Chapter 1 Rejecting Her Rogue Mate

SERENA POV

“I want nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with you.” I said coldly. “I withdraw and dismiss any bond or relationship between us. May the Goddess bear witness as I, Serena Blackwood, daughter of Alpha Asher Blackwood of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject Jayden as my mate and sever a bond that was never meant to be.”

The moment the words left my mouth, something inside me cracked, sharp and irreversible. My chest tightened, breath catching painfully as if my body itself rejected what I had done. 

Artemis stirred violently inside me, her distress bleeding into my own emotions. I was human enough to understand why I was doing this. Wolf enough to feel that I had just committed an unforgivable act.

The mate bond didn’t shatter completely, it didn’t feel gone. It felt like it was being buried deep inside my chest, locked somewhere I couldn’t reach. Artemis, my wolf, cried out in protest, clawing at the walls of my mind.

“You're rejecting our bond?” Jayden asked, disbelievingly twisting his features. His eyes began to glow faintly golden, Zion, his wolf, pushing to the surface. I felt it immediately, the shift in him. Not dramatic, not violent, but unmistakable. Zion’s presence pressed against my senses, raw and restrained. 

Artemis rose in response, alert and tense, recognizing him the way only a mate could. For a moment, everything else faded. It was just instinct meeting instinct.

“Yes.” My voice was calm, steady, even though agony was tearing me apart. “I want nothing to do with you. You’re nothing but a weak, unranked wolf.”

The lie burned as it left my mouth. Artemis snarled in protest, furious and wounded. Rank meant nothing to us. Power was presence, resilience, survival. 

And Jayden had always carried himself with quiet strength, even when the world refused to see it. My instincts recoiled, even as my mind forced the words forward.

Jayden flinched as if I slapped him.

“So that’s it?” he asked quietly. “You’re rejecting the bond the goddess herself gave us, because of my status?”

“Exactly.” I lifted my chin, pretending the words didn’t taste like poison. “I’m an Alpha’s daughter. Someone important. And you? You’re just a rogue who can’t even shift. You came to our pack begging for protection. Do you really think I would mate with you?”

“Serena…” His voice cracked, raw and pained. “We’ve been so good together. Since the moment we found out we were mates, you’ve treated me well. You even said you wanted to take me to your parents tonight and tell them about us. Please, stop. If this is a joke, it’s going too far.”

A memory flashed before my eyes, so sharp, so warm, it cut deeper than the rejection itself.

I remembered the first day Jayden saw me. How his eyes widened, how he froze as if the moon itself had landed in front of him.

He looked shocked, but happy, a quiet kind of happy. I could never forget that day

Another memory followed, soft and painful.

Jayden stood outside the training grounds, sweat dripping down his neck, breathing hard from intense drills he forced himself through even though he couldn’t shift.

In his hands was a small crumpled paper bag.

Inside it, moon cakes. My favorite. He had saved up for them. He always saved up for them.

“Thought you might be hungry,”

he had said, smiling shyly, like he was offering me the entire world wrapped in that tiny paper bag.

There was the time we almost kissed.

When our faces were inches apart, breath mingling, everything around us silent except our pounding hearts.

But we pulled back before our lips touched, laughing awkwardly, pretending the moment wasn’t real.

Those moments were the happiest parts of my life, small, gentle, and real.

I should have realized then how deeply he loved me.

How completely.

But I shoved the memories away before they softened my resolve. Before they made me crumble.

I pushed them down, deep, until they burned against my chest.

Because even despite knowing we could never be together. I still gave him hope.

Hope I should have never offered.

Hope I knew, could never lead anywhere.

“Oh, you mean that relationship?” I forced a cold laugh. “It was nothing serious. I was just curious how mate bonds felt. Everyone praises how wonderful it is to be with your destined one. Now I’ve felt it, and I’m done. It’s over.”

Artemis whimpered loudly in my mind. “Stop, Serena, please. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to him. You are hurting us”

Pain spread through my chest, sharp and suffocating. My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms as my body reacted before my mind could stop it.

 This wasn’t just emotional. Rejecting a mate tore through both sides of me, human heartbreak and wolf agony colliding violently.

I ignored her. If I didn’t, I would break.

“Look at yourself,” I said harshly. “You’re a nobody. No rank. No name. No house, no title, no position in the werewolf kingdom. You mean nothing.” I said cruelly despite loving him. God, I loved him so much.”

“And you expect me, the first daughter of an Alpha, future Alpha of this pack to mate with you? That’s impossible. I need someone worthy. Someone who can stand beside me. Someone powerful.”

“Serena, stop! It's enough” Artemis roared, her claws scraping at the edges of my consciousness as she tried to push through.

My knees trembled. A sharp, burning pain cut through my chest as if my ribs were being forced open. Artemis was fighting me, for control, fighting for him.

“We need him,” she growled. “He’s ours.”

“No,” I whispered fiercely. “He’s not enough.”

She whimpered, curling back, but the ache she left behind almost brought me to my knees.

“Serena, please don’t do this. I’m willing to do anything to make our bond work.” Jayden’s voice trembled. He wasn’t even hiding the desperation anymore.

Jayden straightened slowly. His expression hardened, something shifting behind his eyes, something sharp and unfamiliar.

“Fine,” he said quietly. “I won’t beg you.” His voice turned cold, a tone I had never heard from him before. “I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person, Serena. I truly didn’t.”

His gaze locked into mine, and for a moment, something powerful pulsed from him, like a dormant storm awakening.

“I, Jayden Silvermoon, accept your rejection.”

Something shifted instantly. The bond didn’t scream or explode, it collapsed inward, sudden and devastating. 

Artemis cried out, her grief slamming into me so hard my vision blurred. Acceptance made it real. Final. There was no going back from this.

The moment the words were spoken, the air around us shifted. His entire presence changed, stronger, firmer, colder. Power rolled off him in a wave, and I stumbled back, startled.

How?

Without another word, he turned away and walked deeper into the forest. I watched him, confused and terrified when I felt him sever the pack link on his own. The bond snapped sharply, the final thread breaking.

He became rogue again. 

I felt the absence immediately. Jayden’s presence, once familiar at the edge of my senses, vanished completely. 

Artemis went still, stunned, as if she couldn’t understand how someone could disappear so thoroughly. The silence he left behind was unbearable.

Just like that.

No approval from the Alpha.

No ritual.

No ceremony.

How did he do that?

As soon as I felt him cross the boundary of our territory, my knees gave out. I collapsed onto the forest floor, gasping for air. The pain hit me like knives, slicing through my chest and ripping at my soul.

Artemis howled inside me, broken.

And so was I.

I loved him.

God, I loved him so much.

He was the most handsome man I had ever seen, those eyes that always held secrets, that aura that never matched a simple rogue. Every part of me wanted him. I needed him.

But I didn’t have a choice.

I had to let him go.

As I knelt there on the cold ground, the ache swallowed me whole.

Artemis tensed suddenly, her grief snapping into sharp alertness. My shoulders stiffened, skin prickling as instinct surged through me. Someone else was here. Close. Watching.

A slow clap echoed behind me.

And a voice followed.

One I dreaded more than anything.