Rejected Before the Pack
1645 Words
Rejected Before the Pack
“I, Darius Ravencrest, Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack, reject you, Aria Vale, as my mate and future Luna.”
For one impossible second, I thought I had imagined the words.
Then the Great Hall went silent.
Not quiet.
Silent.
Hundreds of wolves stood around us beneath the silver banners of the pack, every face turned toward me.
My lungs forgot how to breathe.
Darius stood three steps away, dressed in black ceremonial clothing, the silver Alpha crest gleaming over his heart. The man I had loved since I was seventeen looked at me as though I were a mistake he had finally decided to correct.
My mistake was believing he loved me too.
“Darius…”
My voice barely came out.
His jaw tightened.
“Accept the rejection, Aria.”
Something inside my chest tore.
The mate bond.
I had heard rejected wolves describe the pain before, but words had never captured it.
It felt as though invisible claws had entered my chest and were ripping something living from my ribs.
My knees weakened.
I refused to fall.
Not here.
Not in front of everyone.
Not in front of him.
Around us, whispers began.
“She really was his mate?”
“Then why reject her?”
“You know why.”
“She still hasn't shifted.”
Heat crawled up my neck.
There it was.
The shame I had spent years pretending did not hurt.
Twenty-four years old, born into one of Silvercrest's oldest families, and my wolf had never awakened.
Every other werewolf shifted before twenty.
Some at sixteen.
A few even younger.
Not me.
I had spent years visiting healers, swallowing bitter tonics, praying beneath full moons and waking every morning exactly the same.
Wolf-blood without a wolf.
And now Darius was making certain the entire pack knew it mattered more than the bond the Moon Goddess herself had supposedly given us.
I looked at him.
“We've known we were mates for three years.”
“I know.”
“You told me you needed time.”
“I did.”
“You said when you became Alpha…”
“I remember what I said.”
Each answer was colder than the last.
My fingers curled into my palms.
“Then look at me and tell me why.”
His gray eyes finally met mine.
For a moment, I saw something there.
Pain.
Regret, perhaps.
Then it disappeared.
“A Luna cannot be weak.”
The words struck harder than his rejection.
A murmur moved through the hall.
Darius continued.
“Silvercrest has enemies on every border. The Nightfall Pack has already taken two eastern territories. Their Alpha has challenged three neighboring packs and defeated every one of them. I need a Luna who can stand beside me in war.”
“And I can't?”
“You can't even shift.”
Several people laughed quietly.
I recognized one of the voices.
Celeste.
Darius's Beta's daughter.
Beautiful. Strong. Already famous for her white wolf.
She stood near the front of the crowd wearing a silver dress that looked suspiciously ceremonial.
My stomach tightened.
I looked from her to Darius.
“No.”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
And suddenly the rejection wasn't the worst thing happening in that room.
“Tell me I'm wrong,” I whispered.
Darius said nothing.
Celeste stepped forward.
Her smile was delicate enough to fool anyone who didn't know her.
I knew her.
“Aria,” she said softly, “please don't make this more humiliating than it needs to be.”
I stared at her.
Then at the silver chain around her throat.
Attached to it was the small crescent pendant traditionally worn by a future Luna during an Alpha's first formal gathering.
The pendant Darius's mother had once promised would belong to me.
My heart stopped breaking.
It simply went cold.
“How long?”
“Aria,” Darius warned.
“How long have you been planning this?”
His silence answered me.
I laughed once.
The sound didn't even resemble my voice.
Three years.
Three years of secret meetings.
Three years of promises.
Three years of waiting for Darius to announce what the mate bond had already decided.
And all that time he had apparently been deciding whether I was worthy of him.
“You should accept the rejection,” Celeste said. “For the good of the pack.”
I turned toward her.
“And you should learn when a conversation doesn't involve you.”
A few gasps rose from the crowd.
Celeste's smile vanished.
Darius took a step toward me.
“Enough.”
I looked at him.
Something inside me changed.
Perhaps humiliation had a limit.
Perhaps pain did too.
Because suddenly I wasn't thinking about how badly I wanted him to take the words back.
I was thinking about how desperately I wanted to leave.
“Fine.”
Darius froze.
I straightened even though every breath hurt.
“You want me to accept?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Aria…”
“I, Aria Vale…”
The mate bond inside me seemed to panic.
