The Rogue King's Sun

The Public Shame

Chapter 1: The Public Shame

The scent of pine and expensive cologne should have been a dream. Instead, it was my death sentence.

I stood on the ritual stone, my knees trembling beneath my simple white dress. The entire Crescent Moon Pack was gathered in the clearing, their eyes burning into me. Tonight was the Blood Moon Ceremony—the night every eighteen-year-old found their fated mate.

I felt the pull in my chest first, a golden thread snapping into place, connecting my soul to the man standing five feet away.

Jace.

My childhood best friend. My secret crush. The future Alpha of our pack.

A small, hopeful smile tugged at my lips. "Jace," I whispered, the bond singing through my veins. "It’s you. We’re mates."

The crowd gasped. A few people cheered, but the silence that followed from the Alpha’s platform was deafening. Jace didn’t move. He didn’t smile. He looked at me with a coldness that froze the blood in my heart.

"No," Jace said. His voice was amplified by his Alpha aura, vibrating through the forest.

I blinked, my heart stuttering. "Jace? What are you doing?"

He stepped forward, his eyes flashing a predatory gold, but there was no love in them. Only disgust. He looked at my thin wrists, then at my eyes—eyes that had never flashed the color of a wolf. At eighteen, I still hadn't shifted. I was a "Late Bloomer," a polite term for a freak.

"I, Jace Wayland, future Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack," he bellowed, "reject you, Elara Vance, as my mate and future Luna."

The bond in my chest didn't just break; it shattered like glass. I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach as a raw, physical agony ripped through me. It felt like being burned alive from the inside out.

"Jace, please!" I gasped, tears blurring my vision. "We grew up together. You know I’m just... I’m just late. My wolf is coming!"

"A Luna must be strong, Elara," he sneered, leaning down so only I could hear his venomous whisper. "Look at you. You’re wolf-less. A burden. I need a Queen, not a liability. My pack deserves a female who can shift, not a broken human playing dress-up."

He turned his back on me, walking toward Sierra—the pack’s lead warrior. She smirked, her eyes glowing with triumph as she wrapped her arm around his.

"Get her off the sacred stone," Jace commanded the guards without looking back. "She’s polluting the ceremony."

The whispers started then.

"Pathetic."

"I knew she was a dud."

"The Moon Goddess must be punishing us."

As the guards grabbed my arms to drag me away, I looked up at the Blood Moon. My heart was dead, but deep inside my soul, something that had been sleeping for eighteen years finally began to growl.

It wasn't a wolf. It was something much, much bigger.