CROWNED AFTER THE REJECTION

Chapter 3: You Were Never Good Enough

For several seconds after Elder Mara spoke, no one moved.

The market suddenly went quiet that I could hear the wind pushing through the trees beyond the pack houses.

Royal bloodline?

***

The words sat strangely in my mind.

They didn't belong to me. I said to myself

I was Rosalie Vale an ordinary daughter of two ordinary wolves who had died when I was young. And I had no forgotten kingdom, no noble family, no stories of ancient ancestors whispered around fireplaces. My father had been a hunter, and my mother had helped in the pack infirmary.

That was all I knew.

So why was Elder Mara looking at me as though she had uncovered something that should have remained buried?

"What does that mean?" I asked.

Neither Mara nor Damien answered.

My gaze shifted between them.

"Someone is going to explain what is happening." I said angrily

Damien stepped closer.

"Not here." he whispered

The calmness in his voice irritated me immediately.

I held up my wrist.

The silver mark had stopped glowing, but it remained visible beneath my skin, curling in an unfamiliar pattern around the inside of my wrist.

"Then where?" I asked

"Rosalie." he called but I ignored

A few people were still standing nearby, pretending not to listen. Lena stood beside me, her attention fixed on the mark.

Damien noticed them too.

His jaw tightened.

"Everyone, leave." he ordered!

But no one moved.

Then his Alpha command rolled through the air.

"I said leave."

And this time, they obeyed.

People suddenly scattered quickly, That was when they remembered places they needed to be. And within moments, the path that had been crowded with curious wolves was nearly empty.

But Lena remained.

Damien looked at her.

"Lena."

She folded her arms.

"I'm not going anywhere." She replied instantly.

Despite everything, a small part of me wanted to smile.

But Damien didn't stop telling Lena to go. Rather he said

"This doesn't concern you."

"It concerns my friend." She challenged him immediately.

"Apparently, everyone in Mooncrest has suddenly decided that Rosalie's life concerns them."

His eyes briefly moved toward me.

The remark landed harder than it should have.

"Lena." I called

And this time, I touched her arm.

She looked at me.

"Go." I said.

Her expression immediately changed.

"Rosalie—"

"I'll find you later."

"I don't like this."

"Neither do I." I said embracing her

She hesitated, looking between Damien and Elder Mara.

Something about the situation had unsettled her too. But after a moment, she squeezed my hand and stepped away.

"If he says anything stupid, scream." She whispered.

I nodded

She looked over her shoulder. "He's already rejected you.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable.

Lena seemed to realize what she had said. "Actually, don't answer that." she whispered

Then she turned and hurried down the path.

I watched her go until she disappeared around the corner.

When I looked back, Damien was still staring at me.

"What?" I asked

His expression was unreadable.

"Nothing." he replied instantly

"Then stop looking at me like that."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

For a brief moment, I thought he might answer honestly.

Instead, he looked at Elder Mara and ordered het to go home.

But instead the old woman gripped her cane and told him she will not.

"Mara." he called her.

***

"I've lived long enough to know when silence becomes dangerous." I said to myself

Something passed over Damien's face.

Not anger.

But Frustration.

"What do you know?" I quickly asked Mara to break the silence

But instead she looked at me.

And the fear I had seen earlier was still there, but something else had joined it now.

Sadness!

And that was not enough.

She just stared at me.

And everyone suddenly seemed determined to speak in riddles.

My patience was gone.

And so I turned to Damien.

"Fine. Then you tell me."

"No." he answered immediately.

I laughed once.

And of course there was nothing funny about it.

"Rosalie—" he called

"No, don't you dare call me" I stopped him immediately then I stepped away.

"You rejected me yesterday without explaining why. And this morning, you watched an ancient mark appear on my body and looked like you've seen something impossible. Now an elder is telling me that it has something to do with a royal bloodline, and somehow I'm still the only person standing here who doesn't know what's happening."

My voice had risen, but I didn't care.

"Do you understand how insane that sounds?"

Damien's gaze dropped briefly to my wrist.

"More than you realize."

The answer caught me off guard.

"What does that mean?"

His expression closed again.

I almost screamed.

"Why do you keep doing that?"

Why do you keep giving me half an answer and expecting me not to ask another question."

His eyes met mine.

For a second, the anger between us seemed to disappear.

Something else moved beneath it.

Something quieter.

And Damien looked tired.

***

I noticed it because I had spent years noticing things about him that I probably shouldn't have.

There were shadows beneath his eyes. His shirt sleeves were still rolled to his forearms, and there was a faint line of tension between his brows that hadn't been there before the ceremony.

Had he slept at all? I had thought

But that thought annoyed me.

Because why should I care?

