Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By His Billionaire Father

THE RITE OF RECLAMATION

I woke up to gold.

Morning light was pouring through the glass walls of the penthouse, but the windows were no longer black. They were clear, showing a skyline I had never seen before. Skyscrapers glittering in the sun, cars moving like ants far below, a river cutting through the city.

And a billionaire Alpha asleep next to me.

Damien Blackwood was still on top of the duvet, exactly where he had been when I fell asleep, but sometime in the night he had moved closer. His large hand was still holding mine. His silver hair was messy from sleep, his face relaxed, younger. Without the hard, cold mask he wore for the world, he looked almost... vulnerable.

For a moment, I just stared. At the faint stubble on his jaw, at the scars on his shoulder, at the way his chest rose and fell slowly.

Then my phone buzzed.

Loudly. On the nightstand where he had placed it.

We both jolted. Damien's eyes snapped open — grey, sharp, instantly alert. Not a man who woke up groggy. A man who woke up ready for war.

He sat up, released my hand reluctantly, and grabbed the phone. His expression darkened as he scrolled.

"Seventeen missed calls from Jace," he said, his voice still rough from sleep. "Twenty-three texts. And..." His jaw clenched. "One from your sister."

My stomach dropped. "What does she say?"

He didn't answer. He just turned the screen toward me.

CHLOE: You think running away makes you special? He never loved you. Come get your rags.

The rags. My clothes. The few things I owned in that tiny attic room above the pack kitchen where I had lived since my mother died.

Something cold and angry flared in my chest. Not sadness anymore. Anger.

Damien watched my face carefully. "Do you want to go back?"

"Yes," I said, surprising even myself. My voice was steady. "Not to stay. To get my things. And to tell them I'm not coming back."

He studied me for a second, then nodded. A small, proud smile touched his lips. "Good girl."

He stood up, all six-foot-four of powerful, half-naked Alpha, and stretched. My eyes dropped before I could stop myself to the hard muscle of his stomach, the V-line disappearing into his black pants.

He noticed. His smile turned darker.

"See something you like, little wolf?"

My face went up in flames. "I — no! I wasn't—"

"Don't lie to your Alpha," he teased, but his eyes were warm. "You will have plenty of time to look later. After we handle business."

He walked into his closet and came back with a black shopping bag. He tossed it onto the bed.

"Put this on. We're leaving in twenty minutes."

Inside the bag was a dress. Not white. Not the kind of thing an Omega would wear. It was black, soft, designer — a simple wrap dress that looked expensive, with long sleeves. And a pair of low black heels. And underneath, still in their packaging, new underwear and a bra.

My cheeks burned. "You bought me clothes?"

"Thomas bought them. At 6 a.m. When I texted him that my mate needed something that wasn't a torn wedding dress," he said. "Don't overthink it, Zara. You needed clothes. Now you have them. Put them on and come out when you're ready. I will not look until you tell me to."

He walked out of the bedroom, closing the door, giving me privacy.

I stared at the dress. I had never owned anything new. Everything I had was hand-me-downs from Chloe or donations from the pack.

My hands were shaking as I changed. The dress fit perfectly, hugging my waist, falling to my knees. The fabric was soft against my skin. The heels made my legs look longer. When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I didn't recognize the girl staring back.

I didn't look like a kitchen Omega anymore. I looked like a woman someone could claim.

I opened the bedroom door.

Damien was standing in the living room, on the phone, wearing a fresh black suit, his silver hair combed back, looking like the billionaire CEO he was. When he saw me, he stopped mid-sentence.

His eyes raked over me slowly, from my wet curls to my face to the dress to my bare legs to the heels.

"Thomas, I have to call you back," he said quietly, and hung up without waiting for an answer.

He walked toward me, his steps slow, deliberate. He stopped right in front of me, his hand coming up to tuck a curl behind my ear.

"Perfect," he murmured. "Absolutely perfect."

"It's too much," I whispered. "It's too expensive. I—"

"It's not enough," he interrupted. "But it will do for today. Today you go back to that house not as their maid. But as my future Luna."

