The Lycan King's Rejected Mate

The first mistake I made was seeing the door to the guest cabin not completely closed and not turning away. I had come to surprise Dorian. Our engagement party was in three hours. The whole pack would gather in the great hall. There would be food and music and Elder Mira had made my favorite honey cakes. Dorian had been working all day with my father, Alpha Vance, and I thought I would bring him a plate of those cakes early. So he would have mine before anyone else could give him theirs. I wanted a moment alone with him. Just us. Before we stood in front of everyone and promised our lives to each other. I smiled as I headed towards the cabin. The cabin where I knew he would be was one of the small ones and it was standing further away from the main house. Dorian used it sometimes when he needed to be alone and when the pack business weighed him down. I understood. I always understood and supported him. I had given up my warrior training for him. Three years ago, when he first started talking about becoming Beta, about needing someone steady beside him, someone who wouldn't be gone on patrols or border runs. He said he needed a feminine woman who woild wait for him. I became that person. I put away everything that had to do with me training and went to Elder Mira instead to learn how to mix medicines to heal people. Dorian said he loved me for it. He said I was his peace and that he would marry me. I believed him and now, today was our wedding! I squeaked in excitement and hurried there faster. When I got there, the cabin door was open a little bit, and I could hear sounds inside…soft sounds. I should have walked away. I pushed the door instead. The bed was small, and was meant for one person. But there were two people in it. Two people I knew. Liana. My sister. And Dorian. My fiancé. For one long, stupid second, my brain tried to find another explanation. Maybe she was hurt. Maybe he was helping her. Maybe— Liana looked over Dorian's bare shoulder and saw me. She smiled. There wasn't even an ounce of guilt or surprise in her expression. She smiled like she had been waiting for this moment. Like she had rehearsed it in her mind a hundred times and now, finally, the performance could begin. "Brynn," she said. Her voice was light and cheerful. "You're early." Dorian's head snapped around. His face went through several expressions very quickly. From surprise to guilt to panic, then everything disappeared and the confusion cleared from his face. He didn't move away from her. "Brynn." He said my name like it was a problem. Like I was the one who had walked in on something I shouldn't have seen. My throat closed. I couldn't speak. I could only stand there, my hands empty because I had dropped the plate of honey cakes somewhere(I didn't remember when) and watch them. Liana sat up slowly. She didn't bother covering herself. Her hair was messy, her lips red from kissing, her skin flushed. She looked beautiful. She always looked beautiful. I had grown up in her shadow and I had made peace with that. I had told myself it didn't matter because Dorian loved me. Because I had him. She pushed her hair back and tilted her head at me. "Don't look so shocked. Did you really think he would wait forever?" I found my voice. It came out rough. "Liana. You're my sister." She laughed. “And so?” Dorian finally moved. He got up from the bed and reached for his pants. He didn't look at me while he put them on. "Dorian." I said his name, my voice trembling and quiet, like if I said it the way he liked being called in that soft voice, he would explain. He would tell me this was a mistake. He would come to me and hold me and make it make sense. He finished buttoning his pants. Then he looked at me. There was nothing in his eyes. No love or regret. Nothing. "Liana is pregnant," he said. The words hit me like a physical blow. I actually stepped back. My hand went to my stomach without my permission. Pregnant. She was pregnant. With his child. "How long?" I heard myself ask. Dorian's jaw tightened. "Does it matter?" "It matters to me." He didn't answer. Liana did. "Long enough," she said. She ran a hand over her flat stomach, smugly. "Long enough that the baby is real. Long enough that your engagement doesn't change anything." My engagement. The party tonight. The sinple white dress hanging in my room that I had sewn myself because I didn't want to ask for pack funds. And my fantasies of wanting to marry him since we were kids… None of it was real. None of it had ever been real. I looked at Dorian. "Tell me she's lying." He didn't say anything. My eyes stung as I tried to hold it back. "Tell me this is a mistake. Tell me you love me!” More silence. "I gave up everything for you." My voice cracked. I hated that it cracked. I didn't want him to see me break. But I was breaking. I could feel it happening inside me, like bones splintering. "I stopped training! I stayed home! I waited for you for years, Dorian. Years." I screamed louder than I wanted to. His face flickered. For just a moment, I saw something that might have been pain. But it was gone too fast. "You're a good person, Brynn," he said quietly. "But Liana is carrying my child. And i love her. That's what matters." "It changes everything," Liana agreed. She swung her legs off the bed and stood, pulling on a thin robe. She walked toward