Rejected by My Alpha

INTO THE VEILWOOD

They kept staring at me after he left.

That was the part I hated most.

Not the pain tearing through my chest. Not the hollow silence where my wolf had retreated, wounded and unresponsive. The staring. Pity from some. Satisfaction from others. Curiosity from all of them.

Like I was something broken they could examine.

I turned before anyone could speak to me.

I refused to give them more.

No one stopped me. Of course, they didn’t. A rejected omega was nothing worth holding back.

The cold night air hit my face as I crossed the estate grounds and passed through the pack gates. Lantern light faded behind me with every step until the warmth, the voices, the judgment all disappeared.

I had no plan.

Only movement.

If I stopped, I would break. If I stayed, I would drown in what had just happened.

So I kept walking.

Gravel became dirt. Dirt became a forest path. Silver Ridge vanished behind trees and darkness until all I could hear was wind brushing through branches and the frantic pounding of my own heart.

At the eastern border, I stopped.

The Veilwood stood before me.

Black. Ancient. Watching.

Boundary stones lay half buried in the earth, carved with symbols older than pack law. Every child in Silver Ridge knew the stories. Wolves who entered never returned. Spirits lived between the trees. Madness took root in the mind. The Moon Goddess had sealed something terrible inside.

Sensible wolves stayed away.

I let out a quiet, humorless laugh.

Caelum Drake had just rejected me in front of the entire pack.

What exactly was I still afraid of?

I stepped over the boundary stones.

The moment I crossed, the world changed.

The air turned colder. Heavier. A strange pressure settled over my skin, like the forest was aware of me. Listening.

Everything else went silent.

No insects. No birds. No movement in the underbrush.

Only stillness.

The kind that waits.

I should have turned back then.

Instead, I walked deeper.

The pain in my chest sharpened as if the forest was dragging it to the surface. Outside, it had felt like devastation. Inside, it changed into something else.

Rage.

My wolf stirred for the first time since the rejection.

Then the ground pulsed beneath my feet.

I froze.

Another pulse followed, slow and deep, moving through the roots, the air, through me.

The darkness ahead shimmered.

Moonlight thickened between the trees, bending unnaturally until a figure began to form.

A woman.

Not flesh. Not entirely light.

Silver white. Still. Watching.

I could not see her face clearly, only the shape of it and the weight of her presence pressing against my senses.

Fear hit me hard.

Real fear.

Every instinct screamed at me to run.

But I could not move.

She lifted one glowing hand.

“You came at last,” a voice echoed inside my mind.

My throat tightened. “What are you?”

She stepped forward.

Flowers bloomed beneath her feet, pale and delicate, then withered instantly into nothing.

Then she spoke again.

And this time, the words froze everything inside me.

“Your mother came here too.”

My breath caught.

“She ran to save you. She died to hide you.”

“No,” I whispered. “My mother ran away.”

The silver woman looked at me with something close to sorrow.

“That is the lie they fed you.”

My world tilted.

Before I could speak again, she reached out and touched the center of my chest.

Agony exploded through me.

Blinding. Absolute.

And deep inside that pain, something ancient opened its eyes.

“What do you think happens next?”