Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By The Lycan King

"ELARA BLACK, DO YOU ACCEPT ME, KADE STONE, AS YOUR MATE AND YOUR ALPHA?" The entire Blood Moon pack went silent. Five hundred wolves. Elders, warriors, pups, mothers. All staring at me in the center of the sacred circle. The snow was falling hard, but no one moved. I stood in the middle wearing my mother's old white dress. It was too big now, and torn at the edge. My mother sewed it before she died three years ago. She said, "You will wear this when your mate marks you." My hands were shaking so badly I had to dig my nails into my palms to stop them. Today is my 18th birthday. Two hours ago, I was supposed to get my wolf. I didn't. Kade stood in front of me. Six foot four. Broad shoulders. Black hair. Golden eyes. Alpha of Blood Moon at only 20. My Kade. The boy who held me when my mother died. The boy who promised under the same moon two years ago, "I don't care if you have a wolf or not, Elara. You are mine." He looked at me now like I was a stranger. "Kade?" My voice was a whisper. My breath was coming out in white clouds. "Kade, what..." Behind the crowd, I saw my father. He wouldn't look at me. He was staring at the ground. My stepmother was smiling. "I..." I forced myself to speak louder, because the Luna ceremony required it. "I, Elara Black, accept you, Kade Stone, as my mate and my—" "I, Alpha Kade Stone, REJECT you, Elara Black, as my mate and Luna." The words hit like a slap. For one second, there was no sound. Not even wind. Then the whole pack gasped at once. My knees gave way. I collapsed into the snow. The cold burned my bare feet. "What?" The word fell out of my mouth. "What did you say? Kade, what are you saying?" He did not move to help me. His face was stone. "You have no wolf, Elara," he said, his voice cold enough to freeze the river. "I waited for you. I delayed my Luna ceremony for one whole year after your 18th birthday should have come. Every day I hoped. And every day you remained empty. Wolfless." "I'm not— I can still—" "A Luna must be strong! She must have a wolf to protect the pups, to fight beside her Alpha! What can you do? Cry? You cannot even shift to run!" Laughter. Sharp, cruel laughter from the first row where the young she-wolves stood. They had always hated me because Kade chose me. My stepsister Mira stepped forward. She was wearing MY mother's silver dress. The dress my father swore was lost when we moved. It fit her perfectly. Her blonde hair was done, her yellow wolf eyes were glowing bright. She got her wolf at 16. A strong one. "And I, Mira Black, accept Kade as my mate," she announced, loud and proud, so even the trees could hear. "No!" I screamed. I scrambled up and grabbed Kade's arm. My fingers were bleeding from the cold. "Kade, you promised! You promised my mother on her deathbed you would protect me! You said I was yours! Last week you said—" He yanked his arm away so hard I fell again. "Your mother is dead," he said. "And your father gave you to me as a debt to pay. I don't want damaged goods in my packhouse. My father was right. Wolfless blood is cursed blood." The pack cheered. They cheered as he took Mira's hand and raised it high above his head. "From today, Mira Black is your future Luna! We will have our mating ceremony under the next full moon!" Cheers. Howls. Fireworks of wolf howls. I looked at my father again, begging him with my eyes. _Papa, say something._ He turned his back. Mira walked past me as they led her to the Alpha throne. She stopped and bent down, so only I could hear. "Wolfless b***h," she whispered, her smile so sweet. "Did you really think an Alpha would choose you over me? You were always a place-holder. Now go die in the forest like the stray you are." Something inside my chest, something that had been quiet for 18 years, cracked. I ran. I ran barefoot out of the circle, through the snow, past the shocked elders, out of the packhouse gates. I could hear Kade shouting, "Let her go! Let the forest take her if it wants!" "Elara!" One voice — old Martha, the cook — called, but no one followed. I ran straight into the Forbidden Forest. The forest every pup is warned never to enter. The forest where rogues, Lycans, and things older than wolves live. The forest where wolfless humans never return. The branches scratched my face. My white dress tore on thorns. My feet left red prints in the white snow. I didn't stop until I reached the ruined Moon Temple in the heart of the forest. The place they said the Moon Goddess abandoned a hundred years ago after the Lycan Queen was murdered. I collapsed against the ancient Moonstone altar, the big white stone in the middle. I was bleeding everywhere. From my feet, from my hands. "I HATE YOU!" I screamed at the full moon above, at the Goddess who never answered. "Why? Why did you make me like this? Why did you let my mother die? Why did you make me wolfless? Why did everyone leave me?" I punched the altar with my bleeding fist. Again. Again. Hard. My fresh blood splashed on the white stone and sizzled. The stone cracked. A line of silver light shot out from the crack, straight into the sky. And for the first time in eighteen years, something inside my chest ANSWERED. A ROAR that was not a wolf roar. It was deeper. Older. It was the roar of a queen. It shook snow off every tree for miles. Birds flew screaming from the forest. _FINALLY. Little queen. You bled for me. Now I can wake._ A voice. Inside my head. Not mine. Female. Ancient. So powerful my bones vibrated. My back arched off the altar. Silver light exploded from my chest, from my eyes, from my mouth. My dull brown eyes turned pure, glowing silver, like liquid moonlight. The chain I never knew was there — the chain around my heart — SHATTERED. I screamed, but it wasn't my scream anymore. It was a howl. In the Blood Moon packhouse behind me, five hundred wolves — including Alpha Kade who was kissing Mira — suddenly clutched their chests, fell to their knees, and choked. An aura so heavy, so royal, so old, pressed them into the snow. Mira screamed, bleeding from her nose. Kade's golden eyes went wide with terror. "What... what is that power?" Far away, on a mountain made of bones and black stone, a man who had been sleeping for a hundred years opened his eyes. His eyes were molten gold. His black hair fell to his waist. The entire mountain bowed. He sniffed the wind once, and growled, a sound that made every Lycan in the world kneel. "Mine," he whispered, his voice shaking the mountain. "My Queen has finally awakened. After a hundred years." And he jumped from the mountain, shifting mid-air into a beast bigger than any Alpha. He was coming for me.