THE ALPHA'S FORSAKEN LUNA

The Exile

I woke in darkness. The floor beneath me was cold, damp stone. The air smelled of mold and rot and something else. Something familiar. Rogues. I was in the dungeon beneath the pack house. The place they kept prisoners. The place where wolves went when they had no pack, no home, no future. My shoulder still burned where the Alpha had touched me. The rejection mark. A brand that would never fully heal. A scar that would mark me as unwanted for the rest of my life. "You are awake." The voice came from the shadows. I did not need to see his face to recognize it. "Marcus," I said flatly. "Come to gloat?" The Beta stepped into the sliver of moonlight that filtered through the barred window. His face was unreadable, but his eyes were hungry. "The Alpha wants you gone by sunrise." "Gone where?" "It does not matter. Off pack lands. Out of his sight. You are exiled, Omega's daughter. No pack will take you now. The rejection mark brands you as damaged goods." I laughed. A hollow, broken sound. "Damaged goods? Is that what I am?" "You are worse than that. You are a reminder of what the Alpha rejected. No one wants reminders." He was right. I knew he was right. The rejection had not just broken my bond with Kael. It had broken my place in wolf society. No Alpha would accept a rejected mate into their pack. It was too much of a risk, too much drama, too much reminder that the Moon Goddess could be wrong.

I would be alone. Truly alone. For the rest of my life. "Get up." Marcus grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. "The Alpha wants you out of here before dawn. I am to escort you to the border."

He dragged me through the dark corridors of the pack house. I caught glimpses of faces in doorways. Wolves who had known me my whole life, watching me leave like I was a disease being expelled from a healthy body. No one said goodbye. No one met my eyes.

At the pack's eastern border, Marcus stopped. The boundary line was invisible to human eyes, but I could feel it. A shimmer of magic that marked the edge of Shadowfang territory. "Cross that line," Marcus said, "and you are no longer part of this pack. You are no longer part of anything." I looked back at the only home I had ever known. The dark shapes of buildings. The silver glint of moonlight on the pack house roof. "I will remember this," I said quietly. "Every one of you. Every face that looked away. Every wolf who laughed when I fell." Marcus's expression flickered. Something like fear, quickly suppressed. "Threats from an Omega's daughter mean nothing."

"This is not a threat." I stepped across the boundary line. "It is a promise."