I REJECT YOU

CHAPTER THREE

Amelia felt a sickening pull in her gut, an invisible chain dragging her toward him.

It was not something she could see, yet she could feel it with terrifying clarity. Every nerve in her body seemed to recognize him before her mind could reject him. Her wolf stirred beneath her skin, restless and desperate, as if it had been waiting for this exact moment all her life.

Every instinct in her body screamed to throw herself into his arms, to scent his neck, to claim him.

The urge was almost unbearable.

Her fingers trembled at her sides as she fought against it. Her body wanted to move forward, but her heart screamed at her to run. The scent of Lucien surrounded her, dark and intoxicating, wrapping around her senses until it became difficult to think clearly.

But then the image of the purple-lipped corpses flashed in her mind.

One after another.

Bodies lying motionless in the aftermath of the massacre. Faces she knew. People she had grown up with. People who had laughed with her, fought beside her, shared meals with her.

Dead.

Murdered.

Her stomach twisted.

The warmth spreading through her veins turned instantly to ice.

"Get away from me," Amelia hissed, stepping back.

Her voice shook, but she forced herself to stand tall. She refused to let him see how badly his presence affected her. She refused to let her body betray the hatred she had spent so long carrying.

Lucien stared at her.

"You feel it too," Lucien said, his voice growing urgent. "The pull is undeniable. Fate does not make mistakes, Amelia."

There was something almost desperate beneath his words now.

Amelia heard it.

She heard the uncertainty hidden beneath the authority of the vampire king. She saw the way his jaw tightened, the way his eyes remained fixed on her as though he were trying to understand how something as powerful as the bond could have led them here.

But Amelia did not care.

Or at least, she desperately tried not to.

"Fate is a lie told to justify the unjustifiable," Amelia shouted, her voice cracking. "You are the King of the monsters who murdered my people! I will not bond myself to a murderer. I will not be the mate of a vampire!"

The words tore from her throat like a battle cry.

For several heartbeats, there was complete silence.

Even the forest seemed to hold its breath.

Lucien’s expression hardened. The softness vanished, replaced by a cold, regal distance.

The transformation was immediate.

The man who had looked at her with something dangerously close to tenderness disappeared behind the mask of a king. His shoulders straightened, his features becoming unreadable, and his eyes lost every trace of vulnerability.

"You would reject a fated bond? Do you have any idea what that does to the soul?"

His voice was quieter now, which somehow made it worse. Amelia swallowed hard. She knew the stories. Everyone did.

A fated bond was not merely a promise or an ordinary relationship. It was something woven into the very essence of a supernatural being. To reject it was to tear apart something that nature itself had created.

But the thought of accepting him was even more unbearable.

She thought of the hatred that had carried her through every day since her people were murdered.

"I don't care if it tears me apart," Amelia snarled.

Her eyes burned with tears, but she refused to let them fall.

"I reject you, Lucien Draven. I reject this bond. I reject you as my mate."

The words left her mouth, and the world changed. The air between them seemed to shatter.

A physical wave of agony ripped through Amelia’s chest, as if a hook had been sunk into her heart and yanked backward.

Her breath caught.

A strangled gasp escaped her lips.

Pain exploded through her body so violently that for one terrifying moment, she could not tell where her body ended and the pain began. Her heart seemed to seize inside her chest. Her vision blurred, and her fingers clawed helplessly at the ground.

She gasped, falling to one knee, her lungs refusing to take in air.

Her body trembled uncontrollably. Her wolf grew so quiet that Amelia doubted if she was still there.

The rejection was real.

It was not just words.

She could feel something inside her tearing.

Lucien winced, his hand clutching his own chest, his face contorting in a mirrored reflection of her pain.

For the first time, the mask of the vampire king cracked.

His eyes squeezed shut as the agony struck him, his fingers digging into his chest as though he could physically hold together whatever had just been ripped apart.

Neither of them spoke.

There was nothing left to say.

For a moment, they stayed there, two broken things bound by a thread they had just severed.

Amelia struggled to breathe.

Lucien slowly lifted his gaze toward her. Something had changed. The pain remained, but the vulnerability was gone.

Lucien stood tall, his eyes turning into frozen chips of violet.

The warmth that had briefly flickered in his gaze was gone, replaced by a void.

Whatever hope had existed there had been extinguished.

He looked at Amelia as though she were no longer the woman fate had chosen for him.

She was simply someone who had rejected him. Someone who had severed the bond. Someone he now had to leave behind.

"Then I reject you too, Alpha," he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

The words were colder than the night air. Amelia's heart clenched again. She wanted to say something.

But her throat refused to work. Lucien did not wait for a response.

He turned and vanished into the trees with his followers, leaving Amelia shivering in the dirt.

The sound of their footsteps slowly disappeared into the darkness. Then there was nothing.

No sign that the vampire king had ever stood before her.

Amelia stayed on her knees, staring at the place where Lucien had disappeared.

Her chest still burned from the rejection.

Her body felt hollow.

She had gotten what she wanted.

She had rejected the vampire king, which she just knew was a fated mate.

She had refused to become the mate of the monster she believed had destroyed her people.

So why did it feel as though she had just lost something she had never known she possessed?

She lowered her head as the first tear finally slipped down her cheek.

The silence of the forest now felt like a tomb.