Pregnant and Rejected, The Lycan King's Obsession

The first time Scarlett De Luca saw Alpha Logan Blackwood, he was fifteen, standing in the pouring rain with a split lip and a broken arm after defending a frightened omega from three older wolves. She had been twelve, watching from behind a fence post, and something in her chest shifted that she didn't have words for yet. That was the day she fell for him.

Eight years later, she stood before a full length mirror, wondering if she looked beautiful enough to become his Luna. The soft blue gown hugged her figure without being extravagant, because she couldn't afford extravagant. Every coin she had saved over six months had gone into the fabric, and she had spent three nights sewing loose beads back into place.

"You'll wear the poor thing out before the ceremony starts," Sophia Hart said from the doorway, grinning the way she always did when she meant to be comforting.

"Does it look all right?" Scarlett asked.

"Ask me again and I'm throwing you in the river." Sophia crossed the room and tucked a loose curl behind her friend's ear. "Tonight isn't about the dress. It's about the way Logan looks at you."

For years the whole Silver Moon Pack had watched them grow closer, training together, trusted with things Logan told no one else. When he became Alpha after his father's death, everyone assumed it was only a matter of time before Scarlett stood beside him as Luna.

A horn sounded across the valley, calling every wolf toward the Moon Altar. The ceremony had begun.

Scarlett took one last look at herself, touched the silver necklace at her collarbone, the only thing she had left of her mother, and whispered, "Wish me luck."

"You won't need it," Sophia said. "You already have his heart."

Scarlett wanted so badly to believe that.

Outside, the pack had gathered beneath the ancient stone altar. Torches lined the path, their flames bending under a full moon. Familiar faces smiled as she passed, easing the knot in her stomach a little more.

Then she saw him. Logan stood at the altar's center in the traditional black cloak of an Alpha, and their eyes met before her heart could steady itself. He offered a faint smile, small enough that only she would notice, the same smile that had carried a hundred quiet promises.

Elder Marcus lifted his staff, and the music died at once.

"Wolves of Silver Moon Pack," he called, "tonight our Alpha makes a choice that will shape this pack's future."

The crowd cheered. Scarlett searched Logan's face for the warmth that had been there a moment ago and found it gone, replaced by something rigid. Her wolf stirred beneath her skin, uneasy. Something isn't right.

He stepped forward, gold eyes fixed on hers. "Scarlett De Luca. You have served this pack with loyalty and honor."

Her chest warmed. This was tradition, words spoken before an Alpha claimed his mate.

Then he drew a slow breath, and everything in his expression changed. The moon slid behind a bank of clouds, and shadow swallowed the altar whole.

"But respect," he said, "is not enough."

The silence that followed felt unnatural, as though the valley had stopped breathing with her.

"What do you mean?" Scarlett managed.

"You deserve the truth."

"I don't understand."

"You will." He climbed the last step onto the altar, hands curling into fists before slowly loosening. "For a long time, I believed you were the woman meant to stand beside me." Hope flared in her chest for one desperate second before he finished. "I was wrong."

Her heart seemed to stop. Behind her, Sophia shot to her feet. "What is he doing?"

"Logan." Her voice cracked. "Look at me."

"I am."

"No. Look at me the way you did yesterday."

Pain flickered across his face and vanished. "As Alpha, my first duty is to this pack. I cannot let personal feelings weaken my judgment."

"Weaken?" A bitter smile touched her lips. "So loving me is a weakness now?"

He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Don't. Tell me this is a nightmare."

He said nothing, and his silence was worse than any answer could have been. She searched his face for the boy who used to bring her wildflowers, the young Alpha who had once sworn he would always choose her first. That man was gone.

Logan drew one final breath, and his voice carried across the courtyard. "I, Alpha Logan Blackwood, reject Scarlett De Luca as my fated mate."

The words struck like lightning. Pain tore through her, deeper than anything physical could reach. She collapsed onto the cold stone as the bond she had cherished for years shattered behind her ribs. Gasps rippled through the crowd. Someone whispered a prayer. Someone else simply looked away.

"Why?" she whispered.

"It has to be this way."

"No, it doesn't." A tear slid down her cheek as she forced herself upright, refusing to let the pack remember her on the ground. "You could have told me in private. You didn't have to destroy me in front of everyone who believed in us."

He could not meet her eyes.

She let out a hollow laugh. "I loved you." Then she turned and walked away, and no one stopped her, no one called her name. The wolves parted silently to clear her path, each step toward the gates heavier than the last. Thunder rolled overhead as she passed through them, rain beginning to fall in cold sheets. She refused to look back, certain that if she did, she would run straight back to the man who had just broken her.

Beyond the trees, hidden past the gates, a convoy of black SUVs waited with their headlights dark. A tall man in a charcoal suit stood beside the lead vehicle, watching her through the downpour, his expression calm but his sharp gray eyes never leaving her.

A guard stepped close. "Sir, should we move?"

He pulled on a leather glove without hurrying. "Not yet. Let her take ten more steps."

"Why?"

A faint, humorless smile crossed his mouth. "Because the wolves hunting her are already here."

As if summoned by the words, a long howl rolled through the forest, then another, and another after that. Scarlett froze mid step. The sound wasn't coming from the pack behind her. It was coming from the darkness ahead.

She lifted her head slowly. Dozens of amber eyes opened between the pines, watching, patient in a way no ordinary wolf should have been.

They hadn't gathered in the trees to welcome a rejected mate home.

They had come to make certain she never left the forest alive.