Rejected by the Alpha,Claimed by his Beta

ChapterTwo

The silence in the clearing was so absolute that Leila could hear the crackle of the bonfire and the frantic, heavy thudding of her own heart.

She stared up at the raised wooden platform, her lungs burning as she inhaled the scent of crushed pine and winter storms. The mate bond hummed in her veins, a warm, golden tether connecting her directly to the most powerful wolf in the territory.

For a fraction of a second, she thought he might step down. She thought Alpha Kane might reach out his hand, pull her from the dirt, and declare her as his equal. She thought the years of suffering and humiliation were finally over.

But as the murmurs of the pack swelled into loud, vicious whispers, the shock on Kane’s face hardened into something cold and sharp.

"Her?" a female warrior scoffed from the front row, breaking the spell. "The Alpha’s mate is a floor-scrubber?"

"It has to be a mistake," another voice sneered, thick with disgust.

"Look at her. She’s a pathetic omega. She can’t be our Luna."

The whispers turned into outright mockery. Laughter echoed through the trees, cruel and biting. They were pointing at her stained, ragged dress, the dirt smudged on her knees, and the raw blisters on her hands.

Leila’s chest tightened, the warm glow of the mate bond faltering against the sudden, violent wave of hostility.

She looked up at Kane, silently begging him to stop them. He was the Alpha. A single growl from him would silence the entire clearing and force them to their knees.

Instead, Kane’s jaw clenched. He looked at the sneering faces of his elite fighters and his elders. His pride, the absolute foundation of his rule, was being threatened by a single, weak omega. When his storm-grey eyes finally locked back onto Leila, there was no warmth left in them.

There was only pure, unfiltered disgust.

Leila stepped back, shaking her head as the crushing realization hit her. No. Please.

Kane stood tall, his broad shoulders squared as he looked down at her like she was a diseased animal that had wandered into his territory.

He didn't just want to distance himself from her; he needed to completely erase the humiliation she brought him. To Alpha Kane, his reputation was worth far more than the will of the Moon Goddess.

"Silence!" Kane’s voice thundered across the clearing, demanding absolute submission. The laughter died instantly, replaced by a tense, heavy quiet.

He stared directly into Leila’s eyes, his expression carved from ice.

"I, Alpha Kane Blackwood," he began, his voice carrying the heavy, ancient weight of pack law, "hereby reject you, Leila Seinfeld, as my fated mate and Luna of this pack."

The words broke her heart and physically tore her apart.

The golden tether of the mate bond between them snapped like a frayed wire. A blinding, agonizing pain ripped through Leila’s chest, so severe it felt like her ribs were being crushed into powder.

She didn't even have the breath to scream. Leila collapsed to the dirt, her hands clutching her chest as she curled into a tight ball.

She gasped for air, but her lungs refused to work. The agony radiated through her veins, a burning fire that made her vision swim with dark, suffocating spots.

The pain of a severed bond was known to drive wolves mad, but for a weak omega, it was a death sentence.

Through her blurred, tear-filled eyes, she looked desperately at the crowd for help.

She found her adoptive father standing near the front. He saw her writhing in the dirt, choking on her own blood and tears. For a second, his expression faltered.

He remembered the little girl he used to read to, the pup he had sworn to protect. But then, feeling the heavy stares of the pack, he completely turned his head away, crossing his arms and watching the bonfire instead.

He turned a blind eye, just as he always did.

No one moved. The entire pack watched her suffer with cold, indifferent eyes. They mocked the idea of her ever being anything more than an outcast, and now they were simply waiting for her to die.

"Stop! Are you all blind?!"

A figure shoved violently through the crowd. Lyra, Kane’s younger sister and the only person in the entire pack who had ever shown Leila an ounce of kindness, dropped to her knees in the dirt.

Lyra wrapped her arms around Leila’s trembling shoulders, pulling her up and resting Leila's head against her chest. "Breathe, Leila. Just look at me and breathe," she begged, her voice thick with panic as she wiped the dirt from Leila's sweating forehead.

Lyra shot a furious, tear-streaked glare up at the platform. "Kane, what are you doing? She’s your mate! The rejection is killing her!"

Alpha Kane looked down at his sister and the dying omega in her arms. Not a single muscle in his face twitched. He remained completely ice-cold, his priority firmly on protecting his fierce image in front of his people.

"She is an omega," Kane stated, his voice devoid of any emotion or remorse. "She is weak, and the Blackwood pack does not harbor weakness."

"She’s dying!" Lyra screamed, her voice cracking as Leila choked on a wet sob, her fingers digging desperately into the soil as the pain in her chest grew unbearable.

Kane didn't even blink. He looked past his sister and signaled to the heavily armed warriors standing at the edge of the clearing.

"Guards," Kane commanded, turning his back on her as if she were already a corpse. "Drag her out of the territory and throw her past the borders. Whatever happens to her out there is no longer my concern."