The Rejection: The Fat Girl’s Fall

Chapter 1

CLARA

“I, Damien Storm, reject you, Clara Wren, as my mate.”

The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. I staggered backward, my hand flying to my chest where the mate bond I’d felt for barely five minutes—snapped with a pain so excruciating I thought I might die.

“No,” I whispered, the word barely audible. “Damien, please—”

“Please what?” His lip curled in disgust, those grey eyes I’d gazed into with such adoration now looking at me like I was something he’d scraped off his shoe. “Please pretend this is anything other than the Moon Goddess’s sick joke?”

I reached for him, desperate, my fingers brushing his arm. He jerked away like my touch burned him.

“Don’t.” His voice was ice. “Don’t touch me. Don’t look at me like that. Like you actually thought this could be real.”

He used to hold my hand. The memory crashed over me unbidden—just last week, when I’d been crying about another cruel comment from pack members. He’d taken my hand in his, rubbed his thumb over my knuckles, and told me I was worth more than their words. He used to tell me I was beautiful on the inside. When I’d stare at my reflection with hatred, he’d catch me and say that beauty wasn’t about size, that what mattered was the heart. He used to defend me. Standing up to anyone who made fat jokes, who called me names, who treated me like I was less than nothing.

All lies.

“You… you were my friend,” I choked out, tears streaming down my face. “You said you cared about me.”

Damien laughed, the sound sharp and mocking. “Friend? Oh, Clara. Sweet, stupid Clara.” He stepped closer, his presence looming over me. “You were never my friend. You were my toy. My little pet project for when boredom hit and I needed entertainment.”

The clearing spun around me. This couldn’t be happening. Not Damien. Not the boy who’d sat with me when no one else would, who’d shared his lunch when mine was stolen, who’d made me believe that maybe, just maybe, someone could love me despite everything.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered.

“Then let me make it clear.” His smile was cruel, transforming his handsome features into something ugly. “Every conversation we had? I was laughing inside. Every time you’d light up when I paid attention to you? Pathetic. Did you really think someone like me could ever want someone like you?”

My legs gave out. I hit the ground hard, my knees scraping against the rocky earth, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my chest.

“Damien,” I sobbed. “Please don’t do this. The mate bond—”

“The mate bond is a mistake.” He crouched down, forcing me to meet his eyes. “Look at yourself, Clara. Really look. You’re fat, you’re weak, you’re nothing. Do you honestly think the future Alpha of the storm Pack would be mated to someone like you?”

I wanted to disappear. To sink into the earth and never emerge. But his words kept coming, each one a dagger to my heart.

“I have a real mate,” he continued, his voice softening with genuine affection that had never, ever been directed at me. “Sage. Beautiful, strong, perfect Sage. She’s who I choose. She’s who I’ve always chosen.”

Sage? Sage who looked like she’d stepped out of a magazine. Sage who’d made my life hell since we were children, who’d orchestrated every humiliation I’d ever faced, who’d turned “fat Clara” into a pack-wide joke.

“She hates me,” I whispered.

“Of course she does.” Damien’s smile widened. “She always has. And do you know what? She’s right to. You’re everything wrong with our pack—weak, pathetic, an embarrassment. She sees you for what you really are.”

The mate bond’s severed ends writhed in my chest like dying things, sending waves of agony through every nerve. I doubled over, retching from the pain, but nothing came up except the bitter taste of heartbreak.

“I loved you,” I gasped out between sobs.

“No.” Damien stood, brushing off his jeans like I was dirt he needed to clean away. “You loved the idea of me. You loved the fantasy that someone might actually want you. But that’s all it ever was—a fantasy.”

He started to walk away, then paused, looking back over his shoulder. “Do yourself a favor, Clara. Accept the rejection. Move on. And maybe… maybe lose some weight. Though I doubt even that would help.”

Then he was gone, leaving me broken and bleeding on the forest floor.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, sobbing until I had nothing left.

He was my everything. The thought hit me like a fresh wave of pain. Damien hadn’t just been my potential mate—he’d been my only friend, my only source of kindness in a world that had shown me nothing but cruelty. And it had all been an act. Every moment of warmth, every gentle word, every shared laugh—performed for his own amusement.

I was his toy.

The realization settled over me like a suffocating blanket. I’d been so starved for affection, so desperate to believe someone could care about me, that I’d missed every sign. Every moment he’d seemed bored when I talked too long. Every time his eyes had wandered when I was speaking. Every laugh that had come a beat too late, like he’d had to remind himself to respond.

How could I have been so stupid?

The mate bond’s remnants still pulsed weakly in my chest, a constant reminder of what I’d lost—what I’d never really had. By now, word would be spreading through the pack. The fat girl had been rejected by the Alpha’s son. The jokes would start soon.

And Sage… Sage would be laughing. She’d probably orchestrated this somehow. Found a way to make sure Damien rejected me as publicly and cruelly as possible.

I finally forced myself to stand, my legs shaking beneath me. My reflection caught in a nearby stream, and I flinched away from what I saw swollen eyes, tear-stained cheeks, leaves in my tangled hair. Everything about me screamed broken, pathetic, unwanted.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe I should accept it.