Pregnant For The Alpha Who Rejected Me

Chapter 1: The Alpha’s Shadow

The great wall of moonfang was never silent. Even in silence, it had a life, a sense of old power derived from centuries of dominance, fear and submission. The hall was lined with enormous columns carved with ancient wolves, snarling, their eyes staring at everyone who passed by. Lira Vale was farthest from the front, just where she liked to be. Hands clasped, head bowed, she hunched her shoulders, and she'd long practised the art of disappearance. Moonfang was no place to be seen, and the best way to survive was to fade into the shadows.

“Don’t look up,” another Omega breathed next to her, an older, wiser Omega. “Especially not tonight.” Lira nodded, but her throat was dry. “I won't," she replied, but knew her heart disagreed. There was something about tonight. The hall was full. The warriors were lined up along the walls, impassive but imposing. The elders sat high up, shrouded in black robes, their eyes keenly judging. And, in the centre, on a black stone stage, stood Alpha Kael Draven.

Kael was overwhelming to be around. He didn't breathe or blink like other men, he just was, and it was cold and absolute and unassailable. When he looked at us with his silver eyes, taking us all in, wolves stood taller, fear freezing them in place. Lira knew better than to look at him, to stand out, to be noticed. But tonight, her eyes disobeyed. For a moment, she looked at him, and all changed.

“We crossed the northern border at dawn today,” Kael growled. “Rogue activity is rising. Any sign of weakness-” The words fell away from Lira, not due to his volume, but because something in her went quiet. Too still. Then came pain - sudden, intense, searing. She gasped, grabbing her dress as it burned through her chest. “What-” she whispered. The pain was hot, alive, burning. Her Omega tensed beside her. “Lira…?” But Lira couldn't answer, because a voice she didn't hear, but felt, seeped into her mind, low, deep and possessive: Mine.

Her breathing turned ragged. No. That wasn’t possible. Her knees threatened to buckle as her heart beat out of her chest. And Kael froze mid-sentence. The room was now completely silent. People stared at him, but he didn't look back. He c****d his head, like he could hear something. And, gradually, his gaze lifted to meet Lira's. The world vanished. The people, the murmurs, the hall - gone. Only his eyes, as hard as cold steel, held her there, like she wasn't even allowed to exist.

Her chest burned hotter. The spark between them flared and tugged at something inside her. No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. Not with her. Not with him. “Don't look at her,” the Omega next to her growled, tugging at her wrist. “Lira, eyes down!” But Lira couldn’t move because something had happened - something she could not change. Kael's face clouded but not with confusion. And with disgust. His jaw set tight, silver eyes narrowing like he was staring at something he shouldn't have. Everything fell so tense. Lira was seen for the first time.

Then it broke. Kael dismissed her like she was nothing, like it didn't matter. The crowd sighed, muttering again, inquisitive. Lira staggered, handing over her heart. Her heart still pounded, still hurt, still belonged to him. “What was that?” the other Omega gasped. “What did you do?” “I didn’t-” Lira choked. “I didn't do anything…" But she did. It was unbelievable and it was not over yet.

The meeting continued, but it was like Lira wasn't there. Something was wrong with her body - it was too alive. It was as if she was hearing, smelling, seeing everything too much. And that pull. Subtle, but present, like a string tied around her and trailing behind to him. Her stomach twisted. No. She tried to shake herself back to reality. It couldn't be. She was an Omega. He was - her thoughts stopped when Kael descended from the stage. The room shifted instantly. Wolves dropped their heads. The tension spiked. He stepped through them, slowly, easily, dividing the crowd. But not to the door or the elders. He was coming toward the back. Toward her.

Lira stopped breathing. “No…” she breathed. The Omega next to her stepped back. “Don’t move,” she warned. As if Lira had a choice. Kael halted a few feet from her, close enough for the air to fill bitter, sharper, more deadly. She refused to look at him, and her body trembled. The air was heavy and oppressive. But then he said, in a soft but not kind voice: "Look at me”. It wasn't a request she wanted to deny him, to stay hidden, to live. But that red line in her chest commanded her to. Reluctantly, she lifted her eyes to his.

At closer quarters his eyes were still more so, not merely cold, but cruel. He analyzed her as if something was flawed or wrong. His gaze followed her face and her pose, her trembling hands, evaluating each detail. And he did not like what he saw. “What is your name?” he said. The query startled her. “Lira… Lira Vale, Alpha” A pause. Something indefinable was fluted through his face, disgust, perhaps. An Omega, he said flatly. Not a question. A verdict. “Yes, Alpha.” Silence. The aching in her breast throbbed, one, two, more, responding to him, calling to him. Lira gulp-gulp. Do not, pray, make it what she imagined.

Kael’s eyes darkened. He came near, too near, too near, and his presence made and smothered. Then, that she might hear, he said, whatever you think you feel... is a mistake. The sentence stung like it was deeper than it needed to be, since a part of her already knew. His eyes looked at her once more — icy, definite, final. So he stiffened and turned his back on her as though she were no longer there. He was dismissed, he said to the hall. And he went, and left her trembling, burning, and broken.

The hall cleared slowly, whispers following her, replete with curiosity and suspicion. Lira barely noticed. She touched her heart, as though she might either keep the feeling in, or cut it out. Neither worked. The reality was setting in, heavy, fearful. That voice, that draw, that expression in his eyes, — it could not have been anything. The realization struck her, and her lips trembled. “...No,” she whispered. But no denial could make it otherwise. And truth was wicked: the one who was the greatest Alpha in the land--he who could never abide weakness, who never could claim one such as her — was bound to her by something inviolable. Something that would make her or break her.

Kael was walking deep into Moonfang country when he halted. His mouth was clenched, his heart was aching. There was that thing. Still wrong. Still unacceptable. His eyes darkened. An error, he mumbled. But even when he said it, the bond throbbed once more — much more, and more perilous. The mark on the collarbone of Lira started to burn that night, during the rising Blood Moon.