REJECTED AND BANISHED

She laughed—all-knowing and dripping with pride—as if there was a hidden meaning behind that laughter.

But that laugh…that laugh echoed with a hint of familiarity.

That…that voice.

I immediately dropped my barely opening eyes on her hands.

That scar on her hand… that scar…

‘No.’ I reached for Mina. “Tell me I am hallucinating.”

Still no answer.

The female rose on her toes and kissed Alpha Aldrin through the veil.

Even without the lips touching, it was betrayal. The fact that she was there. That he welcomed her. It was an unforgivable betrayal.

Cheers erupted in the background, echoes bouncing off the pack grounds, while I burned with jealousy, anger, and betrayal. I broke completely as pieces of a part of the puzzle began to fall into place.

“Well,” she said, “thanks to you, my able Alpha, I wasn’t locked in any dungeon like some people believed.”

That damn voice again… that familiarity…

I damn well knew it. So damn well!

“Do not be too loud,” Alpha Aldrin murmured, and they laughed—mocking me, taunting me. Even their wolves felt amused; I sensed their smug energy rippling through the air.

“I will not,” she replied, turning to me. “But I think your ex-mate deserves to know who replaced her. May I, babe?”

My stomach clenched. My hands trembled, scraping against the silver metal cuffs, drawing more blood. But I felt nothing. Everything was numbing. Mina whimpered weakly inside me, but she still could not rise.

“Wish granted,” Aldrin said, checking his gold watch. “My hours-away Luna.”

He called her Luna?

He was… Had he replaced me already?

A stab of agony tore through my gut. I groaned, but no one cared. No one except my little pup. The little one—I had planned to surprise him with it tonight. The fruit of our love.

Now? If this was what it looked like, I would take that secret to my grave.

A mind-link tried to form between us. He had probably sensed something, but I blocked it instantly. He didn’t have that right anymore.

Then the bride slowly lifted her veil, revealing her so familiar face.

The ground beneath my bare feet trembled like it was being ripped from under me, and I gasped. Everything around me shifted.

“Hi, little sis.” Her smile was venomous, her voice mocking.

The earth spun beneath me. My vision blurred, but I fought for clarity. “Spenza?” I choked, barely standing.

“In the flesh,” she replied, spinning gracefully. “And unlike you, I am not in silver chains like a criminal.”

She was indeed never a criminal, and neither was I. But now, looking at her adorned in a wedding gown and standing in a space that was solely mine, I doubted her innocence.

How was it possible that she was out of the dungeon… no, scratch that. She was never in the dungeon, like we all saw, like we all thought, and now she was out enjoying freedom, and worst of all, she was replacing me as Alpha’s bride?

I had visited her in the dungeon. Spoken to her. Cried with her. Promised her that I would turn the supernatural realm upside down until I found proof to vindicate her. I believed in her innocence when no one did.

Was all of it fake? Was that all a game?

Why?

And the council? The pack? Did they all know about this? Was I the only one in the dark?

“How and when did you plan this? How? Why?” I asked, barely breathing.

“Since we learned who the real traitor is,” Spenza sneered, her face turning murderous suddenly. “You let them imprison me while you were the real traitor!”

Her accusations cut so deep. She too? Now they were accusing me of abducting my own father? They were twisting this game on me?

“I am not guilty. This is all your—”

“Enough with your lies!” A cold voice sliced through the air. The great Alpha king’s Beta stepped forward.

I met his cold, condemning eyes. Even his scent carried betrayal. One straight gaze into his eyes, and I knew he was not on my side.

“Even you?” I whispered.

Beta Cleophaton was my father’s beta, Aldrin’s father, and the chief advisor. He was loyal to my father. But what I saw in his eyes that moment was not loyalty but betrayal.

I wept bitterly as realization hit me. The web of lies and deceit was broader and deeper than I knew. I was alone… all alone in this twisted game that I knew nothing about.

He came closer. “Denial is useless at this point, Reign. The evidence we got is incriminating enough. The law has to take its course.”

The law...the bent law. The law that punished the innocent.

