Aria Blackthorn was born cursed. Rejected on the night of her mating ceremony by Alpha Damien the man destiny tied her to. she i

The ballroom was suffocating with perfume, smoke, and expectation. Crystal chandeliers threw golden light across the pack’s celebration, catching on sequined gowns and polished boots. Tonight was supposed to be my night. I had dreamed of it since I was a pup: the moment my fated mate would claim me, binding our souls forever under the Moon Goddess. The elders whispered my name in connection with his for years Alpha Damien Blackthorn, the strongest heir in the Northern Territories. My heart had always known him. My wolf, Liora, had always craved him. But when his storm grey eyes met mine across the hall, everything shattered. “Aria Blackthorn,” Damien’s voice rang out, commanding, merciless. The crowd fell silent. “I, Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack, reject you as my mate.” The words hit me like claws to the chest. My knees buckled. Gasps rippled through the wolves gathered, some smirking, others pitying. I forced myself to stay standing, to meet his cold gaze even as my wolf howled in agony inside me. “Why?” My voice cracked, trembling despite my desperate attempt at strength. Damien didn’t flinch. His arm slid around Selena Darkbane the daughter of a rival Alpha pulling her against him as though she had always been his. “Because you are cursed,” he said, each syllable deliberate. “The Goddess herself tainted your bloodline. I will not bind myself to weakness. My Luna will be a queen, not a curse.” Selena’s smirk was razor sharp, her hand resting possessively on his chest. “Poor little Aria. Always dreaming above your station.” The humiliation scorched me. My family turned their faces away. My packmates whispered like venomous snakes. Cursed. Weak. Rejected. But beneath the despair, something ancient stirred in me. A burning. A shadow. A voice that was not my own whispered in my skull: “Daughter of blood and moon, you are not rejected. You are chosen. Rise, and they will fall.” I staggered back, clutching my chest. The mark hidden beneath my collarbone seared, glowing faintly like molten silver. The prophecy I had been told as a child one I thought was a cruel fairy tale flashed in my mind. The Bloodbound Luna will either bind the clans under one rule… or drown them in fire. The Goddess hadn’t cursed me. She had branded me. And Damien, my so called fated mate, had just set the first spark of vengeance ablaze. I straightened, forcing my tears to dry into steel. Around me, wolves whispered and judged, but I saw the flicker of unease in Damien’s eyes. He felt it too, even if he refused to admit it the bond between us hadn’t broken. It had only grown darker, hungrier. “You’ll regret this, Alpha,” I whispered, low enough that only he and Selena could hear. “The Moon Goddess doesn’t give second chances to traitors.” Selena laughed. Damien’s jaw tightened. But in that moment, under the light of the Goddess, I silently swore: I would rise from this rejection. I would turn this curse into power. And when the prophecy came to pass, Alpha Damien Blackthorn would kneel at my feet whether in love, or in ruin.