The Reject

Chapter 1

Alina

“Just breathe, Alina. Ten seconds.”

Mason’s voice is a warm murmur against my ear, his breath smelling faintly of the spiced cider everyone is drinking. His hand rests on the small of my back, a familiar, comforting weight I’ve known my entire life. He thinks I’m nervous about finding my mate. He isn’t entirely wrong, but the real fear is a cold, hard knot in my stomach he knows nothing about.

What if I don’t have one? What if the Moon Goddess looks at the wolf-less girl and simply passes her by?

The Great Hall of the Silver Moon pack is suffocatingly warm, packed with bodies and smelling of pine logs and roasting meat. Banners depicting our sigil, a howling wolf before a silver crescent, hang from the high-beamed ceiling. Everyone is here. It feels like the entire world is holding its breath for me.

My older brother, Liam, catches my eye from across the circle we’re standing in. He gives me a reassuring nod, his expression tight. He knows. Of my family, he’s the only one who truly understands the depth of my shame, the hollow space inside me where a wolf’s spirit should be.

“Five!” Alpha Valerius, Mason’s father, booms, his voice echoing through the sudden silence. His smile is wide, proud. He looks from his son to me, and the hope in his eyes is a physical weight.

Everyone expects it to be Mason. The Beta’s daughter and the Alpha’s son. It’s the storybook ending our pack has been whispering about since we were children, building mud castles by the river.

My heart hammers against my ribs. I want it to be him. More than anything.

“Four!”

Mason’s thumb brushes over my spine. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispers, his blue eyes finding mine. They’re the color of a winter sky, and right now, they’re filled with a sincerity that makes my throat ache. “No matter what happens.”

“Three!”

A lie. It won’t be okay if I’m left standing here alone when the clock strikes twelve. I’ll be a pariah. The broken daughter of the Beta, an object of pity and a bad omen.

“Two!”

I grip the fabric of my silver dress, my knuckles white. This is it. Eighteen years of waiting. Eighteen years of pretending I can feel the stirrings of a beast that isn’t there.

“One!”

The great grandfather clock in the corner of the hall chimes, a deep, resonant bell that vibrates through the floorboards.

For a terrifying second, nothing happens.

The cold knot in my stomach tightens into a fist of ice. It’s true. I am empty. I am nothing.

Then, a bolt of lightning rips through me. It’s not a sound or a sight but a feeling, a brilliant, golden cord of pure energy snapping into place inside my soul. It shoots from my heart, across the few inches of space separating us, and slams directly into Mason.

His eyes widen in shock, his body jerking as if he’s been struck. I gasp, a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I feel him. I feel the steady beat of his heart, the fierce, powerful presence of his wolf, the echo of his soul as it recognizes mine. It’s a feeling of coming home, of a lock finding its key, of being seen and known completely for the first time.

He is mine. I am his.

The relief is so absolute, so overwhelming, that tears spring to my eyes. A joyous laugh bubbles up from my chest. I take a step toward him, my hand lifting to touch his face.

But I freeze.

The look on his face isn’t joy. It isn’t relief. The initial shock gives way to confusion, and then to something else. Something that makes the golden bond in my chest feel like a chain of ice.

Horror.

“No,” he whispers, the word barely audible. He takes a step back, pulling his hand away from my back as if my touch burns him. “It can’t be.”

The murmuring in the crowd swells. Alpha Valerius steps forward, his chest puffed with pride. “It is the Goddess’s will! My son and our Beta’s daughter!”

A ragged cheer starts to build, but it dies in the air as Mason raises a hand, his eyes never leaving mine. The winter blue is now cold, sharp, and full of a terrible clarity.

“Mason?” My voice is a fragile thread. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“You,” he says, and the single word slices me open. “It’s you. But you don’t have… you can’t…” He shakes his head, a muscle twitching in his jaw. He isn’t speaking to me anymore. He’s looking past me, his gaze sweeping over the silent, watching faces of our pack.

Liam starts to move toward me, his face a mask of rage. “Mason, don’t you dare.”

“Stay out of this, Liam,” Mason snaps, his voice gaining a hard, authoritative edge I’ve never heard before. The voice of a future Alpha.

