Rejected by Fate, Chosen by the Northern Alpha

The entire pack fell into stunned silence, every pair of eyes turning to Felix, their future Alpha.Rejecting a fated mate, and doing so during an Alpha ceremony, was nothing short of blasphemy, a heresy against the Moon Goddess herself.
Felix’s smile froze mid-gesture, like frost cracking slowly across stone. He stared at me as if I’d completely lost my mind.“You dare?” he growled, his Alpha command crashing down on me like thunder splitting the sky. The weight of it slammed into my chest, a force that had once been enough to shatter me entirely. My knees trembled, barely holding. The bond between us howled in protest, tearing at my wolf from the inside out.I bit down hard, copper flooding my mouth, grounding me.“I’m just setting you free,” I said quietly, forcing a small, brittle smile. “You and Bianca. I hope you’ll be very happy together.”His expression darkened in an instant, storm clouds gathering behind his eyes. Bianca’s face drained of all color. Felix’s gaze snapped back

The journey to Westwood pack was long, but I wasn’t tried at all.Outside the car window, the scenery kept shifting, like my life, shedding layer after layer.Westwood pack lay deep within a vast and emerald forest.The air here felt different, lighter, almost alive, as if even the wind had been waiting to greet me. The car came to a stop in front of a grand wooden lodge, its windows glowing with warm light that spilled outward, gently pushing back the shadows.Standing at the entrance was a woman with soft brown curls and a kind and open smile, Luna Elena, Aiden’s mother. She was nothing like Sarah.The moment I stepped out, she wrapped me in an embrace that was neither formal nor forced, but warm, steady, and maternal.“Welcome, child,” she said, her voice wrapping around me like a blanket.“We’ve waited a long time for you.”I froze.Aside from my own mother, no one had ever hugged me like that.“Thank you,” I whispered, my throat tight.She smiled gently. “Call me Elena.”Then she t

Cutting ties with Silver Lake pack brought silence and with it, a beautiful and uninterrupted calm.I buried myself in herbal research.Aiden visited daily, sometimes helping grind roots, sometimes just sitting nearby.He never hovered, but when I was deep in concentration, he’d quietly place a glass of water or a snack beside me.I felt... peaceful.Felix, his name, his voice, his face, began to blur into the background.I no longer winced at the memory, I felt grateful instead.Grateful for the girl who found the courage to reject him.Grateful for the man who stood beside her now.One afternoon in the pack library, I got a call from an unknown number.I answered before thinking.“Riley,” a familiar voice said, low, worn. “Are you still mad at me?”Felix.My hand tightened around the phone. “We’re done.”He sighed, shifting to excuses.He said the engagement meant nothing, just a family arrangement, and he regretted everything. He even promised there’d be no more Bianca.I laughed, b

A few days later, Aiden and I slipped away for a short holiday, just the two of us, on a sun-drenched island where the sea breeze danced through our hair, and the warm, golden sand stretched endlessly beneath our bare feet.With each wave that lapped gently at the shore, I felt a little more of my past dissolve into the ocean, washed away like footprints in the tide. The memories that once haunted me began to fade, softened by salt and sun. For the first time in what felt like forever, I felt completely free, unbound by pain, unburdened by expectation. I was simply me.When we returned home, a letter was waiting for me, tucked neatly among the day’s mail. It came from an old acquaintance in Silver Lake, someone I hadn’t heard from in years but who clearly still had an ear close to the pack’s gossip.The letter was handwritten in elegant cursive, and inside, she wrote:“Felix hadn’t been home in ages and told the Elders he wanted to sever the mate bond. But during the class reunion, Bia