Claimed by the Rejected Alpha

Chapter 1: The Rejection The first thing I learned about Dominic Hale was that his eyes could make a room go silent. The second thing was that they would never look at me the way I wanted. "Lyra, move," Marcy hissed, shoving a tray of silver goblets into my arms. "If you spill anything on the Alpha tonight, I swear the Moon Goddess herself won't save you." I kept my head down and carried the tray across the great hall. Tonight was my eighteenth birthday, the night every Silvermoon wolf shifted for the first time and met their fated mate. Everyone but me, apparently. My wolf had never come. For eighteen years I had been the pack's quiet shame. The Alpha's daughter with no wolf, no scent, no power. The girl who cleaned the training grounds while others bled and bonded and became something more. But tonight, Fate had said something different. I'd felt it the moment I walked into the hall. A pull, like a thread tied around my ribs, tugging me toward the high table. My breath caught. My hands shook so badly the goblets rattled. Mate. Dominic Hale stood at the head of the room, tall and carved from shadow, his dark hair pushed back, his jaw sharp enough to cut. The Alpha of Blackthorn, our strongest ally, undefeated in every challenge he'd ever fought. Twenty-two years old and already feared across three territories. And he was staring right at me. The tray slipped. One goblet hit the stone floor with a c***k that echoed off the rafters. Every head turned. "Useless," someone whispered. "Does she even know how to walk?" My face burned. I dropped to my knees to gather the pieces, but a pair of black boots stopped in front of me. I knew those boots. I'd watched them cross the training grounds a hundred times. "Stand up." His voice was low, rough, and heartbreakingly calm. I stood. My knees barely held me. Up close, he smelled like pine smoke and rain. Like every secret wish I'd ever been too afraid to make. His gray eyes searched my face, and for one wild moment I thought I saw it, the same pull, the same impossible hope. "You feel it," he said quietly. "Yes," I whispered. "I do." Something flickered in his expression. Then it was gone, as if a door had slammed shut behind his eyes. He turned to face the hall. "Everyone, listen." His voice carried like thunder. "Tonight, the Moon Goddess has chosen my mate." The room erupted in gasps. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might break through my chest. He's going to claim me. Here, in front of everyone. Dominic's gaze swept the crowd, then came back to me. And the warmth I had been foolish enough to hope for turned to ice. "And I reject her." The world stopped. "What?" The word left me as barely a breath. "I, Dominic Hale, Alpha of Blackthorn, reject you, Lyra Vance, as my mate and my Luna." Pain tore through me before the sentence even finished. It was like someone had reached into my chest and ripped out the thread that had just been tied there. I doubled over, gasping, my vision flashing white. Laughter rippled through the hall. "Of course," Marcy sneered. "Did she really think an Alpha would take a wolfless nobody?" "Pathetic." "She should be grateful he even looked at her." I forced myself upright, tears burning down my cheeks. "Why?" I choked out. "You felt it. I saw it in your face." Dominic didn't blink. "I need a Luna who can stand beside me. Who can lead. Who can fight." His eyes were cold and flat. "You are none of those things." "Dominic," I breathed. "You will address me as Alpha." The cruelty of it almost broke me more than the rejection itself. Then my father stepped forward, the Alpha who had never once called me his daughter in public. His face was twisted with disgust, not for Dominic, but for me. "You have shamed this pack for eighteen years," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Now you shame us before our allies. Lyra Vance, you are no longer welcome in Silvermoon territory." My knees finally gave out. "Father, please..." "I am your Alpha," he said. "Not your father. Guards." Rough hands seized my arms and dragged me across the floor. I twisted, searching for one friendly face in that crowded hall. There was none. Only Dominic remained still, his back to me now, his hands clenched at his sides so tightly his knuckles had gone white. I didn't understand it then. They threw me out into the cold, past the territory line, into the black forest where the wolves of rival packs hunted. The gates slammed shut behind me. I walked until my legs shook, until the pain in my chest dulled into a hollow ache. Rain began to fall, soaking through my thin dress. At last I collapsed at the base of an ancient oak and pressed my face into my hands. "I hate you," I whispered into the dark. "I hate you, Dominic Hale." The words tasted like a lie. Then, somewhere deep inside me, something stirred. A heat. A pressure. Like a door being pushed open from the other side. My fingers began to tingle. My bones ached, a slow, terrible, beautiful ache I had waited eighteen years to feel. No. It can't be. Branches cracked behind me. A low growl rolled through the trees, and golden eyes lit up in the dark, then a dozen more. Rogue wolves. Surrounding me. I tried to scramble back, but my body wouldn't obey. The ache surged through my spine, my skin burning, my vision sharpening until every raindrop glittered like a falling star. The largest rogue lunged. And a voice, ancient, female, and furious, whispered in my mind: Finally. Let me out.