Banished By My Mate: Claimed By The Alpha King

2 | Unbearable Pain

ADELINE

The silence after Damon’s whispered “Adeline…” stretched so long it felt like the moon itself held its breath. My heart shattered and I clenched my jaw so tight it hurt.

Then he spoke- louder this time and his voice carried across the sacred clearing like a blade.

“I, Damon Volkov, future Alpha of the Silverfang Pack… reject you, Adeline Reed, as my fated mate.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. My knees buckled. Only his grip on my hands kept me upright for that first horrible second. My heart ripped as I heard gasps rippled through the pack.

Someone standing close- maybe Jane?- let out a choked sob. My mother’s hand flew to her mouth. My own vision blurred with tears and eventually made their way down my cheeks without stopping.

Damon’s eyes were ice now and I found no flicker of regret. No torment. Just cold, deliberate cruelty. What had made him turn like this? This was not the Damon I loved- this was not the Damon who confessed his love for me.

“You’re fertile omega trash,” he said, each syllable slow and vicious so every single wolf could hear. “No pups from you. Ever. The Moon Goddess made a mistake. I won’t chain myself to weakness. I don’t want my pups to be weak like you. I want my Luna to stand next to me, someone who can rule me just like …. Kiara.”

The clearing erupted while his venomous words broke me. Kiara. She was one of the powerful wolves, daughter of one of the betas that had served Damon for a long time. I had seen them train together and I should have known … there might have been something between them but …. Damon always made me shrug that feeling off and now I was realizing how stupid and naive I really have been.

I could hear the Laughters. The sharp and mocking scoffs cut through the night and Someone yelled, “Omega w***e!” Another voice, one I recognized as Damon’s beta friend’s girlfriend, barked, “Thought she’d breed an army, huh? Look at her now- barren b***h!”

Barren.

The word stabbed deeper than the rejection itself.

I stared at Damon, waiting for the bond to snap and for the pain to tear me open. I still could not process what the actual f**k had just happened. This must be a dream- but who would dream a horrible thing.

I waited for the pain to consume me so I could escape this humiliation but it didn’t break clean. It twisted, frayed, still clinging like a dying vine.

I could feel his disgust leaking through the fraying thread- revulsion so thick it made bile rise in my throat. He dropped his hands, letting mine go and spoke harshly.

“Take her away,” Damon ordered, finally releasing my hands like I burned him. “She’s no longer welcome here.”

Two warriors stepped forward. The men I’d known since childhood. They grabbed my arms roughly as their fingers dug into soft flesh. I heard my parents shout for them to let me go and my father rushed to save me but he was pushed back by Damon’s guards.

I was being dragged away, still in that white dress that was supposed to be something I would cherish my whole life. I didn’t fight. I couldn’t. My body felt hollow, my mind screamed one word over and over: why?

The pack didn’t even wait for me to be dragged off.

All of a sudden, I felt something hard thrown at me which made me gasp in pain. Eggs- someone actually threw eggs. They splattered across my white dress, yolk sliding down silk like tears I couldn’t shed. Mud followed and then rocks.

I could hear my mother and Jane screaming for them to stop but what could you expect from the pack who had always hated … and bullied low blood omegas like me. That’s how we were normally treated and I have always suffered since childhood for being a weak omega.

Insults rained harder than anything physical.

“Slut!”

“Useless!”

“Pack reject!”

My father tried to push through the crowd. “Adeline- !” A growl from one of the elders silenced him. My mother was crying openly now, but she was held back by Jane.

I kept my eyes on Damon the whole time they hauled me backward. He didn’t look away. He watched with his jaw still tight and arms crossed like he was witnessing justice. Was this the justice of the future Alpha?

They dumped me at the edge of the forest, just beyond the torchlight. “Banished,” one warrior snarled. “Cross the border again and we’ll kill you on sight.”

Then they were gone.

The cheers and laughter faded behind me, swallowed by trees.

I stood there in the dark with a ruined dress clinging to my skin and yolk drying sticky on my chest. My legs shook so hard I thought they’d give out and they did. I finally crashed on the ground.

I sobbed loud and painfully till my tears stopped flowing out. I was a mess and so broken. What had these mere seconds just turned into. It was a heartbreaking kind of pain for your fated mate to reject you and choose someone else over you.

The agony was too much to endure. But something else was rising too. So hot and like liquid fire uncoiling low in my belly.

Heat.

It clearly did not feel like the gentle, building kind that came with a mate’s touch. This was and felt so violent. Early. It must have been triggered by heartbreak and humiliation and sheer, crushing stress.

Suddenly, my body felt restless. It felt different and …. Not in its control. My body didn’t care that I’d just been rejected. It only knew abandonment. Vulnerability and ….. The need to be claimed.

A whimper escaped my lips.

I needed to find a safe place. I knew ….. When in heat, a wolf releases pheromones and for omegas like me, it was different. My heats weren’t normal. They came after a certain period of time and released pheromones that drove …. Wolves crazy that could start a bloody war to mate with us.

I stumbled deeper into the woods, away from the pack lands as branches tore at what remained of my dress. The moon poured silver light through the canopy, touching my skin like fingers. It was too much and too bright.

My scent exploded. Not the soft, sweet omega bloom I’d always carried. This was something darker. Something moon-touched, feral, drenched in desperation and untouched fertility.

It rolled out of me in waves, thick and intoxicating, saturating the air. I could not walk anymore and my body felt too weak. I collapsed against a tree, panting and I felt my thighs slick despite the agony in my chest.

My heat was coming fast- way too fast. Uncontrollable. And then I heard them. Howls. Distant at first. Then closer. Hungry. Multiple voices lifting in answer to my scent. Rogues. Loners. Wolves who had no pack to answer to.

They were coming. For me. I choked out a sob in horror as I pressed my back harder against the rough bark, heart slamming against my ribs. My tears fell hot but useless. Nothing and no one was going to save me while I was going to get preyed.

All of a sudden, from the shadows beyond the clearing- far enough that no one in the pack could see, but close enough that I felt …. his presence was like a weight. I knew him. I knew his presence very clearly. I felt as if … Alpha Viktor watched.

Damon’s father.

Silent. Unmoving. His silver eyes gleamed in the dark and I let them fixed on me but … He did nothing. He said nothing. He simply… watched. Was he going to watch me become the prey of those wolves or …. Was he effected by my pheromones too-

And in that moment, colder than any rejection, I understood. My fate had taken a drastic turn. My fate had been rewritten.