The Alpha's Exiled Mate

Chapter 1

ARIA

I could only stand there and watch as my partner marked another woman—and there was nothing I could do.

But let me take you back to how it all started. Just an hour earlier, everything had felt like a dream coming true.

***

"Now, everyone, prepare to mark your mate."

The Elder's voice booms across the ceremonial grounds, and my heart leaps into my throat. I watch Declan Cross, the Alpha's son, weaving through the crowd of unmated wolves. His dark hair catches the moonlight, and those storm-gray eyes scan the faces around him.

Is he looking for me?

My wolf, Kelly, stirs with anticipation. He's coming. I can feel it.

I smooth down my dress—a simple cream-colored thing I bought with money saved from working double shifts at the pack clinic. It's not fancy, but it's mine. It's clean. It's respectable.

Declan and I have been together for three years. Three years of stolen moments, whispered promises, and careful touches. We've never marked each other, never made it official, but he told me he wanted a chosen mate. That fated mates were rare, and he didn't need fate to tell him what his heart already knew.

I try to ignore the way my hands tremble.

"Is that her? Is he really going to pick her?"

The whisper comes from somewhere to my left. I don't turn to look.

"She's nobody. An orphan with no rank, no family name."

"I heard she can barely shift properly."

"The future Alpha's mate should be someone worthy. Someone with status."

The voices blur together, a chorus of doubt I've heard my entire life. I've worked so hard to prove myself—studying healing, training until my muscles screamed, volunteering for every pack duty no one else wanted. But it's never enough. To them, I'll always be the rankless girl who grew up in the pack orphanage.

Kelly, my wolf growls softly in my mind. They don't matter. Only he matters.

She's right. I lift my chin and square my shoulders. Let them talk. Let them judge. When Declan chooses me in front of everyone, none of it will matter anymore.

I watch him move closer, and my breath catches. He's wearing all black—a fitted shirt that shows off the strength in his shoulders, the power that comes from Alpha bloodlines. He's beautiful in a way that still makes my stomach flip after all this time.

Twenty feet away now. Fifteen.

I can see the tension in his jaw, the way his hands flex at his sides. Is he nervous, too?

Ten feet.

Our eyes meet, and something flickers across his face. Something I can't quite read.

Five feet.

This is it. This is really happening.

And then he walks right past me.

My heart stops.

I feel the rush of air as he moves by, close enough that his scent—pine and rain and everything wild—washes over me. But he doesn't stop. Doesn't pause. Doesn't even slow down.

He walks directly to the girl standing behind me.

Celeste Clarkston. The Beta's daughter.

No.

"Celeste," Declan says, his voice carrying across the suddenly silent crowd. "My fated mate."

The words hit me like a physical blow. Kelly whimpers, a sound of pure anguish that echoes through my entire body.

Fated mate.

They only just recognized the bond two weeks ago. Two weeks, after three years of him and me. He'd told me it didn't matter, that the fated bond was just biology, that what we had was real and choice and—

"I accept you, Declan," Celeste says, her voice sweet and light. "My fated mate. My Alpha."

I can't move. Can't breathe. Can't look away.

Declan's hand comes up to cup the side of Celeste's neck, tilting her head to expose the curve where her shoulder meets her throat. The marking spot. She's wearing a silver dress that probably costs more than I make in six months, and her dark hair is swept up in an elegant twist. She looks like a Luna. Like someone who belongs at an Alpha's side.

Not like me.

His canines extend, sharp and white in the moonlight. I see the moment they pierce her skin, sinking deep into that sacred spot. Celeste gasps, her fingers clutching at his shoulders, and her eyes flutter closed. A soft glow begins to radiate from where they're connected—the mate bond forming, golden and warm and permanent.

The crowd erupts in cheers and howls of celebration, but I can barely hear them over the sound of my own heartbeat thundering in my ears.

Declan's jaw works as he marks her, claiming her as his in front of the entire pack. When he finally pulls back, his lips are stained with her blood. There it is—his mark on her neck, already beginning to heal into the silvery scar that will brand her as his for the rest of her life.

He leans down and kisses her. Slow. Deep. Possessive.

The kind of kiss I thought would be mine.

Celeste melts into him, her arms wrapping around his neck. The crowd goes wild, whistling and cheering. Someone starts howling, and others join in until the night air is filled with the sound of celebration.

I can only stand there and watch. There's nothing I can do.

"Aria?"

I barely register my name. Everything feels distant, muffled, like I'm underwater.

Celeste breaks the kiss and turns to look at me over Declan's shoulder. Her eyes find mine, and I see something flicker there. Triumph? Pity?

"Oh, Aria." She steps toward me, and Declan's hand falls away from her waist. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. The fated bond—it just appeared, and we couldn't fight it. You understand, don't you?"

