had none of it been true? Had she conjured up this relationship in the depths of her mind?
How was it possible for him to deny and embarrass her so comfortably? After all the promises they had made to each other?
Why would he toy with her as he had done for an entire year, if he was only going to reject her in public? He had told her that she was his mate. He had looked at her with those golden eyes, cupped her face in his hands, and sworn to it.
Juniper stumbled backward, her legs feeling dead. All of a sudden, she realized how pitiful she looked. Torn, bruised, dirty. An eyesore.
Someone yanked her from behind and turned her around forcefully. Juniper turned and saw her adopted sister. Elena had eyes full of hate and Juniper could tell that she was incensed.
Elena leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Fucking deathbringer. You’ve always been an eyesore in this pack. And now? Everyone will know you as a dirty liar as well.”
With more force than was necessary, Elena pushed Juniper backward. She gasped from the sudden force, tumbling as she fell down the steps of the bar. She rolled in the dirt and stayed there. Every bone in her body hurt. She wheezed for air, clutching the dirt for support.
Elena stepped outside and down the steps, going down on one knee beside Juniper. “You claimed to be an alpha’s mate? Do you have any idea how stupid that was? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is to us?”
Juniper shakily got on all fours, her chest hurting from where Elena had pushed her. She felt nothing from her sister’s harsh words in that moment.
Instead, she burned with pain at Rowan’s rejection. The pain was everywhere. She could still see his cold eyes as he denied her. As he threw everything between them into a cold, deep sea.
Juniper struggled to her feet, staggering slightly as she did so. She felt worn out like an old rag. Elena took a step backward and regarded her with disdain.
“Look at you. Take a fucking look at you. You look like shit.”
Without even turning to look at her adopted sister or offer a reply, Juniper took off running. She had no idea where the strength came from, but she suddenly didn’t want to be there anymore.
“Yeah, RUN!” Elena yelled from behind her. “That’s all you know how to do! Run as far as you can!”
Juniper bit her lip and ran. This time, she didn’t head back into the familiar woods she had emerged from. She wasn’t going to run back home as she had always done all these years.
She was never going back home again. Life as she knew it here in Moonwood was over for her. There was nothing left for her in this town and she had known that for some time. How could she stay here and face them, after all that had happened?
