Rejected By The Alpha Who Claimed Me

I always believed the mate bond would feel like warmth.Like safety.Like coming home.That was what the elders taught us as children, stories whispered by the fire, lessons passed down through generations of Nightfang wolves. They said when the bond awakened, it would feel like the moon herself had wrapped her arms around you. That your wolf would sing. That your heart would finally understand what it had been searching for all along.They never warned us about the pain.I stood at the edge of the clearing, my bare feet sinking into cool earth as the full moon rose higher in the sky. Silver light spilled through the towering pines, bathing the Nightfang Pack grounds in an eerie glow. The air was thick with anticipation, with the scent of wolves and pine and something sharper, power.Tonight was the Choosing.Tonight, fate would decide everything.My hands trembled at my sides as I lifted my chin, forcing myself to breathe. Around me, members of the pack gathered in a wide circle, th

The corridors of the alpha wing were colder than I remembered.Not because of the stone walls or the drafty windows, but because of the absence of warmth. The pack had never been cruel to me before. They had been curious, yes. Awed, even. But never cold.Now, their silence was louder than any insult.I walked slowly back to my room, my steps echoing like a reminder of my own insignificance. The bond throbbed at the base of my neck like a pulse I couldn’t control. It was there, but it didn’t feel like a connection. It felt like a punishment.When I reached my room, I paused at the door and listened.Nothing.No footsteps. No whispers. No laughter. No one calling my name.I stepped inside and shut the door behind me.The room was empty.Not just physically empty, but emotionally empty. The bed was made neatly, the curtains drawn back to let in light, and yet it felt like I was walking into a place that didn’t belong to me.Because it didn’t.I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at th

The forest was quiet.Not peaceful. Not safe.Just quiet.I sat against the tree for a long time, letting the silence fill me. The bond pulsed weakly, like a heartbeat fading away. It wasn’t warmth. It wasn’t comfort. It was a reminder that I was trapped in a life I didn’t choose.My hands trembled.My mind raced.And then, like a spark in the dark, anger flared inside me.I wasn’t going to be his mistake.Not if I could help it.I stood up, brushing leaves from my clothes. The air felt cleaner out here. No eyes. No whispers. No judgment.I walked deeper into the forest, letting the trees guide me.It didn’t matter where I went. I just needed to move.I had to think.I had to plan.I had to survive.Because if I stayed in the pack, I would slowly die.Not physically.Emotionally.And Kael… Kael would continue to treat me like I didn’t matter.I couldn’t let that happen.The bond pulsed again.I felt it like a weak pull.Like it was begging me to return.But I ignored it.I had never b

I walked until my feet bled.I didn’t know how long I had been moving, hours, maybe days. Time blurred when hunger gnawed at my stomach and fear pressed against my ribs like a second heartbeat. The forest swallowed me whole, its shadows stretching longer as the sun dipped and rose again.Running had been easy.Surviving was not.The bond at my neck burned constantly, not warm, not comforting, just there. A dull, relentless ache that reminded me I wasn’t free. No matter how far I went, Kael was still tethered to me through something I couldn’t cut and didn’t understand.I hated that.I hated that even now, broken and alone, the bond refused to die.By the second night, my body began to fail me.My legs trembled when I walked. My vision swam when I stood too fast. I drank from streams I prayed weren’t poisoned and ate what little I could catch. More than once, I collapsed against a tree, pressing my forehead into the bark and wondering if leaving had been a mistake.But then I remembere

The morning air cut through my thin cloak like a blade. My muscles protested every movement, screaming from the relentless drilling of the previous day, and my joints ached as if I had been broken and stitched back together in the night. But I forced myself up, biting back the urge to collapse again, and slid my feet over the edge of the rough mat I’d claimed as my bed. The training horn sounded before the sun had fully risen, shrill and commanding, reverberating across the rocky plateau. I swallowed the tremor in my throat, pulling my shoulders back, straightening my spine, and stepped out into the freezing morning.The pack was already assembled, their bodies lined up with the precision of soldiers. My eyes flicked over them quickly. They were bigger, stronger, sharper than anyone I had ever known in Nightfang. Their muscles rippled beneath taut skin as they shifted, warmed up, and glared at me with barely concealed suspicion. I could feel the judgment pressing in, a weight heavier