The Rejection
Chapter 1
The Rejection
Aria's POV
"I, Beta Marcus Kane, reject you, Aria Winters, as my fated mate and Luna."
My mate.
The feeling hit me so hard.
For one single, perfect second, everything was right. The world went quiet. The only thing I could see was Beta Marcus Kane. The only thing I could smell was pine trees and amber. It was his scent. It smelled like I was finally home.
My heart, which had been me, cowering into myself and hiding to be invisible, felt like I could now come out like a normal person.
After twenty-two years of being nothing, of being less than nothing, the Moon Goddess had given me a mate. Him. Strong, handsome, important Beta Marcus. He was my way out. My salvation.
He always looked at me with kindness and treated me like he was the only one he saw.
But then he opened his mouth and said this. In front of three hundred wolves, and for a moment, everything first blurred.
The words didn’t make sense at first. They were just sounds. But then the pain came.
It wasn't a heartbreak. It was like someone had reached into my chest and cut me in two. A scream tore out of my throat. The silver chains on my wrists, which my stepfather said were a "precaution for the wolfless omega," suddenly felt like they were burning through to the bone.
My knees weakened and it was just by the chains that held me upright. At first, everywhere was quiet, and then suddenly, as if a switch was flipped, they all burst into laughter. The sound echoed again and again in my head, and I immediately took a shaky step back, my legs trembling. “We told you so.”
“You can never be worthy of him…” All of their words came crashing down in my head. I inhaled a shaky breath. Tears blurred my vision. I saw my stepsister, Seraphina, step forward. She was wearing a beautiful white dress. My dress. The one for the chosen Luna. She slid her hand into Marcus's, and he took it.
He didn't look at me. “Seraphina Winters is to be my mate and Luna!”
The crowd erupted into loud cheers.
From his big alpha's throne, my stepfather, Alpha Cornelius, stood up. His face was so cold. “The wolfless omega has disgraced this sacred ceremony,” his voice boomed, silencing the laughs. “She has caused a disturbance with her very existence. She will be purified in the silver chamber tonight. Perhaps the silence will help her understand her place.”
A cold fear, worse than any pain, froze my blood. The silver chamber. It was a small box lined with pure silver. Weaker wolves, especially omegas, didn't come out alive. They called it purification. Everyone knew it was an execution ground.
Two guards grabbed my arms, their fingers digging into my bruises. They started dragging my limp body away from the dais. My feet scraped the dirt. I couldn't fight. I was just like a broken doll.
As they pulled me through the crowd, people's faces blurred, but I could see people sneering, laughing at me. Then, I saw her. Claire. My only friend. She was so pale with fear, her eyes huge and terrified.
And then, she winked. It was so fast, I almost missed it. But I saw it.
The guards were rough, shoving me towards the dark, stone building that the cells were in “Move it, waste of space,” one of them grunted.
We passed a storage shed. Suddenly, a huge stack of wooden crates by the door wobbled and crashed to the ground with a tremendous BANG! The guards yelled, startled, loosening their grip for just a second.
It was all the chance I had.
I didn't think. I just moved. I dragged my arms free and I ran. I ran like the demons of hell were at my heels. Maybe they were.
“Stop her!” someone roared.
I didn't look back. I pumped my legs, my heart hammering against my ribs like it wanted to escape. The fancy, stupid dress they had put me in tore on branches. My lungs burned. Every breath I took was so painful. I could feel the raw, bleeding wound in my soul where the mate bond had been severed. I was in agony in my soul and on my body
I heard the howls behind me. They were coming for me.
The forest was just everywhere around me, dark and scary. I didn't have a plan. I just knew I had to get away. I couldn't go back to that silver box. I would rather die out here, free.
Branches whipped my face tearing the skin and drawing blood. Thorns ripped at my arms and legs. I fell, hard, scraping my knees on the rocky ground. I pushed myself up, sobbing and breathing hard for air, and kept running. They were getting closer because one stretched his hands and clawed my side. I screamed in the night, the pain stinging deep.
As I kept running, U saw it. An old, moss-covered stone marker. Words were carved into it, words we were taught to fear from childhood.
ROGUE TERRITORY - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
Behind me, the howls were getting closer and closer. I could hear the crunch of leaves under heavy they're heavy paws as they matched on it.
I looked at the marker. Going forward was a death sentence. Rogues were savage, wild things. They killed pack wolves on sight.
Going back was a slower, more painful death. The silver chamber. My stepfather's "discipline." A lifetime of being a punching bag.
Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the blood and dirt. I made my choice.
I stumbled across the line.
I ran until my legs gave out. I collapsed, my body slamming into the damp earth. I crawled, my fingers digging into the mud, dragging myself forward. I could hear a river. Water.
Maybe if I could just make it there, I could hide my scent.
I reached the bank, my body refusing to cooperate. I was a mess of blood. I was so tired. So broken. The adrenaline was fading, and the full weight of everything, the rejection, the betrayal, the pain, crashed down on me.
I had nothing. No pack. No mate. No wolf. No hope.
I curled into a ball on the cold, wet stones by the river, and I let the darkness take me. Maybe I would just never wake up.
A twig snapped.
My eyes flew open.
Not one. Not two. Three massive shadows detached themselves from the trees. They were wolves, but bigger than any I had ever seen. They moved with a deadly, silent grace that made the hunters from my pack look like clumsy puppies.
