Return Of The Rejected Mate

Chapter2

Kayla's POV

"I reject you….."

"No... please, Damon. Don't do this to me. You can't….." My voice broke down in tears, my lips trembling as I remained on my knees.

"I, Damon Blackwood, reject you, Kayla Morgan, daughter of the Beta, as my mate and sever every tie that binds us together."

“Ahhhh!!!!” I let out a loud scream as I fell to the ground, clutching my chest as a burning sensation overwhelmed me.

The pain was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Fire spread through my veins, burning me from the inside out.

My wolf howled in agony, thrashing against the severing of our bond. I have heard stories about mate rejections before and how the pain could be so severe that wolves with weak connections to their spirit animals went feral, lost to madness.

I had never imagined I would experience it myself.

Tears streamed down my face as I gasped for air. How had my life collapsed so completely in just a few hours? This morning I'd woken up expecting to marry the love of my life. Now I was lying on a hotel room floor, my bond being ripped away, my future destroyed.

Damon walked towards me and through my blurred vision, I could see his face.

His hand stretched out and grabbed my throat, forcing my head up. He made me look into his eyes, those hazel eyes I had once loved, now dark and cold with not a single emotion in them. His aura pressed down on me, suffocating, making it even harder to breathe.

"Accept the rejection!" he growled. This time, he used his Alpha voice.

The command pierced through me with unbearable pain. Cutting and soaking through my heart.

Never, not once in all the time we had been together had Damon used his Alpha authority on me. The pain of the rejection doubled, tripled. My body tried to resist, but his authority left no room for disobedience.

"I..." I choked out the words, struggling against his grip on my throat. "I, Kayla Morgan, accept your rejection and sever every tie that binds us together."

The moment the words left my lips, the bond snapped completely.

I screamed again as the final connection between us shattered. Damon released my throat and I stumbled to the ground, tears streamed down my face as I panted, trying desperately to draw breath into my burning lungs. But I was choking on my breath and my world crumbling at my feet.

My hand instinctively moved to my stomach, to the tiny life growing there. Our child. A child he didn't even know existed.

"According to pack law” Damon suddenly began speaking again, drawing everyone attention to him. “she should be executed as punishment for her crime of infidelity." He paused, and everyone in the room had their gaze at me. "However, out of respect for her family and their years of service to this pack, I will show mercy."

He stepped closer, his shadow falling over me.

"Kayla Morgan, you are hereby banished from the Bloodstone Pack, effective immediately. Should you ever return to our territory, the sentence will be death!"

With a dark expression on his face, He spoke with finality in his voice. Before I could find the strength to beg and explain, he turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

The council members followed in silence. My father looked at me once and the disappointment in his eyes made me wish I had died instead. Then he too walked away without a word.

My stepmother Victoria left with a satisfied smirk on her face.

As Elena moved toward the door, I summoned every ounce of strength left in my body and crawled toward her, grabbing the hem of her pants.

"Elena, please…." My voice was hoarse from screaming. "You know me. You know I would never do this. Please, talk to him. Just give me time to investigate what really happened."

She looked down at me, and I froze.

The warmth I had always known in my sister's eyes was gone, replaced with coldness in her eyes, one that I have never seen before.

“You committed an abomination and shouldn't even be alive right now. Be grateful he let you live and leave now”

With those words from her, she pulled her leg free from my grasp and walked out without saying a single word.

I was now alone in the room. The stranger who had been in bed with me had vanished at some point during the chaos, probably slipped out while everyone was focused on my rejection.

I lay on the floor for what felt like hours, my body etched with pain both physical and emotional. Eventually, I forced myself to stand. But I managed to walk to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face.

The reflection staring back at me was almost unrecognizable. Red, swollen eyes with Bruises forming on my throat where Damon had gripped me. My wedding dress, the one I left hanging in my closet last night, would never be worn.

I was now a rogue, Packless and carrying an Alpha's child with nowhere to go and no way to survive.

I gathered what little dignity I had left and walked out of the hotel. No one stopped me. No one looked at me. I was already a ghost to the pack where I grew and was once regarded as royalty.

I kept walking through the woods, I had left the hotel wearing only the clothes I had woken up in, jeans and a t-shirt that smelled like a stranger.

I was so lost in my grief that I didn't notice the figures emerging from the trees until it was too late.

Two large men stepped onto the path ahead of me. I froze, my heart racing. Then another figure appeared between them.

It was Elena.

For one brief, foolish moment, hope flickered in my chest. Maybe she'd come to bring me home. Maybe they had realized I was telling the truth and sent her to come get me.

