Chapter 1

~Aria~

I, Darius Wolfe, Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack, reject you, Aria Vale, as my mate and Luna.”

The words echoed like a death sentence across the courtyard. They hit harder than a silver blade. They sliced through my chest, burning, searing, and yet… I kept my chin high.

I didn’t beg.

I didn’t cry.

I didn’t even blink.

For a moment, I swore the air froze.

The bond snapped.

My knees buckled, a white hot agony ripping through my chest as if my very soul had been torn in half. I clenched my fists, refusing to let him see me break.

Every heartbeat, every breath from the crowd… stopped.

I stared at him the man the Moon Goddess herself had bound me to and searched his face for a trace of regret.

There was none.

Only a cold certainty, like he’d rehearsed this a hundred times.

“That’s… all I needed to hear,” I said, my voice trembling but steady enough to carry. “Now I know there’s no place for me here anymore.”

Slowly, I rose to my feet. “Then hear me, Alpha,” I said, voice trembling but unyielding.

“I, Aria Vale accept your rejection as my mate… and I reject the Blood Moon Pack.”

The moment the words left my lips, a crushing emptiness replaced the bond I had known all my life. It was like every heartbeat I had ever had was stolen in an instant.

Gasps rippled through the gathering. Some mouths hung open. Others smirked the kind of smirks that told me they’d been waiting for this moment.

He didn’t even flinch.

Instead, his gaze slid past me… to someone behind my shoulder. I didn’t dare turn around. I didn’t need to guess who “someone else” was. I’d seen the way his eyes lingered lately… just not on me.

The ache in my chest was unbearable. But pain was a luxury I couldn’t afford here, not in front of them.

I squared my shoulders, ignoring the prickle of whispers.

They could talk.

Let them talk.

I wouldn’t give them tears to feed on.

As I walked away, voices blurred into a cruel symphony.

“She should’ve seen this coming.”

“Guess the Alpha finally realized who was worth his time.”

And the worst one, low and sharp from someone I recognized instantly

“Guess she’s used to losing things.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, my fingers curling into fists at my sides. If I stayed another second, I’d break. And I couldn’t give them that satisfaction.

I turned on my heel.

“Aria—” my cousin’s voice called behind me, soft and pleading.

But my legs were already moving. Faster. Out of the hall, past the crowd, and away from the man who was supposed to be my forever.

He didn’t even try to stop me.

I didn’t stop running

If I stopped, I might break. And if I broke here, I’d never put myself back together again.

From somewhere deep in the territory, a mournful howl erupted one wolf, then another, then dozens more. The sound rolled through the night like grief made flesh.

They felt it.

They all felt it.

They all felt the connection snap.

They felt a member reject the bond.

I turned away, tears burning my cheeks, and walked into the darkness without looking back.

By the time I reached the pack gates, my lungs burned.

My wolf( violet) was restless inside me, pressed against my skin with a low growl.

We don’t need them, she whispered.

We never did.

The problem was… I used to think we did. I used to believe in mates, in family, in the safety of home. But home had been slipping away from me long before Darius spoke those words.

Maybe it began the day my father stopped looking at me the same way, like I was no longer his little princess, no longer his bundle of joy. The warmth in his eyes had faded, replaced by something distant… something guarded.

Or maybe it was when she moved into our house… bringing her smiles, her daughter, and her delicate, poisonous whispers.

I clenched my fists.

No.

I wouldn’t think about them now.

Not here.

The cold wind cut across my face as I stepped into the tree line. Behind me, I heard the gates close with a final, metallic clang.

Good.

Let them stay shut.

Because if I ever came back…

It wouldn’t be the same Aria Vale walking through them.

____

Just as I was about leaving the territory, I caught a strange, unfamiliar scent on the wind powerful, commanding, dangerous.

Violet (my wolf) freezes.

“That’s when I realized… I wasn’t alone out here.”

___

And as I stepped into the forest, I realized the bond might be gone, but the pain… the pain was coming with me.