THE ALPHA REJECTED THE WRONG MATE

Chapter 3: The Exile's Walk

The cheers followed me long after the ceremony ended.

Each burst of celebration echoed through the forest like a reminder that the Blackwood Pack had gained a Luna...

...And lost nothing.

At least, that was what they believed.

The warriors released my arms only after dragging me beyond the sacred clearing. My knees buckled the instant they let go, and I collapsed into the damp earth beneath the ancient pines. The soil was cold against my torn palms. Cold and wet. It smelled of crushed ferns and something metallic—my own blood, I realized. A thin trickle ran from a gash on my forearm where one of the warriors had gripped too tightly.

Neither of them spoke.

Garrick stared at the ground.

Tomas clenched his jaw.

For one brief second, guilt flickered across his face.

"I'm..." he began.

Garrick grabbed his shoulder.

"Don't."

The single word was enough.

Tomas lowered his head.

Without another glance, the two warriors turned and disappeared into the darkness, leaving me alone.

Completely alone.

I watched their silhouettes dissolve into the trees. For a moment, I considered calling after them. Screaming. Begging. But what would be the point? They had made their choice. They had chosen to drag me here like discarded meat. They had chosen to obey.

Everyone always chose to obey.

The celebration behind me continued.

Music.

Laughter.

The sound of goblets clinking together.

They had already begun celebrating Kael and Selena's future.

As though I had never existed.

I laughed.

A quiet, broken laugh escaped my lips before dissolving into tears.

"So this is how it ends."

My voice sounded unfamiliar.

Empty.

My wolf remained silent.

The silence frightened me more than the pain.

"Luna?"

I whispered inside my mind.

Nothing.

"Please..."

Still nothing.

The bond between us had always been alive—warm, comforting, impossible to ignore.

Now...

There was only cold.

A terrifying emptiness.

"No..."

Fresh panic flooded my chest.

"Luna, answer me."

I squeezed my eyes shut, searching desperately for even the faintest trace of her presence.

A heartbeat.

A whisper.

Anything.

Nothing answered.

Had she...

No.

Wolves didn't simply disappear.

Did they?

I didn't know.

No one had ever taught an Omega about broken mate bonds.

No one had ever cared enough.

I pressed my hand against my chest, feeling for the thrum of her presence. For seventeen years, Luna had been my only true companion. She had been there through every beating, every night of hunger, every morning of waking up cold and alone. She was the voice that told me to keep going when I wanted to stop.

And now...

Now there was nothing but the sound of my own ragged breathing.

A sudden breeze swept through the forest.

It carried the scent of rain...

...and something older.

Something ancient.

The hairs along the back of my neck stood upright.

For just an instant...

I thought I heard a woman singing.

The melody drifted between the trees.

Soft.

Haunting.

Beautiful.

Then it vanished.

I lifted my head.

The forest stood silent.

Had I imagined it?

My exhausted body swayed.

Blood still trickled from my scraped knees.

My dress clung heavily to my skin, soaked with icy water and mud.

Every breath hurt.

Every movement hurt.

Every heartbeat reminded me that I was still alive.

A life I wasn't sure I wanted anymore.

"Mother Moon..."

The prayer escaped before I could stop it.

"What did I do wrong?"

No answer came.

Only silence.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness press against me.

Hours passed.

I don't know how long I lay there. Time lost meaning somewhere between the tears and the cold. The forest around me shifted—first dark, then darker. The moon climbed overhead, indifferent to my suffering. Its silver light filtered through the canopy, landing on my broken form like a spotlight.

The celebration inside the Alpha House burned brighter as darkness swallowed the pack lands.

Lanterns glowed like tiny stars.

Music floated through open windows.

Someone had started dancing.

Someone else was singing.

They were celebrating love.

While I sat outside bleeding into the dirt.

I heard a woman's laugh—loud, carefree. Selena. I would have recognized that laugh anywhere. It was the same laugh I had heard a thousand times growing up, always directed at me. Always cruel.

She was laughing now.

Probably in Kael’s arms.

Probably wearing the crown that should never have been mine.

But still...

Still, it hurt.

Eventually...

The cold became unbearable.

I forced myself to stand.

My legs trembled violently beneath me.

One step.

Then another.

The eastern servants' quarters.

That was all I wanted.

A bed.

A blanket.

Somewhere to disappear.

Somewhere to bleed in peace.

The familiar wooden cottages came into view. My chest tightened with relief.

Home.

Or what had once felt like home.

The windows of the servants' quarters glowed with warm amber light. I could see shapes moving inside—other servants, preparing for bed, laughing at some joke I would never be part of. The smell of woodsmoke and cooking oil drifted through the air.

Home.

Before I reached the doorway...

A spear blocked my path.

I froze.

Two guards stood outside the entrance.

Warriors I recognized.

Mason.

Elias.

Both refused to meet my eyes.

"You can't enter."

For a moment...

I thought I'd heard wrong.

"My room is inside."

"It isn't anymore."

Confusion slowly gave way to dread.

"What do you mean?"

Mason swallowed.

"The Alpha's orders."

My stomach dropped.

Elias stepped aside.

Everything I owned...

Every blanket.

Every dress.

Every book.

Every tiny possession collected over seventeen lonely years...

Lay in a broken heap outside the building.

My wooden chest had been smashed open.

Clothes scattered across the muddy ground.

The small carved wolf my mother had given me before she died...

Split cleanly in half.

My breath caught.

"No..."

I stumbled toward it.

A boot crushed the carved toy before I could reach it.

Crunch.

The tiny wooden wolf shattered into splinters.

I looked up.

