The Alpha Who Rejected Me Is Begging Now

Nora’s POV Wedding night. The air inside the master bedroom felt suffocating, thick with an unsettling, stifling heat. Outside, the blood moon spilled crimson light across the cold marble floor. I crouched in the corner, my knuckles white as I clutched the hem of my nightgown. The silk was far too thin to keep out the chill of the night wind—or the deeper, bone-rattling shudder rising from within me. The door swung open. The Alpha King of the Bloodmoon Pack. Kane Thorne stepped inside. His pace was measured, unhurried, yet the pressure radiating off him stripped the air right out of my lungs. Just hours ago, he had snapped the rebel leader’s neck and pinned his body to a wooden post outside the West Gate. I had overheard the wolf-servants in the kitchen whispering about how the former Alpha King had trusted humans too blindly, only to end up dead under the combined blades of the rebels and their human allies. The insurgents had sealed the gates and erected barricades, convinced they could force Kane to abdicate. Instead, Kane had shattered the leader’s legs, dragged the truth out of him, and squeezed until his spine snapped. Then, accompanied by his Beta, he patrolled every inch of the territory, carving fresh scent-marks into every tree and ridge. Those corpses were still swaying in the wind outside. And now, here I stood before him—a human, bearing the blood of the Casano line. He was tall, his black dress shirt rolled up to his elbows to reveal corded, sharp-lined forearms. He smelled of pine needles after rain, though beneath it lay an indelible layer of metallic blood. Predators at the top of the food chain always carried that mark. He didn't even look at me. He simply unbuttoned the top two buttons of his collar with a careless ease, as if I didn't exist at all. Then his golden wolf eyes, burning like coals of molten fire, swept over to me. There wasn't a trace of warmth in them. "Take it off." My heart plummeted. My fingers shook violently; every drop of blood in my veins felt as if it had frozen solid. "Don't know the rules?" Kane stopped in his tracks, looking down at me with unvarnished disgust. "Or do I need to do it for you?" I thought of my mother lying in that hospital bed, the steady, rhythmic beep of the heart monitor echoing in my mind. I bit my lip hard enough to taste copper, then reached up to undo the silk ties. The nightgown pooled at my feet. The cold air rushed against my bare skin, laying my most vulnerable, humiliated self completely open before this man. Kane’s pupils constricted. A faint, sweet fragrance drifted into the air. I couldn't tell what it was—only that my chest seized with a sudden, unexplainable ache. It wasn't until I saw Kane’s eyes narrow to slits of violent red that I realized: this was what the wolves called the scent of a Mate. "D*mn it," he hissed under his breath, the crimson fire in his eyes flaring instantly. In one stride, he closed the distance between us, grabbing my wrist and jerking me forward. I stumbled back, my spine slamming hard against the edge of the icy marble table. In the next breath, the fiery heat of his chest pressed against me. Trapped between searing heat and freezing stone, I could barely breathe. He pinned my hands above my head and buried his face into the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply as if trying to draw the scent straight into his lungs. At that moment, an involuntary shiver raced down my spine. The pull of the soul bond was terrifyingly absolute. Pressing against his chest, I shook uncontrollably, tears slipping silently from the corners of my eyes. I wasn't some wealthy socialite marrying in glory. I was the unwanted, illegitimate daughter of the Casano mob—a useless human. Three days ago, my mobster father had cornered me outside the ICU. "Nora, don't expect that pathetic mother of yours to last much longer," he had sneered, pointing through the glass. "You marry into the Thorne estate, and your only job is to be my eyes and ears. Do that, and three days after the wedding, I'll pay for her surgery." I had no choice. My father held my mother's life in his hands, and Kane had just reasserted his reign over the entire territory through sheer brute force. He had torn the rebellion up by its roots. What chance did an illegitimate Casano girl have in his hands? Yet I had come anyway, shipped off like livestock into a den of beasts. My body surrendered to primal instinct, even as my mind burned with self-loathing. And the man pressing down on me felt the same. He hated me for the Casano blood in my veins, even as his own flesh betrayed him with humiliating honesty. The harsh impact of flesh against flesh and heavy, ragged breaths filled the master bedroom. The air grew thick with a slick, stifling heat, punctuated by the embarrassing, wet sounds of our collision. