Aurora: The Rejected Luna

Chapter 3

_Aurora’s POV_

I stood frozen near the front table. My hands were still shaking as I tried to make sense of what was happening. Selene had not let go of my arm since it started. She held me tightly as if she was afraid I might disappear if she loosened her grip even a little.

“I don’t like this,” she whispered beside me. “Not at all.”

“I don’t understand it either,” I whispered back.

Alpha King Darius Blackwood stood only a few steps away from me. His eyes were still on me as if nothing else in the entire ballroom mattered anymore. It was not a casual glance or a passing look. It was focused and intentional....like the rest of the world had faded until only I remained.

My chest tightened painfully. My breathing refused to settle no matter how hard I tried to calm myself. I had never been this close to someone so powerful before. It was overwhelming in a way I could not explain.

Then my father, the Alpha, suddenly stepped forward.

“Your Majesty,” he said carefully while bowing down in respect. “There must be some misunderstanding. Aurora is… not someone of importance. She is my second daughter.”

My father’s voice came out nervous and uncertain, like even he did not fully believe the words he was forcing himself to say.

Darius did not look at him. His attention stayed locked on me. “Second daughter,” he repeated slowly.

His voice was calm but there was something unreadable in it. There was something darker hidden just beneath the surface that made my stomach tighten. I swallowed hard. I was unsure why my body felt so tense under his gaze.

Before I could process anything, Amelia suddenly stepped forward. “No,” she said quickly. “This is ridiculous. Your Majesty, you are mistaken. Aurora is… weak. She has no wolf. She is not even...”

“Enough.”

The single word cut through the ballroom. It was not loud but it carried such weight that it felt like the entire room shifted with it.

Amelia stopped instantly. Even the elders behind her fell silent. Darius finally turned his head slightly toward her, just enough for her to feel the full force of his attention. His eyes were sharp now.

“You speak too much,” he said calmly.

The entire ballroom went silent. I had never seen Amelia speechless before. Her mouth opened slightly but no words came out. For the first time, she looked unsure. Like she had forgotten how to control the room.

Darius turned his attention back to me. His eyes were no longer cold. The strange pull inside my chest grew stronger, almost like an invisible thread was connecting me to him. It felt as though a part of me that had been asleep for twenty years was finally waking up.

Darius slowly stepped closer. The entire ballroom watched in complete silence. Nobody dared to speak. I could feel every pair of eyes on us but I could not look away from him.

Then he lifted his hand. My body instantly tensed. I did not know what he was going to do until his fingers gently wrapped around my wrist. The moment his skin touched mine, warmth rushed through my entire body.

A sharp gasp escaped my lips. The sensation was overwhelming. And then I heard it. A voice, the one I had spent my entire life waiting for.

It was my wolf.

For twenty years, there had been nothing. No sign that a wolf existed inside me. I had accepted that I was different. I had accepted that maybe I would never experience what every other werewolf felt.

But now...one word echoed through my mind.

Mate.

My eyes widened.

No.

That was impossible.

I stared at Darius, unable to hide my shock. His expression changed at the same moment. His eyes darkened as if he had felt it too.

A wave of whispers moved through the ballroom as everyone sensed the change in the air. The connection between us was undeniable.

Darius continued staring at me and for a moment, he looked less like the feared Alpha King everyone knew and more like a man who had just found something he had been searching for his entire life.

Then, in a voice that carried through the entire room, he spoke.

“She is my mate.”

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. I was the Alpha King’s mate? How was this possible?

The same people who had ignored me my entire life were now staring at me like I was someone important. My mother looked pale. My father had a surprised expression on his face. Amelia looked like the world had collapsed beneath her feet.

“No,” Amelia whispered.

Darius continued looking at me. There was certainty in his eyes. “You are Aurora Nightbane?” he asked.

I nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Something unreadable flashed across his face. Before he could speak again, my father stepped forward.

“Your Majesty,” he said carefully. “There must be some mistake.”

