Rejected

Chapter 1

Aria

"I, Lucas Miller, future Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, reject you, Aria Vale, as my mate."

The words hung in the air, heavier than stone.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just stood there, paralyzed, feeling something deep inside my chest snap. That wasn't a just a metaphor. It really felt like a physical wire was cut In me, a sharp, stinging snap that burned through my veins and left me cold.

The music in the ballroom died instantly.

The sound of five hundred crystal glasses clinking stopped. The laughter vanished. Every head turned toward the center of the room, where I stood, shivering in the cheap white dress I had sewn myself for this exact night. My eighteenth birthday. The night I was supposed to be claimed.

I looked at Lucas.

He was standing on the dais, looking down at me. He wore a tuxedo that cost more than I would earn in a lifetime. His blue eyes, usually warm were now frozen ice.

"Lucas?" I whispered. My voice was small, so small that if not because the hall was filled with wolves and dead silent at the same time, no one would have heard me. "What...what are you doing?"

I took a step forward, my hand reaching out. "We are fated. You know we are."

Lucas flinched, looking at my outstretched hand with pure disgust, as if I were offering him a handful of dirt.

"Fate makes mistakes, and I am not a man who accepts mistakes." his voice was loud enough for everyone to hear.

A ripple of murmurs went through the crowd. I heard the words "Wolfless", "adopted" and "Runt" whispered like curses.

Then, a laugh cut through the tension.

Chloe, my step-sister, stepped out from the crowd. She was wearing a blood-red gown that clung to her curves, diamonds glittering at her neck, and heels so high, they should be illegal for producing false identity.

She walked up the steps of the dais and slid her arm through Lucas’s, then she leaned her head on his shoulder, smirking down at me.

"Oh, Aria. Poor, naive, Aria. Don't be pathetic. Look at you."

She gestured vaguely at my homemade dress, my scuffed shoes and my messy hair.

"You’re eighteen today, and where is your wolf? You can’t shift. You can’t smell magic. You can’t even defend yourself. You aren't a Luna. You’re a defect."

She then looked up at Lucas, batting her eyelashes.

"A powerful Alpha like Lucas needs a real wolf to breed strong heirs. Not a charity case my father took in out of pity."

I didn't care for Chloe, she'd always been cruel to me, I'd already grown accustomed to it, but her words made my hand instinctively go to my stomach.

Heirs.

Lucas didn't know. He couldn't know. That's why. He'd been away for so long. I had planned to tell him tonight, in private, after the Mating Ceremony.

I touched the small box hidden in my pocket. Inside was a positive pregnancy test.

I wasn't just his mate. I was the mother of his child. Surely, that mattered? Surely, he wouldn't throw away his own flesh and blood?

"Lucas, please, I need to talk to you privately. It’s important."

"There is nothing to talk about.bI accept Chloe as my chosen Luna. She is strong. She is worthy. You are...nothing."

"I am pregnant!"

I screamed it. I didn't mean to, but the desperation clawed its way out of my throat.

The silence turned suffocating.

Lucas froze, his eyes widening for a second and dropping to my flat stomach.

"I’m pregnant," I sobbed, taking another step forward. "Lucas, please. I’m carrying your baby. Don't do this to us."

For a second, just one second, I saw hesitation in his face.

Then Chloe leaned up and whispered something in his ear, her eyes flashing with malice.

This next second, his face hardened. The hesitation vanished, replaced by a rage that terrified me.

"Liar," he spat.

"I'm not! I can prove it! I have the test..."

"Enough!" He roared.

His Alpha aura exploded outward. It hit me like a physical wave, forcing me to my knees. I gasped, struggling to breathe under the crushing weight of his power.

"You are a liar and a manipulator," he snarled, looking down at me with hatred. "You would say anything to stay in the castle, wouldn't you? Even lie about a pup."

He turned to the guards standing at the perimeter.

"Get this trash out of my sight. She is no longer a member of the Silver Moon Pack. She is a rogue. Take her to the border."

"No!" I shrieked as two massive enforcers grabbed my arms. "Lucas! Please! You’re killing your own child!"

They dragged me backward. My heels scraped against the floor, leaving scuff marks.

I watched through a blur of tears as Chloe grabbed Lucas’s face and kissed him. It was a deep, searing kiss, right in front of me. A victory lap.

Lucas didn't push her away and instead kissed her back, with the same intensity, while I was dragged out into the cold night.

***

The drive to the border took an hour.

I sat in the back of the SUV, sandwiched between two guards. I was shivering, not just from the air conditioning, but from shock.

"Please. I have no coat. It’s winter. If you leave me out there, I’ll freeze." I whispered to the guard on my left but he didn't look at me and just stared straight ahead.

"I’m pregnant," I pleaded, my voice breaking. "You know me, Sam. We went to school together. Please. Just drop me at a town. Don't leave me in the Dead Lands."

Sam’s jaw tightened. I saw a flicker of guilt, but he didn't speak. An Alpha’s order was absolute law. To disobey was death.

The car slowed down. The smooth pavement turned into gravel, and then into crunching snow.

We had reached the border. Beyond the fence lay the Dead Lands, a frozen wasteland of jagged rocks and endless snow where nothing grew and no one survived.

The car stopped.

"Get out," Sam grunted, unlocking the door.

I didn't move. I couldn't.

He sighed and got out, walking around to my side, and yanking the door open. He grabbed my arm and pulled me out.

I stumbled, my thin heels sinking into the snow. The wind hit me instantly, biting through my thin cotton dress like a thousand needles.

"Sam, please. I’ll die out here." I begged, clutching his sleeve.

"Run, Aria," he said quietly, shoving a crumpled twenty-dollar bill into my hand. It was a pity offering. "Just run. If you're still here at sunrise, the patrol has orders to hunt you."

He pushed me backward and I fell into a snowbank, the cold shocking my system.

The car door slammed shut.

I watched the red taillights fade into the darkness, leaving me alone in the freezing silence.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach, trying to shield the tiny life inside me.

"It’s okay," I whispered to the darkness, my teeth chattering violently. "Mama is here. We’ll find shelter. We’ll be okay."