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, feeling his sharp fangs resting against the pulse point on my neck—cold and sharp. In werewolf lore, a wolf has only one Mate in their lifetime. Once the fangs pierce skin and inject their genetic venom into the bloodstream, the mark is complete. That bite remains forever, declaring me the sole Luna of the Bloodmoon Pack. Even if he was a tyrant, even if I was a spy, that mark was my only ticket to survival. The tips of his teeth had already broken my skin, releasing a tiny bead of metallic warmth. I gritted my teeth, waiting for the final bite. It never came. Kane’s entire body went rigid. A second later, he ripped himself away from me. "Ah—" The force sent me sliding off the table, barely keeping my balance. A crushing grip clamped around my jaw, hard enough to shatter bone, forcing my face up to meet his. He stood over me, his chest heaving. The lust in his golden wolf eyes had vanished, replaced by an icy, ruthless fury. His gaze flicked over my disheveled clothes and the lingering, bruised marks on my skin, his lips curling into a cruel smirk. "Your body certainly knows how to obey, doesn't it, Casano b*st*rd?" My eyes burned red. I bit my lower lip, refusing to speak. "You think this body—this scent—is enough to chain me?" His grip tightened, sending a dull, throbbing pain through my jawbone. "In your dreams. I will never mark you." His cold fingertips slid down my collarbone, coming to a stop on the unblemished skin of my bare shoulder. "You're nothing more than my prisoner," he growled into my ear. "You don't even deserve the title of my bride." With that, he released his hold. My head cracked against the hard marble, sending a wave of dizziness through my vision. I thought he was finally leaving, but a shadow fell over me once more. I forced my eyes up to look at Kane. He was completely dressed, his shirt crisp without a single wrinkle. Meanwhile, I lay there in rags, broken and humiliated. In that moment, a wave of shame crushed down on me so hard I could barely lift my head. I was the one he had used and toyed with, yet he stood there unbothered, untamed, and immaculate—while I was left sprawled like a discarded toy, stripped of every shred of dignity. Kane looked down at me, his eyes devoid of any warmth. Without warning, he reached down and ripped open the front of my torn garment. There was no gentleness in the gesture—it was a deliberate, cruel reminder of what had just transpired. My body froze completely. I wanted to cover myself, but meeting his gaze, my hands locked in midair. There was no pity in those wolf eyes—only raw, unadulterated coldness and mockery. A burning heat crept up my neck to my cheeks, the shame stinging far deeper than any physical pain. He leaned down again, his hot, heavy breath brushing against my ear as his hands roamed over my skin. A sudden heat surged from deep within me again; I clenched my jaw tight, but a helpless whimpering moan still escaped my lips. Time lost all meaning. Eventually, I collapsed onto the freezing marble table, trembling uncontrollably. I raised a shaky hand to touch my neck. There was only a dull, aching chill. No bite. No mark. I knew the truth now: I was nothing but a piece of rotten meat thrown to the Thornes by the Casano syndicate—a tool meant to insult him. I should have seen it coming. Kane had just claimed the Alpha King throne; his power base wasn't fully consolidated yet, and the border defenses were riddled with holes. My father controlled the entire armaments supply and the black-market cash flow, meaning Kane couldn't destroy the Casanos just yet. But to buy time, my father had offered me—his illegitimate daughter—as a sacrifice. To Kane, this wasn't a truce; it was a deliberate slap in the face. For a human crime lord to throw a b*st*rd human daughter at a newly crowned Alpha King was the ultimate insult. Whether my father did it out of malice or desperate self-preservation, I didn't know. But my mere presence had become the most glaring stain and vulnerability on his throne. He hated me, he hated the Casano syndicate, and above all, he hated this damned, inescapable soul bond pulling at his instincts. And I... I had foolishly hoped that bite would land—that it might grant me a sliver of leverage to survive in this den of monsters. Instead, Kane had taken that fragile hope and crushed it under his heel in the most merciless way possible. Tears finally spilled over, pooling into the cold veins of the marble beneath me. No mark was given tonight. And with it, whatever dignity I had left was stripped away completely.