Executive Seduction

ARIA’S POV

The Moon Goddess hated me.

That was the only explanation for why my fated mate—the man destined by the universe to love me unconditionally—was currently staring at me like I’d crawled out of a sewer.

“No,” Alpha Derek whispered, his blue eyes wide with horror. “No, no, no… this can’t be right.”

The mate bond had snapped into place exactly thirty seconds ago. I’d felt it the moment he walked into the ceremony hall—a golden thread wrapping around my heart, warm and perfect and right.

I’d smiled. Actually smiled like an idiot.

Because for one beautiful, stupid moment, I thought maybe… just maybe… someone would finally want me.

Derek took a step back like I was contagious.

The entire pack had gathered for this. The Mating Ceremony happened once a month during the full moon—unmated wolves aged eighteen and older stood in the center of the hall while the Moon Goddess revealed fated pairs.

Three hundred wolves watched us from the surrounding circle.

Three hundred witnesses to my humiliation.

“Derek?” I whispered, my voice small. “Do you… do you feel it too?”

He laughed. The sound was sharp and cruel and it cut me deeper than any blade ever could.

“Feel it?” He looked around at the crowd, then back at me. “Oh, I feel it alright. I feel sick.”

Gasps rippled through the pack.

My stepmother Vivian stood near the front, her lips curling into a satisfied smirk. Beside her, my stepsister Celeste pressed a hand to her mouth like she was holding back laughter.

They’d known. Somehow, they’d known this would happen.

“Derek, please—” I started.

“You?” Derek cut me off, his voice rising. “The Moon Goddess paired me with YOU?”

Elder Margaret stepped forward, her expression carefully neutral.

“Alpha Derek, the bond is sacred. The Goddess does not make mistakes—”

“Then explain THIS!” Derek gestured at me wildly, his face twisted with disgust. “Look at her! She’s… she’s…”

“Fat,” Celeste supplied helpfully from the crowd, her voice sweet as poison. “The word you’re looking for is fat, Alpha.”

Derek pointed at her. “Yes! Thank you, Celeste. She’s too fat to be my Luna!”

The words hit me like a physical blow.

I wrapped my arms around my middle instinctively, trying to hide the soft curves that had always made me feel wrong. Broken. Less than.

I wasn’t skinny like Celeste with her perfect model figure and delicate bones. I was curvy—wide hips, thick thighs, a soft stomach that no amount of skipped meals ever seemed to shrink.

My wolf whimpered inside me. Mate doesn’t want us.

“The bond is clear,” Elder Margaret said firmly, though I caught the pity in her eyes when she looked at me. “You must accept it or formally reject—”

“I reject it,” Derek said immediately.

The crowd exploded into shocked whispers.

“Alpha Derek,” the Elder warned, “rejection is not something to be taken lightly. The consequences—”

“I don’t care about consequences.” Derek’s jaw set stubbornly. “I will NOT have a fat, pathetic Omega as my Luna. This pack deserves better. I deserve better.”

Each word was a knife twisting deeper.

“She’s not even pretty enough to make up for it,” someone muttered from the crowd.

“Can you imagine her standing next to him at pack events?”

“Poor Alpha Derek, being stuck with that…”

I wanted to disappear. Wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole. My hands trembled as I clutched my dress tighter.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Fated mates were supposed to be perfect for each other. The Moon Goddess matched souls, not bodies. She saw what was inside, not outside.

Didn’t she?

“Derek,” I tried one more time, my voice breaking. “Please. Just give me a chance. I can—”

“You can what?” He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a cruel whisper only I could hear. “Lose weight? Become someone worthy? Aria, I’ve known you my whole life. You’ve always been like this—soft, weak, pathetic. Did you really think I’d want you?”

Tears burned hot behind my eyes but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of everyone.

“Then reject me properly,” I whispered. “Say the words.”

Something flickered in Derek’s expression—maybe guilt, maybe regret—but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

He straightened, addressing the crowd in his Alpha voice.

“I, Alpha Derek Stone of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject Aria Winters as my fated mate.”

The bond flared hot in my chest, fighting the rejection. Pain radiated through every nerve as the golden thread began to fray.

Elder Margaret looked at me sadly. “You must accept for the rejection to be complete.”

I could refuse. Could force him to live with the half-broken bond, make him suffer the way I was suffering.

But what was the point?

He’d made his choice clear.

“I, Aria Winters,” I said quietly, each word tasting like ash, “accept your rejection.”

The bond snapped.

I gasped as agony tore through my chest—like someone had reached inside and ripped out my heart with bare hands. My knees buckled and I hit the floor hard.

No one moved to help me.

Through the pain, I heard Derek’s voice again.

“Celeste,” he called. “Come here.”

My stepsister glided forward gracefully, her blonde hair perfect, her skinny frame everything I wasn’t.

She stopped beside Derek and smiled up at him with practiced adoration.

“I know she’s not my fated mate,” Derek announced, “but I choose Celeste Winters as my chosen mate and future Luna of this pack.”

The crowd erupted in cheers.

Celeste threw her arms around Derek’s neck and kissed him—right there, in front of everyone, while I was still on my knees bleeding from a broken mate bond.

“Perfect choice, Alpha!”

“She’ll make a beautiful Luna!”

“So much better than…”

They didn’t even finish the sentence. Didn’t need to.

I forced myself to stand on shaking legs. The pain in my chest was unbearable but I locked my knees and lifted my chin.

I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me completely broken.

Derek pulled back from Celeste’s kiss and looked at me with cold, empty eyes.

“Oh, and Aria?” He smiled, and it was the cruelest thing I’d ever seen. “Since your father remarried, you’re no longer Beta blood. You’re just another pack member now. And pack members work for their keep.”

My stomach dropped.

After my mother died when I was fifteen, Dad had been so broken. So lost. When Vivian came along a year later with her kindness and her gentle smiles, he’d fallen hard and fast.

He married her within six months.

Brought her and Celeste into our home.

Made them family.

And now, six years later, that decision was being used against me.

“From now on,” Derek continued, his voice cold, “you’ll serve in the pack kitchens. Report at dawn tomorrow.”

Vivian stepped forward, placing a possessive hand on Celeste’s shoulder.

“Seems fitting,” my stepmother said sweetly. “Given how much time you clearly spend around food anyway.”

Laughter rippled through the crowd.

I stood frozen, humiliation burning through every cell in my body.

My father would have been horrified. He’d loved me. Protected me. Made sure I knew I was valued.

But he’d been dead for three years now—killed in the same rogue attack that had taken so many of our warriors.

And the moment he died, Vivian’s mask had started to slip.

“The kitchens, Aria,” Derek repeated, his voice hard. “And if I hear you’ve been slacking…” He let the threat hang in the air.

Elder Margaret looked like she wanted to protest but she remained silent. No one challenged an Alpha’s command.

Especially not for someone like me.

I turned and walked out of the ceremony hall with my spine straight and my head high even though everything inside me was screaming.

The moment I cleared the doors, I ran.