He certainly hadn't cared whether I slept after destroying my reputation in front of the entire pack.

I hardened my voice.

"Why did you reject me?"

And for the first time Mara looked away.

But Damien didn't he just kept quiet.

The question I had been carrying since last night.

Not because I suddenly expected a kind answer.

But after what had just happened, I no longer believed his explanation from the ceremony.

You aren't worthy of becoming my Luna.

It had sounded cruel.

And now it sounded convenient.

Damien glanced toward the pack house.

"We're not discussing this here."

"Why?"

"Because I said so."

I smiled bitterly.

"And there's the Alpha I recognize."

His expression changed.

"Don't make this harder."

The words irritated me so much that I almost laughed again.

"Harder for you?"

"Rosalie."

"No. Please, explain that part to me."

I crossed my arms.

"Because from where I'm standing, I'm the one who was publicly rejected. I'm the one people are whispering about. I'm the one with a strange mark on my wrist apparently connected to a bloodline I've never heard of. So I'd genuinely like to understand how this situation has become difficult for you."

For once, Damien had no immediate response.

Elder Mara shifted beside us.

"She deserves to know something."

Damien looked at her.

"Not from you."

The sharpness in his voice made the old woman fall silent.

I stared at him.

"What are you afraid of?

she'll tell me if you don't. I replied angrily.

His attention returned to mine.

"I'm not afraid."

And that's funny. I said

"Rosalie."

"You've been acting strangely since the moment you saw that mark."

I lifted my wrist again.

"Tell me what it is."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because knowing will put you in danger."

The sentence was so unexpected that I forgot my anger for a moment.

"What?"

Mara closed her eyes briefly.

Damien seemed to realize he had said too much.

I stepped closer.

"What danger?"

"You need to go home."

"Stop telling me to go home."

"Then listen for once."

The force in his voice startled me.

Not an Alpha command.

Something more personal.

Raw!

And for the first time since I had known him, Damien looked as though his control had slipped.

It lasted only a second.

Then his face became unreadable again.

But I had seen it.

And now I couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Why?" I asked quietly.

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he reached for my wrist.

I should have pulled away.

But I didn't.

His fingers closed gently around my arm.

The mate bond reacted instantly.

Heat spread through my skin.

My wolf stirred somewhere deep inside me, suddenly awake after her long silence.

Damien inhaled sharply.

His hand tightened.

Everything around us disappeared.

The market.

Mara.

The sound of the wind.

There was only him.

Only the strange awareness that existed whenever we touched.

I hated how easily my body recognized him.

And I hated that after everything, some traitorous part of me wanted to move closer.

Damien seemed to feel it too.

Because his eyes had darkened.

And for one dangerous second, neither of us moved.

Then I remembered.

The ceremony.

His voice.

The entire pack watching.

I pulled my arm from his grasp.

The connection broke.

And his expression changed Instantly.

Not much!

But enough.

"If you didn't want me, why does this still happen?"

My voice was quieter now.

Damien didn't answer.

I looked directly at him.

You felt it? I asked

"Rosalie." he called

You did? I asked again

"That doesn't change anything." he finally replied.

The words hurt.

But I didn't show it.

His face remained still.

"You're going to stand there and pretend rejecting me didn't affect you?" I asked

"I'm not pretending anything." he said

"Then tell me the truth." I replied

But he went silent.

And then I nodded slowly.

That has answered enough. I said to myself

Then I turned away.

"Rosalie." he called

I stopped but didn't look back.

"You're right about one thing."

His voice came from behind me.

I waited.

"You were never good enough."

The words hit harder than they should have.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe.

Then I turned.

Damien's expression was cold again.

The familiar mask was back in place.

I hated him for how easily he could do that.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

I stared at him.

Beside us, Elder Mara made a quiet sound of protest.

"Damien—"

"Enough." he stopped her immediately

He didn't look at her.

But his eyes remained fixed on mine.

"You've spent your entire life believing you belong here because Mooncrest was kind enough to give you a place."

The cruelty in his voice was deliberate.

I could hear it now.

He wanted to hurt me.

But why? I asked myself!

"You think being chosen by the Moon Goddess makes you special?" he contined

My throat tightened.

"It doesn't." he said

Something inside me began to close.

I didn't want him to see how much his words affected me.

"Then why did you look at me like that?"

The question escaped before I could stop it.

Damien frowned.

"Like what?"

"Like you were happy."

His expression became completely still.

There.

I had seen it.

The moment during the ceremony when our eyes met.

Before the rejection.

And before the humiliation.

For one brief second, Damien had looked at me as though finding me had meant something.

I hadn't imagined it.

"You were happy," I said.

His jaw tightened.

"No."