He takes a deep breath and his shoulders square. The boy I grew up with vanishes, replaced by a cold, pragmatic leader. “I, Mason, son of Alpha Valerius of the Silver Moon pack…” he begins, his voice ringing with formal power.

My blood runs cold. I know these words. Every wolf knows them. They are the beginning of the most sacred vow, or the most brutal curse.

“...cannot accept this bond.”

The silence in the hall becomes absolute. It’s so profound I can hear the frantic, panicked drumming of my own heart. A hundred pairs of eyes are on me, their pity a thousand tiny needles against my skin.

“Mason, what are you doing?” Alpha Valerius hisses, his joyous expression collapsing into disbelief.

Mason ignores him, his gaze fixed on some point in the distance, as if he can’t bear to look at me. “An Alpha’s strength is the pack’s strength. His Luna must be his equal, a warrior to stand beside him, to lead the pack when he cannot. Our future, our survival, depends on our power.”

He finally turns his eyes back to me, and there is no warmth left in them. Only judgment.

“The Werewolf Games are less than four years away. Our entire generation will be judged by our performance. Our territory, our status, our honor, it’s all on the line. How can I lead our warriors into competition with a mate who cannot even shift? A mate who has no wolf?”

His words are not a plea for understanding. They are an indictment. He is putting me on trial in front of everyone I have ever known.

“She would be a weakness,” he declares, his voice ringing with finality. “A liability our pack cannot afford. A vulnerability our enemies would exploit without hesitation.”

My own father, Beta Alaric, steps forward, his face pale with fury. “She is your mate, Mason. And she is my daughter. You will show her respect.”

“Respect?” Mason lets out a short, bitter laugh. “Respect is earned. Power is earned. What has she done but be born into your family? She is a kind heart, yes. A good friend. But a Luna? A Luna must be a wolf.”

Every word is a deliberate, calculated blow. He is dismantling our entire life together, everything we have ever been, and recasting it as a childish fantasy that must now be put aside for the good of the pack. He makes his cruelty sound like a noble sacrifice.

“So, in front of the Goddess who chose this path, and the pack I am sworn to lead,” he says, his voice dropping but losing none of its chilling force. He looks directly at me, and for the first time, I see the friend I loved replaced by a complete stranger.

“I, Mason, future Alpha of the Silver Moon pack, reject you, Alina, daughter of Beta Alaric, as my mate.”

The golden bond inside my chest doesn’t just break. It shatters. The pain is physical, an explosion of glass and fire in my soul that rips a silent scream from my lungs. I stumble back, my hand flying to my chest as if I can hold myself together.

The world narrows to a pinpoint. The shocked faces of the pack, the fury on my brother’s face, the horror on my parents’, it all fades into a dull, roaring background noise.

All I can see is him. Mason. My best friend. My fated mate.

The stranger who just sacrificed my heart on the altar of his ambition. He stands tall, his expression unyielding, as if he has just passed a sentence of death and feels nothing but the cold satisfaction of justice served.

Chapter 2

Alina

The sound of my own heart breaking is the only thing I can hear. It’s a wet, tearing sound, like fabric ripping apart in my chest. I’m on my knees, though I don’t remember falling. The polished wood of the Great Hall floor is cold against my skin.

My mother’s arms are around me, her familiar scent of lavender and winter rose a fragile shield against the hundred pairs of eyes staring at me. “Alina, my love, look at me.”

I can’t. If I look up, I’ll see him. I’ll see the stranger wearing my best friend’s face.

“You bastard.” The voice is Liam’s, low and trembling with a rage so profound it seems to shake the very air. “You absolute, gutless bastard.”

“Liam, stand down,” my father, Alaric, commands. His voice is tight, the formal tone of a Beta addressing a subordinate, but the fury beneath it is a wildfire.

“I will not stand down!” Liam roars, and a chair clatters to the floor. “He’s my best friend. He just destroyed my sister. He dishonored our family.”

I risk a glance up. Liam is standing between me and Mason, his body a rigid line of defiance. Mason hasn’t moved. He stands there, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his face a mask of cold resolve.

“This has nothing to do with honor, Liam,” Mason says, his voice devoid of any emotion. “It’s about survival. It’s about the pack.”

