The rejected Luna

His choice

Blood soaked the stone floors of the great hall as I drove my blade into a rogue’s throat. Another one slammed into me from the side and we crashed hard against a fallen pillar. All around us Blackridge warriors were dying. The rival pack had broken through the eastern wall and poured into the castle like a flood.

Clarissa’s scream cut through the noise.

I turned and saw two rogues pinning her against the far wall, one of them holding a knife under her chin. I didn’t think. I just ran towards her but I never reached her.

A massive arm locked around my throat from behind and yanked me backward.

“Not so fast.”

The deep, commanding voice sent a chill down my spine.

Alpha Aldrich.

Leader of the Bloodfang Pack.

The man who had spent years trying to bring Blackridge to its knees.

He dragged me into the center of the hall where everyone could see, his other hand still tangled in Clarissa’s hair. Both of us were trapped.

That was when it happened.

A violent silver light exploded across my left wrist at the same moment it flared on Riven’s across the hall. The mate bond slammed into me so hard my knees almost gave out. My wolf howled in pure recognition.

Riven froze mid-fight.

Alpha Aldrich noticed it first. He stopped, stared at the matching marks, then slowly smiled.

“Well,” he said, loud enough for the entire hall to hear. “This changes everything.”

He forced Clarissa to her knees and pressed the blade harder against my throat.

“Alpha Riven. Your pack law is very clear. An Alpha may only bond to one mate for life.” He jerked Clarissa’s head back. “So choose. Accept the mate the moon just gave you… or save the woman you’ve loved since you were a boy.”

The hall went deathly quiet.

Riven’s chest rose and fell hard. His eyes moved between me and Clarissa, torn in a way I had never seen before.

“Riven!” Clarissa’s voice cracked with pure terror. “Please… don’t let them kill me. You’re the only one who’s ever protected me. Please!”

Riven’s hands clenched into fists as conflict twisted across his face. He looked at me, eyes full of pain.

“Elara… please understand.” His voice was rough. “You’re strong. But Clarissa can’t deal with this.”

My heart stuttered, but I still clung to hope.

“Riven, we’ve known each other our whole lives,” I said, my voice shaking. “You swore you would always protect me. After my father died for yours… you promised. Don’t do this. Please. We can find another way.”

For a second, something in his expression cracked.

Then Clarissa sobbed his name again, broken and desperate.

Riven’s face hardened.

“Stop being unreasonable, Elara.” The words were sharp. “Clarissa is fragile. She can’t endure any grievances. Don’t you understand?”

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, as if the decision was killing him. When he opened them, the choice was already made.

“I reject the bond.”

The rejection tore through my chest like fire. My wolf screamed so violently that the world went white. I collapsed to my knees as the silver mark on my wrist burned.

Through the tears, I looked up.

Clarissa was still on her knees, but the fear had left her eyes. A small, satisfied smile touched her lips as she watched me shatter.

And that was when the realization finally hit me.

He had never been mine. The pain kept ripping through me in waves so strong I could barely breathe. My wolf was still screaming inside my head, raw and broken, while the silver mark on my wrist burned like open fire. Around us the hall had gone strangely quiet. Everyone was frozen, staring at the rejected bond that still hung in the air like smoke.

Then Alpha Aldrich smiled.

It wasn’t a smile of victory over the battle. It was colder than that. He looked at me the way a man looks at something that has just lost all its value.

“A rejected Luna is worth nothing,” he said quietly.

He raised his sword and stepped toward me.

Every Blackridge warrior tried to move at once, but they were surrounded. Rogues pressed in from every side, blades ready. No one could reach me in time.

Riven finally snapped out of his shock.

“ALDRICH!”

He lunged forward like a man possessed, but his Beta caught him around the chest and dragged him back.

“Alpha! You’ll get yourself killed!”

Riven struggled wildly, eyes locked on the sword coming toward me. At the same moment Clarissa threw herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

He held her almost instinctively, one arm wrapping around her shaking body. But his eyes never left me. Even while he held the woman he had chosen, he watched the blade that was about to end my life.

Aldrich didn’t hesitate.

The sword plunged into my chest.

White-hot agony exploded through me. I screamed as blood filled my mouth and ran into my eyes. The world tilted. I could feel my strength leaving in a rush. My knees hit the floor. I closed my eyes, waiting for the darkness to take me.

Instead, a deafening roar shook the entire castle.

It wasn’t a wolf’s howl. It was something deeper, older, and far more terrifying. The stained-glass windows shattered outward in a rain of colored glass. Everyone turned.

The massive doors at the end of the hall exploded inward. Smoke rolled across the floor in thick waves. Through it walked a single figure.

Alpha Eric.

He wasn’t running. He walked with slow, deliberate steps that echoed through the sudden silence. His eyes found me instantly, lying in a spreading pool of my own blood. For one heartbeat the strongest Alpha in the region looked terrified.

“Elara!”

He shifted mid-stride. A massive silver wolf tore through three rogues before anyone could react, then shifted back in a blur of light and fury. Aldrich swung his sword. Eric caught the blade with his own. Steel screamed against steel, the force of the clash sending nearby warriors stumbling.

The hall erupted into chaos again, but it was already too late for Aldrich.

Before the rival Alpha could fully recover, Eric’s sword flashed in a clean, brutal arc. Aldrich’s head left his shoulders and hit the stone floor with a heavy thud. His pack froze. Then, as one, they turned and fled.

Eric didn’t watch them go.

He was already on his knees beside me, gathering my broken body into his arms. Blood soaked through his clothes as he held me against his chest.

“Get the healer!” he roared, voice cracking. “Get the pack healer now! If she dies I’ll have every last one of your heads!”

His arms tightened around me as my vision started to fade. I felt him lower his forehead against my blood-soaked hair, and for the first time I heard the strongest Alpha in Blackridge sob.

“Stay with me, child,” he whispered, his voice breaking. “Stay with me…”

My breathing grew weaker.

The pain was slipping away, replaced by a frightening numbness.

I could barely hear the cries around me anymore.

Just then, Riven stumbled toward us.

“Elara…”

His voice cracked as he dropped to one knee, reaching for my hand.

Before his fingers could touch me, Alpha Eric knocked his hand away.

“Don’t.”

The single word was quiet.

But it carried enough authority to freeze the entire hall.

Riven stared at his father in stunned silence.

Eric never looked at him.

His eyes remained fixed on me as he gently brushed the blood-soaked strands of hair away from my face.

“You promised,” he whispered, tears falling freely now. “You promised you’d stop calling me ‘Old Alpha’ when you became Luna.”

I wanted to answer.

I wanted to tell him I remembered.

But my lips refused to move.

The darkness closed in around me.

The last thing I heard was Alpha Eric’s desperate roar.

“Healers!”

The doors burst open as two pack healers rushed into the hall, carrying their medicine satchels.

“Move!” Alpha Eric barked.

Without waiting for them to reach him, he rose to his feet with me still cradled securely in his arms and strode out of the great hall.

“Save her.”

His voice trembled with a desperation no one had ever heard before.

“Whatever it takes… save her.”

The world around me blurred.

Then everything faded into darkness.