ALPHA'S REJECTED MATE

THE moon was at the rising, blood red and pitiless. Shaking with the strain of so many teenage wolves priming their first shift, the ground of the Moonfire clearing shook all around. Voices grew hushed in singing, firelight flickered on archaic stones and old men in mantles of silver stood the guard and glared out like sharp swords. Aria Nightwind stood at the end of a stone circle, her heart thumping heavily. In spite of the fire in front she was covered with cold sweat. Her feet touched the cold ground and made her more connected with the only thing that felt real, the soil. Other teens waited including her waited with their eyes wide open. They clung to friends, on murmurings of divine promise through this night that it would be glorious, holy. Life-changing. Aria stood alone. Her parents were not available to hold her hands. No name worth whispering, Only a warning branded on her back in her childhood, the outcast. Even Aunt Rinna, who has been her guardian and only family brought her up in silence. There Aria had anticipated this night would be different. She could even now feel that unnatural itch under her skin, as if some old primitive electric power waited to break free. Brace yourselves, Elder Hadrien said. Go away and away, With the moon. The blood moon was over the treetops. Silence fell. And then the pain started. Aria sank on her knees. A thousand, hot knives of fire pierced in her bones and she started twisting. Jaws cracked. Skin tore. Wolves vied around her, some were changing swiftly, some struggling in the torture. It was not Aria screaming, though. She was burning. silver light broke out in her back and along her shoulders. As soon as her wolf escaped she was the stillness of the clearing. Everyone looked at her, a wolf not gray, or brown, but silver, Glowing, Ethereal. The Elders became motionless. And after that there was the scent. The intoxicating touch of sweetness. An aroma of body-soul. Fated mates. The pack gasped at Kael Thorne, who was the son of the Alpha, who staggered back with his chest heaving. His gaze fixed wildly and storm-grey on her. His own transformation hs been completed moments before hers just black as black obsidian fur in the moonlight. Their connection was themselves burning in the area between them, noticeable and strong. Then he went up. Every pulse on the clearing waited to know what next. Kael bared his teeth, not out of love,but out of anger. “I reject you.” Silences were rent asunder by his voice. The link that drew them together was broken viciously. The body of Aria trembled. She felt pain as she had never felt before rushing through her chest and skull. Her wolf uttered a choked, miserable howl, as she collapsed to the floor. Laughter, whispers, gasps were shared in the gathering... Did you notice her eyes? Glowing silver.” One person asked. She is definitely cursed like her mother’’. Another said Kael of all wolves! why? The world was going over. Aria found herself forced back into human flesh form against her will under trauma. She was naked, broken and covered in silver ash, she labored to draw a breath, as Kael without further remark turned away. He turned and walked off. The audience scattered and there were murmurs and whispers in hushed tones and the moon was still up there, indifferent. Aria was shivering on the edge of the stone, half out of body with convulsions. a cloth was hurled over her shoulders. She did not look who did it. ~Flashback ~ The year was eight and she was peeking behind the cottage of her aunt keeping big eyes open to watch fireflies. A motherly hand came to her head. Aunt Rinna was sitting by her, and spoke softly. Have you ever thought why the trees love you, Ari? She blinked. “Trees?” When you walk, they sway. When you cry, they hush. This is not normal. You were born under a red moon. Your mother usually say you had the voice of the moon in your own throat.” What was wrong with that, she had asked greatly frightened. No, Rinna said. It is an indicator that you are different. And sometimes… difference is dangerous to people who do not understand it.” Aria opened her eyes and there was a rustling of leaves and muffled bootstepping among moss. Aunt Rinna knelt on the floor by her, and wrapped her in a blanket. We must leave here now! Aria attempted to speak, but could only groan. She still felt pains in her bones. Even her heart, worse. Rinna eyes were reddened as she spoke. “Ari, they smelled the silver. You are going to have visitors soon.” ~~~~ Kael rests along the river with bleeding knuckles. He had struck the oak tree so hard that it got divided. The snarl of his wolf was beating against the walls of his mind, like a storm. It took him a whole lot not to run back to her to declare her as his mate but he could not. He had experienced visions, weeks ago. In one she burned. In another he did. And in the third their bond consumed the entire pack in silver fire. The prophecy, the Lunara, wolf and moon child. A blood curse. He was an Alpha heir. He couldn’t risk her or the pack. Quitting had taken something out of him that he was not sure he would ever manage to regain. ~ Later On That Night~ Aria lay huddled up in a deep cave on the border of the Wildwood. the cold dew had wetted her blanket. She was suffering pain in the chest with each breath. She ought to have been infuriated, or sorrowful. However, what she experienced was only one thing: Power. Beneath the suffering, the disgrace. Something throbbed in her blood, an archaic, spiral, and saying her name.. You are not supposed to be claimed. You are supposed to rise.