Fated To The Alpha King Who Rejected Me

The lights in the pack hall were too bright. I stood near the back wall in a white dress that was not mine. It belonged to my friend Mira, and it was slightly too big for me. My hands were sweating. My heart was beating so fast I thought everyone could hear it. Tonight was my eighteenth birthday. For most wolves, this night meant everything. It was the night you shifted for the first time. The night you could finally feel your wolf. The night you could find your fated mate. For me, it meant more. For eighteen years, I had been nothing. I was Elara, the daughter of an omega who died giving birth to me. I lived in the Silver Moon pack but I never really belonged. I cleaned the kitchen, I washed the floors, I served food at ceremonies. I had no family. No wolf. The other girls whispered that I would never shift. That I was wolfless. I tried not to believe them. The doors at the front of the hall opened and the air changed. He walked in. Alpha King Kael Thorne. Every wolf in the room bowed their head. Even our Alpha. Kael was not just an Alpha. He was the King of all packs in the North. He was twenty-five, ruthless, and known for never taking a mate. He believed mates made you weak. He was tall, dressed in black, his hair dark and messy like he didn't care. But his eyes - his eyes were the color of a winter storm, grey and cold and terrifying. When he looked at you, you felt small. I was supposed to keep my eyes down. Omegas don't look at Kings. But I couldn't. Because the second he entered the hall, something inside my chest snapped. A scent hit me. Pine trees, cold rain, and something wild that I had never smelled before. My knees went weak. My breath caught. Mate. The word echoed in my head, not in my own voice. It was deeper. Stronger. For the first time in my life, another voice answered me inside my mind. My wolf. She was awake. I gasped. It was him. The Alpha King was my mate. The Moon Goddess had paired me, the weakest girl in the pack, with the most powerful King. It didn't make sense. It was impossible. But the bond was there, pulling me towards him like a rope tied around my heart. I should have stayed quiet. I should have stayed in the shadows where I belonged. But I was eighteen. And for eighteen years no one had ever chosen me. Tonight, the Goddess had chosen me for him. Before I could stop myself, I took a step forward. Then another. The crowd parted. He was talking to our Alpha, his face bored, uninterested, until I stopped right in front of him. "My King," I whispered. He looked down. Slowly. His grey eyes scanned my face, my cheap dress, my bare feet that were shaking inside my old shoes. He inhaled once, and his expression changed from boredom to disgust. I tried to smile. "I... I think you are my mate." The silence that followed was the worst sound I have ever heard. Then someone laughed. A girl from the front row. Then another. In two seconds, the entire hall of three hundred wolves was laughing. I felt my face burn. Kael did not laugh. He looked at me like I was something he had stepped on. He took a step closer. I could feel the power coming off him. It was so strong it made my chest hurt. "You," he said, his voice low but loud enough for everyone to hear. "What is your name?" "Elara," I said. "Elara," he repeated. "Can you shift?" I swallowed. "Not yet. But tonight is my birthday, I can feel her now, my wolf-" "You can't even shift," he cut me off. His voice was now ice. "I can smell it. You have no wolf scent. You are empty. Weak." He turned to look at my Alpha. "Is this what Silver Moon pack offers? A wolfless omega girl who hallucinates?" My Alpha looked angry and embarrassed. "Forgive us, Your Majesty. She is just an omega's daughter. She does not know her place." Kael looked back at me. His eyes were merciless. "Let me tell you your place." He grabbed my wrist. His grip was hard. The mate bond sparked where he touched me, sending a painful, beautiful shock up my arm. He felt it too, I saw his jaw clench. "I am Kael Thorne, Alpha King. I lead ten thousand wolves. I fight wars you cannot even imagine. I need a Luna who is strong, who can fight beside me, who can give me strong heirs. Not a weak, wolfless girl who cleans floors." Every word was a knife. Tears filled my eyes but I refused to let them fall. "I, Alpha King Kael Thorne, reject you, Elara, as my mate and Luna." The bond broke. It was not like a breakup. It was like death. I felt something inside my soul rip apart. A white-hot pain exploded in my chest, in my head, in my stomach. I couldn't breathe. I fell to my knees. A silent scream tore out of me. Blood ran from my nose onto the white dress. I heard gasps. Someone shouted. Mira screamed my name. Kael let go of my wrist like I was diseased. He didn't look down. He walked past me. "Clean this mess up," he said to my Alpha, and left the hall with his guards. I lay on the cold floor, in a borrowed white dress covered in my own blood, rejected in front of everyone. Mira pulled me up, crying. "Elara, please, breathe." But I couldn't. The place where the bond had been for only five minutes was now a hollow, bleeding hole. That night, I packed a small bag. I took only my mother's silver necklace and the dress I had bloodied. My Alpha's wife told me to leave. "You have shamed us. The King will never come back if you stay." I had nowhere to go. At midnight, I walked into the Forbidden Forest. Everyone said no one comes back from there. That old beasts live there. That the cursed White Wolf died there. I was not afraid. What more could the forest do to me that my mate hadn't already done? I walked until my feet bled. Then I stopped under a huge old tree and looked at the full moon. "Why?" I whispered to the Moon Goddess. "Why did you give me a mate only to have him reject me? Why did you give me a wolf that never comes?" For a second, nothing happened. Then the wind stopped. The forest went completely silent. And inside my head, a voice answered. It was not my voice. It was powerful, ancient, female. Because you are not weak, Elara. You have been sleeping. Now, wake up. My body started to burn. Light, pure white light, burst out of my skin. My bones cracked. My back arched. Pain like I had never felt shot through me, but it was different from the rejection pain. This pain was power. I shifted. Not into a small brown wolf like other omegas. I shifted into something huge, white as snow, with eyes like blue ice. My fur glowed in the dark forest. I was the White Wolf. The one from the legends that everyone thought was dead. In the royal palace miles away, Alpha King Kael suddenly stopped in the middle of his meeting. He clutched his chest. For the first time since he rejected that girl, he felt a sharp pain where the bond used to be. Something powerful had just awakened. And his wolf, who had been silent for years, suddenly howled inside him. Mate. Kael's eyes widened. "No." But his wolf growled, angry and possessive. We made a mistake. [END OF CHAPTER 1]