Rejected By My Alpha: His Second Chance
Rejected. Abandoned. Marked by fate.
Eighteen-year-old Aria Lane has just found out her mate is none other than the cold, ruthless Alpha, Kael Blackthorne. He immediately rejects her in front of the entire pack. Kael made it so obvious that she wasn't good enough for him, not even close. But fate might have its plans.
When a mysterious plague and looming war threaten the Lycan Territories, Aria returns to the pack that ruined her. Kael, wracked with guilt and betrayed by those he trusted, will do anything to reclaim what he once rejected. But Aria is no longer the timid girl he shattered. She's stronger, smarter, and she has secrets that can bring his entire world crashing down.
As a fallen goddess manipulates the supernatural world against one another and a curse threatens to annihilate everything, Aria and Kael must navigate a bond forged by the moon and a love tainted by betrayal. But this is not just the normal world, it's one where trust is a knife and love can kill.
In a world where love can kill and trust is a blade, will their second chance heal the wounds of the past? Or will destiny demand their last sacrifice?
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Chapter: Dawn of PreparationI woke up to darkness, already racing in fear before I even had my wits back. For a moment, I couldn't remember why terror should press so heavily in my chest, then memory crashed back. One day. We had only one day before enemies descended on us with very definite intent to kill everyone who carried my bloodline.Nyra churned in my mind, more wakeful than usual. 'The air is foul,' she said. 'Bitter, like a storm that's building but will not break.'I slept in my small cabin, listening to the settlement stir early around me. Footsteps on the outside of the door, whispered conversations, the murmur of someone tending a fire. No one had rested well, by how early the crowd was awake.When I finally emerged from the tunnel, the sky was beginning to light, stars fading as daylight arrived. The valley appeared peaceful in the predawn hush, but peace felt tenuous, as if glass on the brink of shattering."You're up early," Selara said, moving aside from the survivors' shared living space. Dark
Last Updated: 2025-11-12
Chapter: Before the StormI was standing outside my cabin, watching as windows around the encampment grew dark. People going to bed, or trying to, knowing that tomorrow would be spent preparing for something none of us truly wanted to face.There had been a fire burning in the middle clearing, and I could spot people huddled near it. Not for heat, though there was a chill in the autumn evening, but for companionship. For the comfort of not having to go through what was in store for them alone."Can't sleep?" Lucien said, stepping out from behind the cabin behind me."Too much in my head." I settled back into him as his arms wrapped around my waist. "Are they always like this? The night before battle?""Sometimes. Sometimes people want to be alone, sometimes they need people." He nodded toward the fire. "Looks like tonight is a people night."We moved together towards the gathering, the hall packed with this odd combination of people. Magnus's veterans and Haven's Rest refugees. Claws warriors and bloodline sur
Last Updated: 2025-11-11
Chapter: Family DayDawnlight poured through the windows of the medical bay, bathing everything in gold that felt too peaceful for what was to ensue. I hadn't gotten much sleep, my mind spinning from everything the survivors had shared. Five hundred enemies. Two days. An army of shadow and demon marching right for us.But as I entered the medical bay, I was met with something I didn't anticipate: laughter.Selara sat up in bed, arguing with the healer about getting up and walking. Kieran was demonstrating something with his fingers that had Lyssa giggling despite bandages covering half of her torso. Even Cassia, whose eyes had harbored so much old sadness yesterday, smiled at something Torin had said."There she is," Selara said when she spotted me. "Sister, tell this woman that I'm more than capable of walking to breakfast. I've endured worse than a couple of stab wounds."The healer, an older woman named Clara whom I'd seen on occasion concerning Magnus's stronghold, gave me a long-suffering look. "Tel
Last Updated: 2025-11-10
