YOU WERE MINE FIRST

CHAPTER 1: The Altar Rejection They didn't just watch me get rejected. They recorded it. "Elara. Elara. Elara." Two hundred wolves chanting my name like a joke. My dress was my mother's old one, restitched. Lace scratched my neck. Hem too long. I tripped twice on the altar steps. Tanya's friends laughed every time. Today I turned eighteen. The day you hear your wolf. Meet your mate. I had neither. Elder Mara smiled with pity. "Alpha Jaxon will now claim his fated mate." The doors opened. Jaxon walked in. Pine and smoke. Perfect suit. Red tie. Twenty-one. Alpha heir. Since I was six, when I fell off the tire swing, he was the only one who helped me up. Last year behind the kitchens he whispered, "Even if you're late, the Goddess wouldn't be cruel enough to not give you to me." My body knew him before my mind did. Heat slammed my chest. Stomach pulled tight. Mate. He was my mate. "Jaxon," I whispered. He looked at me. And twisted his face. Not love. Disgust. "I, Jaxon Cole, future Alpha of Blood Stone, reject you, Elara Finch, as my mate and Luna." One second of dead silence. Then Tanya laughed. One laugh. The room broke. "Wolfless! Of course! Look at that cheap dress! Defect!" Elder Mara raised her staff. "Alpha Jaxon, you cannot reject on the altar-" "She has no wolf," he cut her off, loud for everyone. "Eighteen and empty. The Goddess made a mistake. My Luna must be strong." He turned. Held out his hand. Tanya walked forward. Red dress. Tight. Beta's daughter. Wolf at fifteen. My tormentor since twelve. "My Alpha," she whispered. "I, Jaxon Cole, choose Tanya Reece as my chosen mate and future Luna." The bond snapped. Not heartbreak. A hot blade down my spine. I hit the marble. Knees cracked. The side my mother sewed tore open. I couldn't breathe. My mother screamed from the crowd. "Please! She's a good girl!" My father stared at the floor. Alpha Richard stood, bored. "Enough. The Finch contract is due tonight. Twenty four thousand five hundred. Per law, if you cannot pay, you take assignment in the north. Until dawn to decide." The northern assignment. No one comes back the same. I forced myself up. Knees bleeding. "Take me. I'll take it. Not my parents-" Tanya giggled. "You? You'd quit on day one." Jaxon didn't even look at me. Arm around her like I was already gone. Then the doors burst open. August. But freezing wind tore through. Half the fairy lights shattered. Fifty candles on the Goddess altar snuffed out at once. Everyone turned. Two men in black armor. On their chests, a crest from banned books. A wolf skull with a crown of thorns. Royal Lycans. The whole room dropped to one knee. Instinct. Even Alpha Richard. Even Jaxon. Because Lycans only come for tribute or judgment. Then he walked in. King Rhazien. The Beast King. Seven feet. Had to duck to enter. Black shirt, sleeves rolled up. Black pants. Black boots. Forearms covered in scars. Hands huge, claws black, gold rings with wolf heads. Half his face brutally handsome. Jaw like stone. The other half marked by three deep scars. That eye never turned human. Always gold. They say he lost his last Luna because she tried to poison him. Hasn't touched a woman in ten years. Snow and storm. His scent hit me from twenty feet and the pain in my chest eased. His gold eye swept the room. Everyone kept their head down. It landed on me. Knees. Torn dress. Tears. I should have looked down. I didn't. I was already nothing. I stared back. His nostrils flared. Once. A growl shook the room. Like a mountain cracking. Alpha Richard stammered, head bowed. "My King, we were not expecting you, tribute is-" "I did not come for your silver, Richard," he said. Voice low. Rough. It vibrated in my ribs. "I oversee eastern packs now. I acquired your agreements last month. Your contracts are now mine." Alpha Richard went pale. "What? That's not-" A Lycan held up a scroll. Black wax seal. "Signed by the Council this morning. All Blood Stone contracts transfer to the Blackthorn Crown." The King started walking. Marble trembled with each step. Not to Alpha Richard. Not to Jaxon. To me. Jaxon stepped in front of Tanya, flaring his small Alpha aura, trying to be brave. "My King, this is pack business, this girl is-" The King didn't break stride. He backhanded him. A lazy swat. Jaxon flew ten feet. Broke the solid oak offering table in half. The Goddess statue shattered. Tanya screamed. No one else breathed. The King stopped in front of me. Had to crane my neck all the way back. He crouched. Seven feet, crouching to look at me on the floor. A black claw under my chin, tilting my face up. "What is your name, little wolf?" Only I could hear. "E-Elara," I choked. "Elara Finch." "Elara Finch, who has no wolf," he repeated, gold eye dropping to my chest. "Eighteen today." Behind me my mother sobbed, "Please don't hurt her-" His eyes never left mine. "How much is their contract?" "Twenty four thousand five hundred," the Lycan answered instantly. He stared at me for three seconds. Something ancient woke in his gold eye. Then he stood. Turned to Alpha Richard. "I will clear their contract," he announced. Law. Every word law. "All of it. And fifty thousand more for the insult of watching an Alpha reject a gift from the Goddess in a pack under my protection. Seventy four thousand five hundred. Tonight." He pulled a card from his pocket. Thick black metal. Matte. Gold wolf head in the center. Real gold. Underneath, the word KING stamped in gold. He threw it. Spun. Clanged on the broken altar. "She is under my protection now," he growled, beast over king, and every wolf whimpered and showed their neck, even Alpha Richard, even Tanya dropping to her knees. "You rejected what you could never afford to keep. You let her kneel on your floor in a torn dress while you laughed. Now she will never kneel again except for me. If I allow it. Do you understand, little Alpha?" Jaxon on the floor could only nod, staring at me in shock. The King turned back to me. Didn't ask. Bent down, one hot arm under my knees, one around my back, and lifted me like air. I gasped and grabbed his shirt. Chest hard as stone. Hot as fire. Heart slow and strong against my cheek. He looked down at me, scarred face inches from mine. Warmth where cold emptiness was. "Do you want to stay here, little wolf?" he whispered against my ear, only for me. "With the boy who called you nothing? Or do you want to come with me and watch them choke on regret?" Tears ran onto his black shirt. I looked past his shoulder. Jaxon on the floor. Tanya covered in dust. My parents with mouths open. The whole pack who chanted my name. I wanted them to feel a fraction of what I felt. "Take me away," I whispered, clear for the first time in eighteen years. My first real choice. "Anywhere but here." His mouth curled. Not a smile. A dark promise. He turned, carrying me like I was already his Queen, and walked out while every wolf kept their head bowed, listening to his boots echo away. As we passed into the cold night, something moved under my skin for the first time in eighteen years. Not the bond snapping. A claw stretching after a long sleep. A white eye opening in the dark where there had always been nothing. I wasn't wolfless. I had just been waiting for the right monster to wake me up.