REBORN FOR THE LYCAN KING

Chapter 5

I Rejected My Mate Before Thousands

Pov: Diana

The garden overflowed with wolves—thousands of them, gathered for our pack's spring festival. Banners of gold and red hung from the estate's stone walls, and the air was thick with music and the smoky scent of roasted meat. Leaders and warriors from neighboring packs stood in loose clusters, laughing, wine glasses catching the sunlight, everyone waiting for the moment of the day.

At the center of it all, Jax stood on the stone stage—a man of few words who preferred the company of wolves to people, and looked, for once, striking in his clean white shirt and dark trousers. Then, straight out of a story I no longer believed in, he dropped to one knee in front of me.

He drew a small black velvet box from his pocket and flipped it open with his thumb, and the diamond inside caught the light so brightly the whole crowd erupted—shouting, clapping, a man in the front row waving a scrap of paper and hollering, “Marry him!” The women clasped their hands together, faces glowing, certain they were watching a true fated-mate love story unfold. They believed this was the happiest day our pack had ever seen.

I knew better. I knew the truth hiding beneath his perfect smile: that two weeks earlier, Jax had walked into a dark forest and paid a cursed witch, using stolen pack gold, to bind a fake mate bond between us—dark magic meant to trick my mind and force my wolf into feeling a pull that was never real. He'd expected it to work exactly as planned. He'd expected me to run into his arms in tears and say yes without a single question, the same way I had the first time around.

He looked up at me from one knee, chin lifted, playing to the crowd. Then he lifted the small microphone clipped to his collar. “Diana is my fated mate,” he announced, chest puffed with pride. “The heavens chose you for me. Come up here, take this ring, and become my Luna.”

The crowd roared louder, a sound like rolling thunder rippling out over the grass.

I moved through the parting wolves toward the stage, my dark blue gown brushing the grass—nothing like the soft pastels I used to wear. People smiled and nodded as I passed, murmuring how glad they were I'd finally found my true mate, stepping aside as if I were already their queen. None of them knew they were watching Jax's downfall begin.

I climbed the steps. Jax's eyes gleamed, greedy and cold, as he held the ring higher and reached for my wrist.

Instead of giving him my hand, I reached past him, pulled the standing microphone free of its stand, and looked down at him in silence. His smile faltered. Confusion crossed his face—he'd expected joy, not this. I was still holding the velvet box in my other hand.

I gathered every ounce of strength in my arm and hurled it straight at his face. It struck him square on the nose, and the ring bounced off his cheek and vanished into the dirt at the foot of the stage.

“I, Diana of the Blood Moon pack, reject you, Jax,” I said into the microphone, my voice carrying to every corner of the garden and beyond. “I reject you as my mate. I reject you as my future Alpha.”

The cheering died instantly. Jax lay stunned on the stage for a long moment before scrambling up, eyes wide with disbelief. Pack elders dropped their wine glasses, shattering against the stone. The musicians froze mid-note. Thousands of wolves stood like statues, staring. No one in our pack's history had ever rejected a future Alpha so publicly, and I could feel every single one of their eyes on me.

Jax recovered fast, humiliation twisting into rage. He lunged at me and seized my hand hard enough to bruise.

“Diana, what on earth are you doing?” he snarled, low enough that he thought only I would hear. But the microphone was still live, and his words rang out through every speaker in the garden.

“Listen to me. You belong to me. The mate bond is absolute, and you're a weak girl who doesn't get to change her mind.”

I didn't flinch. I didn't cry. I looked down at his hand wrapped around my wrist, then let out a slow, mocking laugh that carried across the entire crowd.

“I belong to you?” My voice rang out, clear enough for every one of the thousands watching. “You belonged to my cousin Ivy long before today. You spent your whole morning in her bed, Jax. Go marry her instead.”

The garden gasped as one. Heads turned toward Ivy. Her face went sheet-white, her mouth opening and closing without a sound, and when she tried to step back into the crowd for cover, the wolves around her simply moved aside, leaving her exposed and alone in a widening circle of silence.

Jax lost whatever control he had left. His wolf surged to the surface, his eyes bleeding black, and he snarled, “Shut up!” as he wrenched at my arm, trying to drag me off the stage.

“You're coming with me. You will obey me.”

Before he could pull me another inch, the sky went dark. A crushing pressure dropped over the garden like a physical weight, and thousands of wolves collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain as the stone beneath the stage split open. Jax's legs buckled and his grip tore free from my wrist. He hit the dirt face-first, gasping, unable even to lift his head.

The estate's iron gate bowed inward and burst open, and a line of black armored jeeps roared through and rolled to a stop. The door of the lead vehicle opened, and a tall, powerfully built man stepped out onto the gravel, his long black coat dragging behind him, dark hair stirred by the wind, golden eyes locking onto mine across the garden.

Zach Hamilton. The Alpha King.

He didn't spare a glance at the wolves kneeling in the dirt or the elders bowing their heads. He crossed the frozen crowd, climbed the stage, and lifted me into his arms as though I weighed nothing at all. I pressed against his chest and breathed in cedar and rain, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, I felt safe.

“I've waited long enough,” he murmured, gold eyes warm as they found mine.

From the ground, Jax pushed himself up, coughing blood, and glared at the King holding me. Pride, or stupidity, made him open his mouth one more time.

“She's my mate!” he screamed, pointing a shaking, filthy hand at us. “You can't just steal her from my pack!”

Zach stopped. He turned his head slowly, gaze settling on Jax with a cold, deadly light that dropped the temperature of the entire garden until our breath came out in white mist.

“If you ever touch my woman again,” he said, quiet and final, “I will wipe out your entire lineage.”