Chapter 49: Chapter 49

Bella's POV

My heart sank into my chest as I stared at Jace with my eyes widened. Every part of me was shaking vehemently with hot tears brimming in my eyes. I had no strength to rush forward and stop him from rejecting me, and even as I saw him pull out that solver knife, I still tried to convince myself that he was not going to do it.

Jace can't reject me. He loves me so much and is ready to make any sacrifice to ensure that I am happy. Yes, that was what he told me.

"I am really sorry, Bella. After I am done, please don't stress your parents and leave. In a short period, my memory will leave your head and you won't remember I existed. That will help you find the right mate for yourself, because I am not the one" He muffled, swallowing hard and sniffing back the tears rolling endlessly down from his eyes to his cheeks.

"You are not... doing this for real! I can never believe you would reject me. Go on with your prank, love " I beamed even in sadness, waiting for him to smile back and tell me that I didn't fall for the prank, but none of that happened. Instead, he was bringing the knife closer to the side of his palm.

In the werewolf world, rejection is the most painful thing your mate can ever do to you, but it becomes more terrifying when he cuts his palm with a silver knife just after rejecting you.

Doing that will break every single bond between the two of you. Even if you refused to accept the rejection, it would still severe every string and the both of you would never feel anything for each other again.

Although you can recall his face, you can never remember being in love with him or any past that relates to love. It could really be a good idea for two mates who want to depart forever, but the implication was that the rejector would go insane after two weeks.

All this was what my grandmother had told me one night under the full moon, and I could vividly remember how I resisted such a fate for myself. I was that girl who admired mates and how they paired, fell deeply in love with each other and bore kids. I wish that for myself every single moment of my life.

What the hell is happening to me now?

Like, is all this for real? My mate is performing that same ritual to detach me from him.

"I, Jace Crown, reject you, Bella Hawkins, as my....

"No!!!!!!!" I screamed and ran to shut him up, but my parents seemed to foresee my actions and caught me before I could reach for him. They stopped before I could slap away those words from Jace's lips. I was so weak from the wounds in my back region, which were healing slowly, so I couldn't fight back at my parents.

They succeeded in holding me back.

"Jace, please I beg you to stop. I beg you to stop this! What if you survived and stayed alive?" I cried, and he let out a weak smile.

"It is impossible. Everyone hates me deeply now, and across the entire community, I have been announced as a betrayal for helping a vampire to get into this pack. It is a good enough reason to get me killed. There is no way I will be spared and I am ready to die, but my greatest regret would be to leave you in that deepest agony of losing your mate." He breathed, wiping his palm across his face.

"Jace, I don't mind dying with you. We are in this together! I was the one who told you to help him in while we find a way to set him up! Don't you remember? Why carry the cross all by yourself? No, please don't do this to me.." I whimpered as my heart swelled up like it would burst any second from now.

I had never felt this kind of pain in my entire life. It is now so clear that Jace really wanted to reject me. It wasn't a silly prank as I had thought.

"Bella, have you gone out of your mind? You want to die with him? What about us? You are our only daughter and.. "

"Please ma'am, don't stress yourself. She isn't dying with me. Just ensure you take her far away from this pack so she won't get into trouble. " Jace chipped in before my mother could finish up.

"If you do this, I will hate you forever!" I screeched at Jace, slapping my hand on the ground as sweat and tears soiled my face. I really don't want to lose Jace. I don't want to forget the best creature that has blessed my soul with his presence.

"I, Jace Crown, hereby reject you, Bella Hawkins...as my... mate!" He finally said those words. Those horrifying words finally pierced my ears, searing to the depths of my heart before exploding in pain all over me like a bomb.

I was paralyzed at that moment, my blood running cold as I stared at him, cutting his palm with the knife. It was like I was set on fire and allowed to burn to ashes. The pain I was feeling couldn't be described with words, nor could it be measured.

It was just hitting me hard as I began to feel the detachment. I began to feel the emptiness in me.

"Jace, why?" I muffled, and he smiled, walking closer to me. I was hearing just his footsteps, with the blurred figure of him drawing closer.

"You will be fine." He cooed and kissed my lips, before putting something over my neck. It was a necklace, but I can't see it. My vision was blurred with tears and I was passing out.

Only I knew how broken I was. It was the darkest moment of my life. The type that will create an everlasting scar on me.

"Goodbye..." That was the last word I heard before everything vanished from my sight and I lost consciousness.

Jace's POV

"Please take her back to your pack, send her to a new school. She will be fine. " I beamed at her parents, who nodded and hugged me. I was smiling, yet shattered inside. I knew what I did was right, but at the same time, I wish all this weren't happening. I was about to die like the nobody I was.

I had been relevant all this while because I was lucky to make Torian my friend. But now, even Torian has turned his back on me. The entire pack which I had been loyal to has also verdicted death on me.

Finding Lola is like transferring a sea into a small hole. I don't know if she is alive, and even if she is alive, how can I get past the vampire boundary without getting killed instantly by their hunters?

What was Sophia thinking?

I knew she gave me that condition for something she wasn't talking about. It was clear in her eyes that she needed Lola to do something serious for her.

Gosh!

My life is a mess.

"Goodbye," I heard Bella's parents say to me, and it made me laugh sadly, as the goodbye sounded like a condolence to me. Who would have thought, at this time, that I would be sentenced to death for a crime of betrayal when it is obvious I did it to save myself, but no one cares.

With my hands deep in my pocket, I walked out of the ward. I could see the nurses and doctors scurrying to and fro in their coats as they attended to one thing or the other.

My presence created a new atmosphere of staring and murmuring. Everyone there had their gazes on me, pointing fingers and saying some incoherent words among themselves.

I knew what they were saying. I knew it was about my betrayal, especially when I had been known as the future Beta.

"So this was why he would have betrayed us if he became the Beta?"

"I am sure he must be working with the vampire clan as a spy all this while."

"He was given a week to fetch Lola, which I know he will never do because they are both accomplices in working with the vampires!"

"I can't believe he looks cute and innocent only to have evil in his heart."

Those were the last hurting conversations my ears were able to catch as I finally stepped out of the building.

Fuck!

Just as I was about to shift to my wolf so I would get home quicker, two horses from the Royal pack stopped beside me.

I raised my gaze to the riders and saw they were royal guards.

"You are needed in the palace now!" One of them snapped with a grim face while the other stared at me in hatred like an enemy. I could recognize their faces as those who had once gone for an errand for me when I visited the alpha, back then when my life was normal.

"What..."

My question couldn't go halfway before they galloped their horses away.

Gosh.

Why would they need my presence in the palace now?

"We can only know after getting there," my wolf chipped in with his voice, exuding exhaustion.

He must be tired of being my wolf and clearly regrets it. I am a complete mess.