Darius’s expression hardened. “A mistake?”

My father swallowed. “She is my daughter, yes, but…”

He hesitated. Those words alone made my stomach twist.

But.

There was always a but when it came to me.

“She is not what you think.”

The room became colder. Darius’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”

Nobody answered. I looked down. I already knew. They were going to say it. The thing I had spent my entire life trying to ignore.

Amelia stepped forward first. A small smile appeared on her face. “She has no wolf.”

The silence that followed was painful.

Darius looked at her. “What?”

Amelia seemed more confident now. “She never shifted. She is twenty years old and still has no wolf.”

Whispers immediately filled the ballroom. I felt every single one of them.

“Impossible.”

“A werewolf without a wolf?”

“Maybe she really is defective.”

My chest tightened. I had heard those words before. But hearing them in front of him hurt differently. Because his opinion suddenly mattered.

Darius slowly turned back toward me. His expression had changed. The warmth was gone and only confusion remained.

“Is this true?”

I forced myself to look at him. I wanted to lie. For once in my life, I wanted to pretend that I was normal. But I couldn’t.

“Yes.”

My voice was barely a whisper.

“I have never shifted.”

The room waited for his reaction. For one impossible moment, I hoped he would say he didn’t care. I hoped he would say I was still his mate.

But Darius stepped back. His jaw tightened.

“A wolf-less werewolf.”

The way he said it made my heart sink.

I looked away. “Yes.”

His eyes darkened. “How is this possible?”

Nobody answered.

The elders exchanged nervous looks. Then one of them spoke. “Your Majesty, perhaps the bond was mistaken.”

My heart stopped. Darius looked at me again. I searched his face for something.....anything. But what I saw was disappointment. That hurt the most.

“I felt the bond,” he said quietly. “But a mate bond cannot be incomplete.”

My fingers tightened around the fabric of my dress as I lowered my gaze. I could feel Amelia watching me. When I looked up, I saw it clearly. The satisfaction in her eyes. She had always wanted to see me fall and now, she finally had her moment.

Darius slowly stepped away from me. The warmth I had felt only moments ago disappeared, leaving behind a cold emptiness that spread through my chest.

The entire ballroom fell silent. Everyone waited. They wanted to hear what the Alpha King would decide. Then his voice broke through the silence.

“Aurora Nightbane.”

My heart stopped.

I looked at him, searching his expression for something....anything that told me this was not what I thought it was. But his face remained unreadable. And then he spoke the words that shattered everything.

“I reject you as my mate.”

The world seemed to stop. For a moment, I could only hear the sound of my own heartbeat pounding inside my ears. I stared at him, unable to understand the words he had just spoken.

Maybe I had heard him wrong. Maybe my mind was refusing to accept it. But then the pain came.

A sharp and unbearable pain tore through my chest and I knew the truth before anyone had to explain it. The bond was breaking. The connection I had only just discovered. The only thing that had ever made me feel like I belonged somewhere.

It shattered.

A gasp escaped my lips as my hand flew to my chest. My knees nearly gave out beneath me but Selene caught me immediately.

“Aurora!”

Her voice sounded distant like it was coming from far away. I barely heard her. My eyes remained locked on Darius.

The man standing in front of me was the same man who had looked at me only moments ago like I was the answer to something he had been searching for his entire life. The same man who had made me believe, even for a moment, that I was finally important. And now he was the one destroying me.

Darius looked away first. It felt like even looking at me had become something he could no longer bear. “Take her away,” he ordered coldly.

Those three words broke whatever was left inside me. My family stood there watching. Nobody stepped forward or fought for me.

The girl they had spent twenty years being ashamed of had finally been noticed by the most powerful Alpha in the world...

Only to be rejected by him in front of everyone moments later.

And that was when I understood something I had never expected.

Being invisible had hurt.

But being seen...

Being chosen...

Only to be thrown away afterward......hurt so much more.