The Queen They Rejected

Chapter 7

The cheering did not stop.

I stood in the middle of the burned battlefield, covered in blood that was not mine, my white fur still glowing faintly under the moonlight. My body was shaking, not from fear, but from power. Nyx was still awake inside me, proud, loud, alive.

We did it, Zara. We saved them.

For years, they had called me wolfless. Weak. A burden. The girl who could not shift.

Now they were on their knees.

Old women who used to laugh at me were crying. Warriors who used to push me to clean their floors were bowing their heads. Children were pointing at me and whispering, "Moon Wolf... it's really her."

Kaden did not let go of me. His arms stayed tight around my neck, his face buried in my fur. When he finally pulled back, his eyes were red. Not from anger. From guilt.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, so only I could hear. "For every word I said. For rejecting you. For letting them treat you like that. I'm sorry, Zara."

I shifted back slowly. Bones cracking, fur disappearing. I stood there, naked and exhausted, and Kaden quickly wrapped his jacket around me. No one stared. No one dared to.

Mia was still standing in the doorway of the pack house. Her face was white. Her hands were shaking. She had always been the perfect one. The beautiful one. The one the pack wanted as Luna.

Now no one was looking at her.

She stepped forward, her voice breaking. "Zara... I..."

I held up my hand. I was too tired for apologies tonight. "Not now, Mia."

She flinched like I had slapped her.

An elder, Elder Rowan, walked forward with a torch. He was the same man who had announced my rejection in front of the whole pack three years ago.

He knelt.

"Forgive us, Moon Wolf," he said loudly. "We were blind. The Moon Goddess sent you back to us, and we..."

"Get up," I said. My voice was stronger than I expected. "I didn't come back for revenge. I came back because this is still my home. And I will not let rogues burn my home."

The pack roared again.

That night, they cleaned the battlefield. They buried the dead. They treated the injured. Kaden would not leave my side. He brought me food, water, a blanket. He sat beside me while the healers checked my wounds.

"You fought like you were born for it," he said quietly.

"I was," I said. "Nyx was always there. I just... I was too afraid to let her out. After you rejected me, I thought if I hid her, the pain would stop."

He looked down. "And did it?"

"No," I said honestly. "It only got worse. Until tonight."

Silence fell between us. The fire crackled. For the first time in years, we were not Alpha and rejected mate. We were just Kaden and Zara.

"What happens now?" he asked.

I looked at the pack. At the children sleeping in their mothers' arms. At the warriors still guarding the border.

"Ragnar is dead, but he was not alone," I said. Nyx growled inside me. _"He said someone sent him. Someone told him the Moon Wolf would return."_

Kaden's jaw tightened. "You think there's another attack coming?"

"I know there is," I said. "Ragnar said 'Kill her and drink her blood and we will all become powerful.' Someone promised them my power. Someone who knows what I am."

Kaden stood up, his Alpha aura flaring. "Then we prepare. Tomorrow, I will call a pack meeting. I will announce you as Luna. Officially. In front of everyone."

My heart stopped. "Kaden..."

"No," he cut me off. "I rejected you once in front of everyone. I will claim you in front of everyone too. If you will let me."

I looked into his eyes. The boy who broke me. The man who just fought beside me.

"I need time," I whispered. "I just got my wolf back. I just got myself back. Don't ask me to be Luna tonight."

He nodded slowly, pain flashing across his face, but he respected it. "Take all the time you need. I will wait. I waited three years for you to come home. I can wait a little longer."

He walked me to my old room. My old small room at the back of the pack house. It was still there. Dusty. Empty. As if they had been waiting for me to return too.

As I lay down, Nyx whispered one last thing before sleep took me:

"Zara, the battle is over. But the war for Silver Moon has just begun."

And outside my window, far in the dark forest, a pair of red eyes watched the pack house.

Watching me