THE KING'S UNWANTED MATE

Chapter One I knew something was wrong the moment Caden asked me to wear the white dress. He never cared what I wore. Three years together and the man had never once commented on my clothes. So when he called me that morning — his voice careful, too careful — and said *wear something nice tonight, we're making an announcement* — I felt it. That cold thing in my stomach. I wore the white dress anyway. --- The pack hall was full. Every wolf from Silverstone had shown up — the elders, the warriors, the families who had watched me grow from a quiet omega girl into Caden's mate. They stood in clusters, dressed well, talking in low voices. The hall smelled like pine and candle wax and something electric that I couldn't name. I stood at the edge of it all and smiled at the people who smiled at me. And I waited. Caden found me at eight. He looked good. He always looked good — tall, broad, the kind of man who commanded a room just by walking into it. Alpha blood. You could see it in the way he moved. He used to look at me like I was the only person in the room. Tonight his eyes moved past me twice before they landed on me. "You came," he said. "You asked me to." "Right." He touched my arm briefly. Barely. "Stay close tonight." Then he walked away. I stood there. *Stay close tonight.* Not — *you look beautiful.* Not — *I'm glad you're here.* Not even my name. Just — *stay close tonight.* The cold thing in my stomach got colder. --- He called the room to attention at nine. The conversations stopped. The pack turned. I moved closer the way he asked — close enough to see his face, close enough to hear him clearly. Caden stood at the front of the hall with his hands clasped and his jaw set and the careful expression of a man who had rehearsed this. "I want to thank everyone for coming tonight," he said. "This is an important evening for Silverstone. For its future. For mine." I watched him. He didn't look at me. "As your Alpha," he said, "my first responsibility is to this pack. To its strength. To its legacy." He paused. "Which is why tonight I'm announcing my chosen mate." The room stirred. My heart stopped. *Chosen mate.* Not — *my mate.* Not — *Selene.* *Chosen mate.* I felt the blood leave my face. "Diana Ashworth," Caden said. "Of the Ashworth bloodline. My chosen mate and future Luna of Silverstone." The room erupted. Applause. Cheering. The sound of it roared in my ears like water. And through the crowd, moving toward Caden with a smile that had been waiting for this moment for a very long time — Diana. Beautiful Diana. With her perfect bloodline and her perfect smile and her hand reaching for the man who had spent three years in my bed. She stood beside him. He looked at her the way he used to look at me. --- I don't remember deciding to move. I just found myself walking. Through the crowd that parted without noticing me. Past the elders who were already congratulating each other. Past Kara — my best friend, my only real friend — who grabbed my arm and said my name in a low urgent voice. I kept walking. "Selene." Kara's voice behind me. "Selene, wait—" I didn't wait. I walked to the table at the front of the hall where my things were. Where the necklace Caden had given me on our first anniversary sat against my collarbone — a silver chain, a small crescent moon, the thing I had worn every day for two years without taking it off. I unclipped it. I set it on the table. I didn't look at Caden. I walked out. --- The rain hit me the moment I stepped outside. Cold. Hard. November rain that didn't care what night it was or what had just happened or what three years of my life had amounted to. I stood in it. I didn't have a coat. I hadn't thought about a coat. I had thought about the white dress and staying close and announcements and I had not — not once — let myself think about this. About walking out of that hall alone. About the necklace on the table. About the way Diana's hand had reached for him. I pressed my fingers against my eyes. I would not cry in the parking lot. I would not. I started walking. No destination. No plan. Just forward — away from the hall, away from the sound of the celebration still audible through the walls, away from three years of my life dissolving in the rain. I walked for ten minutes before I noticed the car. A black SUV. Parked at the edge of the lot where the pack land met the main road. Engine running. Lights off. I almost walked past it. Then the window rolled down. I stopped. The man inside was looking at me. I couldn't see him clearly — the rain, the dark, the distance. Just the outline of him. Still. Watching. And then— Something happened. Something I had no name for. Like the air between us changed. Like something in my chest recognised something I couldn't see. A pull. Deep and physical and completely terrifying. I took a step back. The car door opened. He got out. Tall. Very tall — the kind of tall that changed the scale of everything around him. Dark coat, dark eyes, the kind of face that had been arranged by whatever made alphas into something that stopped you in the middle of a parking lot in the rain. He looked at me. Not the way Caden had looked at me tonight — past me, through me, at the space beside me. He looked at *me.* Like I was the only thing in the entire parking lot worth looking at. Like he had been looking for me specifically. He said nothing for a long moment. Then: "Get in the car." I stared at him. "Excuse me?" "You're soaked." His voice was low. Even. The voice of a man who didn't raise it because he never needed to. "Get in the car." "I don't know you." "No," he said. "You don't." "Then I'm not getting in your car." Something moved in his expression. Something that might have been surprise — like the concept of someone saying no to him was genuinely new information. "It's raining," he said. "I noticed." "You'll get sick." "That's my problem." He looked at me for a long moment. The rain came down between us. His coat was getting wet. He didn't seem to notice or care. Then he said: "You're on my territory." I went still. "That means you follow my rules." His eyes didn't leave mine. "Get in the car, Selene." The world stopped. "How do you know my name?" ---