THE REJECTED LUCA’S REVENGE

The moon was too bright tonight.

It hung high above the pack house, large and pale against the dark sky, covering the stone courtyard in silver light. Torches burned along the walls, their flames moving gently in the cold night air, while 300 wolves stood around the courtyard, waiting for the mate ceremony to begin.

Luca stood near the edge of the crowd with his hands behind his back, trying hard to hide the fact that his fingers would not stop shaking.

“Stop shaking,” Mira whispered beside him.

Luca quickly moved his hands into his pockets and looked at her.

“I’m not shaking.”

Mira glanced at his pockets.

“You are.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’ve said that three times.”

Luca gave her a nervous smile, but his eyes had already moved across the courtyard.

They found Amara.

She was standing among the other members of the pack, only a short distance from the center of the courtyard, and for a moment Luca forgot about the hundreds of people around him.

He had been looking at her for seven years.

Seven years of watching her during training, seven years of stealing glances when he thought she wasn’t looking, and seven years of hoping that one day she would look at him and feel even a small part of what he felt for her.

Tonight was his twenty-third birthday.

Tonight was the mate ceremony.

The night he had waited for his whole life.

Luca swallowed and rubbed his cold palms against his trousers.

“Maybe tonight,” he whispered.

Mira turned toward him.

“Maybe tonight what?”

Luca kept his eyes on Amara.

“Maybe she’ll choose me.”

Mira was quiet for a moment before she gently touched his arm.

“I hope she does.”

Luca smiled faintly.

Inside his head, his wolf was already restless.

Mate.

Luca took a slow breath.

She is our mate.

His heart began beating harder.

“I know,” he whispered.

Mira looked at him.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

Before she could ask again, the voices around them slowly disappeared.

Elder Rowan had stepped into the center of the courtyard.

He stood beneath the moonlight, his long robe moving slightly in the wind as he looked across the gathered pack.

“Everyone, be silent.”

The last whispers died immediately.

Luca’s stomach tightened.

Elder Rowan began the ceremony, but Luca barely heard what he was saying because his attention remained fixed on Amara, who was now standing only a few steps away from the center.

Then Elder Rowan called his name.

“Luca Richard.”

Luca’s heart jumped.

For one second, his feet refused to move.

Mira leaned closer.

“Go.”

Luca nodded and stepped forward.

The sound of his shoes against the stone seemed strangely loud in the silence, and as he crossed the courtyard, he could feel hundreds of eyes following every movement he made.

He reached the center and stopped.

Then Elder Rowan turned toward Amara.

“Amara Vale.”

Amara stepped forward.

Luca watched her approach, and with every step she took, his heart beat harder.

Five feet.

Four.

Three.

Finally, she stopped directly in front of him.

Only three feet separated them.

Luca looked into her eyes and tried to control his breathing.

“Amara…”

His voice came out softer than he expected.

She said nothing.

Luca swallowed.

Then it happened.

The bond snapped into place like lightning.

A sharp wave of heat rushed through Luca’s body, starting from his chest and spreading through every part of him so quickly that he gasped and grabbed his shirt.

His knees almost gave way.

His wolf roared inside his mind.

Mate!

Luca stared at Amara.

For a moment, the pain disappeared.

All he could feel was the bond between them.

After seven years of waiting, seven years of hoping, seven years of imagining what this moment would feel like, he finally knew.

She was his mate.

A smile slowly appeared on his face.

“You’re my mate,” he whispered.

Amara’s face changed.

Luca noticed it immediately.

His smile became smaller.

“You feel it too, don’t you?”

Amara looked away.

“Amara?”

She slowly raised her eyes to his.

There was something in them that Luca could not understand.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

Amara took a breath.

Then she spoke.

“I choose Damian.”

Luca stared at her.

For a moment, he thought he had heard her wrong.

“What?”

“I choose Damian.”

The smile disappeared from his face.

Luca shook his head slowly.

“No.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

“You can’t.”

Amara remained still.

“I have made my choice.”

“But the bond…”

Luca pressed his hand against his chest, where the bond was still burning.

“You felt it.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you choosing him?”

Amara looked at him for a long moment.

Then her voice became cold.

“Because I don’t want you.”

Luca’s face went pale.

The courtyard suddenly felt much larger than before, and the 300 wolves surrounding them seemed to have moved closer even though no one had taken a step.

Luca looked around.

Everyone had heard her.

Everyone had seen the bond happen.

Everyone had seen him smile.

And now everyone was watching him get rejected.

“Amara,” he whispered, his voice shaking, “after seven years?”

She looked away.

Luca stepped closer.

“You knew how I felt about you.”

“I know.”

“You knew I was waiting for tonight.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

Amara finally looked at him.

“You are the weakest omega in this pack.”

Luca stopped.

Her words hit him harder than he expected.

Amara continued.

“You don’t deserve me.”

A quiet murmur moved through the crowd.

Someone whispered something behind him.

Someone else gave a small laugh.

Luca heard it all.

His face burned.

He looked down for a second, trying to control his breathing, but when he looked up again, his eyes were already wet.

“Please,” he said quietly.

Amara shook her head.

“No.”

Then she turned away from him.

Luca watched her walk toward Damian.

He stood frozen in the center of the courtyard while his mate walked away from him, and when Damian opened his arms and Amara stepped into them, Luca felt something inside his chest tear apart.

His wolf became quiet.

Then, in a small and broken voice, it spoke.

She rejected us.

Luca closed his eyes.

“I know.”

His voice almost disappeared.

He opened his eyes again and looked at Amara.

She did not look back.

Luca slowly turned toward his father.

Alpha Richard stood near the front of the crowd.

