THE ALPHA WHO REJECTED ME BEGGED FOR MY RETURN

My eighteenth birthday was supposed to be the day I finally got my wolf. Instead, it was the day my fated mate rejected me in front of the entire pack. The packhouse was decorated with white roses and silver ribbons for the Luna ceremony. Everyone from Silvermoon was there, dressed in their best, drinking and laughing. The air smelled like pine and roasted meat. They were not there for me. They were there for Selene. I stood by the back door in my cheap blue dress, the one my mother had mended twice, my hands shaking. She squeezed my arm. “You will shift tonight, Aria. I know it.” Her voice didn’t believe it any more than I did. She knew what everyone else knew. I was eighteen and still wolfless. In our world, that meant one thing. Broken. The drums started. Alpha Robert and Luna Diane walked onto the raised platform. And behind them, Kael. My breath caught. Kael Blackwood. Future Alpha of Silvermoon. My best friend since we were five. My fated mate. I’d known since I was fifteen, the moment the bond snapped into place the first time his hand brushed mine near the river. He was tall now, broad under his black shirt, dark hair falling over his eyes. He already looked like a king. His eyes found mine across the room. For half a second, his face softened. That look was only ever for me. Then Selene stepped beside him and slid her hand into his. Long red hair, perfect curves, a strong silver wolf she’d earned at sixteen that everyone still talked about. Daughter of Alpha Marcus from the Eastern pack. A powerful alliance. The Elders called for silence. Alpha Robert spoke about the future, about alliances, about strength. Then Kael was called forward. He took the microphone. His eyes didn’t find mine again. “As you all know, an Alpha must choose a Luna who makes the pack stronger.” His voice was flat, formal. “Tonight is about the future of Silvermoon.” My mother’s grip on my hand tightened. My heart was so loud I was sure people could hear it. “I, Kael Blackwood, future Alpha of Silvermoon, have found my fated mate.” A gasp went through the crowd. Heads turned toward me. Some people smiled, the pitying kind. I took a half step forward, my dress rustling. He looked straight at me. Nothing behind his eyes. “And I reject her.” The room went silent in a way that felt physical. “What?” The word came out too small to matter. “I, Kael Blackwood, reject you, Aria Cross, as my mate and Luna.” Louder now, his Alpha voice rattling the windows. “You are wolfless. You are weak. You will never be fit to be Luna of this pack. I choose strength.” Every head turned to me. The whispers caught like dry grass. “Wolfless…” “She actually thought he’d choose her…” “Poor thing…” The mate bond, that warm thread I’d carried in my chest for three years, went cold, then white-hot, all at once. My knees buckled and I hit the floor. I couldn’t get a full breath in. I’d heard people describe rejection pain before. Nothing they said came close. Kael flinched, I saw it, rejection cuts both ways, but Selene rested a hand on his chest and he straightened again. “From today, Selene Jones is my chosen mate and future Luna.” Selene smiled down at me on the floor. “Some wolves are just born omegas, Aria. You should’ve known your place.” My mother screamed and tried to reach me; the pack warriors held her back. My father didn’t move at all. I forced my head up, tears blurring everything. “Why, Kael? We promised each other. When we were kids.” “Promises from children mean nothing.” Stone in his voice now. “An Alpha does what’s best for his pack.” That’s when I felt it, not just the heartbreak. Something underneath it, in the place where my wolf was supposed to be, cracked open. A growl that wasn’t mine echoed somewhere behind my ribs. I didn’t know it yet, but she was waking up. And she was furious. I didn’t get to stay on the floor for long. Selene shrieked. “She’s trying to attack me! Look at her eyes!” I didn’t know what she meant. My vision was still blurred with tears. But the crowd gasped and stepped back like I’d already moved. A warrior yanked me up by the arm. “Control your wolf, girl.” “I don’t have a wolf!” The rejection pain was still burning through me. “Liar. You were about to lunge at our future Luna.” Selene clutched Kael’s arm, tears appearing on command. “Kael, she’s jealous. She tried to hurt me.” It was a lie. I hadn’t moved an inch. But no one was looking at me anymore. They were looking at Selene, crying beautifully. Kael’s face hardened. “Is this true? Are you so bitter you’d attack your future Luna?” “No! Kael, you know me.” Elder Thomas, the oldest and cruelest of the Elders, slammed his staff down. “Enough. This girl is wolfless, and now she shows aggression toward our chosen Luna. That is against pack law. She will be punished.” “Please, no.” My mother broke free and grabbed me. “She’s a child. She just got rejected, she’s in pain.” “Then she should be grateful we let her live.” Elder Thomas didn’t even look at her. “I banish Aria Cross from Silvermoon territory, effective before sunrise. If she’s found within our borders after that, she’ll be killed as a rogue.” Banished. That word landed harder than the rejection had. No pack. No protection. Rogues didn’t last long out there. My father finally moved, only to pull my mother back. “Don’t make it worse, Mira.” He didn’t look at me either. He was ashamed. Kael said nothing. He stood there, jaw tight, fists clenched, staring at the floor. He didn’t defend me. He didn’t stop it. Somehow that was worse than anything anyone had said. Two warriors dragged me to the border while my mother wailed behind me and Selene watched, smiling. They put me over the line just as the rain started. Mud soaked through my blue dress. The packhouse lights disappeared behind the trees. Eighteen. Rejected. Banished. Wolfless. Alone in a rogue forest at midnight. I screamed until my throat gave out. At Kael. At Selene. At the Moon Goddess, for making me this way. “Why did you make me like this? Why?” And then the pain changed. The rejection burn in my chest went cold, then hot, then something snapped. My bones started to shift under my skin. I dropped to my hands and knees, shaking. I thought I was dying. There were stories about wolfless girls who died on their eighteenth birthday when the wolf never came. I wasn’t dying. I was shifting. For the first time in my life. Fur broke through skin. Claws tore free where my nails had been. It hurt worse than the rejection had. I howled, and the sound that came out of me wasn’t a normal wolf’s, deeper, older, like it belonged to something bigger than me. When I could see again, I was looking at the world from four feet lower and about three feet wider. My paws were enormous, snow white. I found my reflection in a puddle. A white wolf looked back at me. Silver-tipped ears. Eyes the color of the moon. Bigger than any female wolf I’d ever seen, bigger than some of the Alphas. Something spoke, and it was my voice but not quite, steadier, older. Finally, you let me out. Who are you? I’m you, Aria. I’m Lyra. And we were never weak. We’re Alpha. We threw our head back and howled, and the sound rolled through the whole forest. Birds scattered. Somewhere far off, other wolves howled back, afraid, not answering. We weren’t wolfless. We were something they’d never had a name for. Then footsteps. Slow, heavy, unhurried, coming through the rain. A scent hit me, pine, snow, something underneath it that made Lyra go still with respect. A man stepped into the clearing. Tall, maybe thirty, dark hair, pale eyes, a black cloak soaked through. He stopped when he saw me. “Impossible,” he said quietly. “A white Alpha female. I thought they were gone.”