Rejected by my alpha claimed by the lycan king

The moon was a giant, mocking spotlight in the sky, and I was the star of a show I never asked to be in. Tonight was my eighteenth birthday, the big one, the day every werewolf in the Blood-Moon Pack gets their wolf and finds their soulmate. I’d spent seventeen years, 364 days being the pack’s punching bag, the "human glitch" who couldn't even shift. I thought the Moon Goddess was finally going to give me a win. I thought maybe, just maybe, my mate would be someone kind who would take me away from scrubbing the grease off the packhouse stove. I was wrong. So, so wrong. The clearing was packed with people, all of them whispering and pointing at my thrift-store dress. In the center stood Damon Blackwood. He was the future Alpha, built like a literal tank with hair as black as a raven’s wing and eyes that usually looked like stormy seas. He was the guy every girl wanted, and the guy who had spent most of middle school tripping me in the hallway. As I walked toward him, my chest started to hum. It wasn't a normal hum; it felt like a swarm of bees was vibrating under my ribs. Mate. The word echoed in my head, loud and clear. My soul was reaching out to his, trying to click into place like a puzzle piece. I looked up at Damon, my heart hammering against my teeth. "Damon?" I whispered, my voice shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. "It’s... it's us. We're mates." The humming stopped. Not because it was finished, but because Damon slammed an invisible door in its face. He didn't look happy. He didn't look relieved. He looked like he’d just stepped in something gross on the bottom of his shoe. "You?" Damon’s voice wasn't just loud; it was a growl that made the dirt under my feet vibrate. He stepped closer, towering over me, his shadow swallowing me whole. "The Moon Goddess must be drunk. I am a Blackwood. I am destined to lead the strongest pack in the tri-state area, and she thinks I’m going to do it with a weak, wolf-less embarrassment like you?" "Damon, please," I gasped. The bond was pulling at me, begging me to touch him, but his aura was like a wall of ice. "Don't 'Damon' me," he snapped. He turned to the crowd, raising his voice so the whole pack could hear. "Look at her! Look at this 'Omega' who can’t even grow a claw! She’s a defect. She’s a stain on the Blackwood name." He looked back at me, his eyes turning a terrifying, glowing amber. The Alpha power rolled off him in waves, forcing me to my knees. The grass felt like needles against my skin. "I, Damon Blackwood, future Alpha of the Blood-Moon Pack, reject you, Alina Nightfall, as my mate and my Luna," he spat. "I break this bond. I sever this tie. You are nothing to me." SNAP. It wasn't a sound, but it felt like a lightning bolt hit my heart. The rejection was a physical explosion. My soul felt like it was being ripped in half by a pair of red-hot pliers. I screamed, clutching my stomach, falling face-first into the dirt. It hurt worse than any broken bone. It felt like dying while you’re still awake. Damon didn't even flinch. He just kicked a bit of dirt toward my face. "Get up, Alina. You’re embarrassing yourself further, if that’s even possible. You have until sunrise to get off my lands. If I see your face on Blood-Moon territory tomorrow, I won't just reject you. I’ll hunt you." Laughter erupted from the crowd. Sarah, the girl who always wore designer sneakers to the woods, stepped forward and dumped her cup of fruit punch right over my head. The sticky red liquid matted my hair and dripped down my nose. "Happy Birthday, loser," she giggled. I didn't stay to hear the rest. I scrambled up, my vision blurry with tears I refused to let fall, and I ran. I didn't go back to my tiny room in the attic. I didn't grab my one pair of spare shoes. I just bolted into the Dark Forest, the one place even the toughest wolves were scared to go at night. The branches tore at my dress. The briars scratched my arms. I ran until my legs were numb, until the sound of the pack’s party was just a faint, hateful echo. I finally collapsed by the Black River, the border that separated our world from the "Old Lands." "I hate them," I sobbed into the silence. "I hate him. I hate the Moon Goddess. I hate everything!" I punched the ground, and for a split second, I felt something weird. A spark of heat shot from my fist into the earth. But I was too tired to care. I just wanted to sleep and never wake up. CRACK. A branch snapped behind me. I froze. A wolf? No, it was too heavy for a wolf. A bear? No, the smell was different. It smelled like cedarwood, old parchment, and... lightning. I turned around, wiping the punch and mud from my eyes. The forest was suddenly, eerily still. The wind stopped blowing. Even the river seemed to quiet down. Out of the darkness stepped a man who made Damon Blackwood look like a toddler playing dress-up. He was huge. He wore a long, heavy coat made of silver fur, and his skin was covered in swirling blue tattoos that seemed to pulse with their own light. But it was his eyes that stopped my heart. They weren't amber or blue. They were pure, liquid gold. He wasn't a werewolf. I knew the stories. This was a Lycan the ancient, scary ancestors of our kind. The ones who didn't just shift; they ruled. I tried to stand up, but my rejected heart gave a painful throb, and I stumbled. Before I could hit the ground, he was there. He moved faster than a blur, catching me with arms that felt like they were made of solid marble. The moment his skin touched mine, the pain from Damon’s rejection didn't just fade it vanished. It was replaced by a roar of fire that made every cell in my body wake up and scream with joy. He pulled me close, his nose brushing against my neck, right over the spot where the mate-mark should have been. I felt him inhale deeply, his chest rumbling with a sound that wasn't a growl, but a purr of pure power. "He rejected you?" the man asked. His voice was deep, like thunder vibrating in the distance. "Yes," I whispered, my heart racing for a completely different reason now. "Damon... he said I was a mistake." The man’s grip tightened, not to hurt me, but like he was holding onto a treasure he’d been searching for his whole life. He looked me dead in the eye, and the gold in his gaze flared bright enough to light up the whole forest. "Damon Blackwood is a fool playing with matches in the dark," the man growled. He reached up, his thumb brushing a tear off my cheek. "He didn't reject a 'mistake,' Alina. He just handed the keys to the world to the King of the North." My breath hitched. "The King?" "I am Viktor, King of the Lycans," he said, and as he spoke, the ground beneath us literally started to tremble. "And the Moon Goddess didn't make a mistake with you. She was just saving the best for the one who actually deserves it." He leaned in closer, his lips inches from mine. "Pack your things in your mind, Little Queen. Because tonight, we’re going to burn Blood-Moon to the ground for what they did to you." Suddenly, a loud howl ripped through the air. Damon’s howl. He was coming. He’d tracked me. "Alina!" Damon’s voice echoed through the trees, sounding angry and possessive. "I told you to run, not hide on the border! Get back here so I can…” Damon burst into the clearing, stopping dead in his tracks. His eyes went wide as he saw me in the arms of the giant, glowing Lycan King. Viktor didn't even look scared. He just smirked, showing teeth that were way sharper than any werewolf's. He pulled me tighter against his chest and looked at my former mate. "You're late, Alpha," Viktor said, his voice dripping with icy venom. "And you're standing on my property." Damon growled, his fur starting to sprout as he prepared to shift, but he stopped when he saw the King’s hand begin to glow with a terrifying, ancient purple fire. "She's mine now," Viktor whispered to me, ignoring the angry Alpha. "And I don't share."