The Alpha Rejected Me

Pack Rumors

Three hundred miles south, Marcus Blackwood sat in the Silver Moon Pack house and tried to pretend the world hadn't cracked open.

The pack house was busy. Always busy these days, wolves clustering in corners, talking low, shutting up when he walked past. Two weeks since the mating ceremony. Two weeks since Damien Thornwood had said "no" in front of everyone and Serena had walked into the trees and not come back.

Not come back to the pack. She was alive. He knew that much. He could feel the parent-child link, faint but steady, stretching north. Wherever she was, she was safe. That was all he could ask for.

The rumors were worse than the silence.

"She's with rogues." That one had started in the eastern dens, spread by a Beta who'd always resented Marcus's position. "Ran off with a band of feral wolves. No discipline, no loyalty. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Her mother was strange too."

Strange. That was the word they used for Elena. The Beta's wife who kept to herself, who smelled wrong, who was too fast and too strong and too private. They'd whispered it for years. Strange. And Marcus had let them, because strange was better than dead.

"She's dead." That rumor came from the younger wolves, the ones who liked drama. "The rejection broke her. She ran into the woods and couldn't shift back. Probably froze."

"She's with another Alpha." This one was nastier, carried with a sneer. "Couldn't handle being rejected, so she found someone desperate enough to take her."

Marcus ignored all of it. He ate his meals alone, maintained his duties, trained the young wolves, and didn't react. Don't react. That was what he'd told Serena. Don't give them anything. Good advice. He should try taking it himself.

His arm was healing. The pack healer had set the broken bone, and it was knitting faster than normal, which worried him. Serena's blood had gotten on him during the fight at the cabin. Lycan blood accelerated healing. If the healer noticed the speed, she hadn't said anything. But she'd given him a funny look when he'd come in with a gash on his forehead that should have taken a week to close and was already scabbing over in hours.

The knock came at noon. Three sharp raps. Alpha's rhythm.

Marcus opened the door. Alpha Reed stood on the porch, arms crossed, two enforcers flanking him. Reed was a stocky man with a receding hairline and the permanently annoyed expression of someone who'd been Alpha too long. He wasn't cruel. He wasn't kind. He was political.

"Marcus."

"Alpha."

"We need to talk about your daughter."

"She's of age. She's free to go where she wants."

"She's free to go where she wants, yes. But the pack wants to know where that is." Reed stepped inside without invitation. The enforcers stayed outside. Small mercy. "There are rumors, Marcus. Rogue wolves. A male. Someone saw her with an older male at the tree line the night of the ceremony."

"An ally."

"An ally." Reed sat at the table. "An ally of who? Of what? The Silver Moon Pack has no alliance with anyone in the north. If your daughter is consorting with unknown wolves, the pack has a right to know."

"The pack has no claim on her anymore. Damien rejected her."

"The rejection doesn't strip her of pack affiliation. She's still Silver Moon until she joins another pack or formally renounces." Reed leaned forward. "Marcus, I'm not here to punish anyone. I'm here because the Bloodfang Pack has been asking questions. Damien's people. They want to know where Serena went and who she's with."

"Why does Damien care? He's the one who rejected her."

Reed's expression shifted. Something careful moved behind his eyes. "That's the interesting part. Apparently, the rejection didn't take cleanly. Damien's been affected. His enforcers say he hasn't slept in a week. He's irritable, distracted. He sent scouts north to look for her."

Marcus felt his stomach drop. "Scouts."

"Three wolves. Headed toward the northern territories." Reed paused. "If they find her, what do they find, Marcus? Who is she with?"

The silence stretched. Marcus weighed his options. Lie, deflect, confess. Confession was death. Not just for him. For Serena. If Reed knew what she was, he'd report to the council for political leverage. The council would send investigators. The Covenant had ears in the council.

"She's with a mentor," Marcus said. "Someone who knew her mother. A private arrangement. She's learning to cope with the rejection."

"A mentor." Reed didn't buy it. "What kind of mentor takes a newly rejected wolf hundreds of miles north?"

"The kind that knew her mother. Elena had connections, Alpha. I'm sure you remember. The woman who appeared from nowhere, married a Beta, and died under mysterious circumstances. Serena is with someone from Elena's past. That's all I know."

It wasn't all he knew. But it was close enough to the truth to sound honest.

Reed studied him. "If Damien's scouts find her and there's trouble, I can't protect her. She's pack, but she's not worth a war with Bloodfang."

"She's my daughter."

"And you're my Beta. Loyalty has a hierarchy, Marcus. You know that." Reed stood. "Tell her to come home. Or at least tell her to stay hidden. Because if Damien's wolves find her before she's ready, whatever 'ready' means for a rejected Beta's daughter, it won't end well."

Reed left. Marcus stood at the door and watched him cross the clearing, enforcers in tow. The pack house was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that meant ears had been pressed to walls.

He went to his room. Found the communication crystal Elena had left him. A shard of moonstone, warm to the touch, that could carry a single thought across any distance. He'd used it once, the night Elena died, to tell Kael that the bloodline's protector had fallen.

Now he held it and thought as clearly as he could: They're looking for her. Damien's scouts, headed north. Three wolves. She needs to know.

The crystal pulsed once. Warm. Acknowledged.

Marcus put it away and sat in the dark and waited for the world to get worse.