Marked By The Enemy Alpha

Rejection in the Spotlight

ARIA

For a heartbeat, the clearing was filled with pure noise from every goddamn angle. There were gasps, growls and even the sharp snap of twigs under shifting paws. Kael keeps walking toward me with those molten gold eyes. My pulse was hammering so loud that I’m sure everyone could hear it.

This is it. The enemy, Alpha, is about to claim me.

Selene Bloodclaw moves first. Her head tilted and there was a sick smile curling up at the edges of her mouth like a predator. Her eyes glitter like shards of ice, warning and expectation rolled into one. All around, Crescent Fang wolves stiffen; Bloodclaw wolves hold still, a ripple under their skins as if they’re waiting for a command.

Kael stops in front of me. Close enough for me to smell him — cedar, cold wind, iron. His gaze pins me where I stand. For a dizzy second, I feel the bond, a strange warmth under my skin, my wolf pressing against my ribs with a soft, confused whine.

Then his mouth twists into something colder than the moonlight.

“She’s a liability,” Kael says, his voice carrying easily over the hush. “The Crescent Fang Beta’s daughter. The weak link of her pack. I reject this bond. I reject her!”

The words slam into me like a blow. My breath catches; the clearing tilts. Around us, a collective gasp, then whispers like dry leaves:

Did he just—?

Rejected her?

In front of everyone?

My wolf lets out a wounded howl inside me, high and screeching. The mate-bond, still so new and electric, tears down the middle. I feel it — an actual ripping, a c***k inside my chest. Heat floods my veins, then ice. My knees wobble. Somewhere, my father swears under his breath but doesn’t move. Selene’s smile widens, satisfied.

Kael doesn’t even blink. He just turns his back on me, the ultimate insult, and starts to walk away as if nothing happened.

Something snaps.

It’s not just inside me. The air itself flickers. For a second the silver light of the Moon Goddess goes harsh and white. A pulse — invisible but real — rushes out from my skin. The torches shudder. Wolves flinch. No one else seems to understand what they’ve felt; they just blink, shake themselves. But I know. Whatever cracked inside me is spilling power I didn’t know I had.

I wrap my arms around my stomach as it began to churn in a crazy way. My throat suddenly became tighter and it was so hard to breathe. My throat felt like iron that refused to bend or move for me to breathe. My wolf is still howling, but under it I can feel something else: a low growl that isn’t mine.

Security moves then — Crescent Fang enforcers, Bloodclaw guards, both sides converging like they’re not sure whether to protect me or drag me out. The whispers get louder. Faces blur. Hands reach.

I bolt.

The silver grass whips at my legs as I dashed out of the circle. Someone calls my name — Lyric? My father? I don’t look back. Trees swallow me, branches clawing my arms, the cool stink of moss and damp soil rushing past. My breath comes in ragged pulls. Every step makes the c***k in my chest widen.

He rejected me. In front of everyone. The thought beats with my heart. He rejected me. He rejected me.

Pain knifes through my body. My vision spots black. I stumble, hit a trunk with my shoulder, push off and keep running. The mark at the base of my neck — the faint shimmer of the mate-bond — flares hot, then hotter, as if branding me from the inside.

“What’s happening to me?” My voice broke out loud but got swallowed by the trees.

No answer, only the sound of my own tired and broken steps and the rush of blood in my ears. Another wave of pain crashes over me, strong enough to make me drop me on my knees. My palms dig into the wet soil beneath me. The scent of iron is back, stronger now, like blood but not blood. The mark burns so fiercely that I can’t even scream.

The burn swallowed my voice and pressed hard against my neck.

I collapse onto my side. The forest tilts and dims. My last clear thought is that the ground is too cold, and if I stay here something will find me.

When I wake, it’s not cold anymore.

Heat presses against me.I could feel bodies that were too close, smelling of sweat and stale fur. Rough voices drift through the fog in my head. My eyelids feel glued, but I force them open. I had to because I couldn't even recall how far I ran away from both packs.

Shapes loom above me. Men, big and ragged, eyes yellow in the dark. Not Crescent Fang. Not Bloodclaw. But rogues. I could tell form their patched and filthy leathers and clothes, but every one of them wears the same crest burned into their gear: a stylised claw wrapped in barbed wire.

Darius’s crest.

A crest I've seen tossed around so we could fear whoever bears those crests because they are nothing but an absolute enemy to us.

My heart lurches. I try to shift, but my limbs feel heavy and unresponsive. One of the men crouches, grinning at me with a predatory smile full of broken teeth.

“Looks like the Beta’s little girl wandered off,” he says. “Boss will be pleased.”

The others chuckle, low and ugly. The sound crawls over my skin and almost made puke out the last meal i had before all that ceremony.

I push myself up on shaking elbows. My throat is dry, my wolf weak but snarling somewhere inside me. “Stay back,” I rasp.

The broken-tooth rogue just laughs harder. “Oh, she’s got fire.”

Another rogue reaches for me. Instinct flares; pain and power spike together. For a heartbeat the trees glow silver again. The men hesitate, eyes narrowing.

Then everything goes black.