“The pack?” My father steps forward, placing himself beside his son. He is the Beta. He should be standing beside his Alpha, but tonight, that line has been irrevocably broken. “You dare speak of the pack? You have publicly shamed the daughter of your Beta. You have split this pack in two with your arrogance.”

Alpha Valerius finally moves, his face a mess of confusion and anger. “Alaric, this is not the place.”

“Then where is the place, Valerius?” my father challenges, not an ounce of deference in his tone. “Where is the place for my daughter to be treated like refuse? Thrown away because she is not convenient for your son’s ambition?”

Mason flinches at that, a tiny, almost imperceptible movement. “It is not about convenience.”

“Then what is it about?” Liam takes a step closer to him, their chests nearly touching. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks a lot like cowardice. You’re afraid. Afraid you won’t measure up at the games, so you’re cutting off anything you think is a dead weight.”

“She is a dead weight!” Mason shouts, the first crack in his icy composure. The words hit me like a physical blow. My mother’s grip tightens around me. “An Alpha cannot be chained to weakness. We would be a target. Every rival pack would see her, see us, and know where to strike. Do you want that for us? Do you want to lose everything because I was sentimental?”

“She is your mate!” Liam shoves him, a hard, violent push. “The Goddess chose her for you.”

Mason stumbles back, then shoves Liam back twice as hard. “The Goddess was wrong!”

The gasp that ripples through the crowd is a collective sound of shock and sacrilege. My father’s hand goes to the hilt of a ceremonial knife at his belt he never uses.

“Mason!” Alpha Valerius barks, his voice finally cracking with true authority. “That is enough!”

But it’s too late. Liam launches himself at Mason. The sound of a fist connecting with a jaw echoes through the hall. Mason grunts, staggering back with blood blooming on his lip. The pack members surge back, clearing a space as the two men who were raised as brothers begin to tear each other apart.

“Stop them!” my mother, Lyra, screams, her body shielding mine from the sight. But I see it anyway. I see the brutal, desperate fight. This is my fault. All of it.

My father and Alpha Valerius dive in, trying to separate them. Other warriors join, pulling Liam’s arms, restraining Mason. The Great Hall, a place of celebration only minutes ago, is now a scene of chaos and violence.

“Look what you’ve done,” a voice hisses from nearby. I turn my head and see Myra, one of the senior warriors, glaring at me. Her daughter was always jealous of my closeness to Mason. “You’ve torn them apart. The Alpha and Beta lines, fighting like wild dogs.”

“She did nothing,” my mother snaps at her, her voice shaking. “Mason did this.”

“The Alpha-heir did what was necessary,” another voice murmurs in agreement. “It’s harsh, but he’s not wrong. We need strength.”

The pack is dividing, right here in front of me. The whispers are like venom, some defending Mason’s brutal logic, others looking at me with a pity that feels worse than hatred.

Finally, they manage to drag Liam away from Mason. My brother is breathing heavily, a cut over his eye, his shirt torn. He looks at me, and the anguish on his face is a mirror of my own. He has not only lost his best friend, but he has been forced to do it to defend me.

My father helps me to my feet. My legs are unsteady, like a newborn foal’s. “We are leaving,” he announces to the hall, his arm a steel bar around my waist, holding me up.

He looks directly at Alpha Valerius, who is tending to his son. “My family is leaving. We will discuss what this means for the pack tomorrow. When blood is not so hot.”

It’s a threat. A clear one. The Beta is questioning his loyalty to his Alpha.

Alpha Valerius just nods, his face grim. He can’t even look at me. No one can.

My family forms a protective circle around me as we walk through the stunned crowd. My mother on one side, my father on the other, Liam trailing behind us, his breathing still ragged. I keep my eyes on the floor, on the path to the door. I can feel Mason’s gaze on my back, but I don’t turn. I can’t.

The walk back to our family quarters is silent and heavy. The festive decorations lining the path now seem like a cruel mockery. As soon as the door closes behind us, the dam breaks.

“I will kill him,” Liam says, his voice flat and empty. He punches the solid oak door, and the wood groans in protest. “I swear on my life, I will kill him.”

“No, you will not,” my father says, his voice weary but firm. “You will not throw your life away for his dishonor.”

