THE LOST ALPHA QUEEN.

Some rejections break your heart. Others awaken the monster the world was built to fear. The night my mate rejected me, the moon turned red. I remember because I was looking at it when he broke my heart. One moment, I was standing beneath the silver banners of the Blackthorn Pack, surrounded by hundreds of wolves celebrating the annual Moonlight Ceremony. The next, I was wishing the earth would open beneath my feet and swallow me whole. Because Alpha Kael Blackthorn—the man whose voice could command an entire pack into silence, the man I had secretly loved for three years—was staring at me as though I were something disgusting beneath his shoe. “You cannot be serious.” His voice carried across the ceremonial grounds. Every conversation stopped. I swallowed, my fingers tightening around the tiny silver pendant at my throat. “I didn't choose this, Kael.” “No?” His dark eyes swept over me, cold and merciless. “Then explain why the Moon Goddess has decided to punish me with you.” A few people gasped. Others laughed. I felt every sound like a blade slipping between my ribs. Three years. For three years, I had watched him from a distance. I had memorized the way his mouth curved when he was amused, the way his eyes hardened when someone threatened his people, and the way he carried the weight of his pack as though he had been born to shoulder the world. I had loved him quietly. Carefully. Like a secret I could never afford to reveal. And now the Moon Goddess had marked him as my mate. The one miracle I had never dared to ask for had become my greatest humiliation. “Kael,” I whispered, stepping closer. “Please. We can talk about this privately.” He took one step backward. That hurt more than anything he had said. “Don't come any closer.” I stopped. Around us, the pack members formed a widening circle. Their eyes moved between us, hungry for drama. Even the elders, who had spent the evening blessing couples and celebrating the Goddess's gifts, stood watching without intervening. My palms grew damp. “I'm your mate,” I said, my voice trembling despite my efforts to steady it. “You can feel it. Can't you?” His jaw tightened. For one brief moment, something flickered in his expression. Recognition. Pain, perhaps. Then it disappeared. “Yes,” he answered. “I can feel it.” Hope rose in my chest. It was foolish. Cruel, even. But hope had always been my most stubborn weakness. Kael looked directly into my eyes. “And I reject it.” The world stopped. Three words. That was all it took to destroy the future I had secretly built in my mind. The mate bond snapped through me like a live wire. I gasped, clutching my chest as pain ripped through my body. My knees buckled, and I caught myself against the cold stone beneath us. Someone laughed. Someone else whispered, “Of course. The wolfless girl.” Wolfless. The word followed me everywhere. At eighteen, every wolf in Blackthorn Pack had undergone their first transformation. Even the youngest pups could feel their wolves stirring inside them. I was twenty-one. And there was nothing inside me. No wolf. No claws. No supernatural strength. Just a girl with dark hair, ordinary human eyes, and a bloodline nobody wanted to talk about. My mother had died when I was seven. My father had disappeared three months later. The only thing they had left me was a silver pendant and a warning from my dying grandmother. Never let them see your blood beneath a red moon. For fourteen years, I had obeyed without understanding. Tonight, I was beginning to wonder whether she had known exactly what was coming. “Look at her,” a woman whispered. “She actually thought an Alpha would keep a wolfless mate.” A ripple of laughter moved through the crowd. I forced myself to stand. If I was going to break, I would do it somewhere nobody could watch. “Is that all?” I asked Kael. He frowned. “What?” “Is that all you have to say to me?” For the first time that evening, I saw uncertainty cross his face. Perhaps he had expected me to cry. Perhaps he had expected me to beg. I wanted to do both. Instead, I lifted my chin. “If rejecting me is what you want, then I won't beg you to stay.” His eyes narrowed. “Good. Because I would never take a wolfless girl as my Luna.” The words struck harder than the rejection itself. I stared at him, searching for the man I had loved. I couldn't find him. “Then I hope,” I whispered, “that whatever you choose instead of me gives you everything you think you're worth.” I turned away before he could answer. And that was when the first scream rang out. The blood moon had risen completely. Its crimson light spilled across the ceremonial grounds, staining the white marble and silver decorations the color of fresh wounds. At first, I thought the scream had come from one of the children. Then the wolves began to howl. Not the ordinary howl of a pack celebrating the full moon. This was different. Terrified. One by one, the wolves around the grounds lowered their heads. Some fell to their knees. Others stumbled backward, clutching their chests as though something invisible had seized their hearts. The music died. The elders stared at the sky. “What is happening?” someone shouted. I didn't know. I only knew that my pendant had become unbearably hot. I grabbed it through my dress, hissing as the metal burned my fingertips. Then I heard a voice. Not around me. Inside me. Finally. I froze. The voice was female, deep and ancient, carrying a sorrow so immense that it made my own heartbreak feel insignificant. You took your time, little queen. My breath caught. Little queen? Before I could make sense of the words, a wave of heat exploded through my body. I screamed. My knees struck the marble. Something moved beneath my skin, fierce and enormous, stretching against