What The Moon Could Not Control

The Claiming

The smell of burning sage filled the temple, and a strong scent of fear, mine.

I stand in the ceremonial chamber with fifty other unmated wolves, waiting. The walls are carved with glowing symbols. Sacred

Moon temples. Tombs dressed up as sanctuaries.

Sera whispers beside me. “Stay calm”. “The Moon knows what's best”.

I don't say anything back. Omegas who speak learn to regret it.

My name is Lyra Moonfall. I'm twenty-two. My mother was an omega. Her mother before her. We obey. We survive. We know our place because we've been taught nothing else. That's the shape of my life. Has been since I can remember.

Tonight, that changes. Tonight, the Moon chooses.

The Elders take their positions. All old, all male, all radiating the kind of power that makes breathing difficult. Elder Morcant stands at the center. He oversees bonding. He decides what's acceptable. Two years ago, he had me flogged for speaking back to an Alpha.

“The Moon speaks to those who listen,” Morcant announces. “Tonight, fate will be revealed”.

The ceremony begins with the alphas. One by one, they stand while Morcant calls out names. Female wolves step forward. Some look relieved. Some look resigned. One actually smiles.

Then the other ranks. Betas. Lesser wolves. They move through quickly, already knowing their mates or meeting them here in front of everyone.

Then silence.

The other omegas feel it too. We're next.

“Lyra Moonfall”, Morcant says.

My heart stops.

I move forward. The chamber is too bright. Too full of eyes. Too many witnesses.

“The Moon speaks”, Morcant says. Something strange colors his voice. Awe maybe. Fear.

He looks up at the moon visible through the domed glass.

“The Moon names Alpha Kael Nightborne as your fated mate,” Morcant declares.

The world stops.

Kael. The Supreme Alpha. The one who controls everything. Untouchable, Impossible, and somehow mine.

I feel Sera’s hand in mine. I feel the mate bond trying to change into something else from within my chest.

A tense feeling of drowning

The crowd parts. Kael walks through them like they don’t exist, tall and broad. His eyes look dark once they meet mine, and it causes a sudden drop in my stomach. It feels like something is wrong.

He stops at a distance, but not too far from me. We are meant to kneel at each other. We are meant to acknowledge the bond the Moon has just created. We're supposed to feel it flowing between us.

Kael does not kneel.

He remains standing, does not say a word. He looks at me as though I am a threat to him.

“The Moon has spoken”, Morcant says, with a confused look, trying to understand the situation.

“Alpha, do you accept your mate”?

Kael's jaw hardens at the hearing of the question. I watch as his face shows that something inside of him might be changing.

“No”, he responds harshly.

The word sits there. Impossible.

“I'm sorry,” Morcant steps forward in confusion. “Alpha, you must”

“I reject her,” Kael says. His voice is flat. Final. “I reject this bond”.

The chamber erupts. Wolves shouting. Alphas rising. Elders look to Morcant like he can fix this.

But nothing can fix what just happened.

I feel the bond break, not gently. It tears through me like something sharp and painful, leaving me barely breathing. My knees cave in.

Sera catches me.

“Why”? I whisper. Throwing the question out there to no one specific.

Kael does not answer. He turns and walks away calmly, without looking back.

On his way out, the light shining from the moon blinks.

Just once. Just enough that everyone sees it.

The Moon has gone silent.

Morcant's face goes pale. From inside the chambers, wolves are moving away from me.

Reality sets in, and I see the way they look at me, like a cursed wolf. Like I broke something sacred just by existing.

“Remove her”, Morcant says quietly. “Cast her out, she no longer belongs here”.

Hands grab my arms. I don't fight. I'm too shocked. Too shattered. Too busy trying to understand how thirty seconds ago I had a life, and now I have nothing at all. The other omegas won't meet my eyes as the guards drag me toward the exit. Sera looks away.

Everyone looks away.

The chaos from behind us slowly fades as they drag me out of the temple. I can hear wolves shifting, transforming. The sounds of panic and confusion.

Getting to the temple doors, I look back one last time, and the Moon visible through the dome is completely dark now. Not the soft darkness of night, but an absolute absence of light. Like the Moon itself has turned away from what just happened in this chamber.

The guards move fast. I feel the roughness of their hands, but not too harshly on me.

How can I blame them for just doing their job? That's what the pack teaches you, to follow orders, not to ask questions.

The cool breeze of the night touches my face at the entrance of the temple, and for the first time in hours, It feels like a breath of fresh air, without the constant smell of burning sage, and just for a moment, I allow myself forget about the shock of everything.

In this instant, I am beginning to understand that my entire life has just been changed from the moment it took my mate to reject me.

All it took was one rejection, one refusal, and suddenly I'm no longer the omega who would finally belong to someone. I'm the girl who was rejected. The girl the Moon chose, and the Alpha refused. The girl who broke something sacred just by being born the way I was.

There's a van waiting at the edge of the temple grounds. The kind they use to transport dangerous wolves, criminals, and exiles. To a place where I would now be taken, as my fate has decided it to be.

“This is actually happening”, I whisper under my breath.

I still cannot believe what is happening. I keep hoping desperately for someone to show up, for Kael to change his mind and come after me. For the Moon to speak again and explain what went wrong. For something to make sense.

Nothing does.

The guards throw me into a van. I immediately recognize one of the guards, a friend of my father before he passed away. He couldn’t look at me like the others.

As the doors close shut, I am left alone in the darkness. I hear them shifting from outside, their massive paws gripping the ground.

As the van starts to move, I sit still on the metal floor. There is no urge to cry or scream, as there is nothing left to feel.

The Moon knows it.

And now, I am being taken far away from everything I have ever known with no hope of ever coming back.