“He called her a dead weight, Dad! He stood there and called his mate, my sister, a liability in front of everyone!”

My mother leads me to a chair and gently pushes me down. She kneels in front of me, taking my cold hands in hers. “Alina. Talk to me. Please.”

I shake my head. There are no words. There is only a gaping, hollow wound where my soul used to be connected to his.

“Alaric, what do we do?” my mother asks, looking up at my father. “How can you serve him after this? How can we live in a pack where the future Alpha has done this to our child?”

My father runs a hand over his face. I have never seen him look so old, so defeated. “I don’t know, Lyra. My loyalty is to the pack, but my life belongs to my family. Valerius let his son do this. He stood by and watched.”

“He will choose his son over us,” Liam says bitterly, slumping into a chair. “He always does. Mason gets away with everything.”

“Not this,” my father says, his eyes hardening. “This is not something that can be swept away. This is a rejection of a fated bond. It is an insult to the Goddess herself. There will be consequences.”

Consequences. The word hangs in the air.

I look at them. My proud, strong father, his position as Beta now threatened. My fierce, loving brother, his lifelong friendship destroyed. My gentle mother, her heart breaking for her daughter. They are all willing to go to war for me.

And they will lose. Mason is the future Alpha. His word, his power, will eventually win out. My family will be ostracized, punished for their loyalty to me. My father might even be stripped of his title. All because of me.

Mason’s words echo in my mind. A weakness. A liability. A vulnerability.

He was talking about the pack. But he was right in another way. Right now, I am a weakness to my own family. My presence here will destroy them.

“He’s right,” I whisper. My voice is raw, cracked.

Three pairs of eyes snap to me.

“Alina, no,” my mother says instantly. “Do not ever think that.”

“But it’s true,” I say, finding a sliver of strength. I have to make them see. “Look at us. Look at this room. Liam, you almost killed your best friend. Dad, you’re ready to challenge your Alpha. Our family is being torn apart. The pack is being torn apart. Because of me.”

“This is because of Mason’s cruelty,” my father insists.

“His cruelty doesn’t matter,” I say, standing up. My legs feel a little stronger now. A cold, terrible purpose is beginning to form in the pit of my stomach. “What matters is what happens next. If I stay, you will all suffer for defending me. You will lose your places, your friends, your home.”

“We would lose it all for you gladly,” Liam says, his voice thick with emotion.

I look at my brother, my heart aching. “I know you would. And I can’t let you.”

I see the understanding dawn in my father’s eyes first, followed by a wave of horror.

“Alina, do not even think about it,” he warns.

“It’s the only way,” I say, my voice gaining conviction even as my heart fractures a little more. “If I’m not here, there is no one to defend. There is no conflict. The line between you and the Alpha can be repaired. Liam can… he can move on.”

“Never,” Liam chokes out.

“You have to,” I insist. “For the good of the pack.” I use Mason’s words, and they taste like ash in my mouth. But I see the terrible logic in them now. “He made his sacrifice. Now I have to make mine.”

My mother stands, tears streaming down her face. “Your sacrifice? To leave us? To go out there alone? You are not a rogue, Alina. You are the daughter of the Silver Moon Beta.”

“I’m the wolf-less mate of a future Alpha who rejected me,” I correct her, my voice flat. “That is all anyone will ever see when they look at me here. If I leave, I can be something else. Or I can be nothing at all. Either way, you will be safe.”

I look at each of them, my beloved family, and memorize their faces. The fury in my father’s eyes, the sorrow in my mother’s, the betrayal in my brother’s. This is the last time I will see them like this.

My decision is made. The pain of Mason’s rejection was an explosion. This pain is a quiet, steady blade, sliding into my heart. But it’s a necessary one.

I am a weakness. So I will cut myself away.

Chapter 3

Alina

“No,” my father’s voice is a low growl. “Absolutely not. The discussion is over.”

“It’s not a discussion,” I say, my voice surprisingly steady. The shock has burned away, leaving a cold, hard resolve in its place. “It’s a decision. Mine.”

“It’s the worst decision you could possibly make,” Liam spits, pacing the room like a caged animal. “You think running away helps? You think we’ll just what, forget? Move on because you’re gone?”

