Rejected by the Alpha,Claimed by his Beta

ChapterFour

The words hung in the freezing, pine-scented air, absurd and entirely impossible.

Celestial wolf. Lost princess.

Leila stared at the massive warrior kneeling in the frost, the blinding silver light from her own chest casting sharp, dancing shadows across his heavily scarred face.

"You're... you're lying," she choked out. Her voice was raspy, broken from the agonizing screams she had let out moments ago when the mate bond was severed.

She gripped the dirt, her knuckles white. "I'm an omega. I'm nothing."

"You are the daughter of the Moon Queen," the leader stated, his voice carrying an unwavering, heavy certainty. He refused to rise from the mud, keeping his head bowed respectfully.

"We thought you perished in the great m******e that destroyed our kingdom years ago. We searched the ashes and the ruins of the castle, but we never found your body. The kingdom has mourned you for a decade."

He finally lifted his head. His dark eyes shone with absolute, unwavering loyalty. "Our high priest, Elder Ronan, was the one who finally saw the truth. He had a powerful vision of this celestial light awakening tonight.”

“He gave us these exact coordinates. He told us the true heir was alive, hidden away in the brutal ranks of the Blackwood pack. We came to bring you home, Princess."

Home. The word echoed in Leila's hollow chest, sounding like a foreign language. Her adoptive father had never once spoken about her origins.

He just told everyone she was a stray pup he found near the borders. Had he known? Had he purposely hidden a royal heir in the kitchens, allowing her to be beaten and humiliated to keep her true power suppressed?

The realization hit her like a physical blow. The decades of relentless abuse. The endless scrubbing until her hands bled. The brutal, public rejection by Kane. It was all built on a massive lie.

Before she could ask another question, the severed mate bond pulsed violently inside her chest, a jagged, bleeding wound in her soul. It acted as a violent catalyst. The celestial wolf, buried deep and suffocated for years out of fear, violently surfaced.

Leila let out a blood-curdling scream as the silver mark on her chest flared like a dying star. The sheer magnitude of the power was utterly out of control, fueled by years of suppression and the agony of the rejection.

She grabbed her head, her body convulsing on the frozen earth as pure energy flooded her veins.

"Princess!" the warrior yelled, surging forward to catch her, but a sudden shockwave of crackling silver energy blasted him backward into the dirt.

The ground shook violently. The massive pine trees around them groaned, their thick bark peeling away as the wild celestial magic whipped through the air like a hurricane.

Leila felt like she was burning alive. Her inner wolf was enraged, furious at the years of being forced to cower, furious at the pack that mocked her, and completely unhinged by the Alpha's cruel dismissal.

It wanted to destroy everything. It wanted to tear the forest apart until nothing but ashes remained.

"Hold the perimeter!" the leader shouted to his men, shielding his face from the blinding light with his armored arm. "Her power is unstable! We need to move her now!"

"Intruders! Surround them!"

A booming voice shattered the chaos of the swirling magic. From the dark tree line, a dozen Blackwood warriors burst into the clearing, their silver blades drawn and catching the strange moonlight.

Leading the charge was Alpha Kane, his dark eyes blazing with territorial fury. Right beside him, matching his pace, was his Beta and best friend, Matt Ashford.

They had followed the piercing alarm bells, fully expecting to find a band of filthy rogues trying to steal supplies. Instead, they skidded to a sudden, jarring halt, completely paralyzed by the scene unfolding before them.

Matt dropped his heavy sword, the metal clattering against the rocks. His eyes widened in pure, unfiltered horror. He saw Leila writhing on the ground, her dress soaked in blood, radiating an intense, blinding celestial light that defied all logic.

The absolute agony etched onto her pale face was clear. Without a second of hesitation, Matt took a step forward, his natural protective instincts screaming at him to help her.

"Leila!" Matt yelled over the roaring wind, his voice thick with genuine panic. He turned to his Alpha. "Kane, look at her! We have to help her, she's tearing herself apart!"

But Kane didn't move to help. He stood rigid as a statue, his broad shoulders painfully tense, staring at the glowing silver mark on Leila's chest.

His pride, already bruised from the disastrous ceremony, flared up into a towering, defensive wall. He had just publicly thrown away a worthless omega to save his reputation.

But the terrifying, ancient creature thrashing on the ground was radiating more raw, god-like power than any Alpha he had ever encountered in his entire life. It made his previous actions look incredibly foolish.

"Stand down, Matt," Kane ordered coldly. His voice dripped with stubborn arrogance, refusing to show weakness even in the face of impossible magic. He glared at the kneeling armored warriors.

"You trespass on my land for an exiled omega? Take the trash and leave."

Matt whipped his head around to look at his Alpha, utter disbelief and disgust written across his features. "Are you insane? She's dying! Her power is completely out of control because of what you did to the bond!"

The argument fell on deaf ears, entirely drowned out by the roaring energy. Leila couldn't hold the magic back anymore. The celestial wolf was simply too large, too ancient for her fragile, battered human body to contain.

If the power remained anchored to the earth without a stable mate to balance it, it would rip her to shreds from the inside out.

"Princess, we must go now!" the leader of the Moon Kingdom forces yelled. He braved the burning silver light, pushing his massive frame through the magical resistance and wrapping his heavily armored arms around her trembling body.

Kane finally realized the immense physical threat. The energy swirling around Leila was building to a catastrophic, explosive pressure. It wasn't just going to kill her, it was going to level the entire forest.

"Warriors, attack!" Kane roared, lunging forward with his claws extended to assert his dominance over the rapidly deteriorating situation.

He was a fraction of a second too late.

Leila threw her head back, and a sound that was half-human scream and half-ancient wolf howl tore from her throat, shaking the very bedrock beneath them.

Her unstable power erupted in a massive, devastating shockwave of silver fire.

The concussive blast hit the Blackwood wolves like a speeding freight train. Alpha Kane and Beta Matt were violently thrown backward.

They were lifted completely off their feet, sailing through the air before slamming brutally into the heavy trunks of the surrounding pine trees.

The rest of the pack warriors hit the dirt, groaning in agony as the celestial energy scorched the earth, leaving black, smoking trails in the frost.

Through the blinding dust, flying debris, and fading silver light, the leader of the Moon Kingdom forces scooped Leila’s limp, glowing body completely into his arms. Knowing the raw power would undoubtedly kill her if she stayed in this hostile territory, the loyal rescuers turned in unison.

Moving with supernatural speed, they vanished instantly into the dark, protective cover of the night.

The silver light slowly bled out of the forest, plunging the clearing back into a cold, heavy darkness.

The only sound left was the crackle of burning bark and the groans of injured wolves.

Kane pushed himself up from the dirt, coughing violently, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. He wiped a streak of warm blood from his jaw and stared at the scorched, glowing crater in the center of his woods.

The air still hummed with an ancient, terrifying magic that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

He stood there in the quiet aftermath, surrounded by the wreckage, staring at the glowing remnants of the very omega he had just thrown away.