Chapter 1
The Rejection
The mate bond snapped into place the moment Lyra's eyes met Alpha Kieran Blackwood's across the crowded pack hall. Every nerve in her body ignited, her wolf practically howling with joy at finding their other half. Twenty-three years of waiting, of watching other wolves find their destined partners, and finally, finally, it was her turn.
Kieran's steel-gray eyes widened, his nostrils flaring as he caught her scent. Even from across the room, she could see his pupils dilate, could smell the spike of arousal and recognition that meant he felt it too. The mate bond. Unbreakable, sacred, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.
Lyra's heart hammered against her ribs as she took a tentative step forward. Around them, the pack's monthly gathering continued, wolves laughing, sharing stories, cubs playing, but her world had narrowed to just him. Just them.
Then Kieran's expression hardened to stone.
"No." The word carried across the hall with alpha authority, silencing conversations and stopping Lyra mid-step. "I, Kieran Blackwood, Alpha of the Shadowmoon Pack, reject you, Lyra Thorne, as my mate and Luna."
The pain hit her like a physical blow, driving her to her knees. Around them, gasps of shock rippled through the pack. Rejections were rare—almost unheard of. To reject one's true mate was to spit in the face of the Moon Goddess herself.
"I don't accept," Lyra whispered, then louder, "I don't accept your rejection."
Kieran's jaw clenched. "Then you're a fool. You think I'd take a rogue's daughter as my Luna? You think the pack would follow someone whose father abandoned them for a human?" His voice dripped with disdain. "You're nothing, Lyra. You always have been."
Each word was a silver blade to her heart. Lyra forced herself to stand, to meet his gaze even as tears blurred her vision. "My worth isn't determined by my father's choices."
"Isn't it?" Kieran stepped closer, his alpha aura pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe. "Look around. What do you see? A pack that respects you? Wolves who would follow you into battle?" He gestured to the faces surrounding them; some pitying, some uncomfortable, others openly hostile. "You're tolerated here, nothing more. Did you really think I'd make you Luna just because of some cosmic accident?"
"The mate bond isn't an accident," Lyra said, her voice breaking. "It's sacred."
"It's inconvenient." Kieran's tone was cold as winter. "I need a Luna who can strengthen this pack, not weaken it. Someone with proper bloodlines, alliances, respect. Not the daughter of a traitor who couldn't even stay loyal to his own kind."
Lyra felt something c***k inside her chest. Not just her heart, something deeper. Something that had been holding her together all these years. "Fine," she whispered. "If that's how you truly feel..."
"It is."
She straightened her shoulders, drawing on reserves of strength she didn't know she possessed. "Then I, Lyra Thorne, accept your rejection." The words tasted like ashes. "And I hereby renounce my place in the Shadowmoon Pack."
Now it was Kieran's turn to look shocked. Renouncing pack membership was serious, it meant becoming a lone wolf, surviving without the protection and strength that came from pack bonds. Most wolves couldn't survive it.
"Lyra..." her friend Maya started to speak, but Lyra held up a hand.
"I'm done begging for scraps of acceptance from wolves who see me as nothing but my father's shame." She looked directly at Kieran, pouring all her pain and determination into her voice. "You want a Luna with proper bloodlines? Then find one. But don't you dare come looking for me when you realize what you've thrown away."
She turned on her heel and walked out of the pack hall, her head held high despite the whispers that followed. Only when she reached the forest did she allow herself to break, collapsing against an oak tree as sobs wracked her body.
The mate bond stretched between them like a rubber band, growing more painful with each step she took away from him. By the time she reached her small cabin on the edge of pack territory, it felt like her chest was being torn apart.
But she'd survive this. She had to.
Because Lyra Thorne was done being anyone's second choice.