the boundaries of my body as though it had been imprisoned for centuries. I couldn't breathe. My bones ached. My vision blurred. “Get her away from the ceremony!” one of the elders shouted. Two guards rushed toward me. They never reached me. The moment their hands touched my arms, an invisible force threw them backward. They crashed into the stone pillars several feet away. Silence fell. Absolute silence. Even the wind seemed afraid to move. I stared at my hands. Golden light shimmered beneath my skin. “No,” Elder Marcus whispered. His face had gone pale. “No. It cannot be.” Alpha Kael stepped forward, all traces of disgust replaced by something I had never seen in him before. Fear. “What's happening to her?” he demanded. Nobody answered. The pendant at my throat split down the middle. A strange symbol appeared on my chest, glowing through the fabric of my dress: a golden crown surrounded by three crescent moons. The elders fell to their knees. All of them. Even Elder Marcus, who had once ordered me whipped for entering the council chamber without permission. His forehead struck the marble. “Your Majesty,” he breathed. I stared at him. “What?” He didn't look up. “Forgive us.” A low growl rolled across the grounds. It came from somewhere beyond the ceremonial gates. Every wolf turned toward the sound. Something enormous moved through the darkness. Then a black wolf emerged from the forest. It was larger than any wolf I had ever seen, its fur darker than the night surrounding it. Golden eyes burned beneath its heavy brow. Old scars crossed its muzzle, and a silver mark shaped like a crown rested between its ears. The wolf walked straight toward me. Nobody dared to move. It stopped a few feet away and lowered its massive head. Not in submission. In recognition. My heart hammered against my ribs. I should have been terrified. Instead, an inexplicable ache filled my chest, as though I had spent my entire life searching for something I had forgotten. The wolf raised its head. Its golden eyes met mine. And I heard the voice again. My queen. Tears blurred my vision. “Who are you?” I whispered. The wolf opened its mouth. But the voice that answered did not come from its throat. It came from deep within my soul. I am the wolf they buried before you were born. My entire body went cold. I am the power they stole from your bloodline. The wolf stepped closer. And I am the reason they will all kneel. A deafening c***k split the sky. The blood moon pulsed overhead. Then the wolf's golden eyes blazed brighter, and a wave of power swept across the ceremonial grounds. Every single wolf dropped to the ground. Every single one. Including Alpha Kael Blackthorn. He hit his knees so hard that the marble cracked beneath him. His mouth fell open. “No,” he whispered. For the first time in my life, the most powerful man in Blackthorn Pack looked small. The black wolf turned its gaze toward him. A vicious growl rumbled from its chest. Kael bowed his head. And then, to my horror, I heard him speak the words every Alpha in the kingdom was taught to fear. “The blood of the First Queen…” He looked at me. His face was drained of color. “She's alive.” I couldn't understand. First Queen? Alive? What did any of this have to do with me? The wolf pressed its forehead against mine. A thousand unfamiliar images flooded my mind: a burning palace, wolves kneeling beneath a golden throne, a woman with my eyes standing before an army, and a crown shattered into pieces beneath a blood-red sky. Then came a final image. A man standing over a pool of blood. His face was hidden. But the voice that accompanied the vision was unmistakable. When the lost queen awakens, kill her before she remembers. I stumbled backward with a strangled cry. The wolf snarled. And somewhere beyond the forest, something answered. Another howl. Then another. Hundreds of wolves. Coming closer. The elders began to tremble. Alpha Kael slowly raised his head, staring at me as though I had transformed into something beyond his understanding. “Seraphina,” he whispered. I looked at him. For three years, I had dreamed of hearing my name spoken with tenderness by that man. Now, he said it as though it were a prayer. “Please,” he said, reaching toward me. “You have to listen to me.” I stepped away. “Why?” My voice sounded strange, deeper than before. “You made it very clear what I am to you.” His eyes glistened. “I didn't know.” “You knew enough to humiliate me.” He flinched. Good. For once, I wanted him to feel something. Anything close to what he had made me feel. The black wolf moved beside me, its shoulder brushing my hand. A strange warmth spread through my fingers. For the first time in twenty-one years, I no longer felt empty. I felt powerful. And beneath that power was something far more frightening. Anger. I looked at the kneeling pack members, at the elders who had despised me, and finally at the Alpha who had rejected me before an entire kingdom. “Stand up,” I ordered. Nobody moved. The wolf growled. Every head dropped lower. I swallowed, shaken by the authority in my own voice. “I said, stand up!” The ground trembled. The elders rose slowly, their faces filled with terror. Alpha Kael remained on his knees. And then the wolf spoke one final sentence inside my mind. Choose carefully, Seraphina. The man who rejected you is not the man who fears you most. My blood ran cold. Because the wolf was staring beyond Kael. Toward the royal forest. Toward the darkness where hundreds of wolves were gathering. And among them, I felt something watching me. Something familiar. Something that hated me. The blood moon shone brighter. The wolf's golden eyes narrowed. Your enemies have found you, little queen. And one of them is already inside your pack. End of Chapter One.