The Alpha's Rejected Mate: Bound by the Moon

The moon was too bright the night I turned eighteen. My mother had warned me about this night for as long as I could talk. "If the wolf doesn't come, Elara, they won't be kind," she'd said, years ago, her fingers working a knot out of my hair while I squirmed on the floor of our cabin. "A she-wolf without a wolf is just a mouth to feed. And the pack doesn't keep useless mouths." At the time I'd rolled my eyes so hard I nearly saw my own brain. Sure, Mom. Real uplifting bedtime talk. Can we do the one about the rabbits instead? Before the ceremony, a girl from the training yard, Mara, I think; she had red hair and a laugh like breaking glass, had cornered me by the water trough. "Ready for your big night, Vale?" She'd smiled with all her teeth. "I heard the Alpha's been asking about you. Not in a good way." I'd kept my face blank and my voice flat. "I'm touched he's noticed me at all." "He notices the pack he's about to throw out." I'd walked away without answering, because the worst part was, I didn't think she was wrong. The whole week, I'd caught the Elders glancing at me like I was a dead tree in the middle of the road, something they'd have to deal with sooner or later. The Elder raised one thin hand, and the pack went quiet. A second Elder stepped forward with a clay bowl full of moon water, and the air went still and heavy, how it always does before a verdict. "Elara Vale. Step forward." I stepped forward. My boots crunched on pine needles and old leaves, and the sound was too loud in my ears, like my own body was trying to give me away. Behind me, somewhere in the crowd, I heard a girl whisper, "Is she crying?" No, I thought. Not yet. But check back in five minutes. "Do you feel your wolf, Elara Vale?" the Elder asked. Then it was gone. The cold came back. My heart dropped back into its usual miserable rhythm. There was nothing. There had never been anything. "No," I whispered. The silence that followed was worse than laughter. For three full seconds, nobody breathed. Then someone in the back snickered, and the sound spread as a spark through dry grass. Of course. Of course this is how it goes. Eighteen years, and the only thing I can feel is my own pulse doing a terrible job of pretending to be brave. "Wolfless," the Elder said. One word. That was all it took. Eighteen years of trying to be small enough, quiet enough, useful enough, gone in a single syllable. I felt the word land in my chest and stay there, heavy and cold as a stone. "Step back," the Elder said. I didn't move. I couldn't. My legs had gone stupid and numb, and I remember thinking, Move. Move, you i***t. They're watching. Don't give them the satisfaction. Then Kael Blackwood spoke. "Elara Vale." His voice was flat, and it carried down to me as a verdict before the trial had even ended. "As Alpha of Silver Moon, I reject you as a member of this pack." The words hit harder than "wolfless" did. At least "wolfless" was about my body, something I couldn't control. This was him choosing. Him, standing up there in the moonlight, telling the pack I wasn't worth keeping. I made myself look at him. You want to throw me away? Fine. Watch me not cry. "You are no longer welcome within our borders," he went on, each word the same cold, even thing. "You will gather your belongings and leave before sunrise." Someone clapped. Someone else laughed. I didn't turn to see who. I kept my eyes on Kael, because if I looked away now, I'd look away forever, and I was done being the girl who looked away. "Any last words?" the Elder asked. I should have said something sharp. Something that would have made them remember me. I had a dozen of them waiting behind my teeth, sharp as flint. But my throat closed up, and all I managed was a small, stupid shake of my head. Great job, Elara. Truly inspiring. Your mother would be so proud. Then I sat down in the dirt and cried as a child. And when I finally stopped, a moon script was floating in the air in front of my face. I blinked. It didn't go away. [The Moon Oath has awakened.] I stared at it. I've lost my mind. That's it. The rejection finally broke my brain. Either that, or I'm hallucinating from dehydration. Both are equally possible. [Target acquired: Kael Blackwood.] "Absolutely not," I said out loud, because apparently I was now arguing with a glowing rectangle in the middle of the woods. "Pick someone else. Anyone else. I'll take the guy who throws acorns." [Trial: Make your fated mate fall in love with you.] I laughed. It came out cracked and a little unhinged. "My fated mate just threw me out of his pack in front of the pack. Maybe you should get your eyes checked." The box flickered, as if it had taken offense. [Failure to complete the trial will result in the permanent loss of your wolf.] That shut me up. I had no wolf. That was the whole problem. But how it said permanent loss made my stomach drop, because it meant somewhere, buried under all that nothing, there might actually be a wolf to lose. "What are you?" I whispered. [Your new best friend.] "Great. A comedian. That's exactly what I needed tonight." I wiped at my nose with my sleeve. "And before you ask, no, I don't have a best friend. The last one moved to another pack when we were nine. She said I was 'too much.'" [Statistically improbable. You are not much.] I barked out a laugh in spite of myself. "Did you just call me boring?" [I stated a fact. You inferred the insult.] "Right. You're