Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By Moonfire

Chapter 3: The Alpha's Regret

Dante's POV - Three months after the rejection

The whiskey burned as it went down, but not nearly as much as the memory of Luna's face when I'd spoken those damning words. I poured another glass in my study, ignoring the stack of pack business that demanded my attention. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, not since that night when I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.

*"I reject you, Luna Blackwood, as my mate."*

The words echoed in my mind like a curse, and I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes, trying to block out the image of her collapsing to her knees. Even now, three months later, I could still feel the phantom ache where our mate bond had been severed - a constant reminder of what I'd thrown away.

"Still drinking yourself into a stupor, I see." The disapproving voice of my Beta, Marcus Stone, cut through my brooding. He stood in the doorway of my study, his arms crossed and his expression a mix of concern and frustration.

"It's barely past noon," I muttered, but I set the glass down anyway.

"Which makes it even more pathetic." Marcus moved into the room and took the seat across from my desk, his dark eyes studying me with the familiarity of someone who'd known me since childhood. "Dante, you can't keep doing this to yourself. The pack is starting to notice."

I laughed bitterly. "The pack got exactly what they wanted. An Alpha who puts duty before personal desires. Isn't that what makes a strong leader?"

"Not when that Alpha is slowly destroying himself with guilt and regret." Marcus leaned forward, his voice gentle but firm. "What happened at the festival wasn't just about duty, and we both know it."

He was right, of course. The truth was far more complicated than the noble facade I'd presented to the pack. Yes, the council had been pressuring me to reject Luna if she turned out to be my mate. Yes, there were political considerations about bloodlines and alliances. But the real reason I'd rejected her so brutally was much more selfish.

I'd been terrified.

The moment our mate bond had snapped into place, I'd felt her power - not just her natural healing abilities that everyone knew about, but something vast and ancient and overwhelming. For a split second, standing there looking into her beautiful brown eyes, I'd felt like an ordinary man in the presence of a goddess. And that had scared me more than I'd ever been scared of anything.

So I'd lashed out, used the cruelest words I could think of to drive her away before she could discover just how inadequate I was for someone like her.

"The council is meeting tonight," Marcus said, pulling me from my dark thoughts. "They want to discuss your engagement to Alpha Harrison's daughter."

I straightened in my chair, my wolf, Storm, snarling in response to the mention of another woman. "I haven't agreed to any engagement."

"No, but you haven't rejected the proposal either. It's been three months, Dante. They're getting impatient." Marcus's expression was sympathetic but serious. "A political alliance with the Northern Peaks Pack would strengthen our borders and our trade routes. It makes sense."

"Everything about my life makes sense except the parts that actually matter," I said, standing to pace behind my desk. "Tell me, Marcus, how is she? Luna?"

Marcus hesitated, and that hesitation told me everything I needed to know. "She's... struggling. Sarah says she barely leaves her room, hasn't been helping with pack healing duties. But Dante, there are rumors."

"What kind of rumors?"

"Strange things happening around the Blackwood cottage. Temperature fluctuations, electrical storms on clear days, plants growing out of season." Marcus paused, choosing his words carefully. "Some people think her rejection awakened something that was supposed to stay sleeping."

I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing to do with the autumn air outside. I'd felt her power that night, seen the silver light that had exploded from her unconscious form. But I'd convinced myself it was just an emotional response to the trauma of rejection.

"There's something else," Marcus continued reluctantly. "The pack is divided about the Blackwood family. Some think you were right to reject her, that there's something dangerous about their bloodline. Others think you made a mistake that could bring consequences down on all of us."

Before I could respond, my office door burst open without warning. My head warrior, Jake, stood in the doorway with an expression of barely controlled panic.

"Alpha, we have a problem," he said, breathing hard as if he'd run the entire way from the pack borders. "Something attacked the Blackwood cottage. There are scorch marks, massive claw gouges in the trees, and a scent that doesn't match any creature I've ever encountered."

My heart stopped. "Is Luna hurt? What about Sarah and Elder Sage?"

"They're all alive, but Alpha..." Jake paused, swallowing hard. "You need to see what's left of the shadow demons."

*Shadow demons?* I'd heard the term in old stories, creatures of darkness that existed on the edges of our world, but I'd never believed they were real.

