Alpha's Regret: Rejected His Unfated Mate

Now You see Me Too

The Grand Ballroom of the The Geneva Royale Hotel is a shimmering cage of gold leaf and crystal. Outside, the Swiss winter howled against the reinforced glass, but inside, the air was thick with the scent of vintage champagne, expensive cologne, and the heavy, tang of raw Alpha scent

This was the Alphas & Allies Summit, a delicate dance of power where the world’s most influential humans and the most predatory Alphas met to carve up the map of the coming decade.

Silas Moonfall stood near a marble pillar, a glass of untouched scotch in his hand. For five years, he had been a man carved from frost. His dark hair was shorter now, his jawline harder, and his eyes... his eyes were two pools of stagnant ice.

"Silas, darling, you’re scowling again. Alpha Marcus is looking this way. Smile. For the cameras, at least."

Catheryn moved into his orbit, her hand sliding possessively around his bicep. She wore a gown of midnight black silk that shimmered like oil. Over her shoulder hung the Luna’s mantle, a heavy, fur-trimmed cape that she wore with a hollow, desperate pride.

"I’m here for the treaty, Catheryn. Not to perform," Silas rumbled, his voice a low vibration that made a nearby human diplomat flinch.

"The treaty is about optics as much as territory," she whispered, her voice tightening with an familiar insecurity. "The Obsidian elders are already whispering about your... lack of focus. Don't give them more ammunition. We have a son to think about."

Silas didn't look at her. He never did if he could help it. "Aiden is with the nannies. He's safe. That's enough."

"Is it? He’s four years old and he still hasn't shifted, Silas. People are talking. They say the Silver-Moon blood is weakening."

"The boy is fine," Silas snapped, his patience fraying.

A sudden ripple of movement near the grand entrance caught his eye. It wasn't the usual polite shuffling of a new arrival. This was a wave of silence that washed over the room, starting at the double doors and rolling inward until the chatter of three hundred people died in their throats.

Kael, Silas’s Beta, materialized at his side, his face pale. "Alpha. You need to see this."

"I have eyes, Kael," Silas said, but his voice trailed off.

The entourage entering the room was unlike any Silas had ever seen. They weren't wolves. They were humans—eight of them—dressed in the sharp, charcoal-grey suits of a high-level security detail. But it was the woman in the center who stopped the world.

She wore a suit of blinding, clinical white. Her hair, once a soft brown that she had kept in a messy bun, was now a sleek, sharp bob that framed a face of terrifying beauty. Her movements were fluid, authoritative, and entirely devoid of the submissive posture Silas remembered.

"Impossible," Catheryn whispered, her grip on Silas’s arm tightening until her nails drew blood. "She’s... she was on that plane. There were no survivors."

Eleanor Langford stopped in the center of the room, her eyes scanning the crowd with a chilling detachment. When her gaze landed on Silas, it didn't linger on his face. It moved over him as if he were a piece of furniture, something to be noted and then ignored.

"Alpha Silas Moonfall," a voice announced over the speakers, "and the delegation from the Silver-Moon. May I introduce the Keynote Speaker for the Human-Wolf Medical Initiative: Dr. Eleanor Langford, CEO of Phoenix Global."

"Doctor?" Silas whispered, his heart performing a violent, agonizing lurch against his ribs.

The mate-bond, the thread he had believed was severed by the cold Atlantic suddenly flared. It wasn't the soft pull it had once been. It was a roar of white-hot agony that made his vision swim. Fenris, his wolf, let out a sound in the back of his mind that was half-howl, half-sob.

She is here. She is alive. MATE.

"Silas, stay here," Catheryn hissed, her voice trembling. "It’s a trick. A rogue illusion. She’s human, she couldn't have survived that crash!"

Silas ignored her. He stepped forward, his legs moving of their own accord. The crowd parted for him like a sea of grass before a predator. He made it ten feet before he was blocked.

Two of the charcoal-suited security guards stepped into his path. They simply held up their hands, their eyes fixed on his with a lack of fear that was insulting to an Alpha.

"Stand aside," Silas growled, the sound rattling the crystal chandeliers above.

"The Doctor is not taking unscheduled audiences, Alpha Moonfall," the lead guard said. His voice was calm, professional. "If you wish to discuss the medical initiative, you can book a time with her assistant."