“I think you’ll keep your rank, your home, your honor,” I counter, looking from my brother to my father. “Mason has already drawn the lines, Dad. If I stay, you have to cross them. You’ll be forced to choose between your daughter and your Alpha.”

My mother kneels before me again, her hands gripping my arms. Her touch is desperate. “There is no choice, Alina. Don’t you understand? You are our daughter. Protecting you isn’t a choice, it’s our very nature.”

“Then let me protect you,” I plead, my voice finally cracking. “He called me a weakness to the pack. He was wrong. But I will not be a weakness to my family. I can’t watch him tear you down because of me.”

“We are not so easily torn down,” my father says, his jaw tight with fury. “And you will not survive out there. You are wolf-less, a rogue in a world that hunts our kind. It is a death sentence.”

“I’ve survived being wolf-less my entire life surrounded by wolves,” I say, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. “How much worse can the human world be?”

No one has an answer to that. The silence stretches, thick with their pain and my determination.

“Please,” I whisper, the fight draining out of me. “I’m so tired. Can we just… can we talk more in the morning? I just need to sleep.”

It’s a lie, but it’s the only mercy I can offer them. My mother searches my eyes, and for a terrifying second, I think she sees the truth. But she just nods, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “Alright, my love. In the morning.”

She helps me to my room, tucks me into bed like I’m a child. Liam stands in the doorway, his face a mask of betrayal. “Don’t do anything stupid, Alina.”

“I won’t,” I lie again.

I wait until the sounds of the house settle into the deep, quiet rhythm of sleep. Every creak of the floorboards, every distant howl of the pack on patrol, is a goodbye.

I don’t have much to take. A spare set of clothes, the small pouch of money my parents gave me for my birthday, and a worn wooden wolf Liam carved for me when we were seven. I slip it into my pocket, its smooth edges a painful comfort against my palm.

My hands shake as I write the note. Tears blot the ink, but I get the words out.

*I love you more than my own life. That’s why I have to do this. Don’t come for me. Please. Live your lives. Be happy. That is all I ask. Forgive me.*

I leave it on the pillow where my head should be.

Slipping through the dark house is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. A floorboard groans under my foot and I freeze, my heart hammering against my ribs. From my parents’ room, I hear my father sigh in his sleep. The sound nearly shatters my resolve.

I push open the back door and the cold night air hits my face. The familiar scent of pine, damp earth, and home wraps around me one last time.

I don’t let myself look back. I just run.

For days, I move. I catch a ride with a trucker who smells like stale coffee and doesn’t ask questions. I eat food that comes from plastic wrappers and sleep in forests that feel empty and hostile without a pack’s presence to make them safe.

The loneliness is a physical thing, a crushing weight on my chest. It’s made heavier by the constant, dull ache where the mate bond used to be. It’s a phantom limb of the soul, a ghost of a connection that still throbs with the memory of its own violent end.

I learn to be invisible. I keep my head down, my answers short, my presence small. I cross into human towns and learn their rhythms, their smells, the way they never look each other in the eye.

After weeks of aimless wandering, I find a small, forgotten town nestled in a valley between two unassuming mountains. Northwood. The name sounds safe. Anonymous.

A sign in the window of a dusty diner reads “Gracie’s Eats. Now Hiring.” It feels like a lifeline in a storm. I walk in.

Days bleed into weeks. Weeks into months. The months turn into a year, then two.

Three years is a long time to be a ghost.

My life shrinks to the size of a small apartment above a mechanic’s garage and the four walls of the diner. I serve coffee, wipe down counters, and listen to the meaningless chatter of the town’s human residents. They know me as Ella. Just Ella. The quiet girl who keeps to herself.

The ache in my chest has faded to a scar. It doesn’t scream anymore, it just throbs, a permanent reminder of the girl I was and the life I lost.

I am a survivor. I tell myself this every night as I lock the diner door and walk home under a sky full of stars that feel a million miles away. I survived his rejection. I survived leaving my family. I survived being alone.

But as I catch my reflection in the dark glass of the diner’s window, I see a stranger staring back. Her eyes are harder, her face is thinner, and there is no trace of the hopeful girl who waited for the clock to strike midnight on her eighteenth birthday. Survival, I realize, has a cost.

And I am still paying for it.