Mempelai Tanpa Kontrak

The scent of roasting meat and expensive pine-scented wax drifted through the cracks of the kitchen door, but for Seraphina Vance, the only smell that mattered was the stale, soapy water in her bucket.

At eighteen, most girls in the Silver Moon Pack were upstairs in the grand ballroom, draped in silk and lace, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. They were waiting for their lives to begin. For Seraphina, the last seven years had been a countdown to this very night—not because she expected a crown, but because she expected a *mate*. A mate was the only thing that could legally pull an orphaned omega out of the "charity" status the pack had forced upon her since her parents died in a rogue attack.

"Faster, Seraphina! If there is even a single streak on this floor when Alpha Thorne enters, I’ll make sure you spend your birthday in the silver-lined cells," a sharp voice barked.

Seraphina didn’t look up. She didn't need to. The scent of cloying, artificial lilies told her exactly who was standing there: Sienna, her step-sister. Sienna was dressed in a gown that probably cost more than Seraphina’s parents' entire estate—a shimmering, blood-red silk that hugged her curves and screamed for attention.

"I’m almost done, Sienna," Seraphina whispered, her voice husky from disuse.

"It’s *Alpha-Luna* Sienna to you soon enough," the older girl sneered, kicking the bucket. Gray water splashed over Seraphina’s threadbare dress, soaking into the fabric. "Kael is taking over the pack tonight. And once he does, I’m going to convince him that we don’t need any 'useless eaters' clogging up our borders."

Sienna swished away, her laughter echoing like broken glass. Seraphina closed her eyes, clutching the damp rag to her chest. *Just a few more hours,* she told herself. *Once the bond snaps into place, whoever he is, he’ll take me away from here. He has to.*

**The Arrival of the Beast**

By 11:45 PM, the ballroom was a sea of shifting bodies and suppressed power. The Silver Moon Pack was one of the strongest in the North, and tonight was a double celebration: the Alpha’s succession and the Great Awakening for the eighteen-year-olds.

Seraphina stood in the very back, hidden behind a marble pillar. She had tried to clean herself up, scrubbing her skin until it was raw, but her dress was still a faded, patched-up mess that smelled faintly of lemon floor cleaner. She felt the eyes of the pack members on her—pitying from some, disgusted from others.

Then, the air in the room changed.

A heavy, suffocating pressure settled over the crowd as the heavy oak doors swung open.

**Kaelen Thorne** stepped in.

He was a masterpiece of predatory grace. Six-foot-four of lean muscle, with hair as black as a raven’s wing and eyes that held the cold, amber fire of a wolf that knew it was at the top of the food chain. As the future Alpha, his presence was like a physical weight. Every wolf in the room bowed their head—even the elders.

Seraphina felt a strange tug in her navel. A low hum started in her ears, vibrating through her teeth. *No. It couldn't be.*

Kael walked toward the dais, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. He looked like a king, distant and untouchable. But as he neared the center of the room, he stopped. His nostrils flared. His head snapped toward the back of the room, his eyes locking onto the dark corner where Seraphina stood.

The hum in Seraphina's ears turned into a roar. A scent hit her—so powerful it made her knees buckle. It was the smell of a brewing storm, of dark chocolate and ozone. It was the scent of her soul.

*Mate.*

Her inner wolf, usually a silent, curled-up ball of fear, suddenly stood up and howled. *Alpha. Ours. The King of the Forest.*

### **The Rejection**

The silence in the ballroom was absolute. You could hear the flicker of the candles and the frantic thudding of Seraphina’s heart.

Kael didn't move. He stared at her, his pupils dilating until his eyes were almost entirely black. The mate bond was a visible thing in the air—a shimmering, golden thread connecting the most powerful man in the room to the girl who had spent the morning scrubbing his floors.

Sienna, standing on the dais, turned pale. Her hand went to her throat as she looked between Kael and Seraphina. "Kael? What is it?"

