The Rejection

POV: ARIA FROST

The ceremony finally began, and I stood behind Nolan as Alpha Kellan stepped toward the sacred altar with the moon-stone glowing behind him.

The entire temple had gone quiet, everyone watching as the elders took their places around the altar and the pack members waited for the fated mate ritual to begin.

My palms were already sweating inside my dress, but I kept them together in front of me and tried to calm my breathing because this was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

After twenty-two years of growing up beside Nolan, today was supposed to be the day we stood before our pack and officially sealed the mate bond everyone had expected between us.

“Beta Nolan and Aria Frost, come forward,” Alpha Kellan called, raising one hand toward us.

Nolan stepped forward immediately, his black ceremonial tunic fitting perfectly across his broad shoulders as he walked toward the moon-stone. I followed him with a small smile on my face, even though my stomach felt strangely unsettled, and when we stopped before the altar, I turned toward him and slowly held out my hand, waiting for him to take it like we had practiced so many times before.

He didn't.

Nolan looked at my hand for a second before stepping away from me, leaving it hanging between us as confusion spread through my chest.

I lowered it slowly and stared at him, wondering if I had somehow misunderstood what was happening, but before I could ask him anything, he turned toward the crowd and raised his hand.

“Chloe, come here,” he called, curling his fingers toward the crowd, and the woman I had seen him spending more time with lately stepped out from among the pack members with a confident smile on her face.

My heart sank when I saw her walking toward us.

Chloe was beautiful, tall, and dressed in a white ceremonial gown that made her look like she belonged beside Nolan, unlike me in my simple dress.

She walked straight to him without hesitation and slipped her hand into his as if she had done it a hundred times before, while the whispers around the temple grew louder and my chest tightened with every word I managed to hear.

“Nolan, what are you doing?” I asked, taking a small step toward him as my voice came out weaker than I wanted it to.

He glanced at me before looking down at Chloe's hand in his. “What does it look like, Aria?” he asked, his mouth twisting into a cold smile as he pulled Chloe closer to his side.

I stared at him, my fingers trembling as I tried to understand what was happening.

“This is our ceremony,” I whispered, reaching toward him again before stopping myself when he moved farther away.

“No, it isn't,” Nolan said as he turned toward the moon-stone, his fingers tightening around Chloe's hand while she smiled beside him. “At least it isn't anymore.”

The words made my stomach drop, and for a second I couldn't hear anything except the pounding of my heart.

Alpha Kellan frowned as he looked between us. “Nolan, what is the meaning of this?” he demanded, stepping closer to the altar while the elders exchanged confused looks.

Nolan didn't answer him immediately. Instead, he slowly turned back toward me, and the look in his eyes made the last bit of hope inside me disappear.

“I, Beta Nolan of the Frost Pack, reject you, Aria Frost, as my mate,” he announced, lifting his chin as his voice carried across the entire temple.

The words struck me so hard that I forgot how to breathe.

Someone gasped behind me, and then the whispers began, spreading through the crowd while I stood frozen in front of everyone with my eyes fixed on Nolan. I wanted him to laugh and tell me this was some horrible joke, but he only tightened his arm around Chloe's waist and continued speaking as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“You are a weak, defective Omega with no family lineage and no future,” he said, his eyes moving over me with open disgust as Chloe rested her head against his shoulder. “I refuse to spend the rest of my life tied to someone like you.”

My lips trembled, but I forced them shut before anyone could see how badly his words were hurting me. The people behind me had already started laughing, and every laugh felt like another stone being thrown at my chest.

“She really thought he would choose her?”

“I always wondered why Nolan stayed with that weak Omega.”

“Chloe is much better for him.”

I lowered my eyes as the whispers continued, trying to make myself smaller even though there were hundreds of people watching me. I had spent my whole life doing that, hiding my strength, hiding my strange blood, hiding every part of myself that could make people curious, and now all those years of pretending had brought me here, standing in front of the entire pack while the man I loved announced that I was worthless.

Nolan lifted Chloe's hand and looked proudly at the crowd before speaking again.

“I choose Chloe as my Luna,” he said, squeezing her fingers as the pack erupted into cheers.

The sound tore through me.

People clapped, some laughed, and others shouted congratulations while Chloe smiled proudly beside Nolan, but I couldn't hear their words properly anymore because my heartbeat had become too loud. My chest rose and fell rapidly as I struggled to breathe, and suddenly the bitter taste of the suppressant I had taken that morning seemed to rise back into my throat.

No.

Not now.

I pressed a trembling hand against my chest and tried to force myself to calm down, but my heart only beat faster. Something was moving beneath my skin, something I had spent years keeping buried, and for the first time, I could feel the suppressant struggling to hold it back.

Nolan noticed my shaking and stepped closer, his expression changing from disgust to amusement as he looked down at me.

“What?” he asked, spreading his hands slightly as Chloe remained beside him. “Did you actually think I was going to keep pretending to love you forever?”

I swallowed hard and stared at him through the tears gathering in my eyes.

He leaned closer, lowering his voice while a cruel smile returned to his face. “Don't tell me you're going to cry now, Aria. After all these years, you're still acting like a useless pup?”

His words broke something inside me.

I felt my fingers curl against my dress as a strange coldness rushed through my veins, and beneath the fear, beneath the humiliation, beneath the tears burning my eyes, something else suddenly stirred. My wolf lifted her head inside my chest, no longer sleeping like she had for years, while the hunger buried deep within my vampire blood suddenly sharpened and the ancient magic in my veins flickered awake.

I raised my head slowly and looked straight at Nolan, unable to explain why the fear I had felt only moments ago was beginning to disappear. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs as something powerful pushed against the cage inside me, and Nolan's cruel smile slowly faded when he noticed the change in my face.

“Aria?” he whispered, taking one uncertain step backward as his eyes narrowed at mine.

I blinked, and for a fraction of a second, the brown color of my eyes disappeared completely, replaced by an unnatural crimson glow before returning to normal.

Nolan froze.

I stood there breathing heavily, staring at him as the strange power inside me continued to stir, and although nobody else seemed to understand what they had just seen, the fear spreading across Nolan's face told me one thing.

He had seen it too.