Pain shot through every nerve.
My vision blurred.
Still, I continued.
“…accept your rejection.”
Darius inhaled sharply.
The bond snapped.
I screamed.
I couldn't stop it.
My knees hit the marble floor.
The hall vanished behind a wall of white pain.
For several seconds, there was nothing except agony.
Then someone moved toward me.
Darius.
I saw his boots before I saw his face.
His hand reached down.
Instinctively, I pulled away.
“Don't touch me.”
His hand stopped.
“Aria, you're hurt.”
I almost laughed.
“You made sure of that.”
I forced myself upright.
Every muscle trembled.
Darius watched me with an expression I couldn't understand.
He had rejected me.
Why did he look like I had done something to him?
I wiped the moisture from my cheek before anyone could call it a tear.
“Is that everything, Alpha?”
His face hardened at the title.
Yesterday he had been Darius.
Tonight he was only my Alpha.
Perhaps tomorrow he would be nothing at all.
“You don't have to leave,” he said.
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You remain a member of Silvercrest. Nothing has changed regarding your home or your family's position.”
Nothing had changed.
I looked around the Great Hall.
At the wolves watching me with pity.
At Celeste wearing the pendant meant for me.
At Darius standing beneath the symbol of a pack I had once dreamed of helping him lead.
Everything had changed.
“You're right,” I said quietly. “I don't have to leave.”
Something resembling relief crossed his face.
“But I will.”
His expression darkened.
“Aria.”
I walked past him.
His hand closed around my wrist.
The contact sent a faint echo of our broken bond through me.
We both felt it.
His fingers tightened.
“You're emotional. Don't make another decision you'll regret tonight.”
I slowly looked at his hand.
Then at him.
“Another decision I'll regret?”
He realized his mistake too late.
I pulled my wrist free.
“You rejected me, Darius. Don't insult me by pretending my reaction is the problem.”
His nostrils flared.
The Alpha in him wasn't accustomed to being challenged.
Especially not publicly.
“Where would you even go?”
I didn't know.
That was the terrifying part.
Silvercrest had been my entire world.
But I would rather walk into an unknown world alone than remain somewhere I had become an object of pity.
“I'll figure it out.”
Celeste gave a quiet laugh.
“Without a wolf?”
I turned.
She expected tears.
Instead, I smiled.
“Enjoy the pendant, Celeste.”
Her fingers moved instinctively toward it.
“I hope being chosen feels as good as you imagined.”
Her face reddened.
I didn't wait for her answer.
I walked.
Nobody stopped me.
Not my neighbors.
Not the elders who had watched me grow up.
Not the warriors I had helped heal after border attacks.
Nobody.
I reached the enormous doors of the Great Hall and pushed them open.
Cold night air struck my face.
For the first time in hours, I could breathe.
Then pain twisted through my stomach.
I stopped.
My hand flew to my abdomen.
That was strange.
For almost a week, I had been waking nauseous. Food smelled different. My body felt unusually warm.
I had blamed it on stress surrounding Darius's Alpha ceremony.
Another cramp came.
Sharper.
I stumbled toward one of the stone pillars.
“Not now,” I whispered.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears.
And then…
I heard something.
A voice.
Faint.
Female.
Inside me.
Run.
I froze.
No.
That wasn't possible.
I had waited my entire life to hear my wolf.
“Who are you?”
Your wolf.
Tears filled my eyes.
After twenty-four years.
After every healer had told me she might never awaken.
My wolf had finally spoken.
“Why now?”
For several seconds, she was silent.
Then an unfamiliar warmth spread through my body.
My hand remained pressed against my stomach.
And suddenly I heard it.
My heartbeat.
Strong.
Fast.
And beneath it…
another.
Tiny.
Rapid.
Impossible.
My blood turned cold.
“No.”
My wolf's voice came again, stronger this time.
You cannot stay here, Blessed One.
I stopped breathing.
Blessed One?
“What are you talking about?”
A third cramp ripped through me.
I gripped the pillar.
Then my wolf whispered the words that destroyed what remained of my old life.
You carry the Alpha's heir.
I stared back at the glowing windows of the Great Hall.
Somewhere inside, Darius was preparing to celebrate his new Luna.
And I was carrying his child.
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