Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the Crown

"No wolf. No bloodline.""You can't even hold a full shift.""And you think you're worthy of the Luna title?""The Moon Goddess played a sick joke on me."Casbian climbed off me and wiped his hands on the sheets. "You actually believe you deserve the word 'mate'?"My hands were shaking. Shaking so hard I couldn't grip the sheets.Three years.Three years.I pricked my fingers on sewing needles to feed him my blood. A remedy. A sedative. Anything to calm the rage.I told myself—be good enough, be useful enough—and eventually he'd claim me in front of the pack.I believed I was his future Luna.Turns out I was just a tool he was too ashamed to name."In three days—""Lydia will officially take her place as the pack's Luna.""Ashford blood. Pure line. A true wolf form.""The entire pack already believes she's my mate."The Alpha rose and adjusted his cuffs.A stranger was about to take the crown that was mine.Casbian paused at the door and glanced back."You will attend the ceremony."Hi

Ridiculous, wasn't it?He wouldn't claim me as his mate—but he'd planted his bloodline in my belly.Casbian would never let me carry these pups to term. If he found out I was carrying his young, it wouldn't just be a scandal. It would make the entire pack question Lydia's legitimacy. They'd snuff out these two lives as casually as they'd stomped out the last embers of my dignity.I'd already lost Maya.I would not lose them too.I looked down at the bloodstained whistle, and I thought of the cloaked wolf—the one who had just helped me put Maya in the ground.I lifted the whistle to my lips and blew. Every last shred of strength I had.The sound barely carried.Swallowed whole by the winter wind.Three days later, on the eve of the Luna coronation, two guards hauled me from my shack in the Grey Zone and shoved me into the servants' dressing room of the pack house."Put this on."One of them tossed a gray linen shift at me. "Tomorrow you stand with the servants. Back row of the gallery.

I didn't know how long I'd been out.When I opened my eyes, there was only rough rock overhead. The smell of a fire. Something herbal and bitter. My wrists—where the silver chain had burned me—had been wrapped in clean cloth.I tried to push myself up. A hand pressed gently against my shoulder."Don't move."The cloaked wolf sat by the fire, hood down. The flames lit his face—young, younger than I'd expected. Deep brow. Dark gold eyes, like frozen amber."You're human."Flat. Just stating a fact."You have no wolf spirit—not because it sleeps. Because you never had one. You're human. Born that way."I stared at him."That dagger only severs human blood-oaths. If you were a wolf, the Moon Goddess's bond wouldn't have broken to old iron. It would've snapped back. But it didn't."He laid the dagger on the ground between us. My blood still stained the blade, dried brown."What you cut was the part of the bond forced onto your human side."I wrapped my arms around my knees. The fire pressed

The human world hit me all at once.We crossed the border ward at dusk. The air changed—no more pine resin and cold earth. Gasoline. Fresh bread. Cheap perfume. Cobblestone streets and buildings jammed tight, grey-white and hard. Yellow light in the windows—steady, not flickering like oil lamps.I pulled my cloak tighter. "Where's the manor?""Old Quarter. This way."The streets narrowed. Cobblestones pitted. Facades peeling. Streetlamps sparse. But the air had an older quiet, like the stones remembered."Here."An iron gate. Rusted nearly through. Above it, a stone plaque with a faded crest. Crescent moon. Two crossed keys.I pressed my palm to the stone. The ring's gem flared once. The gate groaned open.Kael looked at me. "It knows you."The manor hadn't been lived in for a long time. Vast hall. Ceiling vanishing into shadow. Furniture under white sheets. Air of dust and old paper—not decay. Sleep.I pushed through corridors until I found the office. A family tree covered the wall,

Three days later—after Kael had slept for nearly twenty hours and woken hungry enough to eat an entire deer—the Blood Moon council convened.I stood in the great hall of the Blood Moon Kingdom for the first time. Kael stood beside me. Elara flanked my other side. Before us, on the raised dais, the council of elders sat in judgment.They brought Casbian in last.He looked broken. The recall had stripped more than his Alpha power—it had hollowed him out. His ice-blue eyes were dull. His shoulders slumped. The chains on his wrists were silver."Casbian of the Thornwood Pack." The head elder's voice rang through the hall. "You stand accused of binding a human woman to a mate bond against the laws of the Goddess. Of conspiring with Marcus of the Northern Trade Guild to instigate war between humans and wolves. Of leading an unprovoked assault on the human border. How do you answer these charges?"Casbian looked up. Not at the elder.At me."I did it." His voice was hoarse. "All of it. I boun