Chapter: Revelations of BloodlineI stood frozen in the doorway of the med bay."You can come in," the alpha woman called from her bed, her voice still weak but improving. "I won't bite, sister."The term of endearment heated my chest. I moved to stand beside her bed, noting where healers had scrubbed and bandaged her most severe wounds. Up close, the family scent was unmistakable: the same bone structure, the same unique eye color that appeared to shift between green and silver in the light."I'm Aria," I said, not knowing what else to offer."I know who you are. Your awakening was a beacon in the dark, calling all of us who still carried the bloodline." She managed a faint smile. "I'm Selara... Nightshade, although I've gone under many other names over the years."The surname felt like a blow to the stomach. Nightshade. The name I'd never known was mine, heard aloud by someone who bore it unashamed."You use the family name?""Why would I not? It is who we are, what we are." Selara's expression turned graver. "Thoug
Last Updated: 2025-11-09
Chapter: The Gathering StormMagnus's Stronghold was filled to the brim when we entered, the atmosphere so charged I could feel it on the breaths of air. Maps hung on all flat surfaces, red and green and blue inks scrawled over them in places to identify positions and territories.The Alpha himself stood behind the central table, his silver-flecked hair shining in the lamplight as he pored over reports with the intent gaze of a man who'd survived twenty years of border wars.But it wasn't just Magnus and his command there. I recognized several familiar faces among Haven's Rest: Derek in close discussion with one of Magnus's captains, Marcus bending over boxes of supplies, Vera and even others that I know but have no personal relations with.And others I didn't know.A woman with soothing eyes and healer's fingers standing beside Elena, speaking some indistinguishable words in hushed, serious tones. A youth, definitely younger than Finn, his face marred by scar but new and full of the tale of recent fighting."Lad
Last Updated: 2025-11-08
Chapter: Vision of DarknessThe morning sun was already high by the time I arrived at the training grounds, where Morwyn was arranging our lesson space. Crystals glinted along the stone walls, and she'd re-drawn the symbols on the dirt that glowed softly with lingering energy."Today we do amplification," she told me when I approached. "Learning to expand your cooperative magic over greater distances and through multiple natural elements simultaneously."It sounded challenging, which was a good thing. After the conversation with Lucien last night, I needed something to focus on besides the tangled feelings brewing in my chest.I started with the same old exercises, drawing on what I'd mastered in the previous weeks. Morwyn led me through working with water, air, and earth together, crafting smooth flows of energy that were nearly musical in how they worked together in harmony.Yet when I reached out with my awareness, tracing the lines of connection between various elements of nature throughout the valley, I sen
Last Updated: 2025-11-05
Chapter: The Howlstone Throne(Continuing the brother I knew)"The Howlstone Pack was one of the oldest packs in the whole of North America," Kael begins, his voice taking on the cadence of a man relating a nightmare. "Four hundred years or more of family bonds traced back their heritage. Their territory spanned sixteen states. They had agreements with dozens of packs, seats on several regional councils. They were beyond suspicion.""Passed," I echo."Dexter opted he coveted their throne." Kael stands up and walks over to the window again, like he can't sit still to relate this story. "Not because he craved their land or their properties. He did it to make a point. To prove that nothing inside the world of the supernatural was ever really out of reach if you are Dexter."I pull my legs onto the couch and hug my knees. "How in the world did he even go about doing something like that?""Cautiously. Methodically. Which is what made it so terrifying." Kael's face in the window looks troubled. "Dexter spent six months
Last Updated: 2025-11-12
Chapter: The Brother I KnewKael doesn't say anything for a really long time, his expression distant in a manner that I've never seen. When he finally speaks, his tone is laced with past wounds."Dexter is seven years older than I am. By the time I was old enough to understand what was happening, he was already an issue our father couldn't resolve."I collapse onto the couch, aware this is going to take a while. Kael remains at the window, looking out into the darkness."Our father was the leader of the Draven pack. Respected, old-fashioned, intensely devoted to the Council that keeps packs and humans at peace." His jaw tightens. "He believed in order, hierarchy, rules that had lasted for centuries. And Dexter defied them all.""What do you mean?""I mean he liked destroying everything our dad built." Kael appears, coming closer to me. "From the time he was a teenager, Dexter was violent. Not the contained rage you possess naturally as a werewolf, but something nastier. More sinister. He'd fight wolves twice his
