Chapter 202
Skye’s POV
“Leon took a deep breath and spoke with clear determination. offer my memories of my mother as sacrifice. May the
sacred fire reveal the answers I seek.”
I held my breath, watching the dancing flames with unexpected tension. Despite knowing Leon was Adrian’s competitor in this election, I found myself strangely hoping the sacred fire would give him a chance.
The conflict inside me was undeniable. Leon had rejected me, oken my heart, and left me to rebuild my life alone. Yet watching him offer up something so precious stirred forgotten feelings.
His mother had saved my life when I was just a child. And Leon–he had worshipped her. How could I not feel something watching him sacrifice her memory?
The rational part of me knew I should support Adrian completely. He had accepted me when I was nothing, given me purpose when I was lost. But standing here, watching Leon expose his vulnerability before everyone, awakened something I thought I had buried deep inside me.
Was it loyalty to my old pack making me feel this way?
Or something deeper I refused to acknowledge?
The blue flames flickered, casting eerie shadows across the stone circle. Everyone watched in tense silence. Then suddenly, the flames dimmed, their light turning cold and unwelcoming. The message was unmistakable. Leon’s sacrifice had been
rejected.
The tears I had been fighting back slipped down my cheeks. I couldn’t help it. Around me, gasps and whispers filled the air. Some members of the Frostshadow Pack looked stunned, others outraged.
Images of Leon as a young boy flashed through my mind. I remembered him training relentlessly in the Alaskan wilderness, pushing himself beyond what anyone thought possible. Many girls in the pack had been infatuated with him back then, sneaking to the training grounds to watch him. Their giggles would echo through the trees until Leon noticed them. He would always chase them away, his face serious beyond his years, forbidding any female presence that might distract him and Ethan from their training.
During the first year after his mother died, he had even knocked out one of Ethan’s teeth in a rage. The memory was clear -blood on the snow, Ethan holding his jaw, Leon standing with clenched fists. He blamed us all for his mother’s death, claiming we were too weak to protect ourselves, forcing his mother to sacrifice herself for worthless pack members.
He was arrogant, cold, sometimes selfish, but who could question his love for his mother? Who could doubt the depth of his grief? The pendant he had just sacrificed had never left his neck since her death.
But not all sacrifices are rewarded. Not all love stories end happily. The sacred fire had spoken.
Leon clearly couldn’t accept the outcome. His usual composure crumbled before our eyes. The confident Alpha heir of Frostshadow Pack looked lost, like the child he never allowed himself to be.
“Why… why is this happening?” he asked the priest, his words stumbling over each other. “How can this be possible?”
I had never seen him so unsettled, so incoherent. Leon had always been mature beyond his years. The day his mother died
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Chapter 202
was the day he grew up. I had never witnessed him panic in public like this. His fingers trembled slightly as he gestured toward the fire, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Ethan, seated far from me, stood up despite Elder Selene’s earlier warnings. His face flushed with anger and loyalty. “Priest,” he shouted, his voice carrying across the stone circle, something must be wrong! I would stake my life that Alpha Leon’s mother sacrificed herself to save several pack children. Memories of our former Luna are not only the most precious thing in Alpha Leon’s life but also the most treasured history of our entire Frostshadow Pack!”
Several members of our former pack nodded in agreement, some rising to their feet in solidarity. The tension in the air thickened as murmurs grew louder from various sections of the audience.
The priest raised his hand toward Leon, his face hidden behind ceremonial mask, the eyes beneath showing compassion. “I understand your feelings. Give me a moment to communicate with the sacred fire. It will show us what it deems
worthy.”
Leon nodded, clenching his fists, his face still ashen. He took a step back, standing tall despite the visible tremor in his shoulders. Always the Alpha, even in defeat.
The priest unhurriedly extended his hand into the sacred fire. The flames wrapped around his fingers without burning him, casting an otherworldly glow on his mask. He closed his eyes, his expression becoming serene, seemingly entering another realm beyond our understanding.
This communication took longer than the previous one. The entire assembly sat in hushed anticipation. I could hear my own heartbeat, feel the tension of the mate bond stretching between Leon and me, despite all our attempts to ignore it. We waited several minutes before the priest slowly opened his eyes, which now reflected the blue of the sacred flames.
He turned to Leon and said, his voice carrying across the silent crowd, “The sacred fire tells me that what matters most to you is actually the mate bond between you and your mate.”
After the priest spoke these words, both Leon and Adrian on the stone platform looked toward me. The weight of their gazes made me want to disappear into the ground. Around me, heads turned as people connected the dots.
Leon frowned, his expression morphing from shock to denial. He quickly turned back to the priest. “That cannot be possible. While Skye and I are mates, we have already agreed to dissolve our mate bond after the Alpha King election.”
His words echoed what we had discussed privately, but hearing him say it so definitively before everyone made my chest tighten painfully. This scene felt familiar, only I wasn’t the same little girl anymore. For me, this pain didn’t count as real heartbreak.
Adrian, who had remained silent since stepping onto the platform, finally spoke up. “Alpha Leon speaks the truth. Though Skye is Alpha Leon’s mate, she is also my Beta and girlfriend. There is no love between her and Alpha Leon,”
The air grew heavy with tension. I felt everyone’s eyes turn toward me, apparently waiting for me to say something, to confirm or deny what both men had claimed.
My brain went completely blank.
