Chapter 1 The Night of Fate

The night of Elara Nightshade’s eighteenth birthday was supposed to change her life.

Every wolf in the Bloodfang Pack knew what the full moon meant for someone turning eighteen. It was the night their wolf fully awakened. The night they found their strength. Their place.

Sometimes… their mate.

Elara stood at the edge of the clearing, her hands trembling as she smoothed the simple gray dress she had borrowed from the pack house. Around her, lanterns hung from tree branches, casting warm golden light across the celebration grounds. Laughter and music filled the air. Wolves danced, talked, and celebrated beneath the rising full moon.

Everyone looked happy.

Everyone except her.

“She hasn’t shifted yet?” a female whispered nearby.

“I heard she’s still human inside,” another replied with a quiet laugh.

Elara pretended not to hear.

She had spent her entire life being the pack’s disappointment. The girl who was always smaller. Slower. Weaker. While others shifted at sixteen or seventeen, her wolf had remained silent.

Until tonight.

Her heart pounded as she lifted her eyes to the sky. The full moon was almost at its peak. Silver light spilled across the clearing, cool and powerful, washing over the gathered wolves like a blessing.

Please, she prayed silently. Please let my wolf come tonight.

Because if it didn’t…

She didn’t want to think about what would happen.

A sudden hush rippled through the crowd.

Elara felt it before she saw him.

The air changed. Thickened. Charged with authority.

Alpha Kael Draven stepped into the clearing.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dark-haired. His presence alone commanded silence. Warriors straightened. Omegas lowered their eyes. Even the elders stood respectfully as he passed.

He was strength. Power. Control.

And the most feared Alpha in the region.

Elara’s breath caught.

Then it happened.

A sharp, burning sensation flared in the center of her chest.

She gasped.

Heat spread through her body, sudden and overwhelming, like invisible threads pulling her forward. Her heart raced wildly as a strange certainty filled her mind.

Someone.

Someone was calling her.

Her eyes lifted.

And locked onto Alpha Kael.

The world went silent.

The moment their gazes met, the pull intensified deep, instinctive, undeniable. Something ancient stirred inside her, responding to him, reaching for him.

Mate.

The word formed in her mind without thought.

Her knees weakened.

Alpha Kael’s expression changed.

Just for a second.

His eyes darkened, his jaw tightening as if he felt it too.

Hope exploded inside her chest.

He felt it.

The most powerful Alpha in the Bloodfang Pack… was her mate.

Whispers spread through the crowd as they noticed the connection. Wolves turned, sensing the shift in energy, the tension crackling between them.

Elara took a slow step forward.

Then another.

The bond pulled her closer, warm and certain, filling her with a happiness she had never known.

Maybe this was why her wolf had been silent.

Maybe she had been waiting for him.

She stopped a few feet away from him, her heart pounding so loudly she could barely hear the murmurs around them.

“Alpha…” Her voice shook. “I think”

“I know.”

His voice was calm.

Cold.

The warmth inside her faltered.

Alpha Kael looked at her fully now, his gaze sweeping over her small frame, her plain dress, her nervous expression.

The silence stretched.

The entire pack watched.

Elara’s heart began to race for a different reason.

Something was wrong.

The bond was still there, still pulling, still warm but his eyes held none of it.

No softness.

No recognition.

Only calculation.

Then he spoke.

“I, Alpha Kael Draven,” he said, his voice loud and clear across the clearing, “reject you as my mate.”

The words hit her like a physical blow.

For a moment, Elara didn’t understand.

The bond inside her twisted violently, pain exploding through her chest as if something was tearing apart inside her.

Gasps erupted around them.

“What?”

“He rejected her?”

“But she’s his mate!”

Elara swayed, her vision blurring.

“No…” she whispered. “Alpha… please, I”

“You are weak,” Kael continued, his voice emotionless. “You have no wolf. No strength. A Luna must stand beside her Alpha, not hide behind him.”

Laughter broke out among some of the warriors.

“She’s barely stronger than a human.”

“Imagine her leading the pack.”

“Pathetic.”

Elara’s face burned with humiliation.

The bond twisted again, sharper this time, sending a wave of agony through her body. She clutched her chest, gasping.

The rejection wasn’t just words.

He was severing the connection.

“Please,” she whispered, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Don’t do this. I’ll train. I’ll get stronger. I promise”

“This decision is final.”

His eyes were cold.

Unmoved.

“You are not fit to be my Luna.”

The bond snapped.

Pain exploded through her, so intense her knees gave out. She collapsed onto the dirt, a strangled cry escaping her throat as the last thread of warmth disappeared from her chest.

The clearing was silent.

No one moved to help her.

No one spoke in her defense.

Elara pressed her hand against the ground, her shoulders shaking as humiliation and heartbreak crushed her from the inside out.

She had spent her whole life feeling small.

Tonight, she felt invisible.

Worthless.

Unwanted.

“Leave,” Alpha Kael said.

The word was quiet.

But it carried absolute authority.

“You are no longer welcome in my territory.”

Her head snapped up.

“What?” she whispered.

“I will not have weakness in my pack,” he said. “You will leave before sunrise.”

The words felt unreal.

This was her home.

Her pack.

The only place she had ever belonged.

“I… I have nowhere to go,” she said weakly.

Kael didn’t respond.

He simply turned and walked away.

The crowd slowly parted for him.

And just like that…

He was gone.

The celebration did not continue.

The music didn’t start again.

Instead, the wolves began to disperse, whispering as they walked past her.

Some looked at her with pity.

Others with quiet satisfaction.

No one offered a hand.

Elara stayed on the ground long after the clearing emptied, her body numb, her mind replaying the moment over and over again.

Rejected.

Banished.

Alone.

The moon climbed higher in the sky, its silver light falling over her like cold judgment.

A strange sensation stirred deep inside her chest.

Not warmth.

Not the mate bond.

Something else.

Something heavy.

Something dark.

Pain pulsed through her veins, slow and deep, like something inside her was waking up… and it did not like what had been done to her.

Elara pressed her hand against her chest, breathing hard.

“What’s happening to me?” she whispered.

The full moon reached its peak.

And somewhere deep inside her…

Something answered.

Not weak.

Not broken.

Not human.

Her eyes lifted slowly toward the forest at the edge of the territory.

If she stayed, she would be hunted out by morning.

If she left…

She might not survive.

The wind shifted, carrying the scent of the wild, dark woods beyond the pack lands.

Elara pushed herself to her feet.

Her legs shook.

Her heart hurt.

But something inside her had changed.

She took one step toward the forest.

Then another.

Behind her, the Bloodfang Pack disappeared into the distance.

Ahead of her, the shadows waited.

And under the cold light of the f

ull moon…

Elara Nightshade walked into the darkness.

She didn’t know it yet.

But the Alpha who rejected her had just made the biggest mistake of his life.