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Rosie POV 

“I, Dominic Lockwood of Redmoon Park, reject you, Rosalie, as my mate and Luna.”

I was literally on the verge of kissing him, excited that we got him as our mate, and there he was, in his full glory, rejecting me as easily as he gave out pack orders.

Each word he muttered made my heart hammer so fast, breaking piece by piece.

“No, please don’t let him do this to us,” Lyra, my wolf, pleaded.

“Don’t accept it. Don’t!” Lyra warned.

Ashton said something under his breath, but I wasn’t paying attention. He could have told me that there was an attack on the pack, and I wouldn’t have cared. My breath was heavy, my chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm—fast and harsh.

Everything around me had faded into the back of my mind. The only thing visible was Dominic and Lyra’s heavy breath.

This had to be the cruelest joke ever. The most embarrassing, too. The person I didn’t want wanted me, and the one I really wanted…

“No, no…” My barely audible whisper escaped as I gulped hard, then blinked, desperate to push back tears that blurred my vision. I never imagined my heart could feel this heavy.

If Dominic noticed I was teary, he either didn’t care or simply wasn’t going to let it faze him.

“She’s too young. She’s not strong enough to be Luna,” Dominic said at last, the finality in his tone sealing his declaration.

He wasn’t going back on his words. Dominic wasn’t one to mince words. If he was saying it now, then he would stick by it. No amount of my tears would change a damn thing.

By the goddess, I couldn’t even decide which hurt more—him rejecting me for no reason, or his weak excuse that I wasn’t strong enough to be Luna. I was eighteen, for fuck’s sake. I had years ahead to train. Did I repel him that much?

Each word felt like a stab in my chest, plunging deeper with every passing second.

Just like that, my whole world was crumbling right in front of me—on my birthday, no less. My eighteenth birthday.

I clutched my chest as though I’d received a physical bullet. Maybe if I had been shot, it would have been better because I hurt too much. I hurt in an inexplicable way I never knew existed.

Lyra whimpered, a sob followed afterward, then a loud, piercing howl echoed in my head.

“Dominic…” That was all I could afford to say. My lips twitched, and I clamped them shut. I wasn’t going to cry, especially not in front of this asshole.

“He doesn’t want us. He thinks we’re weak,” Lyra rasped. I could hear the anger in her voice, now gravelly, like the sound of a volcano about to erupt.

What was I feeling? I couldn’t really say. It was so many emotions at once—anger, confusion, sadness… hatred.

The memory of his kiss still lingered on my lips. I had ached to recreate that moment. When I felt that force pull me toward him, I forgave him for kissing me and then pretending it never happened. I forgave him for ignoring me as though I was some annoying kid for days before showing up again for no reason.

My birthday was ruined. Thanks to Dominic. Maybe I even hated him now. I had every right to. If he wanted to ghost me, he shouldn’t have popped up on my birthday.

Who knows? I might have even said yes to Ashton. He wasn’t that bad. He wouldn’t only make a great husband but a good father too—and he loved me.

“Dominic!” Luna Sarah’s voice was sharp as she scolded him. Her eyes were slanted into slits, slender fingers curled into a tight fist. She took a threatening step forward and paused just a few inches from him, challenge shining in her gray eyes.

“Mother.” Dominic sighed, lowering his eyes before flicking a glance my way. Then, just as fast, he looked away—but not fast enough for me to miss the silent struggle in them.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, then straightened his shoulders. “This conversation is over,” he said pointedly, turning his back on me as he made his way out.

A lone tear slipped down my cheek. My vision blurred until everything became a hazy mess. My jaw locked into a tight square as I glared at the door.

How could he?

My shoulders collapsed in a shudder, shaking slowly at first, then fervently.