The Rival’s Fake Mate

Chapter 2 Silver

Keal stared at me, shock flashing across his face, along with something I couldn't quiet place; and for one impossible moment, hope rose inside me.

Then I watched horror replace it.

Not uncertainty.

Not confusion.

Horror!

My stomach dropped.

Alpha Rowan smiled broadly. "It appears the Goddess has spoken."

The crowd erupted into excited murmurs. But I knew what was coming. That wasn't the face of a man excited to meet his mate.

Keal stepped forward while I held my breath, shivers running down my spine.

My wolf whimpered, reaching for him instinctively.

He stopped several feet away, his expression hardening with every second.

"You?" he said flatly.

The hall fell silent again.

I swallowed. "Keal…"

His lip curled.

"This has to be some kind of joke, right?”

The words struck like a slap.

Whispers exploded around us.

"Keal," Alpha Rowan warned quietly.

But Keal wasn't looking at his father. His gaze stayed locked on me with growing disgust.

"The Moon Goddess expects me to accept a defective, late blooming Omega that is formless and unable to shift?"

A shocked murmur swept through the crowd.

Heat flooded my face.

“Please stop”

"Keal, enough," his mother hissed.

He ignored her

"Do you know what this would do to my future? To this pack?" His voice rose, sharp and furious.

"I'm supposed to lead, and I'm being tied to her?"

Each word drove deeper than the last.

I stood frozen in the center of the hall while dozens of wolves watched my humiliation unfold in real time.

My father looked like he wanted to disappear.

Keal took another step back from me as if physical proximity itself offended him.

"I Keal Ashford, reject you Silver Hayes, as my mate. You are unfit to be my mate, and the future Luna of this pack."

The room erupted.

My wolf screamed inside me.

Pain tearing through my chest, raw and blinding. I sucked in a sharp breath, fingers curling against my dress as the rejection hit like claws raking through my ribs.

Tears burned my eyes.

“I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry!”

I could still hear keal's words over the growing murmur, I could see my father stepping back into the crowd, his face covered in disgust, whispers growing with every breath.

“To be rejected even after blooming so late? She has to be cursed by the moon” someone whispered from behind me, a soft sneaker floating from another. I was the joke tonight and everyone knew it.

I dropped my gaze to the polished wooden floor, fighting for breath while the bond continued to burn through my chest.

This was it.

This was the fate worse than death I had joked about earlier.

Public rejection.

Public shame.

Fuck! I wish Alpha Logan had ripped me limb from limb earlier. It would have hurt less than this.

The crowd kept talking over itself.

"A rejected mate…"

"At the ceremony…"

"How humiliating…"

I couldn't move.

I couldn't think.

Keal opened his mouth to say something else but a deep voice cut across the hall like a blade.

"That's enough."

My head jerked up as the entire room went silent.

Logan Thorn stood in the doorway. His aura shifting the light in the room. For some impossible reason, he looked too calm amid the chaos, his silver eyes sweeping over the crowd before settling on me.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

Keal stiffened. "This is pack business, Alpha Thorn. Stay out of it."

Logan's gaze shifted to me and for the first time since the rejection began, someone looked at me without pity or disgust.

He took one deliberate step forward.

Then another.

The crowd parted instinctively before him.

My heart pounded as he stopped beside me, close enough for me to catch that same scent of cedar and smoke from the garden.

Keal frowned. "What are you doing?"

Logan didn't look at him.

His eyes remained on me as he spoke.

"She's my mate now.”