I could not respond. It was pointless. My truth and innocence meant nothing to those people now. If they hadn’t believed me up to this point, then they never would. If my very own mate had declared me a traitor, that was final.

The heavy, alpha-male steps of the Alpha echoed, but only for a split second. He kept enough distance. “I, Alpha Aldrin Malik Moore,” the pack fell dead-silent as he announced, his cold eyes locked on mine, “reject you, Moon Reign Alderio, as my bride, my mate, and my future Luna.”

The final thread of my heart snapped. Silence fell over the entire pack, his definiteness ringing louder than anything I had heard before. The tension in the air thickened, heavier than it even was when the Alpha King was declared missing. Even the wolves lurking at the edges lowered their ears, sensing the gravity.

He stepped closer, his new Luna on his arm. “Henceforth, on grounds of betrayal, I hereby banish you from Silverwood Pack,” he declared with unquestionable authority. “From this moment forward, you are no longer welcome here. Not even your shadow should be seen roaming within my pack’s perimeters.”

Everything shattered, even the ground I was standing on broke, almost swallowing me whole. I felt completely dead inside. I felt everything slip away, including what I was entitled to—the pack. This was my home. My pack. My land.

“No!” I wept. “Please…”

He turned away, meaning his order was final.

A pain tore through my stomach again. It was more severe this time, and I groaned. Then suddenly, something wet trickled down my legs.

I looked.

Blood.

“No.” I cried out, my own cry echoing back to my ears.

Not my pup.

Not my baby.

Not the only thing I had left. I could not lose that.

My breath hitched. I shut my eyes and growled—pure pain. It was nowhere close to anything I had felt before. Not even his rejection or betrayal hurt this much. This was different. It was the feeling of losing the only thing I had left. The bitter snap of the only threat that tied my sanity after everything they had put me through. 

Then I heard the Alpha’s roar again. “Guards!”

In a blink, a squadron of the pack’s armored guards surrounded us. “At your service, Alpha,” the head guard said.

Aldrin turned, fixing his cold gaze on mine. “Drag her out of the territory. Leave her at the mountains.”

Fear gripped me tenfold, suffocating, threatening to kill me before I even faced the disgraceful, ruthless death that my Alpha saw befitting of me.

The mountains were the home of the wild rogues, and those creatures were the worst nightmare a wolf could ever encounter. Those wild, bloodthirsty monsters would feast on me the second they sniffed my scent.

Was this a death sentence? Was this the punishment he saw befitting of me?

I met his eyes one last time seeking answers. I wanted to see whether it was a joke, refusing to believe he hated me that much, in the blink of an eye, and all for nothing.

It was cold, final, and empty.

Another growl of agony tore through my lips as another bolt of agony shot through my stomach. I looked down, only to see more blood. Lots of it.

“Please, not my baby.” I cried.

He saw it clearly. He took a whole freaking moment to scan the flow of blood. But he did not say anything. He didn’t care. He didn’t seem moved at all. He did not even try reaching out through the mind link again.

He watched with my sister in his arms as they cut off my chains and began dragging me like a criminal who deserved the worst punishment in the world. Or as if I deserved the death he had sentenced me to. But even the moon goddess knew I deserved none of this.

And if death was paramount, then not this way. I was supposed to die with dignity. Not like this. Not an outcast because this was my land.

What would become of my pack and my land in the hands of the real traitors now? The Alpha king? Who would care to know what happened to him? Whether he was alive or not? Who would expose the evil that had invaded the Silverwood pack?

Why was the goddess silent?

I looked up as they mercilessly dragged me out of the vast iron gates, feeling my spirit detach from that of the pack. The breaking of the bond shook everything, causing a roar from the sky.

Immediately, the sky turned crimson, and the full moon displayed in full, cracked in the middle. Thunders echoed one after another, in unison. The sound was so deafening that my tormentors had to cover their ears. Their mingled howls were nothing compared to the deafening roars from the sky.

My oppressors trailed. Even paused completely, tormented by the endless roars from the angry heavens.

“It’s happening. What the prophecy warned against is…it’s coming to pass!” The Alpha king’s beta said, his eyes looking up to the sky.

A prophecy?

What prophecy?