Pregnant For The Alpha Who Rejected Me

Chapter 2: The Bond That Breaks

Moonfang had never felt like a cage until that night. Lira fell stumbling out of the great hall, though she hardly saw her legs moving. The voices gnashed after her, the whispers, stinging and merciless, like claws into the flesh. “Did you see that?” “It was him… the Alpha.” “No, it can't be.” “She is just an Omega.” Each word was a fresh wound. She walked faster, chest heaving, fingers twisting into her dress as if the thin fabric will keep her from unraveling. “I didn't do anything…” she choked out, but her body screamed the truth. The fire in her chest hadn't dimmed — it roared louder, alive and aching, pulling toward something she was terrified to name. Toward him. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head like she could deny the way her soul was screaming. “This is wrong… this has to be wrong…”

“Omega!” There was a cracking of whips in her voice. Lira stood motionless, with chill horror in her blood. She wheeled and her heart sunk down to her feet. Three warriors hung behind her, with carved faces of stone, their armor gleaming silver in the torchlight. Alpha guards. Her mouth went dry. One of them, “Omega Lira Vale,” one stepped forward, voice devoid of mercy, “you've been summoned.” The word hit her like a blow. “S-summoned.” She stammered, barely breathing. The guard did not blink. “By the Alpha.” The floor appeared to open out beneath her. She could not move and terror dragged her. With every turn along the winding corridors it was a countdown to something she would not live through.

And her lungs failed her when they came to those great black doors. “Inside,” the guard said. She hesitated, and the next word was steel: “Now.” Her tremulous hands opened the doors. The black spurted out through the room, forming shadows which stood like silent judges. And his smell struck her next, raw and commanding, Alpha, and it almost made her fall to her knees. Her chest ignited. Kael was leaning against the window with his back to her, all his body exuding rage and power. The silence was bloody. Lira swallowed the sob that was ripping at her throat, and forced her eyes to be down. “You summoned me, Alpha…” Her voice broke, and betrayed every bit of fear she tried to hide.

Silence. Then that voice, the voice that had tormented her: “Look at me.” Her heart broke and mended one beat. Same command, but this time there was no crowd to hide behind. Nobody saw her shattering. Nothing but him, and this awful thing that tore her asunder on the inside. Slowly, aching, she lifted her eyes. The instant of their meeting, the tie burst. She shuddered, and the pain and the heat rushed up through her to the point of her thinking she would die of it. Kael darkened his face, deadly. “There it is again,” he hissed, as though it were a disgust to him. Lira shook her head in desperation. “I don't understand —” “Neither do I,” he snapped, and his voice was ice with an edge sharp enough to bleed her. He approached her. She shuddered instinctively away. “Keep still,” he ordered, and her flesh again sank her, and she stood motionless.

He analyzed her as though it were a nasty thing that he had stumbled over. Her silver eyes had turned her naked and hunted down a weakness to make his love of her. “You’re an Omega,” he said with each word a curse. “Yes, Alpha.” His jaw locked. And yet… the bond reacted.” Her chest splintered. “I didn't mean for it to…” “You think this is about what you meant?” His voice fell to a whisper, and it was yet more terrible than a shout. She was unable to eliminate the flinch. The silence which followed was like a weight pressing upon her ribs and robbing her of her air. Then, more gentle and yet no less savage: “Do you know what it is... whether this is real?” Lira was hardly able to breathe. “Yes…” she whispered, and the word mate screamed in between them, although neither of them dared to utter it.

Kael's face turned to stone. “No.” That one word gutted her. Lira’s breath hitched. “No?” She echoed voice breaking. His eyes were winter. “This is not real.” Her whole body rebelled, the bond in her chest searing like it wanted to tear free and prove him wrong. “ But I felt it–” “I don't care what you felt.” He stepped closer, and the air turned to knives. She stumbled back. “This bond,” he said, slow and merciless, “is a mistake.” Her vision swam with unshed tears. “No… it can't be–” “It can.” He didn't yell. He didn't need to. The quiet in his voice was what destroyed her.

“You are not my mate.” It was like more than a slap, more than claws. It was erased. Her lips were trembling so much that she could taste blood. “But–” “Enough.” The word cracked like thunder. Lira went silent, her throat closing around a sob. He gazed on her, and in one pulse of the heart there was something that flicked through his eyes, pain, perhaps, or remorse, but it passed away, buried under frost. “This ends tonight.” Her heart ceased to beat. “What… Do you mean?” He had turned his back on her, iron-shouldered. Then the blow came: “Prepare for the Blood Moon ritual.” The world went white. No. All wolves were aware of what that was. Public. Final. Irreversible. “Alpha… please…” He didn't turn. “Do, pray,... And there shall be none bonded,” said he, and his voice could have frozen hell, “it will be severed.”

It was then that the tears broke, hot and helpless. “You can’t just—” “I can.” Two words. This was enough to kill her hope. Her hands were trembling at her side, her entire body trembling, not only with fear, but also with the bond which was raging inside of her, screaming, fighting, begging. It vibrated again, fierce and vibrant, disobeying him. Kael went rigid. He felt it. His fist clenched. “Leave,” he ordered, the voice of a broken glass. Lira couldn’t move. “Alpha—” “Leave.” It was a blade. A final one. Her chest caved in. She wheeled round, every stride to the door being as though she were walking in her own grave.

Her hand touched the handle, and his voice stopped her, so low she almost missed it. “Should this be true…” in one awful moment she paused, and, in the space of a single dreadful moment, hope dared to breathe once more. “…then it should never have been.” And he killed it just like that. She did not turn around. She couldn’t. Since, should she look in his eyes, should she see the hatred or the pity or the emptiness, she knew she would not live through it. That night, the Blood Moon rose, fat and bleeding in the sky. And the bond that should have been her salvation was about to be ripped apart in front of everyone, leaving her with nothing but the pieces.