"You were."

"No."

"Then why?"

"Because I made a mistake."

The words were quiet.

They cut deeper than the others.

I stared at him.

"A mistake?"

"Yes."

"Finding me?"

He said nothing.

That silence was worse than confirmation.

I swallowed.

Something hot rose behind my eyes.

I refused to cry.

Not here.

And not in front of him.

Thank you, "For finally being honest."

Damien's brows drew together.

I turned away before he could see my face.

"Rosalie." he called

But I ignored him.

***

I walked toward the path leading away from the market.

Behind me, I heard Mara speak.

"Damien, you cannot keep doing this."

His answer stopped me.

"She has to believe me."

I froze.

Neither of them seemed to realize I was still close enough to hear.

Mara's voice lowered.

"And if she does?"

"Then she'll stay away."

"That isn't protection."

"No. It's survival."

My fingers curled.

I should have kept walking.

Instead, I turned slightly, hiding behind the corner of a nearby building.

What were they talking about?

Mara spoke again.

"You cannot reject the girl and expect the truth to disappear."

"I don't expect anything to disappear."

"Then tell her."

"No."

"She has a right—"

"She has a right to live."

The silence that followed made me press closer to the wall.

Mara lowered her voice further.

"How long do you think you can hide this?"

"As long as necessary."

"And when they discover she's here?"

My breath caught.

They?

Who was they?

Damien didn't answer immediately.

When he finally spoke, his voice was so low I had to strain to hear it.

"Then I'll deal with them."

"You can't deal with everyone."

"I can try."

Mara sighed.

There was something deeply tired in the sound.

"She is going to hate you."

Then Damien said, "She already does."

The words should have satisfied me.

But they didn't.

Because there had been something beneath them.

Something I couldn't name.

I pressed my hand against the wall, trying to understand what I had just heard.

Damien had called me a mistake.

He had told me I was never good enough.

Yet seconds later, he was talking about protecting me.

None of it made sense.

Mara spoke again.

"You are making the same mistake her parents made."

My body went cold.

My parents?

I moved closer.

"What happened to them was not my fault," Damien said.

"They trusted the wrong people."

"And so did I."

My thoughts stumbled over each other.

What did Damien know about my parents?

They had died when I was a child.

That was what everyone had told me.

A rogue attack near the northern border.

A tragic accident.

I had never questioned it.

Why would I? I thought to myself

"She cannot know who she really is."

Damien's voice cut through my thoughts.

I stopped breathing.

Mara was silent.

Neither of them spoke for several seconds.

Then she said, "You know that keeping the truth from her won't stop it."

"It has stopped it for this long."

"And now?"

I could hear the frustration in Damien's exhale.

"Now everything has changed."

My hand slowly lowered from the wall.

Who she really is.

The words repeated inside my head.

Who she really is.

Not what.

Who.

The mark on my wrist suddenly felt heavier.

Royal bloodline.

My parents.

The rejection.

And Damien's fear.

Pieces of something were scattered around me, but I couldn't see the picture they formed.

I took a step backward.

My boot scraped against a loose stone.

The conversation stopped.

And I froze.

"Who's there?"

Damien asked!

I didn't wait to find out what he would do if he discovered I had been listening.

So I ran.

***

I ran past the pack house and down the narrow path leading toward my cottage, ignoring Damien calling my name behind me.

I didn't look back.

For the first time since the mating ceremony, I wasn't thinking about the humiliation.

I wasn't thinking about what Damien had said.

I wasn't even thinking about the fact that the mate bond still connected us.

There was only one thought in my mind.

Damien knew something about me.

Something connected to my parents.

And something connected to the strange mark on my wrist.

And whatever it was, he had rejected me to keep me from discovering it.

But now that I knew there was a secret, I had no intention of walking away from it.

I reached my cottage and slammed the door behind me.

My hands were shaking.

Not from fear.

But from anger.

I crossed the room and stopped in front of the small mirror hanging beside my bedroom door.

Slowly, I pushed back my sleeve.

The silver mark was still there.

I traced it with my fingertip.

"Who am I?" I whispered.

My reflection offered no answer.

Outside, somewhere in Mooncrest, I felt the faint pull of the man who had rejected me.

Damien.

My mate, my enemy.

And apparently, the keeper of secrets about a life I had never known was hidden from me.

I looked down at the mark again.

Then I made myself a promise.

If Damien thought humiliating me would make me stop asking questions, he didn't know me as well as he thought he did.

He had wanted me to believe I was never good enough.

But I was beginning to suspect that the truth was much worse.

Maybe Damien hadn't rejected me because I was beneath him.

Maybe he had rejected me because he knew exactly who I could become.

And he was terrified of me finding out.