He took my hand, his fingers lacing through mine, and led me to the elevator.

The drive back to the Blood Moon territory was tense. Thomas drove, Damien sat beside me, his hand on my knee, his thumb drawing slow circles that made it very hard to think straight.

"When we get there," he said quietly, "let me speak first. The pack responds to dominance. If you speak first, they will try to interrupt you. If I speak first, they will listen."

"What are you going to say?"

"The truth," he said. "That my son violated the most sacred law we have by rejecting his fated mate without just cause. That I am invoking the Rite of Reclamation. And that you are under my protection now."

"And if they don't accept it?"

His grey eyes turned to me, cold and hard as winter steel. "Then they will no longer have a pack. I own the land their houses are built on. I own the company that employs most of them. I can dissolve Blood Moon with one signature. They know that."

I swallowed. I had never realized how much power he truly had. Jace was the future Alpha, but Damien was the Alpha who had built an empire.

We pulled up to the pack house at exactly noon.

It looked different in the daylight. Less magical, more... small. The white roses from last night were wilted, the silver ribbons hanging limp. Warriors stood outside, their eyes widening when they saw the black Bentley.

Then they saw who got out.

Damien got out first, straightening his suit jacket, his Alpha aura rolling out like a storm cloud. The warriors immediately bowed their heads, their wolves submitting.

Then he reached back and helped me out.

I stepped out in my black dress and heels, his coat draped over my shoulders because it was cold, my curls falling down my back.

Silence fell over the entire front yard.

Mia, my best friend, was standing by the kitchen door. Her hand flew to her mouth. "Zara?"

Jace appeared in the doorway of the pack house. He was still in yesterday's suit, his hair messy, his eyes bloodshot. When he saw me, relief flooded his face.

"Zara! Thank God! Where did you—"

Then he saw Damien's hand on my waist. His relief turned to confusion. Then to fury.

"Dad? What are you doing here? And why is she with you?"

Chloe appeared behind him, wearing my white dress — my white dress, the one I had left torn on the forest floor. She had picked it up and put it on. It was dirty, but she wore it like a crown.

"Oh, look who decided to come back," she sneered, but her eyes flickered nervously to Damien. "We were worried, little sister."

Damien didn't even look at her. He looked only at Jace.

"Jace Blackwood," he said, his voice carrying across the entire yard, amplified by his Alpha command so that every wolf within a mile could hear it. "You were entrusted with the future of this pack. And last night, you rejected your fated mate in front of the entire pack, without cause, without honor, causing her wolf near death. Is this true?"

Jace paled. "Dad, I— I can explain. Chloe is—"

"Is this true?" Damien roared, and the entire yard shook. Even I flinched. Jace fell to one knee, his wolf forced into submission by his father's power.

"Yes," Jace choked out.

Damien looked around at the gathered pack members, who were now crowding out of the house.

"By the old laws of our kind, written before this pack even existed, when an heir rejects a fated mate without just cause, the Alpha may invoke the Rite of Reclamation to preserve the honor of the bloodline. I, Alpha Damien Blackwood, Alpha of Blood Moon, do hereby invoke that rite."

Gasps. Whispers. The Elders, who had appeared on the porch, went white.

"I claim Zara Thorn, rejected mate of Jace Blackwood, as my own fated mate. I claim her as my Luna. She is under my protection, under my house, and any insult to her is an insult to me."

He pulled me forward, his arm tight around my waist.

"Zara Thorn," he said, looking down at me, his voice softening for only me, but still loud enough for everyone to hear. "Do you accept this claim? Do you accept me as your mate and your Alpha?"

Every eye in the pack was on me.

Jace was staring at me like he had never seen me before, like the black dress and the heels and the coat and the hand on my waist had transformed me into someone else.

Chloe was staring at me with pure, unfiltered hatred.

And Mia was smiling through tears, nodding at me. _Say yes. Say yes._

I looked up at Damien. At this silver-haired, scarred, powerful man who had knelt to clean my feet, who had held my hand all night, who had given me a choice when no one else ever had.

I took a deep breath.

And I said the one word that would change everything.