Alpha's Rejected Queen: Cursed by the Alpha

Chapter 1: The Fated Bond The air crackled with tension, the whispers of the pack carried on the soft breeze like a warning. They were all watching—waiting. My heart pounded in my chest, loud enough that I thought they might hear it. But I kept my chin high, my expression calm. I wouldn’t let them see how terrified I was, how much this moment meant to me. I stood at the center of the clearing, my gaze fixed on Alpha Kael Blackthorn. He was everything a wolf could admire: tall, broad-shouldered, and commanding, his dark hair catching the golden light of the setting sun. His green eyes were piercing, as though they could strip away every defense I’d spent years building. My wolf stirred at the sight of him, yearning for the bond we were fated to share. He should’ve been my safe haven. Instead, he looked at me like I was nothing. “Aria Nightshade.” His voice rang out, steady and unyielding, carrying through the clearing with the authority of an Alpha. It was the kind of voice that could silence a crowd with a single word—and it did. Every whisper ceased, and all I could hear was the erratic beat of my heart. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to meet his gaze. “Yes, Alpha,” I replied, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me. Kael’s expression was unreadable, a mask of stone that revealed nothing. “Today is the day we were meant to honor the bond decreed by the Moon Goddess. The day I should have claimed you as my mate.” For a moment, my heart soared at his words. Was it possible he had changed his mind? That the rejection I’d feared wouldn’t come? But then his jaw tightened, and his eyes hardened. “But I can’t. I won’t.” The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. Around us, gasps rippled through the gathered pack, their shock mirroring my own. “I reject you, Aria,” Kael said, his voice cold and unyielding. “Your bloodline is weak. Your family is cursed, and that curse is a threat to this pack. I cannot—will not—bind myself to you.” I felt the world tilt, my vision blurring as the humiliation sank in. My wolf howled in anguish, the rejection cutting through our bond like a knife. I opened my mouth to speak, to plead, but the words lodged in my throat. “How dare you,” I finally whispered, my voice trembling with a mix of anger and heartbreak. “You think rejecting me will protect this pack? Do you truly believe turning your back on the Moon Goddess will make you stronger?” Kael’s gaze narrowed, his posture stiffening. “This is not about strength, Aria. This is about survival.” Survival. As if my existence was some kind of threat. The pack watched in silence, their expressions a mixture of pity and unease. None of them would challenge him—not their Alpha. Not the one who held their loyalty and their fear. A bitter laugh escaped my lips. “You’re a coward,” I said, my voice low but sharp enough to cut. “You’re afraid of something you don’t understand.” Kael’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. His rejection was final, his decision irreversible. And then it happened. A strange heat surged through me, starting in my chest and spreading outward. My vision blurred for a moment before the ground beneath us began to tremble. The murmurs of the pack turned to shouts of alarm as cracks formed in the earth, glowing faintly with an eerie light. “What is this?” Kael demanded, his voice rising above the chaos. I didn’t know. My hands trembled as the energy inside me grew stronger, wilder. My wolf, who had been mourning only moments before, now growled with defiance. The earth quaked harder, the cracks spreading until the entire clearing seemed on the verge of splitting open. Wolves scrambled back, fear etched into their faces. Kael stood his ground, his emerald eyes fixed on me with something I couldn’t quite place. Was it fear? Or something deeper? The trembling stopped as suddenly as it had begun, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. My legs felt weak, but I forced myself to stand tall, even as I struggled to catch my breath. I could feel their eyes on me—every single one of them. “What did you do?” Kael’s voice was low, but the anger in it was unmistakable. I looked down at my hands, half-expecting them to glow or burn, but they looked ordinary. My voice was barely above a whisper when I said, “I didn’t do anything. This…this isn’t me.” Kael took a step closer, his gaze searching mine. “The curse,” he said, more to himself than to me. I wanted to scream, to deny it, but deep down, I knew he was right. This was the curse my family had carried for generations, the one I had spent my life trying to avoid. And now, it was awake. As Kael’s rejection hung in the air, heavier than the silence that surrounded us, I felt something crack—not just in the earth but within the pack itself. The bond that held us together was fraying, unraveling piece by piece. I turned away, forcing my legs to move despite the weight that dragged at every step. The clearing blurred as tears stung my eyes, but I wouldn’t cry. Not here. Not in front of them. But as I walked away, I felt it—the curse pressing down on me, heavy and suffocating. This wasn’t just a curse. It was a ticking time bomb, and I was the match that had just been lit. Behind me, the pack’s whispers resumed, growing louder with every step I took. They were already questioning, already doubting. Kael might have rejected me, but his choice had started something he couldn’t control. And I would be the one to decide how it ended. The forest swallowed me whole as I left the clearing, its towering trees shielding me from the judgmental stares and whispers of the pack. The cool air stung my cheeks, but I didn’t stop moving. My hands were trembling, my mind racing, and my wolf was howling with a mix of sorrow and rage. Kael’s words echoed in my mind, each one like a dagger stabbing deeper into my heart. Weak. Cursed. A threat. How could he throw away our bond so easily? How could he reject the will of the Moon Goddess? I clenched my fists, the anger bubbling just beneath the surface. “He doesn’t deserve me,” I muttered, though the words sounded hollow even to me. He was my mate—fated by the Goddess herself. A bond like ours wasn’t supposed to be broken. But now it was shattered, leaving jagged pieces I wasn’t sure I could ever put back together. The further I walked, the heavier the weight of the curse became. It was as though the forest itself could feel it, the trees bowing slightly under its unseen force. My wolf stirred uneasily, pacing within me. We’re not weak, she growled, her voice a steady hum in the back of my mind. “No,” I whispered, “we’re not.” But that didn’t matter now. The pack had seen the cracks in the ground, the raw power that had burst from me like a storm unleashed. They didn’t understand it, and what wolves didn’t understand, they feared.