THE ALPHA WHO REJECTED ME BEGGED FOR MY RETURN

CHAPTER SIX : SHOW THEM YOU ARE NOT WEAK

Dawn in the North was not dawn. It was still dark, it was snowing, and it was minus ten.

Someone banged on my door.

"Up! Alpha King said dawn training! If you are late you run ten laps in the snow!"

It was Mara. Of course it was Mara.

I rolled over in my huge bed, my hand instantly going to my stomach. I was not showing yet, I was only about four weeks now, but I felt different. Heavy. Tired all the time. Lyra was also tired. Pregnancy for a first time shifter was apparently exhausting.

"Mara, it's still dark outside," I croaked.

"It's 5 AM. Dawn for warriors. You said give me a month. Day one starts now."

I wanted to throw a pillow at her, but I remembered what I said yesterday. Give me a month and I will show your pack what a white wolf can do.

Fine.

I dragged myself up, put on the thick black training clothes that had been left for me - they were men's clothes again, but at least they were dry - and tied my white hair back. I looked at myself in the mirror. Pale, dark circles under my eyes from morning sickness, but my eyes... my eyes were glowing faintly gold even in human form now. Lyra was close to the surface.

Outside, the training yard was already full. Twenty warriors, all male, all huge, all shirtless despite the snow, punching and kicking and shifting. Their breath made clouds in the cold air. When I walked out, they all stopped and stared.

Mara stood in the middle, wearing only a sports bra and leggings in the snow like she was immune to cold. Her body was all muscle. She looked like a real Luna.

"Listen up!" she shouted. "This is Aria. Silvermoon banished omega who thinks she is a white wolf. Alpha King says she trains with us. So she trains."

One of the warriors laughed. "She is pregnant, Mara. She will faint after one lap."

I felt my cheeks burn, but I kept my chin up. I had learned yesterday that they could all smell it. There was no hiding it here.

"She says she will show us she is not weak," Mara continued, looking at me. "So today, we see. Ten laps around the yard. Then sparring. If you fall, you get up. If you vomit, you vomit and keep running. Those are Northern rules."

I nodded. My stomach churned, but not from morning sickness. From fear.

The whistle blew.

I started running. The snow was up to my ankles. My boots were too big. The first lap was okay. Second lap, my lungs started to burn. By the third lap, the warriors had lapped me twice, laughing as they passed. By the fifth lap, I was on my hands and knees, vomiting stew from last night into the snow.

"Get up!" Mara shouted. "Silvermoon girls don't get to lie down in my yard!"

Lyra snarled inside me. Get up, Aria! Do not let them see us as weak! They will never respect our pup if we are weak!

I thought about Kael. I thought about Selene's face when she said "Some wolves are just born to be omegas." I thought about that tiny flicker on the ultrasound.

I got up. Wiped my mouth with snow. And kept running.

Ten laps. I finished last, twenty minutes after everyone else. My legs were shaking, my face was blue with cold. But I finished.

Mara looked almost impressed. Almost.

"Not bad for a pregnant omega," she said. "Now sparring. You with me."

Oh no.

The warriors formed a circle. Mara and I stood in the middle. She was at least six inches taller than me.

"Tap out if you can't," she whispered, but her eyes said she hoped I would not tap out quickly, she wanted to beat me.

She came at me fast. I had never fought before. In Silvermoon, omegas didn't fight, we served. I tried to block like I had seen on TV, but she punched me in the ribs and I went down, snow in my mouth.

"Come on, white wolf," someone mocked. "Where is your power?"

Second time, she kicked my legs. I fell again.

Third time, I stayed down a little longer, breathing hard. I could feel Lyra pushing. Let me out. Let me fight. I can take her.

No, not here, not pregnant, I thought.

We are stronger together. Let me help your human body. Just a little. Let our eyes glow. Let our strength come.

I nodded internally.

Mara came for a fourth time, aiming for my shoulder to pin me. This time, I didn't think. I moved. Lyra lent me her speed. I dodged, grabbed Mara's arm, and used her own momentum to throw her over my shoulder. It was a move Lucian had shown me briefly last night when he came to check on me.

Mara hit the snow hard. The whole yard went silent.

She was up in a second, eyes glowing blue, her wolf close. She was angry now.

"You got lucky," she hissed.

She shifted. Her wolf was huge, black as night, with a scar over its nose. She was an Alpha female herself. She growled and lunged.

I didn't shift. Dr. Evans said no shifting for two weeks. So I stood there, human, facing a fully shifted Alpha wolf, pregnant.

And I growled back. My growl wasn't human. It was Lyra's. And my eyes... everyone gasped because my eyes turned completely gold, glowing like two small suns in the snow. The air around me got cold, colder than the Northern snow. Frost started forming on the ground around my feet.

Mara's wolf stopped mid-lunge. Her ears went back. She whined. And then, to everyone's shock, she lowered her head. She bowed.

I didn't tell her to bow. Lyra did. An Alpha's command without words.

The warriors behind her, one by one, also lowered their heads. Not to Mara. To me.

I swayed, exhausted from using that much power, and fell to my knees. The glow in my eyes faded.

Mara shifted back, naked but not caring, and stared at me with a completely different expression now. Not disgust. Shock. And respect.

"What... what are you?" she whispered.

Before I could answer, a new voice cut through the silence.

"So it's true. The Northern pack is harboring a Silvermoon criminal."

Everyone spun.

At the gate of the training yard stood three wolves. Silvermoon wolves. I recognized their scent instantly. And in front of them...

Kael.

He looked different. Thinner. Dark circles under his eyes. His hair was messy, like he hadn't slept in days. He wore his Alpha jacket, but it looked too big on him. His eyes found mine across the snow.

Our eyes locked. The dead mate bond that I thought was broken exploded in my chest with so much force I screamed and clutched my heart. He did too, falling to one knee, clutching his chest.

"Aria," he breathed, his voice broken. "You... you are alive."

He started walking toward me, through the Northern warriors who growled at him. His eyes were only on me, on my white hair, on my glowing eyes that were now gold again from the pain of the bond. He looked at my stomach, even though there was nothing to see.

"I felt you," he said, his voice raw. "For three days I felt you dying, then I felt you shift. I felt a second heartbeat. Aria, are you..."

He was ten feet away now. Mara stepped in front of me protectively, even though she hated me yesterday. "Stop right there, Silvermoon Alpha. You are trespassing on Northern land."

Kael didn't even look at her. His eyes were full of tears. Real tears. The cold, cruel Alpha who rejected me in front of everyone was crying in the snow.

"Aria, please," he whispered. "I thought you were dead. Selene told me you ran away as a rogue and rogues killed you. I have not slept... the bond... I thought I killed you with the rejection."

Lyra howled in my head, furious. He rejected us! He let them banish us! He let us almost die in the rain! And now he comes here with tears?

I stood up slowly, my legs still shaking, snow on my training clothes, vomit still on my boots, but my eyes gold and my chin high. I was not the crying girl in the blue dress anymore.

I looked at Kael Blackwood, the boy I had loved since I was five, the father of my child, and I said the words he once said to me.

"I, Aria Cross, reject your apology, Kael Blackwood. You do not get to come here and cry. You rejected me. You chose her."

And behind me, I felt a large, warm presence. Lucian had arrived. He placed a hand on my shoulder, claiming me in front of Kael without words. His Alpha King aura exploded, making Kael's warriors kneel instantly.

Kael's eyes went from my face to Lucian's hand on my shoulder, and his face twisted from sorrow into pure, possessive, Alpha rage.

His wolf was coming out.

The yard was about to become a war zone.