Rejected, But He Begs Me Back

"You are not my mate." Caleb's voice was low. Cold. Like the snow under my bare feet. I stood in the middle of the pack square. It was my 18th birthday. My white dress was too thin for the winter. My feet were freezing on the ice. My hands were shaking. But I was smiling. Because finally, after 18 years of being bullied, of being called wolfless trash, I found him. My mate. Alpha Caleb Blackwood. "Caleb..." I whispered. My voice shook. "It is me. It is Sophie. Your mate." He stood in front of me. Tall. Black hair, black suit, golden brown eyes. The strongest Alpha on the continent. All the girls wanted him. And the Moon Goddess gave him to me. To me, the weakest omega. He did not smile back. His jaw was tight. His hands were in fists. "Say it again," he said. "Say what you just said." I took a small step closer. I could smell him. Pine and snow and Alpha power. My heart beat so fast it hurt. "I said... you are my mate. I felt the bond this morning when I turned 18. My wolf... I finally felt my wolf for you-" "Liar." One word. He said it loud. The whole pack heard it. Two hundred wolves were watching. Old wolves, young wolves, pups. They all stood around us in a circle. Their breath made smoke in the cold air. Caleb grabbed my chin. Hard. His claws came out and cut my skin. A small line of blood ran down my neck. "Ouch!" I flinched. My hands grabbed his wrist by instinct. "You think you can lie to your Alpha?" His eyes glowed gold. His wolf was angry. "You? A wolfless omega with no family? You think Moon Goddess would give YOU to ME?" "No! I am not lying!" Tears came to my eyes. "I felt it! I swear! My chest hurts-" "It hurts because you are weak!" He pushed me. I fell on the ice. My knees hit hard. The white dress tore. Blood on my knees. Laughter started. Soft at first, then loud. "Look, the omega thinks she is Luna!" "She has no wolf! How can she feel a bond?" "She is crazy!" I pressed my hands on the ice to stand up. My body shook from cold and from shame. "Caleb, please listen to me," I begged. I looked up at him. "Please, just for one minute-" He looked down at me. No pity in his eyes. Only disgust. "I, Alpha Caleb Blackwood, leader of Silver Stone Pack, reject you, Sophie Lane, as my mate and as my Luna." The words hit me like a knife. No! A terrible pain ripped my chest open. Like someone put a hot iron inside my heart and twisted it. It was the rejection pain. The bond was breaking. "AAAAH!" I screamed. I fell again. I held my chest. I could not breathe. Blood came from my mouth and fell on the white snow. Bright red on pure white. The bond was snapping. I could feel my soul tearing in two. "Stop... please... stop..." I cried on the snow. My fingers scratched the ice. My whole body convulsed. Caleb watched. His own face was pale. His own hand went to his chest for one second, like he felt pain too. But he hid it fast. He made his face stone again. "From today, you are no longer pack," he said. His voice shook a little, but only I heard it. "Get out of my territory before sunrise." He turned to leave. It was over. But then another voice came. "Wait, Alpha." Jessica. Caleb's fiancée. The most beautiful girl in the pack. Daughter of the Northern Alliance. She walked into the circle in a red dress and high heels. She was smiling, but her eyes were cruel. She stood over me. She looked down at me like I was dirt. "Did you really think you could steal my man, you little b***h?" she said, low so only I could hear. Then loud, for everyone: "How dare a low omega dream of being Luna! You insult our Alpha!" She raised her hand. SLAP! Her hand hit my face hard. So hard my head snapped to the side. My lip split open. My ears rang. I tasted blood. "Jessica, enough," Caleb said, but he did not stop her. He did not move. Jessica laughed. She kicked my stomach with her pointed shoe. "Get up and crawl away, omega. Like the dog you are." Pain shot through my belly. Sharp. Different from bond pain. Lower. Deeper. My hand went to my stomach by instinct. I held it. No. No, not my stomach. The laughter got louder. Someone threw snow at me. Someone threw a small stone. I forced myself to stand. One leg, then the other. My white dress was red with blood now. My bare feet were blue from cold. My hair was wet and stuck to my face. My lip was bleeding nonstop. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. My hand left a red mark. I looked at Caleb one last time. My mate. My Alpha. The man I loved since I was 10 years old, watching him train from the kitchen window. He was looking away. At the trees. At the sky. Anywhere but at me. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white. "You will regret this," I said. My voice was broken. Hoarse from screaming. But I said it clear. "I, Sophie Lane, will never forgive you, Caleb Blackwood. Never." His shoulders tensed. But he said nothing. I turned. I started walking. One step. Two steps. Three steps. The snow was deep. It went into my dress. Into my wounds. Every step was fire and ice. The pack made a path for me, but they spat on the path. "Good riddance!" "Trash!" I walked out of the circle. Out of the square. Towards the dark forest. Towards the blizzard that was coming fast. The wind howled. Snow hit my face like needles. Behind me, I heard Jessica's sweet voice: "Alpha, are you okay? Don't worry about her. Let's go inside..." And Caleb's low voice: "...Yeah." He left. He really left me to die in a blizzard. I kept walking. My bare feet left bloody footprints in the snow. Red steps leading away from home. After ten steps, my vision went black at the edges. After twenty steps, my stomach cramped again. Worse this time. A sharp, twisting pain deep inside. I fell on my knees. I held my belly with both hands. "Please... please not now..." I whispered to my own body. I did not know what was happening inside me. I only felt something small and fragile hurting with me. I tried to stand again. My legs would not listen. The blizzard got stronger. White everywhere. I could not see the pack house anymore. I could not see anything. Cold. So cold. I fell forward. My face hit the snow. The snow was soft but freezing. It covered my bleeding lip. I thought: So this is how I die. On my 18th birthday. Rejected, beaten, alone in snow. I closed my eyes. Then I heard it. Through the wind, a small sound. Not the wind. A... heartbeat? Two heartbeats? One was mine, slow and weak. The other... was even smaller. Faster. Inside my belly. Thump-thump-thump. My eyes flew open. "My baby?" I whispered to the snow. I did not even know I had a baby. But my hand knew. My body knew. "Is that you? Are you there?" The small heartbeat answered, fast and scared, like it was saying: Mama, don't leave me. Tears froze on my face. I tried to crawl. One hand forward, then the other. I left a trail of blood and tears. "I will not die... I will not let you die..." I promised the small heartbeat. Then my strength left me. My head fell back into snow. The last thing I saw before blackness was a pair of old brown boots walking towards me through the blizzard. A old woman's voice shouted: "GIRL! OH MOON GODDESS, GIRL! HOLD ON!" Strong old hands grabbed my frozen shoulders and pulled me from the snow.