The Rejected Omega is the Moon Goddess's Heir

Chapter 4

Nash’s pov

Wylie and I had been running the border for three nights straight, chasing off rogue wolves who kept testing the line between Red moon and Twilight territory.

My legs ached, my knuckles were split from the last skirmish, and I hadn't slept more than a couple hours since we'd started this patrol. I'd sent Wylie west along the ridge and cut south through Twilight land alone, figuring I'd circle back before sunrise. That was the plan, right up until I heard a woman's scream cut through the trees.

I didn't think. I ran.

Four wolves had a girl pinned near the stream, her dress torn at the collar, her arms bleeding where she'd fought them off as long as she could. I didn't stop to ask questions. I put the first one through a tree and tore into the other three until they scattered into the dark like the cowards they were.

I couldn't see her face clearly in the dark, but the second I got close, I caught her scent, lemongrass and cloves, sharp and warm at once, and it knocked a knot loose in my chest, overwhelming me at the same time.

All I could focus on was the scent rolling off her skin and the heat building low in my gut.

When I leaned in and kissed her, the world went sideways.

I felt it the second our mouths met, a pull deep in my chest that locked onto her like it had been waiting years for the chance. Mate.

The word slammed through me harder than any blow I'd taken all week, harder than anything I'd felt in my years of waiting for a bond I'd stopped believing would ever show up. I expected her to pull back, to slap me, to run. She kissed me back instead, her hands fisting in my shirt like she needed me as much as I needed her.

Her skin was warm against mine in the cold night air, and nothing in my life had ever felt like that before, like every nerve I owned had been rewired just for this. We gave in to our primal urges. I pressed my mouth to the curve of her neck and held there, my teeth aching with the need to mark her, to make this permanent before either of us could think better of it.

I hesitated. She was a stranger and I didn't even know her name.

"Mark me," she said against my ear, breathless. "Please, mark me.”

I didn't hesitate again. I sank my teeth into her skin and felt the bond settle in deeply and I smiled knowing it was a tie I'd carry for the rest of my life.

"Now you're mine," I said against her throat, and she shuddered under me like she believed it too.

Chloe’s pov

I woke before dawn with his arm heavy across my waist and the sky still black through the trees overhead. I traced the line of his jaw with my fingertip, memorizing it, and touched the wolf fang necklace resting against his throat, the leather worn soft from years of wear.

"I'll remember tonight," I whispered. "Thank you, my mate. I'll come back for you."

I eased out from under his arm and pulled my torn dress back into place, my whole body humming with the memory of him, my fingers drifting to the mark on my neck like I needed to keep confirming it was real. I ran the whole way home with that confirmation buzzing under my skin, faster than I'd run in years, because for the first time in my life, good had finally happened to me instead of around me.

I burst into Cody's study without knocking, my chest heaving, and found Edith already there, perched on the arm of his chair like she owned it.

"I found my mate." The words tumbled out of me before I'd even caught my breath. "He marked me and that means, I'm not going to the Red Moon pack."

Edith's mouth curled into an ugly little smile. "Marked you? Let's see it, then."

I pulled my collar aside, triumphant, ready to watch her face fall the way mine had wanted to for two years.

There was nothing there.

My fingers flew to my neck, searching for the raised skin, the bite, anything, but I found only smooth, unmarked flesh where the man’s teeth had been an hour ago. My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

No, no, no! It was right there on my neck. My heart started beating twice as fast. My head snapped up to meet a smug Edith who was grinning with her full teeth:

"That's it?" She let out a sound of delight. "You ran off, let some rogue paw at you in the dirt, and you don't even have a mark to show for it? You are such a pathetic slut.”

"It was there." My voice cracked. "I felt it. He said the words."

"Mate marks don't just disappear, Chloe." Cody's voice cut through the room, his eyes narrowed like he was already deciding how to punish me for wasting his time. "Either you're lying, or you imagined the whole thing out there in those woods."

"I'm not lying." I pressed my palm against the smooth, unsightly patch of skin, panic rising in my throat. "It was there. Somebody did this to it."

He rose from his chair, and I braced for another slap, but he only stared at me with a contempt that hurt worse than his hand ever had. Behind him, Edith didn't bother hiding her smile, like she'd been hoping for this outcome since the moment I walked through the door.

Her face let me know how much of a fool I was.

"I don't care what happened in those woods." His voice dropped low, dangerous. "You're not leaving this pack house again, not until the day you walk yourself to the Red Moon Alpha for the marriage alliance. Do you understand me?"