THE REJECTED LUNA

REJECTION

“Yes uncle…” He began. “I’ve been blessed by a mate from the moon goddess, I recognize my counterpart, the blessed woman I've mated with—”

Wait… what?

Mated with?

Moira slowly turned to look at Chloe, her heart beating so fast it could explode. “Chlo, did you hear that?” She shook her friend.

Chloe sighed in irritation, her gaze never leaving the stage. “Hear what now, Mo?” She sighed again and settled her gaze back on the stage again.

They've never mated before…or have they?

Moira glanced at her legs, wondering. Cain promised he wouldn't force her to do the deed until he'd acknowledged her in public. This was something she wished for, but was scared to tell him, afraid he'd refuse and reject her, but he was okay with it.

But mated?

Did he say that to save face or what?

Oh moon goddess, please.

“Chloe Blakely, daughter of my father's beta Argent as my mate, under the moon tonight, I swear love and loyalty to her.” A happy cheer rippled through the pack, followed by a wave of murmurs that crashed over Moira.

“What…?”

“Chloe? Wh—what's happening?” Moira slowly moved away from her perfect friend, her hands falling to her sides. “Is this— is this some sort of prank?” She looked at both Chloe and Cain, who was climbing down the stage. He walked past the fire to where they were standing. All eyes following him.

Just before he got to Chloe— as Moira feared, she walked in between them facing Cain with glistening eyes.

“Cain…what are you doing?”

Cain sighed, glancing around to make sure no one noticed, but unfortunately they did. Questions and murmurs rippled through the crowd as they wondered why a low-life omega was stopping the alpha from choosing his mate.

“What does it look like?”

“Well, it looks like you're about to claim a stranger as your mate. What the f**k is going on?”

He pinched his brow, shutting his eyes. “In case you didn't notice for the past two weeks, we're over.”

Moira chuckled in disbelief, “Over?” She looked around, taking in the blurry crowd. “We’re mates, mates don't breakup. Cain, you promised—oh goddess, what is happening…?...” She sniffled. “You accepted this bond, you— you took this two-week break to focus on the ceremony. YOU said you wanted time to talk to the Luna about us— what are you saying?”

It felt as though something was trying to claw its way out of her chest. She couldn't breathe.

Cain scoffed. “Mate? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Mate, really? An alpha with a low life wolfless omega as his mate, are you dreaming?—”

“You felt the bond, I felt it too, and I'm not a child, so don't think you can lie to me. Did the Luna put you up to this? Because she hates me?” She looked away, as the tears spilled. “I’ve done everything you ever wanted, Cain. Every single thing you asked of me, I did it, and you…” She trailed off, “You are the only person I have, Cain. Who love me for me, so please…please, don't do this to me—”

She was cut off by Chloe scoffing. “Hater much?” She shoved Moira aside and went to stand beside Cain, hooking her arm with his. “I know you never liked me to begin with, but lying about an affair with the alpha is a crime I hope you know that Moira.”

“Chloe? What are you doing?”

“Calling you out, of course. The whole pack knows how power hungry you and your mother are, latching onto anything with enough power to drag the both of you out of poverty. It's no news, bestie, and I'm sick of it, along with your weird obsession with cain.”

Moira opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She clutched her chest and backed away, wincing from the deep aching. “What are you saying?” She breathed out.

All invisible walls were closing in on her by the second, and it just made her panic the more.

“Yes!” Chloe continued, her voice loud enough for the people at the back to hear. “Cain took pity on you and only agreed to go along with the plan because he couldn't bear to see you in pain, as the good alpha he is.” She stepped forward towards Moira and poked her fingers into her chest. “So he's going to end it here and now because I don't think you're going to get your sanity back any sooner.”

Moira slumped to her knees, the cold earth sending shivers up her legs to her burning chest.

This must be a dream.

This was a dream because there was no way, no way her mate was choosing her best friend, and her…best friend is doing nothing about it?

What's happening?

What crime did she commit? What happened to the nights they spent together fantasizing about today? About the day he'd claim her publicly, the day they'd officially mate.

“What…?...”

“I, Cain Sullivan, first son of the Alpha, take and accept Chloe Blakely as my mate, my wife, my lover under the moon tonight with the goddess as our witness.”

Moira groaned in pain, her heart clenching tighter by the second. She gasped, trying to catch her breath.

“And I…” He turned to Moira. “Re—Reject Moira Callaghan as my mate, under this moon I break every string and bond that joins us together.” Just after he finished, his face contorted in pain. His grip on Chloe tightened and she tried not to show any signs of pain, afraid the people would see Cain reel from the pain of the broken bond.

“St—Stop. Please…please, take it back Cain. Take it back. Take it back, you're the only one I have, please.”

Please

Please

Please, Cain. Take it back. Take it back and free me from this pain.

“Have the guards remove her from the premises,” He said to Milo, his beta.

—

“So,” Selene said in a hoarse voice, the upper half of her face covered by the shadow the arch to the hallway provided. “He picked the Blakely girl.”

Moira didn’t answer. She moved to the corner wall where the arch and the kitchen wall met, her belongings were there marked by a frayed blanket and a small chest. The rest is at the omega quarters back at the pack house but going back there is a suicide mission.

“Figures,” Selene snorted, taking a swig from a clay bottle. “A mouse like you, thinking an Alpha would want you. You’ve got your father’s weak blood in you. All he did was take and leave. And look at you. Nothing to take, and still, you get left. Going after his beta would've been better.

Moira paused for a moment to regain her composure. Crying in front of her mother was of no use. However, it hurt so much she looked up at the ceiling to stop the tears from falling.

She was falling apart.

