Rejected by My Mate, Chosen by The Exiled Alpha

Chapter 5 — The Exiled Lands"First Wolf blood."

I'm still hearing it, even now. The elder's voice is stuck in my head like something I can't pull out.

"First Wolf blood."

The words circled in my mind, heavy and wrong, and my legs wouldn't stop shaking inside the Exiled Lands. It wasn't because of the cold, even though the air here was sharper than anything back home. It was twenty years of pain catching up to me all at once. My palms were so wet with sweat that I kept wiping them on my pants, like that would make the fear go away too.

And the monsters.

That's what everyone called them. Broken wolves, exiles, killers who lived in the dark and hurt the weak.

But they weren't looking at him like that.

No laughter. No dismissal.

They were looking at me like I was important. Like my name had been in their mouths for years. Like they had been waiting at these gates.

And God, that was worse. So much worse than hate. Because I knew how to deal with hate. But I didn't know what to do with people wanting me.

"What does that even mean?" The words came out before I could stop them. Small and weak, like I didn't mean to say them out loud.

The elder looked at me then, and she looked so old it made my chest hurt. Her face was full of deep lines, her hair white like ash, and her eyes like a storm that had seen too much. When she looked at me it didn't feel like she was seeing my face. It felt like she was seeing everything I had tried to hide. All the shame. All the nights I cried myself to sleep because my wolf never came.

"It means you're not who you think you are."

The words hit me like cold water and my stomach dropped. Without thinking I looked at Kael, because somehow my body decided he was the only safe thing here. the Exiled Alpha didn't look like the monster from the stories. He didn't look cruel or cold or in control. He looked lost. His brows were pulled together and his jaw was tight, like he was trying to understand something that didn't make sense. That should have made me feel better but it didn't. It only made me feel less steady.

"Then explain," I said, and I hated how my voice broke. "You can't just say something like that and walk away—"

She cut me off with a slow shake of her head, pity in her eyes. "Not here."

Kael went stiff beside me. I felt it. Every muscle in his body locked up. Then the elder spoke; "You know something."

"I know enough to know she needs to be protected. Now."

"Protected from who?"

The elder didn't answer. She turned and stared into the dark trees behind us, into the dark that ate the torchlight. "From everyone."

Silence fell. Thick and ringing in my ears until it hurt. And it was almost funny in a sad way, because for twenty years I had been invisible. The pack's biggest disappointment. The girl with no wolf. The mistake they wanted to forget. No one cared.

But now, suddenly, everyone wanted me.

My blood.

My power.

Me.

I turned to Kael. My throat was too tight. "Did you know anything about me?"

"No," and it came out too fast.

"Kael, please be honest."

He didn't look at me at first. He turned toward the trees instead, and the torchlight caught the old scar on his neck. When he finally looked back, he looked exhausted, like a king who'd been fighting too long with no one to watch his back.

"No, Lyra. If I had known, I would have prepared you. I would have kept you safe from it. You have my word. I didn't know."

I believed him.

I don't know why.

The Exiled Lands were nothing like the stories. Nothing like the hell we were told about back home. The ground wasn't covered in blood. The air didn't smell like death.

Kids were running between the houses, laughing.

Men were training in the field, sweating and shouting like soldiers.

Families were cooking outside, fixing clothes, arguing and laughing. Just living happily.

And when we walked past the territory, people nodded at Kael.

Not because they were scared.

Because they respected him.

An older man with a scar on his cheek stepped forward. His eyes moved to me for a second before going back to Kael. "Alpha."

"Report."

"Borders are clear."

He glanced at me again, quick and curious, then looked away fast like he got caught. They all knew. They were wondering about the same thing. Who was I, and why did their Alpha bring me here.

I kept my voice low so only Kael could hear. "They don't seem scared of you."

Kael didn't look at me. He kept looking straight ahead. "They shouldn't be."

I watched his sharp jaw, the way his hands stayed loose at his sides. "You're not the monster they told me about."

He almost smiled. "People believe what's easier to believe."

"So what am I supposed to believe?"

He stopped walking.

Right in the middle of the path while the wind moved through the trees.

We stood there for a while, and then he said it quietly. "Believe what you see."

That hit me hard in the chest. Because everything they told me about him was a lie. Maybe everything they told me about myself was a lie too.

Later they took me to a room and I stood in the doorway because it was too much, too fancy and too much royal stuff.

A big bed with warm blankets. Candles burning everywhere. A balcony that opened to mountains, sky and air that didn't feel like a prison.

The words came out before I could stop them. "I thought you'd lock me up."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because that's what everyone says about you."

His jaw tightened and for a second he looked hurt. "And you believed it?"

I looked down at my hands. "I believed everything."

The silence after that was thick, uncomfortable and full of things we weren't saying. But he understood. I could see it. He knew what it felt like to be judged before anyone knew who you were.

"You're not a prisoner here, Lyra," he said finally, and his voice was softer than I had ever heard it. "You can leave, if you want."

I blinked. "You'd let me go?"

"If that's what you want." He meant it. He was serious.

No one had ever said that to me before.

Not Lucian. Not my pack. No body.

Kael started to leave, then stopped at the door with his hand on the frame. "Get some rest."

"Kael."

He turned back.

"Thank you for saving me back there."

The words felt too small.

He didn't say anything for a second. He just looked at me like he was trying to understand me. Then quietly, so quiet I almost didn't hear it: "You don't have to thank me for protecting what matters."

My heart did something stupid and I couldn't sleep. My mind wouldn't stop doing sh!t. The mark on my wrist kept glowing. The elder's voice kept ringing. The First Wolf kept running through my head. And Kael was in every thought.

I don't know why it did. Maybe I wanted answers. Maybe I was just tired of being in the dark. But I reached out and touched the glowing mark on my wrist.

The candles flickered all at once.

The room got so cold I could see my breath.

And then, soft and right inside my head:

“Lyra...”

I froze.

At first I thought it was outside the door but no It was coming from my head.

“You've been hidden for too long.”

"Who are you?" My voice shook.

Silence. Then: “The part of you they tried to erase.”

A memory hit me so hard I almost fell to my knees. A woman with dark hair and scared eyes holding a baby close under a big silver moon. A scream cutting through the night. Then darkness.

"Stop," I choked out, holding my head. "Stop it."

The voice got softer, almost kind.

“Your wolf isn't missing. She was waiting.”

The door slammed open so hard it hit the wall.

Kael, breathing hard like he had run all the way here, panic on his face. "What happened? I felt—"

"I heard a voice in my head," I cut in, shaking."

"What did it say?"

I didn't get to answer because power burst through the room, hot, silver and blinding, and my mark lit up so bright it hurt my eyes.

And from far away, rolling over the mountains and through the trees, came a howl that shook the floor under my feet.

Kael went completely still.

He heard it too.

"That's… impossible."

"What?"

He looked at me, and for the first time since I met him, he looked scared. "The First Wolf."

My blood went cold.

Then the alarms started screaming, loud and sharp, and footsteps were running down the hall and warriors were shouting. Someone was here. Someone who shouldn't be able to get in.

Kael moved in front of me right away, his body blocking mine, his eyes turning silver in the dim light. "Stay behind me."

The big doors at the end of the hall opened slowly.

And from the darkness, walking into the torchlight with a smile that showed all his teeth, came a voice I knew better than my own.

"Hello, Lyra."

I froze.

Lucian.

Lucian has entered Kael's territory, and the past Lyra tried to escape has found her again.