I Rejected You

Prologue

"Father, it wasn’t me! Please don’t take me to the prison of shadows!"

My voice was a raw, desperate thing, echoing off the damp stone walls as my father dragged me toward the iron-grated maw of the dungeon.

Tears blurred my vision, turning the flickering torchlight into jagged streaks of fire. I stumbled, my knees scraping the rough floor, but his grip remained iron-clad.

He didn't look back at me. Not once. His shoulders were stiff, and he moved with a mechanical precision that terrified me more than his anger ever could.

I hadn’t poisoned Seleira. The memory of the event played on a loop in my mind, mocking me. She had asked for a drink, her voice sweet and deceptive, and I had brought it to her. I could still see her face. I saw the way her eyes rolled back into her head and the white foam that gathered at her lips as she collapsed. If I had known the water was laced with silver-bane, I would have smashed the glass into dust.

"Your daughter is a murderer, Alpha! I saw Ai give her the water! She must have done it!"

Seven’s voice still rang in my head like a funeral bell. Seven, the boy I had grown up with. He had pointed a finger with such practiced ease while he cradled the unconscious princess in his arms. He looked like a hero, and I looked like a monster.

The courtroom had erupted into a sea of snarls. All eyes were on me. They were full of a hatred so thick it felt like a physical weight pressing the air out of my lungs. No one asked for proof. No one cared that despite our long-standing rivalry, I would never cross the line into cold-blooded murder. I was the Beta's daughter, the girl who never quite fit in, and that was enough to make me guilty in their eyes.

"Kill her!" Alpha Samuel’s command sliced through the air.

My heart stopped. My entire body trembled with a primal terror of the end. Death was a cold shadow looming over me, and I was not ready to face it. I looked at the Alpha, searching for a shred of the man who had once patted my head when I was a child, but I found only a grieving, vengeful wolf.

"Alpha, perhaps a different punishment would be fair? We still don’t know if Ai is truly guilty," my father intervened. His voice lacked the fire of a man defending his innocent child. It sounded like a plea for a lighter sentence rather than a declaration of my innocence.

"You’re just protecting your blood, Greg," the Alpha scoffed. "I’ve seen you shield her before. This is no different. She is a threat to the pack."

"I’ll take her to the prison of shadows," my father said suddenly. His tone turned flat and hollow.

The words hit me harder than a physical blow. The Prison of Shadows was a vacuum where the air felt like liquid lead. In there, the connection to my wolf, Nyra, would be severed by the ancient enchantments in the stone. It was a place where people lost their minds to the darkness before they finally lost their lives.

"One last chance, Greg," the Alpha warned darkly. "If your daughter is found guilty by the council, I won’t spare anyone in your family. Your loyalty will be measured by her blood."

We walked in silence down the long, dim hallway. The smell of rot and old magic grew stronger with every step. I begged my father. I whispered his name until my throat was sore, but his silence was a wall I couldn't climb. When we reached the heavy iron door, he finally turned to me. His face was an expressionless mask, devoid of the warmth he used to show me.

He pressed a cold, heavy object into my palm. It was a golden dagger, its hilt etched with ancient runes that felt warm against my skin.

"Use this, Ai," he whispered.

The heavy door slammed shut. The sound of the bolt sliding into place vibrated through my bones. I stared at the weapon in the dim light. Did he want me to end my life before the shadows drove me mad? Was this his final mercy, a way to escape the Alpha's executioner?

I tucked the blade into my belt and curled into a ball in the corner of the freezing cell. The darkness pressed against my skin like cold velvet, whispering things I didn't want to hear.

I don’t know how long I sat there. Time has no meaning in the shadows. But eventually, the heavy thud of boots vibrated through the floor. A scent cut through the musk of the dungeon. It was sandalwood, rain, and something metallic. It was a scent I knew well, one that usually meant safety, but now it meant only danger.

"Sir, no one is allowed to enter. The Alpha’s orders," I heard the guard say. His voice was shaky, full of a fear that made my own blood run cold.

"I am the future Alpha of this pack. Are you really going to deny me entry?"

The voice was like grinding velvet. It was Zayn.

My heart thrashed against my ribs like a trapped bird. Zayn had been at the borders for months, dealing with rebellions with a ruthlessness that made even the pack Elders flinch. He was Seleira’s brother. He was the pack’s fiercest warrior, a man who didn't know the meaning of the word mercy. If he entered this cell, he wouldn't just kill me. He would make me suffer for every drop of blood his sister had lost.

Terror surged through me, eclipsing my reason. I wasn't strong enough to fight him. I was a girl with a broken connection to her wolf, and he was a monster in human skin.

With trembling hands, I unsheathed the golden dagger. A sad, hollow smile tugged at my lips. Maybe my father knew Zayn would come. Maybe he gave me this so I could escape the pain of a warrior’s wrath on my own terms. I didn't want to die, but I feared his torture more than I feared the grave.

As the door creaked open, the silhouette of a massive man filled the frame. He was a wall of muscle and menace. I didn't wait to see the hatred in his eyes or hear the words of condemnation. I closed my eyes, prayed for forgiveness, and drove the blade into my side.

But there was no explosion of pain. Only a dull, cold shock that radiated through my ribs. A strangled cry tore through the room. It wasn't from me. It was from him.

"Ai! No!"

Strong arms caught me before I hit the stone floor. He pulled me against a chest that felt like granite, his heart racing against my ear. Through the haze of my failing vision, I saw him. Zayn. His mask of indifference had shattered completely. His face was fractured with pure, unadulterated horror.

"Darling, what have you done?"

His voice cracked as he knelt on the dirty floor. His hands hovered over the wound in a desperate, panicked motion, his fingers shaking as they touched the hilt of the dagger.

"I didn’t do it," I whispered. My voice was a thready rasp. Blood began to soak through my shirt, warm and sticky. "I didn’t poison her, Zayn."

Zayn’s face hovered inches from mine. His eyes were usually as cold as a winter storm, but now they were burning with an intensity I couldn't understand.

"I know, Ai. I know you didn’t do it," he said.

The shock of his words was more potent than the blood loss. He believed me? "Why?" I managed to ask. The world was beginning to tilt and spin.

He pressed his hand firmly against the wound to staunch the flow, his jaw tightening as if he were the one feeling the blade. "Because I’ve been watching over you for years, Ai. I found the truth the moment I crossed the border. I found the silver-bane in Seven's room. I should have been here sooner. I am so sorry."

"You shouldn't care," I breathed. I had spent my life as an outsider, a girl barely tolerated by the pack because of my quiet nature.

"You should have waited for me," he whispered. His voice was pained and possessive. He lifted me with an ease that spoke of his immense strength, tucking my head into the crook of his neck. "I won’t let you die. Not when I’ve finally come back to claim you."

I tried to focus on his face. I wanted to ask what he meant by claiming me, but the darkness of the cell was finally merging with the darkness in my mind. The coldness was spreading from my side to my fingertips.

"Stay with me," he urged. His voice was the last thing I heard as the shadows pulled me under. "Don’t give up, Ai. I’ve got you. I'll kill them all for what they did to you."

As I slipped into the final void of unconsciousness, a single, impossible thought remained. The most feared man in the pack was crying for me. He was holding me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I belonged to someone.