Selena's personal maid smiled.

"Oh."

She feigned surprise.

"I didn't see it."

Behind her, several servant girls giggled. They had been waiting for this, I realized. They had gathered like vultures, eager to watch me fall.

One picked up my folded blanket.

"What should we do with this?"

Another wrinkled her nose dramatically.

"It smells like Omega."

The blanket landed in a puddle.

Laughter erupted.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to shift.

I wanted to tear their throats out with my bare hands.

But I didn't.

I couldn't.

My wolf was gone, and without her, I was nothing.

Nothing but a girl with bloody knees and empty hands.

Instead of screaming...

I walked quietly toward the broken chest.

I knelt.

One by one...

I gathered the scattered pieces.

My hands shook as I picked up the splintered remains of my mother's carving.

The tiny wolf no longer had a face.

Just broken wood.

Just like me.

One of the servant girls—Elara, I remembered—stepped closer. She was younger than the others, maybe fourteen. Her eyes flickered with something that might have been pity.

"Seraphina, I—"

"Don't."

My voice came out harder than I intended.

"Just... don't."

She stepped back.

The others laughed again.

"You should leave."

Mason spoke quietly this time.

Before...

Before someone sees you.

I looked up.

"Where am I supposed to go?"

Neither guard answered.

Because neither knew.

Or perhaps...

Neither cared.

I gathered everything that hadn't been destroyed into an old sack.

It wasn't much.

Two dresses.

A worn blanket.

Three books.

A small sewing kit.

The broken wooden wolf.

Seventeen years...

Reduced to a single bag.

I hoisted it over my shoulder. It weighed almost nothing. I weighed almost nothing. We were perfectly matched—two hollow things drifting through a world that had no use for us.

As I turned away...

A voice stopped me.

"Seraphina."

I recognized it instantly.

Beta Lucian.

He stood beneath the shadows of an oak tree, arms folded across his broad chest. He was the second most powerful wolf in Blackwood—tall, broad-shouldered, with gray streaking his temples and a scar running from his ear to his jaw. Kael's right hand. His most trusted advisor.

Unlike everyone else...

He wasn't smiling.

He looked...

Uneasy.

"I warned him."

His voice was low.

Quiet enough that no one else could hear.

"I told Kael this wasn't necessary."

I stared at him.

"You still let it happen."

Pain flashed across his face.

"I'm Beta."

"And he's Alpha."

His answer was honest.

It wasn't enough.

He reached into his cloak.

For one hopeful heartbeat...

I thought he might offer help.

Instead...

He handed me a small leather pouch.

"There are silver coins inside."

My pride screamed at me not to take them.

My empty stomach ignored it.

I accepted the pouch.

"Thank you."

Lucian hesitated.

Then leaned closer.

"Leave tonight."

Something in his tone made my heart skip.

"What?"

His eyes scanned the darkness.

Making sure no one listened.

"I overheard Commander Darius speaking with someone after the ceremony."

My grip tightened around the pouch.

"He said..."

Lucian lowered his voice even further.

"'Accidents happen in the forest.'"

The blood drained from my face.

"They're going to kill me?"

"I don't know."

"But if I were you..."

He looked toward the brightly lit Alpha House.

"I wouldn't stay long enough to find out."

Before I could ask another question...

He walked away.

Leaving me with terror crawling beneath my skin.

My heart pounded violently.

Run.

The word echoed inside my mind.

Run now.

I looked back one last time.

The Blackwood Pack.

The only home I had ever known.

The place where I had laughed.

Worked.

Dreamed.

Loved.

The place that had never loved me back.

I turned toward the forest.

Toward the unknown.

Toward a future wrapped in darkness.

I had barely taken three steps...

When a deafening howl split the night sky.

Not one wolf.

Hundreds.

Every wolf in Blackwood suddenly threw back their heads and howled in perfect unison.

The sound wasn't joyful.

It wasn't celebratory.

It was...

Fear.

The ground trembled beneath my feet.

Birds exploded from the trees.

A powerful wave of silver light burst upward from the direction of the Moonstone, illuminating the entire forest.

Gasps and screams erupted behind me.

"What is happening?"

"The Moonstone!"

"It's glowing again!"

I turned back instinctively. The Alpha House was bathed in silver radiance, the light pulsing like a heartbeat. I could see shapes moving in the windows—warriors rushing, elders shouting, Selena clutching Kael's arm.

The Moonstone hadn't glowed in over a century.

Not since the last Alpha's coronation.

And it had never...

Never like this.

Then...

A voice echoed across the entire forest.

Not through the air.

Through my soul.

Ancient.

Gentle.

Terrifying.

"Do not leave, Child of Ash..."

My heart stopped.

No one else reacted.

No one else seemed to hear it.

The voice spoke again.

Closer this time.

"Your true destiny begins... tonight."

Before I could move...

A second pulse of silver light exploded through the forest.

This one was different.

Brighter.

Warmer.

It struck me in the chest like a physical blow, knocking the breath from my lungs. I stumbled backward, my hand flying to my sternum.

The broken wooden wolf in my pocket—

It was burning.

No, not burning.

Glowing.

The same silver light.

I pulled it out.

The splintered pieces had fused. The missing face had reformed. The tiny wolf sat in my palm, whole and perfect, its eyes gleaming like twin stars.

"What..." I whispered. "How..."

"The seal breaks, little one."

The voice was softer now.

Almost tender.

"They have wronged you."

"And the Moon does not forget."

The third pulse wasn't light.

It was sound.

A deep, resonant hum that vibrated through the very bones of the earth.

The ground beneath my feet cracked.