Rejected By The Alpha King. # werewolf#romance. # rejected # emotions # fated mate

Chapter 3:The First Hunt

The howls were getting closer.

Blackwood wolves.

My chest tightened. Were they coming to drag me back? Or to finish what Damian started?

I didn’t wait to find out.

I grabbed the old book, the silver dagger, and the blanket from the chest. Then I ran out the back of the cabin and into the trees.

The forest was different now.

Before, it was dark and scary. Now... I could see.

Not with my eyes. With something else.

The trees glowed faintly silver. The path ahead of me seemed to light up, like the moon was guiding my feet.

_We are not broken._

The voice was still there. Inside me.

_Run, little one. Hunt or be hunted._

I stumbled to a stop behind a thick oak. My heart was pounding.

“Hunt?” I whispered. “I don’t know how to hunt. I don’t even have a wolf.”

_You do now._

Pain shot through my back. Hot and cold at the same time. I gasped and fell to my knees.

It felt like fire under my skin. Like bones shifting.

I looked down at my hands. My nails had turned into claws. Black. Sharp.

“No no no—”

The howls were right behind me now. I could smell them. Pine and rage.

“Spread out!” A voice shouted. “The Alpha wants her alive. But she doesn’t have to be in one piece.”

Beta Cole. Selena’s mate.

So Damian did send them.

Fear gripped me. But under the fear... something else.

Anger.

They called me weak.

They called me useless.

They threw me away.

_Enough._

The voice inside me surged. And this time, I didn’t fight it.

The silver light came again. But not wild like in the cabin. Controlled.

It poured down my arms and into my claws.

From the bushes, Beta Cole stepped out. 3 other wolves behind him.

His eyes went wide when he saw me.

“What the— You’re supposed to be powerless.”

I stood slowly. The dagger in one hand. Claws in the other.

The mark on my wrist was glowing. And behind the two moons... the star crown was brighter now.

“I was,” I said. My voice didn’t shake. “But you rejected the wrong girl.”

Cole snarled and shifted. In seconds, a huge gray wolf stood where he was. Teeth bared.

The others shifted too.

Four wolves. Against me.

_Hunt or be hunted._

I moved.

I wasn’t fast before. But now I was a blur. The silver light made me lighter. Faster.

I ducked under the first wolf’s lunge and slashed. My claws caught his side. He yelped and fell back.

The second came at me from the left. I threw the dagger. It hit his shoulder and he stumbled.

Pain. But not mine.

For the first time, I wasn’t the one getting hurt.

Cole was circling me now. Smart. Calculating.

“You think some light trick makes you an Alpha?” he growled. “You’re still an omega.”

“Am I?”

I closed my eyes. Reached for that voice inside.

_Help me._

The ground shook.

From the treeline, silver mist rolled out. Cold and thick. And from inside the mist...

Eyes.

Hundreds of them.

The wolves froze.

Then from the mist stepped her.

A wolf.

But not like any wolf I’d seen.

Silver fur. Nine tails flowing like ribbons. And on her head, a crown made of stars that glowed.

She was massive. Bigger than any Alpha wolf.

My wolf.

She didn’t look at me. She looked at Cole.

And she bared her teeth.

The sound she made wasn’t a growl. It was a command.

An order from a Queen.

Cole whined and immediately dropped to his belly. Submissive. The other wolves did too.

“Impossible,” Cole whispered, in human voice. “Moon Goddess wolves went extinct 200 years ago.”

My wolf turned to me. And for a second, our eyes met.

Gold. Like the moon.

_You are not alone anymore,_ she said in my head.

_And you are not weak._

Then she was gone. The mist faded. Like she was never there.

I was left standing, breathing hard, with 4 terrified wolves at my feet.

“What do I do with them?” I asked out loud. To her. To myself.

_Let them go,_ she answered. _They will tell him._

Tell him.

Tell Damian.

A slow smile pulled at my lips.

“Go,” I told Cole. “Tell your Alpha King that the omega he threw away is awake.”

“Tell him I’m coming.”

Cole scrambled up and ran. The others followed.

When they were gone, the forest was quiet again.

I looked down at my hands. The claws were gone. My nails were normal.

But the glow on my wrist remained.

The book in my hand flipped open on its own. To a new page.

There was a map.

An old kingdom. Hidden in the mountains.

And in the center, written in silver ink:

_“Carter Keep. Home of the Moon Goddess heirs.”_

Home.

I had no pack. No mate. No family.

But I had this.

I tucked the book into the blanket and slung it over my shoulder.

The sun was rising now. Gold through the trees.

For 18 years I was nobody.

Today, I started my first hunt.

Not for food.

For answers.

For power.

For revenge.

And somewhere in Blackwood Castle, I knew Damian was getting the report.

Let him be afraid.

Because the girl he rejected...

Was done hiding.