Rejected by my fated mate claimed by the hockey king

CHAPTER ONE The Night Fate Betrayed Me By midnight, everyone in the werewolf world would know my name. Not because I became a Luna. Not because I was the top student at Blackwood Royal University. Not because I found some old secret buried in the history books nobody else could find. No. They would know my name because the man the Moon Goddess picked for me broke my heart. In front of thousands of people. In front of the whole world. If someone had told me, that morning, when I first opened my eyes, that I would end that day with a broken bond and a broken heart, and that my face would be all over every screen in every werewolf town before the sun came up again I would have laughed right in their face. I really would have. I thought fate could wait for me. I thought it could be pushed back a little, tested a little, like a stubborn kid dragging her feet. I never once thought it could turn its back on me. But it did. And I was wrong about all of it. So wrong my stomach still turns just thinking about it now. The sun came in through my small dorm window that morning, soft and gold, like it was trying to be gentle with me. Little bits of dust floated through the light. Slow. Quiet. Like even the air in my room knew something was coming and didn't want to say it out loud. Today was the day. The Moon Bond Ceremony. Every young wolf grows up dreaming about this day. From the time we are little kids, we hear about it. The day two fated mates stand up in front of everyone and finally say yes to the bond the Moon Goddess already picked for them, way before either one of them had a say in it. My heart was already pounding before my feet even hit the floor. I sat up in bed and put my hand flat on my chest, just to feel it, just to try and slow it down. It didn't slow down. Not even a little. I got up. I walked to the bed and picked up the silver dress lying there, waiting for me. It wasn't from some fancy store. It didn't cost a lot of money. Every stitch in that dress came from my grandmother's own two hands. She saved up for months just to buy the fabric. Then she stayed awake, night after night, sewing tiny little beads into the cloth one by one, her fingers aching, her eyes tired, while she smiled at me and pretended she wasn't exhausted at all. To anybody else walking past, it was just a pretty dress hanging in a closet. To me, it was love. Real love. Stitched in by hand, thread by thread, from someone who barely had anything but still gave me everything she had. I ran my fingers over the little beads. My throat got tight. My eyes started to burn. Then, a soft knock came at the door. Before I could even say "come in," the door opened, and my grandmother walked in carrying two mugs. Steam curled up off the top of both of them, hot chocolate, the same way she's made it for me since I was a little girl. The second she saw me holding the dress against my chest, her whole face softened. "I had a feeling you'd already be up," she said. I laughed. It came out a little shaky. "I couldn't sleep." "I know." She said it softly. Like she'd been up too. Like she'd been lying awake in the next room, listening to me toss and turn all night long. She handed me one of the warm mugs and stepped back. She looked at me slowly, top to bottom, the way she does when she's trying to remember something in her heart, not just her eyes. "My little girl is all grown up," she said. My cheeks turned hot. "I'm twenty, Grandma." "You'll always be my little girl. Doesn't matter how old you get." For a second, we just stood there. Neither one of us said anything. It wasn't a weird silence. It wasn't heavy or awkward. It was warm. Soft. The kind of quiet that only happens between two people who've been through hard things together and don't need a bunch of words to prove they love each other. Then Grace reached out. She brushed a piece of loose hair back from my face and tucked it behind my ear. Her hand stayed there just a little longer than it needed to. "No matter what happens today," she said, real quiet, "promise me you'll remember who you are." Something about the way she said it made my stomach drop. "What do you mean?" I asked her. She paused. Just for one second. But I saw it. I always see the things she tries to hide from me. Then she smiled again. That same soft smile she's given me my whole life. The one that used to fix everything back when I was small and scared of the dark. "I mean your worth was never something someone else got to decide," she said. "Not ever." I laughed a little, trying to shake off the strange feeling crawling up my back. "Grandma..." "Kael is my mate," I said. Like saying it out loud made it more real. More true. "I know," she said. "He'd never hurt me." Something flashed across her face. Just for a second. Something she didn't want me to catch. It disappeared so fast I almost told myself I made it up. "I hope you're right," she whispered. I should have stopped right there. I should have asked her what she meant. Some part of me already knew that whisper wasn't nothing. Some part of me already knew. But I didn't ask. I just drank my hot chocolate. I let the morning carry me forward, straight toward the worst night of my whole life. Blackwood Royal University looked beautiful that morning. Almost too beautiful. Silver banners hung above the old stone paths, each one stitched with the mark of some powerful pack, snapping soft in the wind. Students rushed across the yard in fancy robes instead of their normal uniforms, laughing loud, their voices bouncing off the old buildings. Somewhere close by, music played low, and workers were setting fresh flowers around the doors of Moon Hall, one bunch at a time. The whole school felt like it was buzzing, like something electric was running just under the ground. And every single conversation I walked past, no matter where I went, was about one thing. The Moon Bond Ceremony. I hadn't even made it halfway across the courtyard when somebody called my name. "Lyra!" I turned around and saw one of my classmates jogging toward me, her robe flying out behind her, a huge smile on her face. "So..." she said, out of breath, "today's the big day." I smiled, a little shy, and looked down at my shoes. "I guess so." "Oh, don't even try to act calm right now." She grabbed my arm and pulled me forward, practically bouncing on her toes. "By tonight, you're probably gonna be standing right next to Kael Ashcroft. In front of the whole country." Another girl walking near us must have heard, because she turned her head and said, "She's so lucky." "I heard the Ashcroft Pack is already planning a party," someone else said. "Future Luna," a third voice whispered, like the words themselves were something holy. My face went hot. But honestly, I wasn't thinking about becoming anybody's Luna. I wasn't thinking about titles, or crowds, or people whispering my name like I was already something special. I only wanted one thing. I wanted Kael to look at me the same way I had always looked at him. I wanted him to choose me not because the Moon Goddess decided it two years ago, not because of some old tradition, but because he actually wanted to. Because he actually loved me back. I believed, with everything inside me, that today was the beginning of forever. I had no idea. It was already the beginning of the end.