Rejected by the Alpha: Saved by the King

Chapter Five

Celeste ran. Ran faster than she knew she could. She shifted back and forth between wolf and human form, bare feet hitting grass, concrete, rocks. She didn't even remember when she was able to feel her wolf again. When Lyra was there, she couldn't feel her. It was terrifying, not being able to feel a part of herself, but before she had left the bar, her wolf was wild. Almost feral. It scared her. She had just rejected the Pack that had taken her in, saved her from being a Rouge as a child. They had saved her from a death sentence, and yet the one who was supposed to protect her, cherish her, save her from all other harm, had rejected her. He had been with someone else, and Celeste couldn't help but wonder for how long. How long had he been with Lyra? Was that why he had been pushing back the marking ceremony? Because he didn't want Celeste to be able to feel when he cheated on her?

She didn't know where she was running, or how long she had ran. It was like she was possessed. Her wolf wasn't communicating, but following an instinct that she couldn't understand. It was primal. It was nothing like she had ever experienced from her wolf prior. She felt like her entire body was under the wolf's control, even when she was in human form, because she had never felt her wolf be this insistent, this single minded before. Her lower lip trembled as she burst through the tree line, and came to the base of the mountain.

"Oh," she whispered, understanding. "You think we should just lay down and die."

'What else is there for us?' her wolf responded, finally saying something that Celeste could understand. 'No family. No Pack. No mate. What do we have to live for? To fight for?'

"Aren't we enough?" Celeste whispered out loud, her soft voice wavering. "Aren't we worth living for?"

There was silence before the wolf said, 'Is this really how you want to live the rest of your life? We were never meant to live alone.'

A thick lump formed in Celeste's throat as she nodded, hating that her wolf was right. There was no way that she was going to be able to find another Pack to take pity on her and take her in. Not when she was so close to being a Luna to a different Pack. They would worry that she was just trying to get information on them to report back, or that she was trying to take it down from the inside for the land. She would be alone, banished to a Rouge life unless she went back to Darius's Pack with her tail between her legs and asked for forgiveness, which she thought she would get, but not without Lyra being smug about it. She could do that, go back to the Pack, watch Darius and Lyra for the rest of her life. See Lyra living the life that was meant to be hers. However, the idea of that made her stomach churn and made her feel ill. No, dying was better than that. Hell, being a Rouge was better than that.

Her wolf, sensing the way that she was agreeing with her now, urged her forward. Her bare feet, bloody from running for hours without care, slowly began moving up the mountain. While she didn't believe the stories about the cursed King that would rain down swift fury and death upon any outsider than entered here, she did know that this was a dangerous territory. After the Rouge King had disappeared, many of his Rouge Kingdom had fallen back into true Rouge fashion. Some were even feral, living the rest of their lives in their wolf form, nearly completely forgetting their humanity. Or, worse still, those who wanted all the power of a wolf but the dexterity of a human. They were the ones that she was really afraid of. Those that made themselves resemble wolfmen of myth. The idea that one of those finding her made a shiver run down her spine. There was so many things a creature like that could do to her beyond simply killing or eating her.

Her wolf agreed with a slight whine as she walked up the barren mountain.

***

"Your Majesty, are you sure that you should venture out now? You've only been awake a few hours, and it's late," Kalen asked worried, his thick brows drawn together in concern. "The likelihood of your premonition being correct is... low. I told you before, it's rare for wolves to come out this way. The Packs in the area have forbidden in."

"When I was born, the Moon Goddess gave us all three gifts," Rael said, putting a cloak on, adjusting the collar. "Our wolves, which you still have now, yes?"

"Yes Sire," Kalen said.

"Two, our fated mates. Clearly you still get those, yes?"

"Yes again, Sire."

"And third, were dreams or visions foretelling the future. Most of us only have eight in our whole lives. One during a different phase of the moon," he explained as he grabbed the backpack he had been packing with gear for the night. "I have had four in all my years, and now I have had five. It's a waning gibbous tonight. I have never had a vision during one. I know that it's a gift from Her. She may have cursed me, but I am still Her child. She has yet to foresake me."

"My King, I have never heard of such a thing. Visions? From the Goddess?" Kalen shook his head, though he made no moves to stop his King. "Even my grandparents never-."

"I am far older than I look. Magic has ways of changing people. Making us more than anything we were ever meant to be," Rael said, his steps faltering as he looked around his room, so carefully maintained by his followers even after all these decades. "I shouldn't be alive, and yet I am. Magic and curse alike are to thank, or blame, for that, but I know my mate is here. She's alone, and she needs me. I won't let her down. I can't let her down."

"Do you really think that this is the only way to break your curse?" his second in command asked, swallowing a worried lump in his throat.

"It is," the King confirmed as he straightened his posture, "and even if it wasn't, I know that she's there. She's so close. I couldn't leave her out in the elements."

"Not to mention the feral," Kalen reluctantly agreed, which gave Rael pause.

"The feral?" he repeated.

"Yes, Your Highness. Since your curse took root, many had abandoned your Kingdom, and the beliefs of being able to be part of a werewolf community without submitting to an Alpha. Since so many had grown accustomed to life without a proper Alpha that at the prospect of having to go back to one, they instead opted to go feral."

"Don't tell me that the others are out there as well," Rael said, his voice low.

Kalen knew what Rael was asking. Were those who trapped themselves somewhere between human and wolf out there. Being the ones to torment the land and take what they wanted without any care or concern for the land itself or those others who inhabit it. "I am sorry to say that there are rumors," he finally said, his head dropping. "I have never seen one, but we have all heard the strange howls, and some think that they may have caught glimpses outside of the castle's borders."

"And you thought I ought to let my mate stay out there alone?" Rael's voice began to mount, anger and worry curling in his chest for a mate he didn't even know yet.

"I-I'm sorry, Sire. I wasn't thinking," Kalen called after Rael as the King made his way out of the castle, into the quickly chilling night.