THE ALPHA'S REJECTED LUNA

First shift

Chapter 4: First Shift

One week later. Crimson Fang Pack.

Aria stood in front of the mirror and did not recognize the girl looking back at her.

Her cheeks were no longer sunken. Her black hair was clean and fell to her waist in soft waves. Luna Mara had healed her frostbite, and given her a real Luna dress — deep red, simple, but beautiful. She looked... like a Luna.

But inside, she was still shaking.

"Today you shift," Luna Mara said, tying Aria's hair back gently. "All White Wolves shift late. Eighteen is late for normal wolves, but for you, it is perfect. Jaxon and the elders are waiting in the clearing. Are you ready?"

Aria nodded, but her hands were cold. "What if I can't? What if I am still wolfless? What if Lyra leaves me too?"

Lyra growled softly in her head. *I am never leaving, little Queen. You are ready. Your heartbreak made you strong. Now let me show them what a rejected omega really is.*

The clearing was full. The entire Crimson Fang pack had gathered — warriors, omegas, children, elders. In the center stood Alpha Jaxon, shirtless, his own wolf ready to guide her.

He smiled when he saw her. "You don't have to be afraid. I'll be right here. No one will touch you."

Aria stepped into the circle. The wind was cold. The full moon was high.

"Close your eyes," Jaxon instructed softly. "Don't fight the pain. Let it come."

Aria closed her eyes. At first, nothing.

Then fire.

A burning pain tore through her bones, her spine cracking, her skin ripping — but it was not like the rejection pain. This pain was power. She screamed, but her scream turned into a howl.

Her body shifted, twisted, grew.

When she opened her eyes, she was no longer on two legs.

Gasps echoed through the whole clearing.

Where a normal wolf should be — brown, black, grey — stood a wolf completely white. Pure snow white, with silver markings on her forehead that glowed like a crown. She was bigger than most male Alphas, her eyes pure, molten gold. An aura of ancient power rolled off her in waves, making every wolf in the clearing drop to their knees without meaning to, even the elders.

A White Wolf. The Queen Wolf. Extinct for twenty years. Now alive.

Jaxon did not kneel. He stared, his breath caught in his throat. His own dark brown wolf, Titan, howled inside him with pure awe and something else — possession.

*Mate.*

The word hit Jaxon like a truck. His wolf had never spoken that word since his first mate died five years ago. But now Titan was screaming it.

*White Wolf mate. Ours. Protect her.*

Jaxon clenched his fists. No. He would not do what Kael did. He would not claim her when she was still broken from rejection. He would wait.

The white wolf — Aria — looked at her paws, shocked. She tried to walk and stumbled. Lyra laughed inside her head.

*We are magnificent, aren't we?*

Aria howled — a long, powerful Queen's howl that traveled for miles and miles, across forests, across rivers, across territories.

Far away, in Black Moon territory, Alpha Kael was in a meeting when the howl hit him. He doubled over, his heart almost stopping. Every wolf in his pack house fell to the floor, whimpering under the power of that howl.

Kael's eyes turned gold. His wolf was in control.

*White Wolf. Our mate. Our Queen. She shifted. She is alive.*

Kael smashed his desk into pieces.

"That was her," he whispered, his voice shaking with obsession. "That was my Aria. Find where that howl came from. NOW!"

His Beta stared, terrified. He had never seen his Alpha lose control like this.

Back in Crimson Fang, Aria shifted back. She was naked, panting, covered in sweat, but Jaxon was already there wrapping his coat around her before anyone else could look.

"You did it," he whispered, his green eyes dark with pride and something deeper. "You are incredible."

Aria looked up at him, her gold eyes still glowing. "Did you hear that howl? Was that me?"

"Every pack in the North heard it, little wolf," Jaxon said quietly. "Including the one you left."

Aria's smile faded. Kael. He would have heard it. He would know she was not dead. He would come.

Lyra's voice was fierce. *Let him come. Next time he sees us, we will not be the girl who begged. We will be the Queen who makes him kneel.*

Aria held Jaxon's coat tighter.

She had survived rejection. She had found her wolf. But her war was just beginning.