I felt something stir inside me, a flicker of warmth in the deep cold that had settled in my bones. I raised my head, my vision blurring with tears, but there was a clarity in my heart that hadn’t been there before. I straightened my back, my posture shifting from submission to defiance.
Lucas sneered at the sight of me daring to meet his eyes. “Don’t even think about it. I will never accept—”
But I cut him off, my voice trembling but fierce. “And I, Nadia Ambersy, daughter of Alpha Victor Ambersy, reject you, Alpha Lucas Casimir of the Lockheart Pack, as my mate!”
A shocked gasp rippled through the crowd. Lucas’s eyes widened, the anger momentarily replaced by something like disbelief, and then fury.
“You dare—”
“Yes, I dare!” I shouted, my voice louder than it had ever been in this pack. “I’d rather die than be bound to you. I’d rather die than live another day in this hell you’ve created for me!”