Rejected By The Alpha King

Chapter 1

The smell of fear stuck in Aria Stone's throat like smoke.

Crystal chandeliers threw light across five hundred wolves. It was the Mate Ball, held once every year on the night of the first full moon after winter. Every unmated female between eighteen and twenty one was presented before the pack. The Moon Goddess was said to reveal bonds on this night. Bonds that could not be denied.

They lined the girls up as the Alpha King walked the rows. If his wolf chose, the girl became Luna that night. If it didn't, she went home and tried not to die of shame.

Aria stood near the edge of the crowd. She looked painfully out of place among the glittering daughters of Betas and Gammas gathered near the center of the hall.Girls who might actually be chosen.She did not belong where the stronger wolves were gathered. She had learned that early in life.

The yellow dress she wore belonged to Kylin, her only friend in the palace before she died last winter. Kylin died coughing blood into a rag, whispering that the alpha king would never let the Omega house get medicine.The hem was torn. The sleeves hung past Aria's fingers like she was a child playing dress up.

Aria stone was an omega without a wolf. She was nineteen years old and hadn't shifted. A disgrace.

“You should smile more.”

Aria flinched at the sharp voice.

Selene stood beside her holding a crystal wine glass, her silver gown hugging her perfect figure. Future Luna candidates surrounded her like loyal shadow.

Selene's eyes swept over Aria with open disgust. She was Alpha Henry's daughter.

“Who knows?”she continued softly. “Maybe the Alpha King enjoys charity work.”

The girls around her laughed.

Aria lowered her gaze. She knew better that silence was safer than speaking.

Selene stepped closer until her nails dug painfully into Aria's arm.

“The Goddess law requires every unmated female to attend,” she whispered. “Even trash.”

Then she smiled. “Especially trash. The king should see what his money bought.” Then she left.

His money.

The words hit harder than they should have.

Aria had been thirteen when the rogues attacked her family's home near the border territories.

She could still remember the fire, the screaming. She remembered her mother pushing her under the floorboards. She remembered her father's axe hitting flesh. Then she remembered the silence. When she crawled out hours later, her parents were dead, blood sprawled around them.

The rogues sold her three days later.

They chained her beside other orphaned children at a market near the southern territories. Buyers inspected them like animals, some checking teeth while others scars.

Aria remembered staring at the dirt when a cold voice finally spoke.

“How much for the girl?”

Alpha King Darius Blackthorn.

He had been twenty then and newly crowned, feared across every territory. He did not look at her. He tossed a bag of gold coins at the slaver and said, “send her to the Omega house.” Then he walked away.

For years afterward, she only saw him from a distance.

The great hall was a monster. The marble floor gleamed beneath her feet showing her reflection. A scared girl in a yellow dress.

Music drifted through the hall as servants carried silver trays and moved between nobles.She counted tiles. One hundred and twelve from the wall to the first pillar. One hundred and forty to the stairs.If she made it two hundred, maybe she could slip out unnoticed

Just as she made it to two hundred, the music slowed and necks craned toward the great doors.

He was coming.

Alpha King Darius Blackthorn.

The music stopped and the great doors opened. Every conversation died instantly as Darius blackthorn walked in. Tall with broad shoulders in a black suit, his ice blue eyes scanned the hall.

Five hundred wolves bowed their heads. Aria bowed too, and nearly stumbled in her haste.

“Rise.”

One word not loud, but it was enough to slide under her skin.

Everyone stood but she kept her gaze down, staring at his boots.

Then something hit her. Something darker and wild. The scent punched into her nose and went straight to her chest. Straight to the hollow place where her wolf should be.

Her head snapped up although she did not tell it to move.

He was looking at her. Oh god, across five hundred bodies his ice eyes found her, fully locked on. The only thing she could hear was the sound of her own blood in her ears.

The Alpha's nostrils flared. His whole body went still like a predator who finally caught a scent he'd haunted for years.

Something under Aria's breastbone pulled. A hook, or maybe a chain. Something she did not have a name for. It yanked toward him so hard her feet almost left the floor.

His lips parted.

“Mine.”