"She is my wife!" Silas roared.

The room went deathly silent. Across the gap, Eleanor turned. She didn't look angry. She looked... bored.

"I’m sorry," Eleanor said, her voice clear and resonant, carrying to every corner of the ballroom. "Did that man say something?"

She walked toward him, her guards stepping back to allow her passage. She stopped three feet from him, her scent clean, sharp, and smelling of ozone and rain hitting him like a physical blow. There was no trace of the lilies she used to wear. No trace of the girl who used to weave blankets.

"Eleanor," Silas rasped, his eyes searching hers for even a glimmer of the woman he knew. "How? How are you here?"

"My name is Dr. Langford," she said, her tone as cold as the Alpine air. "And I’m here to discuss the future of inter-species healthcare. I wasn't aware that local pack leaders were permitted to harass the keynote speakers."

"Eleanor, stop this," Silas reached out, his hand trembling. "The plane... I thought you were dead. I’ve lived in hell for five years."

"Then I suggest you get used to the temperature," she replied. "Because you haven't seen the fire yet."

"Mommy?"

A small, clear voice cut through the tension. From behind Eleanor’s white suit, a child appeared. He couldn't have been more than four or five years old. He was dressed in a miniature version of the security detail’s suit, his dark hair ruffled and his eyes

Silas felt the air leave his lungs. The boy’s eyes were a piercing, unmistakable resemblance. They were Silas’s eyes.

The child reached up and took Eleanor’s hand, his small fingers curling around hers. He looked at Silas, his head tilting with a curiosity that was painfully familiar.

"Mommy, who is the tall man?" the boy asked. "His wolf is very loud. It’s making my head tingle."

The mate-bond didn't just flare; it exploded. The connection between Silas and the child was a lightning strike, a feeling that slammed into Silas’s soul with the force of a falling mountain. This wasn't just a boy. This was his blood. His heir. The child he thought he had murdered with his own neglect.

"He’s nobody, Leo," Eleanor said, her voice softening as she looked down at the boy. She reached down and smoothed a stray lock of dark hair from his forehead—a lock that curled exactly like Silas’s did.

"He looks like he’s going to cry," the boy, Leo, said innocently. "Is he sad?"

Eleanor looked up at Silas, a slow, cruel smirk touching her lips. "No, Leo. He’s just a stranger who’s forgotten his place."

"Eleanor, give him to me," Silas growled, his wolf surging to the surface. He took a step forward, his hands curling into claws. "That is my son."

The security guards moved instantly, their hands going to the weapons at their belts. But Eleanor didn't move. She didn't even flinch.

"Your son?" Eleanor asked, her voice dripping with venom. "You must be mistaken, Alpha Moonfall. I remember very clearly being told that you didn't have a wife. That you didn't know the human girl on the sidewalk. And if you didn't know the mother, you certainly can't claim the child."

"Silas, come away!" Catheryn screamed, rushing forward and grabbing his arm. She looked at Leo with a mixture of horror and pure hatred. "This is a setup! He’s a human brat! He’s not yours!"

Leo blinked at Catheryn, his amber eyes flashing with a sudden, intense light. "You have a very ugly heart, lady. It smells like rot."

Catheryn recoiled as if she’d been slapped.

"Leo, that’s enough," Eleanor said, though she didn't sound disappointed. She looked at Silas one last time, her gaze raking over his ruined expression with a cold, clinical satisfaction. "The Summit is beginning, Alpha. I suggest you find your seat. You wouldn't want to miss my presentation. It’s all about the survival of the fittest."

She turned and walked away, Leo trotting at her side, his small hand still tucked firmly in hers. The security detail closed ranks behind them, a wall of charcoal grey that blocked Silas from the only two people in the world who mattered.

"Alpha, we need to move," Kael whispered, his hand on Silas’s shoulder. "The media... the cameras are everywhere. You’re shaking."

Silas didn't move. He stood in the center of the gold-leaf cage, his jaw tight, his heart thundering with a mixture of rage, hope, and a terror he had never known. He watched the white of Eleanor’s suit vanish into the VIP lounge.

"Whatever it takes," Silas whispered, his voice a promise that chilled the air around him. "I will find out how she survived. I will find out who helped her. And then, I am taking my son home."