REJECTED BY MY ALPHA, CLAIMED BY HIS RIVAL

CLAIMED

The cold hit me first.

One second I was standing in the ceremonial circle, shame burning my cheeks as Kade’s rejection echoed through the pack link. The next, I was stumbling backward, the stone under my boots slick with early morning dew. My knees hit the ground hard.

Rejected.

The word wasn’t just in my head. It was in the air, in the way twenty wolves avoided looking at me, in the way my chest felt like someone had ripped out my ribs and left the wound open to the wind.

Kade didn’t look back.

He shifted on the dais, shoulders set, and spoke to Beta Ronan like I’d already ceased to exist. “See that she leaves pack grounds by noon. An unmated omega has no place in Blackthorn.”

My throat closed. _Leave. By noon._

Wolfless, bondless, and now homeless.

I could feel the pack’s pity through the link. Worse than hate. Pity meant they’d already decided I was dead.

Then the air changed.

It was subtle at first—like static before a storm. The temperature dropped ten degrees. The wolves near the tree line went rigid. Even Kade’s shoulders tensed.

Footsteps. Heavy. Deliberate.

From the shadows of the forest, a man stepped out.

He wasn’t Blackthorn. No one in Blackthorn dressed like that. Black leather jacket, dark tactical pants, a silver chain at his throat that wasn’t pack insignia. His scent hit me a second later: smoke, steel, and something wild that made my useless human instincts scream _danger_.

Alpha Damien.

Nightfang’s Alpha. Kade’s rival. The man we’d been warned about since childhood.

“Breaking ceremony protocol, Kade?” Damien’s voice was low, amused, and carried across the entire clearing without him raising it. “Classy. Rejecting your mate in front of the full moon. You trying to get the Moon Goddess to curse you?”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Kade’s jaw clenched. “This doesn’t concern you, Damien. Leave. Now.”

Damien ignored him. His dark eyes swept the circle, landed on me, and didn’t move.

I tried to look away. I couldn’t. It was like being pinned under a spotlight. He wasn’t looking at me like Kade had—like I was an inconvenience. He was looking at me like I was a problem he intended to solve.

“You’re bleeding,” he said.

I blinked. “What?”

“Your hand.” He took one step forward. “You’re bleeding.”

I glanced down. The fall had split my palm open. Blood welled up, bright red against the dirt. I hadn’t even felt it. The pain of the rejection was louder.

Damien’s nostrils flared. His expression shifted—just for a second. Something sharp and furious flashed across his face, gone before I could name it.

“Don’t,” Kade warned.

Damien smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.

“Pack law is clear, Kade,” he said, his voice dropping into that dangerous, quiet register that made even the older warriors shift uncomfortably. “An unmated omega without a pack is unclaimed. Unclaimed wolves are fair game.”

He stopped three feet in front of me. Close enough that I could see the flecks of gold in his irises. Close enough that his scent drowned out everything else.

“Claim her, and she’s under my protection. Reject her, and anyone can take her. Including me.”

Kade was on his feet now, fury rolling off him in waves. “She’s not yours to claim. She’s mine to release.”

Damien crouched.

I flinched, expecting pain. Instead, he took my injured hand carefully, like he was handling something breakable. His thumb brushed over the cut. The sting faded instantly.

“Look at me,” he said quietly. Only for me.

I did.

His eyes were furious, but not at me.

“You feel it, don’t you?” he murmured. “The pull. It’s why Kade panicked. Why he rejected you so fast he tore his own wolf up in the process.”

My breath caught. “I don’t—”

“Liar.” His thumb stroked my knuckles once. “Your heart’s racing. Your scent changed the moment I got close. You’re my mate, Luna Vale.”

The entire clearing went silent.

Even the wind stopped.

Kade roared. “You don’t get to say her name!”

Damien stood, pulling me up with him. I was shaking, but not from fear. Something else. Something that felt like coming home and going to war at the same time.

He turned me to face the pack, my hand still in his. His other arm came around my waist, possessive, undeniable.

“I, Damien Wolfe, Alpha of Nightfang Pack, claim Luna Vale as my mate and future Luna,” he announced, voice ringing with authority. “Touch her, and you answer to me. Threaten her, and I will burn your territory to the ground.”

Gasps. Whispers. Outrage.

Kade looked like he wanted to kill him.

But he didn’t move. Because if he challenged Damien now, in front of the pack, he’d have to admit the bond was real. And admitting that would mean admitting he’d rejected his own mate out of fear.

Cowardice. The one thing an Alpha couldn’t afford.

Damien’s lips brushed my ear. Only I could hear it.

“Hold on,” he whispered. “We’re leaving. And you’re never going back.”

He didn’t wait for my answer. He shifted in one fluid motion, massive black wolf with silver eyes, and scooped me up carefully in his jaws.

The last thing I saw before he leapt into the forest was Kade’s face.

And for the first time since I met him, Kade looked terrified.

---

I woke up to the sound of a heartbeat.

Not mine. Slower. Steadier.

I was in a bed. A real bed. Not the thin cot in the omega quarters. The room was dark, lit only by moonlight through tall windows. Stone walls, heavy furs, weapons mounted on the wall like decoration.

Nightfang territory.

I sat up too fast. Pain lanced through my head.

“Easy.”

Damien was in the chair by the bed. He hadn’t shifted back to human yet. He sat there, massive black wolf, watching me with those silver eyes.

“How long was I out?” I asked. My voice was rough.

“Four hours.” He didn’t move. “You fainted. Shock. Rejection does that.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. “Why did you come?”

“Because you’re mine.” He said it like it was obvious. Like the sky being blue. “And because Kade is an idiot.”

“Why didn’t he just accept the bond?”

Damien’s jaw tensed. “Politics. The council wants him to marry Elise Hartford. Hartford Pack controls the trade routes. If he bonds with a wolfless omega, he loses the alliance. He chose power over you.”

The bitterness in his voice surprised me.

“What happens now?” I asked.

“Now,” he said, and finally shifted. Skin over bone, fur retracting, until he was human again, sitting there naked and not seeming to care. “Now you eat. Then you sleep. Then I take you to meet my pack.”

“And after that?”

Damien’s eyes darkened.

“After that, we go to war.”