But the cold expression on her face and the men flanking her told a different story.

"Elena?" I called out softly, forcing a smile on my face "What are you doing here?"

She smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "I came to see you off. Consider it a parting gift."

"I was wondering," she continued, her tone almost conversational, "were you planning to tell Damon about the pregnancy? Or were you still saving that as your wedding surprise?"

The mockery in her voice made my blood run cold.

I opened my mouth to respond, but movement in my peripheral vision made me turn. Another man emerged from the trees behind Elena.

My heart stopped.

It was him. The stranger from the hotel room. The man I had supposedly cheated with.

He stood next to my sister with a smirk on his face, completely at ease.

Understanding swept over me like a bucket of ice water as I stood still with reality.

"It was you" I whispered, staring at Elena. "All of this... you planned everything. You ruined my wedding. You destroyed my life."

Even as I said the words, they felt surreal. This was my sister, my best friend, the person I had trusted with my deepest secret just hours ago.

Elena shrugged, unbothered by my accusation. "What did you expect, Kayla?"

"What do you mean?" My hands clenched into fists at my sides.

"Oh, please." She waved her hand dismissively. "Stop acting so naive and innocent when we both know better. You knew how I felt about Damon. For years, I tried to get close to him. Years, Kayla. And you knew it."

"He was my mate!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the trees. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Reject him!" Elena's composure quivered, revealing the bitterness beneath. "I rejected my mate for Damon. I gave up my true bond because I loved him. That's what you should have done."

I stared at her, seeing her clearly for the first time. The pain hidden behind her eyes, the resentment she'd carried while we laughed together, planned my wedding together, talked about my future children together.

"You rejected your mate?" I whispered. "Elena, why didn't you tell me? I could have……"

"You could have what? Stepped aside?" She laughed bitterly. "You've always taken everything I wanted, Kayla. The better grades, Father's approval, the prettier face, the perfect life. I couldn't let you have Damon too."

"So you framed me." The reality of it settled over me like a shroud. "You drugged me, set me up with this man, called everyone to witness it."

"It was surprisingly easy," Elena admitted, almost proudly. "You trusted me so completely. You drank the tea I made you without a second thought."

The tea. Of course. That explained the fogginess, the confusion, the blank spaces in my memory.

My hand moved protectively to my stomach. "Fine. You won. Damon rejected me. I'm banished. You can have him. Just... just let me go. I swear I'll never come back."

Elena's expression shifted, becoming something darker. "I wish I could believe that, sister. I really do. But there's one problem."

She nodded toward my hand resting on my stomach.

"That child," she said coldly. "I can't let it live. What if you use it to crawl your way back to Damon? What if you tell him the truth and he believes you? No, I need to be certain that you never return."

Terror seized my heart. "No. Elena, please……."

"I'm sorry, Kayla. You're still my sister, and this truly is nothing personal." Her voice was almost gentle, which made it worse. "But I need to be absolutely certain that Damon remains mine."

She turned to the three men and gave them a slight nod.

They moved toward me.

"No!" I tried to run, but my body was still weak from the rejection. I couldn't shift, not while carrying the baby. Even if I could, I have never been a strong fighter.

The first man caught me from behind, his arms wrapping around my chest. I struggled, kicking and screaming, but he was far stronger.

"Please! Elena, don't do this! I'm your sister!"

She watched with cold, detached eyes as the second man's fist slammed forcefully on my stomach.

The pain was so intense and devastating. I stumbled over, gasping, but they didn't stop. Their fists and feet came from all directions. They hit me in the ribs, the face, the back. One of them kicked my legs out from under me and I fell to the ground.

"The baby," I sobbed, curling around my stomach, trying to protect the tiny life inside me. "Please, not my baby..."

They kept hitting me. Blood filled my mouth, my ribs cracked, my face swollen, and warm wetness spreading between my legs. It was obviously blood!

No. No, please, not my baby.

Through the haze of pain, I saw Elena turn and walk away, her silhouette disappearing into the trees. She didn't even stay to watch what she had ordered.

The beating continued until I couldn't feel anything anymore. My vision started to fade, darkness creeping in from the edges. My last thought before unconsciousness claimed me was of the child I'd never get to hold.

I'm sorry, little one. I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I hated myself for trusting everyone around me.

I badly wished there was a way I could get revenge, this pain, this anger, Elena wasn't permitted to be happy with Damon, she deserved to feel even just half of what I felt.

But all of that was my wishful thinking, the pain slowly began to fade, my body became numb

Everything went blank.