THE ROGUE ALPHA’S FORSAKEN MATE

Chapter 1

everything I believed about my life shattered in a single moment.

Declan was on the bed with Wren. My cousin. I stopped in the doorway, frozen, my mind refusing to accept what my eyes were seeing. I stood there staring, waiting for the scene to change, waiting for Declan to turn into the boy I knew, the boy who had spent two years promising me that tonight would finally belong to us. But nothing changed. He was there with her, on the very night he was supposed to claim me.

Then Wren looked up.

Our eyes met, and instead of guilt or shame, she gave me a slow, deliberate smile. She had seen me. She knew I was standing there. And she didn't care. If anything, she seemed pleased. Then she deliberately moaned louder.

The sound went through me like a blade. Tears filled my eyes before I could stop them, spilling down my cheeks as I gripped the doorframe. Wren had done this on purpose. She wanted me to see. She wanted to humiliate me. She knew what tonight meant to me, how long I had waited, how frightened I had been that something would go wrong because I was half-human. She knew every insecurity I carried. Yet here she was, lying beside him on the night he had promised to make me his.

Declan was the boy I had loved since I was sixteen. For two years, he had told me that when my Claiming Night came, I would finally have nothing to fear. He had promised to mark me, to make me his, to prove my human blood didn't matter. I had believed every word.

Then Declan turned.

His eyes found mine, and the color drained from his face. "Nova…" He scrambled away from Wren. "I'm sorry."

I couldn't answer. My throat had locked.

"Nova, please." He took a step toward me.

I stepped back. He stopped. Regret was in his eyes now, maybe even shame. But none of it could change what I had seen. I didn't want his explanation. I didn't want to know whether this had happened once or for months. Whatever this was, it had meant enough for him to do it on the one night that mattered most to me.

Tonight was supposed to be my Claiming Night. Instead, I had walked in on the man I loved with my own cousin. The night I had spent two years dreaming about had become the most painful night of my life.

Earlier that day, I had been nervous, wondering whether everything would go as I had imagined. I had worried about my wolf, about my human side, about whether Declan would look at me differently. Mara had noticed. She had taken my hands and reminded me that being different didn't make me difficult to love, that Declan had already chosen me. I had believed her. I had believed him.

Now I didn't know what to believe anymore.

My fingers tightened around the door handle. Declan said my name again, but I couldn't bear to hear it. I let go and ran.

"Nova!"

His voice followed me down the corridor, but I didn't turn around. The celebration was already being prepared outside. Only minutes earlier, I had imagined walking into that celebration beside Declan with his mark on my neck. Now there would be no celebration for me. No congratulations. No future.

I pushed through the doors and ran into the forest.

I didn't know where I was going. I only knew I couldn't stay there. I couldn't let anyone see my face. I couldn't stand the thought of someone looking at me with pity. So I kept running past the treeline, deeper into the darkness, until the pack grounds disappeared behind me. When I finally stopped, I sank against a tree and covered my face.

I had lost Declan. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was knowing what tomorrow would bring. Everyone would know. The elders, my father, Mara, the entire pack would hear that Declan had been with Wren instead of claiming me. Some would pity me. Some would whisper behind my back. Others would find a reason to blame me, the way they always did.

I had spent my entire life being reminded that I was different. Too human for some wolves, too wolf for the humans. My wolf was weaker than everyone else's, and shifting had never come naturally to me. Maybe they would say Declan had finally realized what everyone else already knew. Maybe they would say I wasn't enough for him.

I pressed my palms against my face, but the tears wouldn't stop. Mara had told me that being different didn't make me less worthy of love. I wanted to believe her. But all I could see was Wren's smile. She hadn't looked sorry. She had looked satisfied. She had wanted to break me, and she had succeeded.

Declan's apology didn't matter anymore. It couldn't give me back the two years I had spent trusting him. It couldn't erase the promises he had made. I had imagined waking up tomorrow with his mark on my neck, finally chosen. Instead, I was sitting alone in the forest, wondering whether he had ever truly loved me at all.

I lifted my head and looked toward the faint lights of the pack in the distance. Home was there. My father was there. Mara was there. But I couldn't make myself go back. How was I supposed to walk through those doors and pretend I was still the same girl? How was I supposed to tell Mara that the night she had reassured me about had ended with me finding Declan in bed with Wren? And how could I face Wren after the way she had looked at me?

I couldn't. Not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow either.

I wiped my cheeks and looked toward the pack one last time. Then I turned away. I didn't know where I would sleep. I didn't know what I would do when morning came. But I knew I couldn't return to that house and face the people who had watched my future fall apart.

So I walked deeper into the forest with nowhere to go, carrying nothing but the pain I couldn't leave behind.

I couldn't go back.