Last Updated: 2025-11-11
Chapter: The PlanHe gestures toward the thin couch in front of the hearth, but I hold my ground. Standing is safer somehow, like having my feet firmly on the ground provides me with more traction in a situation that is rapidly getting away from me."Then talk," I say. "Tell me everything."He runs a hand through his dark hair, one of those irritability motions I've come to recognize. "The curse is exactly what Rebekah described. A trap designed to bind an Empath's life force to mine. If you attempt to shatter it with traditional methods, the magical blowback will kill us both.""Traditional methods," I repeat, clinging to the adjective. "So there are untraditional ones?"His silver eyes lock on mine. "I've been looking for a way. A means to break the curse without killing you in the process."My breath hitches. To have him start mentioning it now, after I'd asked myself."So what do you have," I say to him, attempting to sound calm. "How do we break the curse without incurring the penalty of death?"K
Last Updated: 2025-11-10
Chapter: The Drive BackMy hands shake as I start the car.The engine rumbles to life with a familiar sound, but everything else is off. Different. As if the world tipped on its axis while I was sitting in that bar, and I'm the only one who noticed."The curse is a trap. Breaking it will bind your life to his. If either of you dies, the other follows."I grip the steering wheel hard enough my knuckles turn white, trying to hold on to something solid. The parking lot is almost empty, just a few cars scattering the ground under the screaming brightness of streetlights. Ordinary. Everything looks so painfully, ruinously ordinary.But nothing is ordinary now.I was already on the main road, heading back toward the woods. Toward Kael and the pack and a battle I'm in no shape for. The city lights blur across my windows as I try to force my thoughts into something coherent.Rebekah's words echo in my mind. "She knew an Alpha like your werewolf would come searching for an Empath one day. And she made sure that when
Last Updated: 2025-11-09
Chapter: The Truth About The Alpha's CurseI've got my second glass of wine in my hand when he appears."Hey there," the man says, sliding onto the stool beside me with the practiced ease of a man who's done this a hundred times. "Want to let me buy you a drink?"I didn't even look at him. "No.""Come on, don't be like that. Just making an effort to be friendly.""I'm not in the mood for friendly." My tone is very harsh, and I didn't even attempt to tune it down. The last thing I want to do is deal with unwanted male attention to add to everything else."Bad day?""You have no idea." I take another swig of wine, hoping he'll pick up the hint and leave.He doesn't. He pushes in closer, his cologne choking in the tight space between us. "Maybe I could help with that. I'm a pretty good listener.""And I'm pretty good at being left alone." I face him straight and whatever I see in his face makes him finally move back."Okay, okay. Just being friendly." He raises his hands in a gesture of surrender and steps back, muttering somethi
Last Updated: 2025-11-08
Chapter: Breaking PointBy the fourth day in the pack settlement, I was already at my breaking point.Each day begins the same way. Wake up drained from the work of the day before as an empath. Force down breakfast with the pressure of the pack's demands weighing on my mind. Spend hours from dawn till dusk traveling from one in pain werewolf to the next, soaking up their agony until my own body aches to be pulled asunder. Collapse within the cabin as Kael looks on with worry he attempts to conceal.Repeat.It's drudgery. Work of necessity. But it's also stifling.I haven't been out of the pack territory in four days. I haven't seen another human being. I haven't done something that doesn't trace back to supernatural politics and the curse. I was only thinking about what normal is.And so, after another grueling morning of empathic healing, I make a decision."I'm going into town tonight," I announce as Kael and I walk back into the cabin to get some lunch.He pauses in the doorway, his expression already shu
Last Updated: 2025-11-05
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