Masuk
“The Moon Goddess has made her choice.”
The elder’s voice thundered across the ceremonial hall. A hush fell over the pack, silence so heavy I could hear my own heartbeat slamming in my chest. Dozens of eyes turned in my direction. My palms were clammy. My chest heaved. The bond tugged at me, an invisible string pulling me toward him. Lucien Blackthorn. My breath hitched as my gaze locked with his. Tall, broad-shouldered, dangerous. Golden eyes that burned like fire under the glow of the moonlight filtering through the tall windows. The future Alpha. The man every she-wolf in the Blood fang Pack dreamed of. And the Moon Goddess had given him… to me. I felt my lips part, trembling with disbelief. My heart screamed inside me—hope, fear, everything tangled. Me, Evelyn. The weak omega. The nobody. The girl who spent her life scrubbing floors, ignored, mocked, forgotten. For one fleeting second, I thought maybe the Goddess hadn’t abandoned me after all. Maybe I was chosen for something more. My body trembled as I whispered, “Lucien…” But his lips twisted into something cruel. “I reject you.” The words hit me harder than claws, harder than a blade. Gasps echoed through the hall. The crowd stirred like a restless storm. “No way”. “The Alpha’s son rejecting his fated mate?” “Of course he would. Look at her. She’s nothing but a weakling.” Their voices stabbed at me, one after another. My knees trembled as though they could give out at any moment. My throat tightened. I forced my voice out, broken and weak. “What?” Lucien’s gaze burned cold. His tone was sharp enough to cut. “You heard me, omega. I, Lucien Blackthorn, reject you as my mate. You are not worthy of me. You will never be Luna of this pack.” I staggered back as laughter rose around me. “She thought she could be Luna? Pathetic.” “Did she actually believe he’d accept her?” “Look at her face, goddess, she’s trembling like a scared pup.” Heat rose to my cheeks, but it wasn’t warmth, it was fire, humiliation burning me alive. My chest tightened so badly I thought my ribs would snap. I shook my head, desperate, my voice cracking. “Lucien, please don’t say this. The Moon Goddess” “Silence!” His roar shook the air. Power rolled from him, making my body freeze against my will. His Alpha aura was suffocating. Tears blurred my vision, but I could still see his eyes, hard, unyielding and merciless. “You think fate could bind me to someone like you?” His words were venom. “you? A Pathetic. Weak. You’d only disgrace me. You’d drag me down in front of every Alpha in the region.” The crowd murmured their agreement. My heart shattered piece by piece. “Please.” My whisper was barely audible, but he caught it. I knew he did. My lips quivered as I tried to fight the tears burning my eyes. “Please don’t do this. Don’t throw me away like this. I’ll do anything” He stepped closer. His presence towered over me, suffocating, reminding me how small I was compared to him. His gaze narrowed with disgust. “You will accept my rejection, omega. Right here. Right now. Say it.” My entire body shook. My nails dug into my palms as I tried to breathe. If I accepted, the bond would break and the pain might kill me. But if I refused, he would humiliate me even more. I couldn’t speak. My voice was trapped in my throat. Lucien growled low, his tone mocking, cruel. “What’s wrong, Evelyn? Afraid? You should be. Did you think you deserved me? You’ll never stand beside me. You’ll never even stand in my shadow.” Laughter exploded from the pack. Some jeered, some shook their heads with pity. Others whispered like vultures circling a dying animal. “She should accept it and end this disgrace.” “She’s lucky he’s letting her live.” “She’ll always be nothing.” Their words pressed down on me like stones. I wanted to scream, to tell them they were wrong, to tell him he was wrong. But my voice broke before it reached my lips. I stared at him, my vision blurred with tears, my soul aching. “Lucien” His jaw clenched. “Say it. Accept my rejection.” “No” The whisper slipped out, weak, trembling. His expression darkened instantly. “You dare defy me?” His aura slammed into me like a tidal wave. My legs buckled, but I forced myself to stay upright even as my body shook violently. Gasps spread again. “She refused?” “She actually defied him!” “Foolish omega.” Lucien’s voice was deadly calm. “You think you can cling to me? You think fate will change my mind? Fate is wrong. You are nothing, Evelyn. Nothing.” The bond inside me twisted painfully, burning like fire in my veins. My chest heaved, and I could no longer hold back the tears. They slid down my cheeks, hot and relentless. “Please,” I whispered again, choking on my own voice. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t” But he turned his back to me. His rejection was final. His silence louder than any roar. My knees finally gave out. I crashed to the cold stone floor, my palms slapping against it as the sound of laughter filled the hall. “She’s begging. Pathetic.” “Rejected in front of everyone. She’ll never recover from this.” “She’ll be an outcast forever.” The world spun around me, every whisper stabbing deeper. The rejection cut into my soul like knives. And then the darkness crept in. My vision blurred, my body collapsing. The last thing I heard before the blackness claimed me was Lucien’s cold voice, echoing in my chest. “You will never be mine.”EVELYN — POV: “Evelyn—what the hell—” Lucien didn’t finish. He was still staring at me like he had no idea what I was or what I’d just done. My palm throbbed. My heartbeat was everywhere. “I didn’t mean to,” I said quietly. He ran a hand through his hair, looking… shaken. I’d never seen him like that. Not even in battle. “You’re coming with me,” he said. It wasn’t loud. Just flat. I took a step back. “Lucien, wait—” “Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me.” His tone snapped, sharp like he was trying to hold himself together. “I’m not pretending,” I said. “I just want to know—” “Pack your things.” “No.” That one word froze him. He moved toward me so fast the air shifted. His aura hit the room hard, and for a second I forgot how to breathe. “Evelyn.” The way he said my name