She was losing it.

Those were the same words she’d heard all her life, ever since her father had broken the mate bond with her mother and vanished with a she-wolf from a neighboring pack. Selene’s heart had turned to stone that day, and Moira had become the living reminder of the betrayal, the defective offspring of a defective bond.

She packed everything important, including the small pouch of coins she’d saved from doing mending for others, and laundry—the pittance her mother let her keep. She wrapped it in a cloth and tucked it deep into her bag.

“What are you doing?” Selene suddenly asked. Her voice sharpened.

“Leaving.”

Her mother let out a harsh laugh. “To where? You have nothing. You are nothing. No pack will take a rejected omega without a wolf. You’ll starve, or worse, so you better behave.”

Moira stuffed more items into a worn canvas pack and slipped her feet into her sturdiest boots.

“You listen to me!” Selene slammed the bottle down, staggering forward. The familiar, acrid smell of her rage filled the room. “You will stay here. You will accept your place. You don’t get to run from your shame and make mine worse! After everything I’ve endured because of you—”

This was the old script. The yelling, the blaming, the recounting of every man who’d left because Selene came with “damaged goods,” every missed opportunity, every night of loneliness, every night of empty bottles.

Moira looked at her mother, really looked and wondered why she was brought into this world in the first place, when all the things that had ever happened to her were bad, when everyone who met her either wanted her body or her life. She stared at the eyes that had never looked at her with anything but resentment.

“I’m sorry he left you, mom,” Moira said, sniffling. “But I am not him, and you had ages to fix your life after he left, but you chose not to…and that's, that's not my fault. You did this to yourself.” She bowed slightly and turned for the door, but her mother grabbed her arm, nails digging into her flesh.

“You ungrateful little wretch! After all I’ve done to keep a roof—”

Moira pulled free with one jerk and without a second glance walked out the door, into the night. She didn’t look back at the woman screaming her name into the dark, the curses melting into sobs of drunken fury that soon faded quickly, swallowed by the forest she was walking into.

There was no use staying here anymore. Her father was gone, her lover was gone, her best friend was gone, her mother…her mother also, was gone.

She walked further into the woods, towards the direction of the border. The woods were a living, breathing entity around her, but that was before, when Cain would call her out at night to meet her at the heart of the wood, where they'd talk about sweet nothings and empty promises. The bond that had once hummed between her and the territory, the subtle pack-sense that told an omega where she belonged, was gone. Severed along with the bond that bonded her and her gated mate.

Moira burst into tears at the thought all over again as she walked.

But her plan was simple. Get to the southern border stream, follow it east to the human highway. Hitch a ride. Go anywhere that wasn’t here. She was deep in the thinning woods, the scent of pines giving way to the damp smell of the border wetlands, when suddenly she heard a rustle behind her.

She froze, pressing herself against the rough bark of a broad oak. Her heart kicked against her ribs.

Two figures emerged from the shadows ahead, blocking the narrow game trail. She recognized them, Bjorn and Hask, low-level enforcers from the Blakely family guard. These men were Chloe's favorite guards, the people who played rough and dirty.

Did they follow her?

“Look what we found, Bjorn,” Hask said as they approached. “A little lost omega, trying to flee the pack without permission.”

“That’s a serious offense,” Bjorn rumbled. “Needs to be… corrected.”

Moira’s blood ran cold. Were they here to make sure she understood she had lost everything, including the right to leave with her dignity intact?

“I’m leaving the pack,” Moira said, forcing her voice not to shake. “That’s all. Just let me pass.”

Hask took a step forward. “See, the new Luna is worried about you. Out there all alone, with no protection. Thinks you might be a flight risk, bring trouble back to us. She asked us to make sure you… reconsidered your choices.”

Chloe?

They fanned out. Bjorn to her left and Hask to her right, cutting off any retreat back into thicker woods. Behind her was only the steep, rocky slope down to the border stream.

“We’re going to have to take you back,” Bjorn said, not sounding sorry at all. “Might be a rough trip. You understand.”

Moira’s hand slipped to her foraging knife, a very small, pathetic thing against two trained enforcers.

She had one chance.

As Hask lunged, she didn’t go for him. Instead, she dropped low and scrambled backwards, fleeing straight towards the slope. Loose stones skittered under her boots. She heard Bjorn’s curse.

“Get her!”

She half-ran, half-fell down the incline, grabbing at saplings to slow her descent. Thorns ripped at her dress and skin. The roar of the stream grew louder as she fell. After a few seconds, she hit the rocky bank, ankle twisting with a sickening pop of pain that tore a scream from her. Gasping, she stumbled into the icy, knee-deep water. The far bank was the border. Just twenty feet of rushing, black water.

Suddenly a heavy weight slammed into her from behind, driving the air from her lungs. Bjorn. He wrapped a thick arm around her waist, hauling her back towards the shore. “Got you, you little—”

“Let me go!!” She drove her elbow back into his neck. He grunted, his grip slackening for a second and she took her chance. Moira twisted, bringing her knife up, the blade caught the moonlight as it sliced across the arm holding her.

Bjorn roared in pain and surprise, shoving her away from him.

She fell backwards into the deeper current, a current so cold it stole her breath. The water seized her pack, pulling her under for a terrifying second before her head broke the surface, coughing. She was being swept downstream, away from them.

On the bank, Hask was helping a furious, bleeding Bjorn to his feet. “Forget it!” Hask yelled over the water. “The current will take her to the falls or drown her! Chloe said to deal with her. This deals with her.”

Their figures grew smaller, darker, as the rapids grabbed Moira and hurled her into the heart of the rushing black water, spinning her towards the unseen thunder in the distance.