Alpha Rejected Mate

Chapter 1 The Wolfless Outcast Fiora The plate shattered against the wall inches away from my head. “Pick it up, Fiora.” Aunt Aveline’s voice cut through the kitchen. “Every last piece. And if I find one shard under the table, you’ll scrub the floors until your knees bleed.” I dropped to the floor without a word and started doing what I was told. The glass bit into my palms while warm blood smeared across the tile as I gathered the pieces, careful not to look at her. My cousins, Mara and Tomas watched from the door, the twin smirks identical. They were having fun with my suffering. “Still no wolf?” Mara asked, her voice sweet as poison. “Twenty-three years and nothing. Maybe the Moon Goddess just forgot you exist.” “Or maybe she’s defective,” Tomas added. “Even the weakest pups shift by sixteen. What’s left to shift into when there’s nothing there?” I kept my head down. The pieces of glass trembled in my hands. Aveline stepped closer. The scent of her perfume which was sharp and expensive made my stomach turn. “Answer them.” “I don’t know,” I said quietly. “Louder.” “I don’t know.” Mara laughed. “She doesn’t even sound like a wolf. Just some human maid we keep around to clean.” The front door slammed open. “Enough.” Sage’s voice filled the kitchen like a challenge. She strode in without knocking, her dark eyes sweeping over the broken plate, my bleeding hands, and the three of them standing over me. “You’re going to explain why my best friend is on the floor bleeding, or I’m going to start breaking things that actually belong to you.” Aveline’s mouth tightened. “This is a family matter, Sage. You need to leave.” “She’s my family.” Sage crouched beside me, ignoring the glass, and took my wrist carefully. “You’re coming with me.” “She has chores….” “She can do them later.” Sage’s tone left no room for argument. She pulled me to my feet, already pushing me toward the door. “And if any of you touch her again tonight, I’ll make sure the entire pack hears exactly how the great Zorn family treats the orphan they claimed to take in.” No one followed us out. We didn’t speak until we reached the edge of the trees behind the house. Sage stopped, turned me to face her, and inspected my hands under the weak moonlight. “You’re shaking,” she said. “I’m fine.” “You’re not.” She pulled a clean cloth from her jacket and pressed it to my palm. “They’re getting worse. Every week it’s something new. Broken plates. Extra work. Comments about your wolf or the lack of one.” I stared at the dark smear of blood on the cloth and I shrugged. “It’s nothing new.” “It should be.” Sage’s jaw flexed. “You’re not defective, Fiora. You’re just… different. And being different scares them.” I almost laughed. The sound came out wrong. “Different is a polite word for useless.” “Stop it.” “It’s true.” I pulled my hand back. The cuts stung, but the sting was easier than the look in her eyes. “No one wants a wolf who can’t shift. No Alpha or pack or future. I’m the girl who hears things that aren’t there and dreams about forests that try to swallow her whole. That’s not being different but broken.” Sage was quiet for a long moment. Then she reached into her coat and pulled out a folded piece of parchment sealed with wax. “What’s that?” “It's an invitation.” She held it out. “To the Moon Ceremony. Every unbonded wolf in Ash Veil is expected. Including you.” I stared at the seal. The Bloodclaw crest stared back. It was a black wolf with a crown of thorns. “I’m not going.” “Yes, you are.” “Sage….” “Listen to me.” She stepped closer. “You’ve spent your entire life letting them tell you what you are and bully you. People call you defective and weak. This is one night where the Moon Goddess would have the final say. Not Aveline or the pack or those two spoiled brats who wouldn’t last five minutes without someone else cleaning up after them.” I shook my head. “And if she says nothing? If I stand there in front of everyone in the country and the bond never comes? They’ll never let me forget it.” “Then we leave.” Sage’s voice softened, but the steel underneath stayed. “We pack what little we have and we go to Havenwood. Start over, away from all of this. But you don’t get to decide you’re worthless before the moon even rises. I won’t let you.” The parchment felt heavier than it should have when I finally took it. The wax cracked under my thumb. Inside, a formal script invited Fiora Ivy of the Evermoob Pack to attend the Moon Ceremony at the Moon Shrine. Attendance was not optional and all unbonded wolves who failed to appear would be noted by the Council. At the bottom, almost as an afterthought, someone had written that the ceremony would also celebrate the formal engagement between Alpha Dane Crowhurst of Bloodclaw and Morigana Nightwood of Oathwood. I folded the paper again. “He’s going to be there.” Sage raised an eyebrow. “Who?” “The Alpha everyone keeps talking about. The one who took over Bloodclaw after his father died and has been ruthless. They say even other Alphas lower their eyes when he walks into a room.” “And?” “And I’m the girl without a wolf.” I met her gaze. “What do you think happens when someone like that looks at someone like me?” Sage didn’t answer right away. Instead, she reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear the way she had since we were kids. “I think,” she said quietly, “that the Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. And if she put you in the same room as him, there’s a reason.” The wind shifted through the trees carrying the distant scent of pine and something older. I turned toward the forest without meaning to. Grimwood waited beyond the pack’s borders, looking dark and endless. My skin prickled. The cuts on my hands throbbed in time with my pulse. Sage followed my gaze. “You’re doing it again.” “Doing what?” “Listening to something the rest of us can’t hear.” I opened my mouth to deny it. Then the voice came. It was soft, sounded close, and slid through my mind as it had always belonged there. He is coming. I spun around, searching the trees for a presence but nothing moved. Sage’s hand closed around my arm. “Fiora? What is it?” The voice faded, leaving only the wind and the slow, heavy beat of my own heart. I looked down at the invitation still clutched in my bleeding hand. “Nothing,” I whispered. “It was just the forest wind.”