EVELYN — POVBloodborn.The word pulsed inside my skull long after Rowan closed the door. My hands were shaking so badly I nearly dropped the skirt I’d grabbed from the chair.I didn’t pack much. There wasn’t much to pack — two dresses, a comb, the little necklace my mother gave me, and the herbs I still had left from the greenhouse.My mother.My chest squeezed painfully. I needed to check on her. I needed to—The door slammed open again.Rowan didn’t even flinch.Lucien filled the frame like he owned the air around him. Rain had soaked through his shirt; droplets slid down the hard line of his throat. His jaw was clenched so tight the muscle ticked.He didn’t look at my bag.He looked at me.And something in his eyes… god, something in his eyes nearly buckled my knees again. Not anger. Not entirely.A kind of wildness.A kind of fear.A kind of mine.“I said five minutes,” he growled.“It hasn’t been—”He stepped forward, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me out of the cabin before I cou
EVELYN — POVThe moment Lucien’s voice fell silent outside the door, the world inside the cabin went dead still.My pulse felt too loud, pounding in my throat, in my ears, in the tips of my fingers.“Evelyn and her mother must never learn the truth.”The sentence replayed itself over and over, each time worse, each time colder. My breath stalled halfway in my chest.My mother?What truth?Why say it like… like she was dangerous?My legs moved on their own, carrying me closer to the thin wooden door. I didn’t dare touch it. I just listened, heart cracking through my ribs.Rowan’s voice came first — quiet, tight with concern.“Alpha… she heard part of it. She needs to know what she’s up against.”Lucien’s response hit like a slap.“No. She needs to stay out of it.”His tone was low, vibrating through the walls. Not just angry. Terrified.I’d never heard fear in his voice. Not once. Not even when he stared down rogue wolves twice his size. But now?Now he sounded like the world was crack
The door was still vibrating when silence swallowed the cabin whole. The blanket around my shoulders felt suddenly too heavy. Too warm. Too tight. Like I was wrapped in the echo of Lucien’s aura and couldn’t crawl out from under it. My heartbeat still hadn’t slowed. Rowan stood near the table, shoulders tense, jaw set, but keeping his distance the way a Beta should. Not crowding. Not touching. Not intruding. Just watching me with those steady eyes that never made me feel small. “You’re shaking,” he said softly. “I’m fine.” “You keep saying that,” Rowan murmured. “One day I might believe you.” My knees nearly buckled, but I forced myself to sit before he moved to help me. My legs folded beneath me as if the bond had stolen my strength. Maybe it had. The air still tasted like him — like cedar smoke and heat and something feral. Even gone, Lucien’s presence clung to my lungs like it didn’t want to leave me either. My wolf whimpered deep inside my chest. I dug my na
Azazel.Even in my mind, the name felt like cold fingers around my spine.Rowan’s kettle hissed over the fire, but it didn’t calm the shaking under my skin. I kept my hands hidden beneath the blanket, pressing them against my ribs as if I could physically contain the panic.My body still felt wrong — like something inside me hadn’t fully settled since the garden yesterday. Like the earth itself was breathing beneath my feet.Rowan didn’t turn around, but his voice came low and steady.“You don’t have to explain what your mother said.”My throat almost closed. “How do you know she said anything?”He gave a soft breath that might’ve been a laugh. “Because you look like someone suddenly waiting for the world to collapse.”I almost smiled. Almost.But the name echoed again.Azazel.Searching for you.I stared at my mother’s sleeping face, trying to breathe past the tightness in my chest.Rowan set the kettle aside and moved toward us. “The tea’s ready. I’ll help her drink it when she wake
“I won’t cry again,” I whispered into the dark.For a long moment, the only answer was silence — the heavy kind that presses against your ribs like it knows all your secrets. My eyes stayed fixed on the trees outside the window. Rain dripped from the branches like the forest was trying to catch its breath after drowning all night.Behind me, Rowan shifted in the chair by the fire. The sound was soft enough that if I hadn't been awake, I wouldn’t have heard it.I hadn’t slept. Not really.By the time Rowan started to wake, stretching like his spine had turned to stone overnight, I was already standing.His eyes found me instantly. He didn’t ask why I was awake or why I looked like I’d been frozen in place for hours. Rowan wasn’t the kind of man who asked questions he already knew the answers to.“You ready?” he asked quietly.I nodded, even though my body still felt hollow.He stood, rolling out the stiffness in his neck, then crossed the room and took a cloak from the hook. He held it