Kael didn't answer her. He began to walk. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, everyone holding their breath. Each step he took felt like a hammer blow to Seraphina’s chest. He stopped a mere foot away from her. He was so close she could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

"Seraphina," he breathed. His voice was a low growl that made her skin prickle with a mixture of fear and absolute, agonizing desire.

"Kael," she whispered, her hand reaching out instinctively. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to drown in that storm-scented skin.

His hand shot out, but he didn't take hers. He gripped her wrist, his fingers like iron bands. The touch should have been a spark of lightning; instead, he squeezed until she gasped in pain.

"You," he spat. The word was filled with such concentrated loathing that it felt like a physical slap. "The Moon Goddess has a twisted sense of humor. You think I would accept a mate who looks like a beggar? A woman with the blood of a failed lineage? You are an Omega. A weak, pathetic thing that can barely shift."

"Kael, the bond..." Seraphina’s voice broke. "It’s not a mistake. We are fated."

"Fate is for the weak," Kael growled. He leaned down, his lips brushing her ear, but his words were poison. "I have spent my life preparing to lead. I need a Luna who can stand beside me in battle, not one I have to hide in the kitchen so I don't feel ashamed."

He shoved her back. Seraphina stumbled, hitting the marble pillar. Tears began to tracks through the dust on her face.

Kael turned his back on her, returning to the dais where Sienna was waiting with a triumphant, wicked smile. He took Sienna’s hand and raised it high.

"Pack members of Silver Moon!" Kael’s voice echoed, filled with Alpha authority. "The Goddess has tested me tonight. She has offered me a mate who would bring our pack to its knees with her weakness. But an Alpha's first duty is to his people, not his heart."

He looked back at Seraphina, his eyes cold and dead.

**"I, Kaelen Thorne, Alpha-elect of the Silver Moon Pack, hereby reject you, Seraphina Vance, as my fated mate. I sever the bond. I cast you out. You are nothing to me, and you are nothing to this pack."**

### **The Aftermath**

The rejection hit like a lightning strike.

The golden thread Seraphina had felt just moments ago didn't just break—it exploded. A white-hot agony tore through her chest, worse than any physical wound she had ever endured. It felt like her heart was being shredded by a thousand silver blades.

She fell to her knees, a silent scream trapped in her throat. Her wolf shrieked in her mind, a sound of pure, unadulterated grief before it went suddenly, terrifyingly silent.

"Get her out of here," Kael commanded, his voice bored, as if he were ordering the trash to be emptied. "She is no longer a member of this pack. She has until sunrise to leave our territory. If she is found on Silver Moon land after that... she will be hunted as a rogue."

Laughter erupted in the ballroom. Sienna leaned over the edge of the dais, tossing a glass of champagne. The cold liquid drenched Seraphina’s hair. "Happy birthday, Seraphina," she hissed.

Seraphina didn't wait for the guards to drag her out. Driven by a raw, primal instinct to survive, she scrambled to her feet. The pain was so intense she could barely see, her vision swimming in red and black. She ran.

She ran past the mocking faces, past the elders who looked away, and out into the freezing night air. She didn't stop to grab her meager belongings. She didn't stop to cry.

She ran until the lights of the pack house were nothing but a dim glow in the distance. She ran until her lungs burned and her feet bled. Finally, she collapsed near the border stream, the boundary between the world she knew and the dangerous unknown.

As she lay there, clutching her stomach, the agonizing pain of the rejection began to dull into a heavy, throbbing ache. But as the moon reached its peak, a different sensation washed over her.

It wasn't the coldness of death. It was a strange, golden warmth deep in her womb—a spark of life that shouldn't have been there.

Seraphina gasped, her hand trembling as she pressed it against her belly. Kael had rejected her. He had broken the bond. But the Goddess hadn't left her empty-handed.

She wasn't just a rejected omega anymore. She was a mother. And she was the keeper of a secret that would one day bring the Alpha of Silver Moon to his knees.