"Show me," I ordered, already moving toward the door.

The fifteen-minute drive to the Blackwood cottage felt like an eternity. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that I heard the leather creak, and Storm was pacing restlessly in my mind, demanding that we get to our mate faster.

*She's not our mate anymore,* I reminded him firmly, but he just snarled in response.

*You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me. The bond wasn't broken - it was transformed. I can still feel her.*

I pushed his voice aside, but deep down, I knew he was right. Something still connected me to Luna, something that went beyond the traditional mate bond. Sometimes, in the quiet moments before sleep, I could swear I felt her emotions - pain, loneliness, and lately, a growing power that made my skin prickle with electricity.

The scene at the cottage was worse than Jake had described. Ancient oak trees were split down the middle, their bark bearing claw marks that were easily six inches deep. The ground was covered in patches of what looked like black ash, and the air still crackled with residual magic that made my wolf pace nervously.

But it was the silver roses growing in impossible abundance around the cottage that made me stop dead in my tracks. They glowed with their own internal light, beautiful and otherworldly, and I knew instinctively that Luna had created them.

"The demons came in the afternoon," Elder William Blackwood, Luna's uncle, explained as he approached me. His face was grim, but there was also a fierce pride in his eyes that I'd never seen before. "Five of them, drawn by the scent of awakened power. They didn't expect Luna to fight back."

"She fought shadow demons?" The idea terrified and amazed me in equal measure.

"She obliterated them," William said simply. "Silver fire like nothing I've ever seen. Sage says it's been over two centuries since a Moonfire wielded power like that."

*Moonfire.* The word sent chills through me. I'd heard whispers of that bloodline in pack histories, stories of wolves so powerful they could reshape reality itself. I'd assumed they were legends, cautionary tales about the dangers of unchecked magical ability.

"Where is she now?" I asked, though part of me wasn't sure I was ready to see what Luna had become.

"Inside with Sage and Sarah. But Alpha..." William's weathered hand gripped my arm. "What you did to her, the public rejection, it didn't just break her heart. It broke the seals that have kept our family's true nature contained for generations. She's more powerful than any of us ever imagined, but she doesn't know how to control it yet."

The implications of his words hit me like a physical blow. My rejection hadn't just hurt Luna - it had unleashed something that could potentially threaten the entire supernatural community.

"I need to see her," I said, but William shook his head.

"I don't think that's wise. Your presence tends to make her power fluctuate wildly. Earlier, when someone mentioned your name, all the silver roses in the garden started glowing so brightly we could barely look at them."

The thought that Luna's power responded to me, even indirectly, sent a dangerous thrill through my system. Storm preened at the evidence that our connection to her was still strong, but I forced myself to focus on the practical concerns.

"If she's this powerful and can't control it, she's in danger," I said. "There will be others who come looking for her, creatures much worse than shadow demons."

"Which is why the pack council needs to make a decision," William said gravely. "Protect her, or distance yourselves from the Blackwood family entirely before the supernatural community decides we're all threats by association."

As if summoned by his words, I felt a familiar tingling in the bond I'd thought was severed. Luna's emotions washed over me - exhaustion, fear, and underneath it all, a loneliness so profound it nearly brought me to my knees.

*She needs us,* Storm said urgently. *She's stronger than ever, but she's more vulnerable too. The power is changing her, and she doesn't have anyone who understands what she's going through.*

"I have to go," I said abruptly, turning away from the cottage before I did something stupid like storm inside and demand to see her.

But as I walked back to my truck, I could feel Luna's presence like a beacon in my mind. The mate bond might have been transformed, but it was far from broken. And whether she wanted my help or not, I was going to make sure nothing else got close enough to hurt her.

The engagement to Alpha Harrison's daughter would have to wait. Luna Blackwood - Moonfire - was my responsibility now, whether she knew it or not.

As I drove away from the cottage, I caught a glimpse of silver light flickering in one of the upper windows, and my heart clenched with equal parts longing and regret. I'd thrown away the most precious gift the Moon Goddess could have given me, but maybe, if I was very careful and very lucky, I might find a way to earn a second chance.

Storm's agreement rumbled through my mind like distant thunder, and for the first time in three months, I felt something that might have been hope.