For one brief moment, Luca allowed himself to hope.

Maybe his father would say something.

Maybe he would stop the humiliation.

Maybe, just once, he would stand beside his son.

But Alpha Richard only looked at him with the same cold expression Luca had known for twenty-three years.

There was no sympathy in his face.

No concern.

Nothing.

Richard stepped forward.

The crowd became silent again.

“Luca Richard.”

Luca straightened.

“Yes, Alpha.”

Richard’s voice was cold.

“You have been rejected by your mate, and you have brought enough shame to this pack tonight.”

Luca’s fingers tightened.

“Father…”

Richard’s expression hardened.

“Do not call me that.”

Luca’s lips parted, but no words came out.

Richard pointed toward the large iron gates at the far end of the courtyard.

“You are banished from this pack.”

Luca stared at him.

The words seemed to take a moment to reach his mind.

“Banished?”

“You will leave tonight.”

Luca looked around the courtyard.

300 wolves were watching him.

His pack.

His home.

The only place he had ever known.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

No one came to his side.

His eyes searched the crowd until they found Mira.

She stood among the others, tears gathering in her eyes.

Luca looked at her for a moment.

Mira took one small step forward.

Luca gently shook his head.

Don’t.

He didn’t want her to make things worse.

Mira stopped.

Luca looked away.

His chest hurt so badly that every breath felt heavy.

He turned toward the iron gates.

Then he began walking.

The crowd slowly moved aside as he passed, leaving a clear path for him, but no one reached out to touch him, and no one whispered his name.

Luca kept his head up.

He refused to let them see him break.

He walked past the people who had watched him grow up.

Past the people who had called him weak.

Past the people who had laughed at him.

Until he finally reached the gates.

He stopped.

For one last second, he looked back.

Amara was still standing with Damian.

His father was still standing where he had been.

Mira was still watching him.

Luca’s eyes filled with tears.

He quickly looked away.

Then he walked through the gates.

The heavy iron doors closed behind him with a loud bang.

Luca flinched.

He kept walking.

The forest stood ahead of him, dark and quiet beneath the bright moon.

Tall trees surrounded the narrow path, their branches moving above his head as the cold wind passed through them. Moonlight slipped between the leaves, leaving broken patches of silver light on the ground.

Luca walked deeper into the forest.

At first, he could still see the pack house behind him.

The lights were small now.

Then smaller.

Until they disappeared completely.

Luca stopped walking.

His shoulders dropped.

He looked down at his hands.

They were shaking again.

“Don’t cry,” he whispered.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Don’t cry.”

But the tears came anyway.

One ran down his cheek.

Then another.

Luca tried to wipe them away, but soon there were too many.

He looked around the dark forest.

No one was there.

No one could see him now.

His face crumpled.

His knees gave out.

He dropped to the ground and caught himself with both hands.

“She rejected us,” his wolf whispered.

Luca lowered his head.

“I know.”

She chose someone else.

“I know!”

His voice echoed between the trees.

Luca suddenly turned toward the nearest tree and punched it.

Pain shot through his hand.

He looked at his knuckles.

The skin was broken.

Blood appeared.

He punched the tree again.

And again.

And again.

“Why?”

His voice broke.

“Why am I never enough?”

He hit the tree again.

“Why did he always hate me?”

Another punch.

“Why was I born like this?”

His hand was bleeding badly now, but Luca didn’t stop until the pain in his knuckles became strong enough to distract him from the pain in his chest.

Finally, his strength left him.

He slid down the tree and sat on the ground, breathing hard.

He looked at his bloody hand.

Then he covered his face with it.

And cried.

He cried like the little boy he had once been, the boy who had lost his mother and learned far too early what it felt like to be alone.

But tonight was different.

Tonight, he had lost everything.

His mate had rejected him.

His father had banished him.

His entire pack had watched.

Luca slowly lowered his hands.

His face was wet with tears.

He stared through the trees at the darkness where the pack house had disappeared.

“They wanted me to be weak,” he whispered.

His voice was quiet now.

“They wanted me to stay on the ground.”

He slowly pushed himself to his feet.

His legs shook beneath him, but he forced himself to stand.

He looked at his bloody knuckles and wiped them against his jeans.

“Fine.”

His expression changed.

The sadness was still there, but something colder had begun to grow beneath it.

“I’ll give them what they want.”

His wolf stirred.

What do you mean?

Luca looked toward the darkness ahead.

“Nothing.”

He took a step forward.

“Let them think I’m nothing.”

Another step.

“Let them forget me.”

He stopped and looked back toward the direction of the pack one last time.

His jaw tightened.

“Because one day…”

He took a slow breath.

“…they are all going to regret it.”

Luca turned away.

He walked deeper into the forest, leaving the pack, the ceremony, Amara, and everything he had ever known behind him.

The trees grew thicker around him.

The moonlight became weaker.

Soon, he could barely see the path in front of him.

Luca kept walking.

But with every step, his body grew weaker.

His breathing became heavier.

His wounded hand throbbed.

His chest still burned from the broken mate bond.

He stumbled.

Caught himself.

Took another step.

Then another.

Until his legs finally gave out.

Luca fell to his knees.

He tried to stand, but his body refused.

He clenched his fists against the ground.

“I won’t…”

His voice trembled.

“I won’t stay down.”

He tried again.

Nothing.

His strength was gone.

Luca lowered his head, breathing heavily as tears fell onto the cold earth beneath him.

For the first time that night, he stopped fighting.

He simply stayed there, alone in the darkness, with nothing left to hold on to.

And somewhere deep inside him, beneath all the pain and anger, something stirred.

Luca didn’t know what it was.

He only knew that it was awake.