me, barefoot without any fear or remorse. "You should go. There's no reason to make this harder than it has to be." Harder than it has to be. I wanted to hit her. I wanted to shift and tear into her with teeth and claws. I wanted to make her feel one fraction of the pain that was splitting me open from the inside. But I had given up my warrior training. I didn't know how to fight anymore. I only knew how to heal. And nothing could heal this. I turned and walked out, hurrying to my father's study. He was sitting behind his desk when I burst in, still in my good dress, the one I had put on to surprise Dorian. My eyes were red. I knew I looked wrecked. I didn't care. "Father." My voice shook. "Father, I need to tell you something. It's Dorian. And Liana. I found them together. In the cabin. She's—she's pregnant. She's pregnant with his baby." Alpha Vance looked up from the papers in front of him. He did not look surprised. That was the moment I knew something was deeply, terribly wrong. He set down his pen. He folded his hands on the desk. He looked at me the way he looked at pack members who came to him with problems he had already solved. Already decided. "I know," he said. The words didn't make sense at first. I heard them, but my brain refused to accept them. "You... know?" "Liana told me two weeks ago." His voice was calm. "Dorian came to me shortly after. We discussed the situation." Two weeks. For two weeks, they had all known. My father. My sister. My fiancé. For two weeks, they had sat across from me at meals, had spoken to me about wedding plans, had watched me sew my dress and not one of them had said a word. "You knew." My voice was hollow. "You knew and you didn't tell me." "It was not your concern." "Not my—" I stopped. I had to stop. If I didn't stop, I would scream. "Father, he was mine. Dorian was mine. We were engaged. The party is tonight." "The party will still happen." He picked up his pen again, like the conversation was already over. "Liana will take your place." The room tilted and everywhere blurred. I grabbed the edge of his desk to steady myself. "Liana will…you're replacing me. With her?” "She carries Ravencrest blood in her womb." He said it like it was obvious. Like it was simple math. "You do not." "I'm your daughter!” I yelled, but he kept quiet at first. Then, quietly, he said something that shattered the last piece of me. "No. You are not." I stared at him. My father. The man who had raised me. The man whose name I carried. "What?" He didn't repeat it. He didn't need to. I had heard him clearly. I just couldn't make it mean anything. "Go pack your things," he said. "You have until morning." "Where am I supposed to go?" "That is not my problem." I waited for him to look at me. To show me something. Pity. Anger. Anything. But his eyes stayed on his papers, and after a long moment, I understood that he was done with me. That he had always been done with me. That I had never been his daughter at all. I don't remember leaving the study. I don't remember walking to my room. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of my small closet, staring at the white dress hanging there, and Elder Mira was behind me. She didn't speak at first. She just came up and put her hands on my shoulders. Her touch was warm. The only warm thing I had felt all night. "Child," she said softly. "Oh, child." I turned into her arms. I let her hold me while I shook, my shoulders trembling in as I sobbed my heart out. Dorian with my sister, realising that the people that raised me all my life disowned me. "Please." My voice was a rasp. "Please, I can't. Not more." She held me tighter. Then she pulled back and pressed something into my hands. A small pouch that was heavy with coins. "Take this. Go somewhere they won't find you. Don't come back." "Where am I supposed to go?" "Anywhere." Her eyes were wet. "Anywhere but here." She kissed my forehead. It felt like a blessing and, cleaning my tears, I left with nothing but the clothes on my back and the money in my pocket. I didn't look back at the pack house. I didn't look back at the only home I had ever known. I walked until the pack lands ended, and then I kept walking. The bar was called the Midnight Moon. It sat right on the border between our territory and the next. A place for wolves who didn't belong anywhere else. It's a human city. I belonged there. I sat at the counter and ordered something strong. The bar was loud. Full of voices and laughter and the clink of glasses. I closed my eyes and let the noise wash over me. I didn't know what came next. I had no pack. No family. No home. No future. I was nothing. Less than nothing. A girl without a name, without a bloodline, without a single person in the world who wanted her— Wait, something is wrong…I mean…different. I felt a pull… like warmth and a strange, electric awareness that raised the hair on my arms and made my breath catch. I turned. He was at the other end of the bar. Alone. Bigger than any man had a right to be, with shoulders that blocked the light and eyes that cut through the dimness like gold fire. He was looking at me, and something in my chest, something I didn't know I still had, lurched toward him like a creature starved for light. Our eyes held. The world went quiet. And then he moved like a flash, and soon, he is in front of me, growling. “Get out,” he growled.