one of those." I pushed myself up straighter against a pine trunk. "So what happens if I refuse?" The box didn't flicker this time. It just sat there, bright and patient, like it had been waiting for me to ask. [Then you will never feel the wolf again. Not in this life, and not in the next.] The words hit different in the dark. I'd spent my whole life being told I had no wolf, and I'd almost learned to live with it. But never again meant there had been a before. And that meant someone, somewhere, had taken it from me. "Who did this to me?" I asked, and my voice came out lower than I meant it to. [First task: Make Alpha Kael Blackwood look back at you.] "Hey. That's not an answer." [I am not required to like it. I am only required to help.] I let out a long breath and watched it fog in the cold. "Okay. Hypothetically. If I do this, and I'm not saying I will, what happens after? Do I get a prize? A ribbon? A note that says 'congratulations, you survived the world's worst rejection'?" [Gifts are earned, not described.] "Right. Because that's helpful." I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them. The bark dug into my back through the thin dress, and I was suddenly aware of how cold I was, how empty the forest had gone, how the usual night sounds had all gone quiet, like even the crickets had decided I wasn't worth an audience. "Why me?" I asked quietly. "Why now? You said I have a fated mate. If he's supposed to be mine, why did he throw me away like garbage?" For a long moment, the box didn't answer. Then the words came, slower than before, almost careful. [The wolf is never what it appears to be. And the mate bond is never what the rejected believe it to be.] "That's not an answer. That's a fortune cookie." [It is the only answer you are ready to hear.] I stared at the words until they blurred. Then I looked toward the pack border, where the lights were still burning, where he was probably already forgetting my name. He just rejected me in front of the entire pack. And now some glowing moon script wanted me to make him look back. I wiped my face with the back of my hand. My fingers came away wet and cold. "Fine. But if I die, I'm haunting you." [Noted.] I stood up. My legs still shook, but they held. The dirt had left dark patches on my dress, and I didn't care. Somewhere behind me, the pack was celebrating the end of me. "I know you can hear me," I said to the empty road. [I can.] "Then answer me." [Ask a better question.] I stopped walking. The wind cut through my ruined dress. Behind me, Silver Moon was still bright with celebration. Ahead, the gate waited. "Why did he reject me?" [Because fear made him turn away.] "That is not an answer." [It is the first true one.] "Afraid of what?" [Of what you are.] I laughed. It hurt my throat. "I am a wolfless Omega. There is nothing to be afraid of." [You believe that.] "The pack believes that." [The pack is wrong.] "Then tell me what I am." [No.] "Why not?" [Because you are not ready to hear it, and I am not interested in watching you use the truth as a knife against yourself.] I stared at the moon script. It floated beside my face, patient and smug. I wanted to throw a rock at it. I had no rocks. "You are useless," I said. [I am essential. You are emotional.] "That is the same thing tonight." [No. It is not.] I wrapped my arms around myself. "If I walk back through that gate, the pack will stare." [Yes.] "They will laugh." [Some of them.] "They will call me a stray." [They already have.] "And he will just stand there." [Probably.] I closed my eyes. "Then why should I go back?" [Because you want to.] "That is not a reason." [It is the only reason that lasts.] I opened my eyes. The gate had not moved. The pack had not gone quiet. The world had not changed because my hands went cold. "I hate you," I said. [No, you do not.] "I do." [You hate that I am right. It is different.] "Fine. You are right. I want to go back." [Good.] "I want to make him look at me." [Better.] "I want to make all of them look at me." [Careful.] "Why?" [Because wanting revenge is useful. Being ruled by it is not.] "Then what do I do with it?" [Use it. Do not let it use you.] I looked toward the gate. My hands were shaking. My heart was a trapped bird in my chest. "What if I fail?" [Then you fail in front of witnesses. That is still better than disappearing.] "You have a terrible way with comfort." [I have an excellent way with truth. You simply keep asking for the wrong thing.] "Then give me something I can use." [You already have it.] "What?" [The choice.] I let out a breath. "That is not enough." [It is more than most people get.] "Are you always this cold?" [Yes.] "Do you care what happens to me?" [Yes.] "Then say it." [I care what happens to you.] I blinked. The box glowed steady. For once, it did not add anything. "Thank you," I whispered. [Do not make it weird.] I laughed. "There it is." [Your pulse is slowing. Good. Fear is useful until it stops you. Then it becomes another enemy.] "I thought you were the only enemy I had." [No. You have a pack full of them. I am merely the one who tells you the truth.] I started walking again. The gate grew larger. The lights sharpened. The music became words, then laughter, then silence as the guards saw me. "Stay with me," I said. [I never left.] "If he hurts me, " [Then we hurt him back.] "That is not what I was going to say." [It should have been.] And for the first time that night, I wasn't walking away. I was walking back.