Her voice drips with false sympathy, and I can feel Kelly bristling.

Liar. She's lying.

I take a step back. "I need to go."

"Wait." Celeste reaches for my arm, but I jerk away. "Please don't leave. Stay. Celebrate with us. There's no hard feelings, right? We can all still be friends."

Friends. She wants me to stay and watch her bask in what should have been mine.

"I can't." My voice sounds strangled. "I'm sorry, I just—"

"Stay, Aria." Her grip suddenly tightens on my wrist, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. Her tone isn't sympathetic anymore. It's commanding. Cold. "I'm going to be your Luna. When I tell you to stay, you stay."

Something inside me recoils. Kelly snarls, and I feel my wolf rising, protective and fierce. There's malice radiating off Celeste—I can sense it now, the dark satisfaction underneath her pretty words. The way her nails are digging into my skin isn't an accident.

She wanted this. Wanted me to see. Wanted me to hurt.

My instincts scream at me to get away from her, to protect myself. Before I can think, before I can stop it, my wolf surges forward and my hand shifts. Claws extend, sharp and deadly, and I swipe at her, trying to break free from her grip.

Celeste screams.

The sound pierces through the celebration like a knife. Everyone goes silent. Everyone turns.

I stare at my hand—at my claws—at the three red lines now bleeding on Celeste's forearm where she'd been holding me.

"She attacked me!" Celeste shrieks, cradling her arm to her chest. Blood seeps between her fingers. "She attacked the future Luna! In front of everyone!"

The crowd explodes.

"How dare she!"

"Attacking the Beta's daughter!"

"She should be banished!"

"Throw her in the cells!"

"Aria." Declan's voice cuts through the chaos, cold and sharp as ice. He's staring at me like he doesn't know me. Like I'm a stranger. "What the hell did you just do?"

"I didn't—" My voice cracks. "She grabbed me, and I just—my wolf—"

"Apologize." His eyes flash gold, his Alpha command pressing down on me like a physical weight. "Now."

I can feel the weight of his power, the force of his authority trying to make me submit, to force my head down and my neck bare. But underneath it all, I feel Kelly's desperate need to protect something. Something precious.

What is she protecting?

"Everyone saw what you did," Declan says, his voice getting louder. "You attacked my mate at our mating ceremony. You harmed the future Luna of this pack. Apologize to Celeste. Now."

"But she—" I look around at all the faces staring at me with disgust and fury. No one will listen. No one cares what really happened. They only see what they want to see—the rankless orphan attacking her betters. "I didn't mean to—"

"She's making excuses!"

"Ungrateful omega!"

"She's always been jealous!"

"She should be punished!"

The hatred in their voices makes my skin crawl. These are people I've lived with my entire life, people I've healed and helped and served. But none of that matters. I'm nothing to them. I've always been nothing.

I sense the malice building in the crowd, feel it pressing in on me from all sides. My wolf screams at me to run.

So I do.

"Stop her!" someone shouts.

"Don't let her escape!"

I look back over my shoulder as I sprint toward the tree line, and I see Declan standing there. Our eyes meet across the distance. He sees the tears streaming down my face, and for one moment, just one, his expression wavers.

But then his jaw sets. "Catch her."

I don't wait to hear more. I shift mid-stride, my body exploding into my wolf form as I bolt into the forest. Behind me, I hear the sound of others shifting, their paws hitting the ground in pursuit.

The trees blur past me as I run. Branches whip at my fur, roots try to trip me, but I don't stop. Can't stop. Kelly runs with everything we have, driven by pure survival instinct.

Behind us, the pack closes in. I can hear them howling, coordinating, cutting off escape routes. It feels like a hunt. Like I'm prey.

I dodge left, then right, using every trick I learned as a child playing in these woods. But they're faster, stronger, and there are so many more of them.

A wolf lunges from the side, and I barely avoid his snapping jaws. Another comes from the right. They're herding me, boxing me in.

No. I have to get away. I have to—

But why? Why is my wolf so desperate? Why did she attack Celeste when I've never raised a claw in violence before?

And then I feel it. Deep in my core, a presence I hadn't noticed until this moment. Small. Fragile. Precious.

Oh gods.

I'm pregnant.

Kelly's protective instinct suddenly makes sense. She sensed the malice, sensed the threat to our pup, and she reacted. She was protecting our baby.

My baby. Declan's baby.

A baby I have to protect at all costs.

I push harder, running until my lungs burn and my muscles scream. The pack borders are close—if I can just make it across, just get out of their territory—

I won't come back. I'll leave this pack, leave this pain, leave everything behind. I'll protect my pup. I'll give them a life far away from here, where no one can hurt them.

I'll never return.