REJECTED BY ONE DESIRED BY THREE

THE GIRL THE MOON CHOSE LYRA POV : The night I met my mate, I was wearing a dress I had borrowed from a dead woman. That should have been my first warning. The black silk was too long for me, forcing me to lift the hem whenever I walked. It smelled faintly of lavender and the cedarwood wardrobe where it had been stored for years. But it was beautiful. And tonight, I needed to feel beautiful. Just once. I stood before the cracked mirror in my tiny bedroom and stared at the woman looking back at me. Twenty-four years old. Dark hair falling down my back. Pale skin. Tired eyes. And beneath my collarbone, mostly hidden by the dress, the crescent-shaped birthmark I'd had since birth. I touched it. Warm. Strangely warm. "Don't do this," I whispered to myself. My reflection looked unconvinced. Tonight was the Moon Choosing Ceremony. Every unmated wolf above the age of twenty-one was required to attend. Tonight, the Moon would supposedly reveal the bonds written into our blood. One mate. One destiny. One person who was supposed to look at you and you know say— Mate. I had dreamed about those words since I was a child. Maybe because I had spent most of my life hearing the opposite. Cursed. Traitor. Half-blood. Your mother was a monster. My father had been executed when I was six. My mother had disappeared before that. No one ever told me the complete story. They only told me enough to make me ashamed of my own name. VEYNE. A name spoken quietly. A name followed by suspicion. I had been raised inside the Draven territory, but I had never truly belonged to it. Tonight, that could change. If the Moon chose me. I closed my eyes. "Please." The word escaped before I could stop it. "Just once, please let something choose me." A knock sounded. I stiffened. "Lyra?" It was Mara, the elderly woman who had secretly helped me prepare for tonight. "Come in." The door opened. Mara stared at me for several seconds. Then her expression softened. "You look like your mother." My heart stopped. I turned. "You knew my mother?" Mara immediately looked away. "I knew enough." "Mara." "Not tonight." She crossed the room and adjusted the sleeve of my dress. "Tonight, you go to the ceremony. You stand beneath the Moon. You keep your head high." "What if nobody chooses me?" Mara's fingers stopped. Then she looked directly into my eyes. "Then you walk away with your head still high." I smiled weakly. "You make it sound easy." "It isn't." Her voice became quieter. "But survival rarely is." Before I could ask what she meant, she stepped away. "Come. We're late." The Moon Hall was overflowing when I arrived. Hundreds of wolves stood beneath towering silver pillars. Crystal chandeliers illuminated the marble floor. At the far end of the hall stood the Alpha's throne. And sitting upon it was Cassian Draven. The Alpha. Twenty-nine years old. Powerful. Untouchable. Beautiful in the cold, devastating way storms were beautiful. Black hair. Broad shoulders. Sharp features. Eyes the color of winter steel. He wore a black ceremonial coat embroidered with silver thread. Everyone in the room feared him. I did too. But fear wasn't the emotion that tightened my chest when I looked at him. It was something else. Something I didn't have a name for. Cassian's gaze moved across the crowd. Then— It stopped on me. For one impossible second, neither of us moved. His expression changed. Barely. His shoulders stiffened. His eyes widened. And my wolf said— "MATE". The world disappeared. The music stopped. The voices vanished. The air left my lungs. A silver translucent thread appeared between us. Invisible. Yet undeniable. I could feel it wrapping around my heart. My wolf rose inside me with a cry so powerful it hurt. Mate. I almost stumbled. Cassian stood. The entire hall went silent. His wolf had felt it too. The Moon above the glass ceiling brightened. Silver light poured through the hall. Someone gasped. Then another. And another. The bond snapped into place. A voice somewhere behind me whispered: "The Alpha's mate." My eyes filled with tears. Cassian stared at me. I smiled. I couldn't help it. For the first time in my life, I wasn't the unwanted girl. I wasn't the traitor's daughter. I wasn't the cursed orphan. I was someone's destiny. I took one step toward him. Then another. Cassian didn't move. His face had become unreadable. I reached the center of the hall. The silver bond pulsed between us. My heart whispered the words I'd spent my entire life waiting to say. MATE. Cassian's jaw tightened. He descended the stairs. Everyone watched. He stopped directly in front of me. Close enough that I could feel his warmth. My wolf whimpered happily. I looked up. "Alpha." His eyes were colder than before. And then he said the words that would destroy my life. "I Alpha Cassian Draven reject you as my mate." Silence. Complete. Absolute. The silver thread between us shattered. And something inside me shattered with it.