The word was a growl. It was his wolf claiming. It rolled across the marble and hit every wolf in the room.

Loud gasps broke the air as five hundred heads turned. Five hundred pairs of eyes pinned her to the wall.

Selene's glass hit the floor, the wine spreading like blood. Her face went white. Then red, then something far worse.

Aria's knees gave out.

No. Not her. It can't be her. Maybe it was a mistake. She was a nobody. An Omega who mopped floors, she was property.

Darius stepped off the dias. The crowd split for him without being told as he made his way to her.

He stopped three feet away, close enough that heat came off him. Close enough that she saw the pulse jump in his throat. Close enough that she saw the war in his eyes.

He breathed her in deeply, his eyes closing for a second. When they opened, they were not ice. They were fire. Wolf gold.

Then the fire died and ice came back worse than before. He looked at her, really looked. Down at her yellow dress to her bare feet, at her hands and finally, at her face.

His mouth curved slightly, not in a smile, but in disgust. “You?” His voice cut through her. “The moon Goddess chose you?”

Humiliation burned through Aria so fiercely she wished the marble floor would open and swallow her whole.

Darius stared at her like fate itself had insulted him.

Then he said the words that destroyed her.

“You're too weak to be my Luna.”

The words felt like her chest was being hit with stones repeatedly. That thing in her chest, the hook, the chain or the bond snapped.

Pain exploded through her. The pain she felt was not like breaking a bone. It was like the bone was being ripped out. It was fire poured into her veins.

Aria choked. Her hands clawed at her dress. At her skin, trying to get the pain out. She fell, her knees hit the marble, followed by her hands.

Laughter and whispers broke across the hall.

“She's the mate?”

“He rejected her…”

“Omega.”

“Did you see her dress?”

“No Luna would survive that bond rejection.”

Aria could not see. White burst behind her eyes and her ears rang. Her lungs would not work.

Mate rejection. She read about it in the pack library when she was supposed to be cleaning. Wolves died from it. Humans died faster. The bond tore you apart from the inside out.

She was dying, right there on the floor. In Kylin’s dress. In front of him.

Darius stepped back, creating distance like she might stain him.

“Get her out of my sight,” he said to no one and everyone. His voice was bored now. “Before she bleeds on my floor.”

Immediately, some guards grabbed her arms, yanking her up. Her head dropped forward, her hair falling in her face as her feet dragged on the marble.

But the night was not finished.

A sound rose from the far side of the hall . It was a growl. The atmosphere shifted instantly, dissolving into alarm.

“Rogues!” Someone shouted.

Glass shattered near the entrance and doors slammed open violently as dark figures rushed in from the tree line. These rogues were feral and desperate,driven by hunger.

The mate ball descended into chaos within seconds. Wolves shifted mid-run, bones snapping and fur covering their skin as instinct took over.

Aria collapsed back onto the floor as the guards released her to fight. She remained on the ground.

The bond pain had left her weak, her body barely responsive. She was already dead. This was just the last part.

Darius shifted. His form expanded, bones restructuring with brutal efficiency as his wolf took over. Dark fur erupted across his skin and powerful limbs replaced his human shape in seconds. He landed on four paws, massive and controlled.

The Alpha wolf.

A rogue lunged toward Aria at the same moment, but, unfortunately for the rogue, it never reached her.

Darius moved faster than thought. He intercepted the rogue mid-air, slamming it sideways with enough Force to send it crashing into a stone pillar. The rogue hit the ground hard, stunned.

He struck once. The fight was over before it truly began.

Aria forced her eyes open, her lashes stuck together with tears and blood.

Darius stood over her. His head was level with her chest even though she was on her knees. Blood covered his muzzle, fresh and wet, dripping onto the marble and onto her yellow dress. From his chest came a growl that made her bones vibrate.

He shifted his weight, one massive paw stepping forward, putting himself between her and the world.

The same man who said she was too weak. The same man who told guards to drag her away before she bled on his floor now stood over her. Protecting her.

Aria lay on the cold marble floor, watching the Alpha King who rejected her prepare to die for her.

Why?