Claimed By Alpha

2.

I didn’t sleep that night.

Not really.

I sat near the edge of the forest until the sky started to lighten, watching the pack lights in the distance slowly fade into morning like nothing important had happened inside that hall. That part confused me more than anything else. The world didn’t feel like it had changed, even though I knew I had.

My wolf stayed quiet. Too quiet. It felt like something inside me had gone numb, like it didn’t know how to respond anymore. I kept waiting for the pain to get worse, or clearer, or turn into something I could actually understand. But it didn’t. It just stayed there, like an empty space I couldn’t fill.

When I finally stood up, my legs felt heavier than usual. I didn’t go back to the pack house. I didn’t want questions, and I didn’t want eyes on me. So I just walked until the path became familiar again, until my body took me somewhere it already knew how to survive.

⸻

By the time I reached the small area behind the lower cabins, the pack was already awake.

Life continued in its usual rhythm. Wolves passed by carrying out their routines, talking, working, pretending the world was normal. A few of them looked at me, but quickly looked away again. I didn’t know if they were avoiding me or just unsure what I was now supposed to be.

Rejected mate.

The thought didn’t feel real even when I repeated it in my head.

I kept my head down and went straight to my assigned duties. Cleaning, organizing, anything that kept my hands busy and my mind from going back to the hall. It worked for a while. Physical work usually did.

Until I heard my name.

Not loudly. Not directly.

Just enough to make me pause.

“Is that her?”

“I heard she was the one…”

“Alpha rejected her immediately…”

My grip tightened around the cloth in my hand, but I didn’t turn around. Turning around meant acknowledging it, and I wasn’t ready for that yet. I kept moving, even though my chest felt tight again.

I told myself it didn’t matter.

But my body didn’t listen.

⸻

It was later in the afternoon when I felt it again.

That same pressure from last night.

Not pain this time.

Attention.

I stopped walking without meaning to.

The air felt heavier for a second, like something had entered the space before I even saw it.

And then I heard footsteps.

Slow. Controlled.

I didn’t need to look up to know who it was.

Kael Draven didn’t walk like the others.

There was no noise around him when he moved. Even when he wasn’t trying to silence anything, the world seemed to adjust.

I forced myself to keep my eyes on the ground.

He stopped a few steps away from me.

Not too close.

Not far either.

Just… there.

I didn’t move.

Neither did he.

That silence between us felt different from the one in the hall. This one wasn’t public. It wasn’t performative. It felt like something unfinished.

“I was told you’re still working here,” he said.

His voice was calm. Almost flat.

I didn’t answer immediately. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to.

“I am,” I said finally.

Another pause.

I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t look up.

“You should request reassignment,” he said.

That made me stop.

For the first time, I looked at him properly.

His expression didn’t show anything obvious. No anger. No regret. Just control.

“Why?” I asked.

A small pause followed that. Not hesitation. More like calculation.

“Last night changes your position in the pack,” he said. “People will react differently around you.”

I almost laughed at that, but it didn’t come out.

“They already did,” I said quietly.

That made something shift in his expression for half a second. Not enough for me to read properly, but enough that I noticed it wasn’t nothing.

Still, his voice stayed the same.

“Then you understand why it’s better to distance yourself.”

I stared at him for a second longer than I should have.

He was speaking like this was practical. Like what happened between us was just a situation that needed organizing, not something that had already happened to both of us.

It should have made sense.

It didn’t.

“I understand,” I said finally.

I didn’t know why I said it.

Maybe because it was easier than arguing.

Maybe because I didn’t know what else to say to him anymore.

There was another pause.

Longer this time.

And then he nodded once.

“Good.”

That word should have ended it.

But it didn’t feel like it did.

Because as he turned slightly to leave, I noticed something I shouldn’t have.

He didn’t walk away immediately.

Not fully.

Just… slower than before.

Like something about leaving wasn’t as simple as it should have been.

And I hated that my chest reacted to that more than it should have.

⸻

That night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Not the rejection.

Not the hall.

Not even the pain.

But that moment in the afternoon when he stood there like nothing in him had changed at all.

And still somehow—

nothing about me felt normal anymore either.

I lay down on my small bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to force my mind to stop replaying everything.

But my wolf stirred once again.

Not loudly.

Not painfully.

Just enough for me to notice.

Like it was waiting for something.

Or someone.

And I didn’t understand why that thought scared me more than the rejection itself.

————————

I thought the rejection meant freedom.

But i was wrong.

Two days after the hall, I was called to the pack council room.

Not asked.

Summoned.

And when I stepped inside, I immediately felt it — something was off.

Elders were already seated.

Alpha Kael was there too.

Waiting.

Like i was the only one who hadn’t been informed what my life had already been decided into.

An elder finally spoke.

“She cannot leave the pack grounds.”

I frowned slightly. “What?”

Another voice answered this time.

“By Moon Law, a rejected mate remains bound to the Alpha’s territory until her status is resolved through formal union or release.”

My stomach tightened.

Kael didn’t react.

Didn’t look at me.

Just stared at the table like this had nothing to do with him.

But I felt it immediately.

This wasn’t over.

Not even close.