The Rejected Mate

Chapter 4

Selene’s POV

The hallway of the Pack Hall, once a place where I walked with my head held high as Luna, now felt like a tunnel of ice. Every word drifting through the cracked door of Sebastian's office was a jagged shard, cutting through the thin veil of hope I had foolishly tried to wrap around my heart.

"You deserve an heir," Aria’s voice purred again, dripping with a sweetness that made my stomach turn. "And I’ll be the one to give you everything she couldn't."

I watched, paralyzed, as Sebastian’s hand remained on her thigh. He didn't pull away. He didn't defend the three years we had spent building a life. He didn't even flinch at the mention of the children he had supposedly craved so deeply.

He doesn’t want my babies, the realization hits me with the force of a physical blow. *He wants 'an heir.' Any heir. As long as the mother isn't me.

I didn't realize I was moving until my shoulder hit the cold stone of the stairwell. I stumbled, my hand flying to my stomach. A strange, rhythmic thrumming vibrated against my palm—not just one heartbeat, but two, steady and defiant. It was as if they were telling me to run, to hide, to protect them from the coldness that lived in their father’s soul.

I reached the bottom floor and burst through the heavy oak doors. The wind was howling now, a mirror to the storm inside me. I didn't call Ethan. I didn't care about the rain. I just ran toward the mansion, my lungs burning, the salt of my tears mixing with the rain on my lips.

I reached out of his bedroom and ripped the divorce papers off the bed. My hands shook so violently the paper rattled like dry leaves. I didn't read the clauses about the millions. I didn't look at the division of assets. I grabbed a pen from the nightstand and scrawled my name across the bottom, the ink bleeding into the damp paper.

"You want Aria?" I whispered to the empty, opulent room. "Then you can have her. But you will never have them."

I threw the signed papers onto his pillow.

I didn't pack much. A few clothes, my mother's jewelry, and the medical file Julian had given me. As I reached for my passport in the wall safe, a small, velvet box caught my eye. It was the necklace Sebastian had given me on our first anniversary, a silver wolf moon with an amethyst center to match my eyes. He had told me then that as long as the moon shone, he would find his way back to me.

With a sob of pure, unadulterated rage, I threw the box across the room. It hit the mirror with a sickening c***k, spider webbing the glass.

I slipped out the back entrance, avoiding the security cameras I knew the blind spots of. I reached the edge of the estate, where the thick forest of Dark Hollow Falls began. Beyond these trees lay the human world a place where an Alpha’s command meant nothing.

I took one last look at the silhouette of the Pack Hall in the distance. The lights were still on in his office. He was likely still smiling at the woman who had systematically dismantled my life.

I stepped into the shadows of the trees, my wolf howling in agony at the distance growing between us and our mate. But as I crossed the invisible ley line that marked the pack’s border, something happened.

The bond, that golden, glowing thread that had connected my soul to Sebastian’s for three years didn't just stretch.

It snapped.

A scream tore from my throat as I collapsed to my knees, clutching my chest. It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my ribs and replaced with molten lead. The silence in my head was deafening. For the first time since I was eighteen, I couldn't feel him. I couldn't feel his moods, his scent, or his heartbeat.

I was alone.

But as the agonizing silence settled, a new sensation took its place. A low, golden hum began to radiate from my womb. It wasn't the soft flutter of normal twins. It was a roar—ancient, powerful, and fiercely protective. My eyes, usually a soft amethyst, flared with a light so bright it reflected off the wet leaves like lightning.

I stood up, my weakness replaced by a cold, shimmering clarity. Sebastian thought he was rejecting a discarded wife. He didn't realize he had just severed his connection to the very source of the pack's power.

I turned my back on Dark Hollow Falls and began to walk. I had gone less than a mile when the sound of a heavy engine growled through the trees. Headlights cut through the darkness, pinning me like a deer in the brush.

A black SUV skidded to a halt, and the door swung open. A man stepped out, but it wasn't one of Sebastian’s Sentinels. He was dressed in a dark tactical suit, a symbol of a silver crown over a broken sword stitched onto his shoulder.

"Luna Selene?" the man asked, his voice like gravel.

I reached for the silver dagger hidden in my boot. "Who are you?"

He bowed his head, but his eyes remained locked on my stomach. "Your father didn't just send you away three years ago to be a wife, Selene. He sent you to be a sleeper. The Blackwood Syndicate has been waiting for the bond to break."

My heart hammered against my ribs. "What are you talking about?"

"Sebastian King just committed the greatest mistake in werewolf history," the man said, stepping into the light. It was Caleb, Sebastian’s Beta, but he wasn't wearing the pack colors. He looked at me with a mixture of pity and terrifying loyalty. "He thinks he let go of a woman. He doesn't realize he just released the Goddess’s Fury. And Aria... Aria isn't just his ex-girlfriend, Selene. She’s the one who hired us to ensure you never make it to the border alive."

From the darkness behind him, several more figures emerged, their eyes glowing not with the gold of the King Pack, but with a sickly, synthetic red.

"Run, Selene," Caleb whispered, his own eyes shifting. "Because if I catch you, I have orders to bring back the children with or without the mother."