CHAPTER TWO: The Rejection’s Aftermath

Tanya’s POV

The forest swallowed me whole.

Branches scraped at my bare arms, thorns bit into my ankles through the delicate fabric of my ruined dress. My lungs burned with every breath as I ran, faster, farther, as if I could outrun the humiliation clawing through my chest.

Rejected publicly by the one person who was supporting to accept me irrespective of it all.

Luke’s words echoed louder than the snapping twigs beneath my feet.

“I reject this girl.”

“I reject the weakness she carries.”

I could already hear the whispers in the hall before I took off. Everyone's opinion on how Luke is so unlucky to have a fated mate like me, how it's so sad my father's only heir is a latent. They didn't have the right to say the words before, but after tonight's event it has literally been handed to them on a platter of gold.

Even my father hadn’t lifted a finger to stop the mockery and giggles. His gaze had found me across the ballroom — cold, impassive. As if my shame confirmed something he believed. That I was worthless and undeserving of everything I have ever had, including life.

The path beneath me gave way to thick roots and uneven ground. My feet got tangled in one of the roots and I fell hard, palms scraping open against the hard surface of stones. For a moment, I didn’t move. I pressed my head to the ground and let the tears loose carrying all the shame and despair I have endured for years.

I should’ve known better. I should’ve stayed hidden. Should’ve refused to hope, even in secret. Latents didn’t get happy endings. Latents didn’t get mates.

I pushed myself upright on trembling arms. My dress hung torn in different spots from the thorns and sharp branches. Mud streaked my skin, blood starting to bead on the surface of my palms that were scratched . I looked like a perfect description of my situation…humbled by circumstances beyond my control.

“You were supposed to be stronger.”

“You were supposed to prove them wrong.”

I didn’t know if it was my wolf whispering, or just my own mind replaying words I have ever only dreamt of because on some level, I always knew I was no match for any of them.

Either way, it was right.

I didn’t stop running until the lights of the Moon Stone compound became nothing but little dots behind me. By then, exhaustion pressed down and my bones became heavy. My limbs shook with the effort to keep moving. Every shadow between the trees began to look like one of the guests at the ball watching and waiting for me to falter.

Fear began to darken the edges of my courage. Alone, in unfamiliar woods, with no food, no shelter, no idea where I was headed — only a certainty that there was no place left for me where I was coming from.

Still, I couldn’t turn back.

Even if my pride allowed me the luxury, my father wouldn’t. He’d locked his office door the moment I disgraced him at the Ball. Even if I returned, begging forgiveness, he would cast me out for good this time. Officially. Publicly. Permanently because to him, I had subjected him to the highest disgrace.

No home. No family. No future.

So I continued my journey to the unknown.

The moon climbed higher, its light bleeding through branches and helping me see a little clearer. My breath fogged the air. My body ached, but something else rolled beneath my skin — a hollow ache deeper than exhaustion.

Grief.

Not for Luke. Not really. I’d hardly known him outside the official setting. My wolf mourned the bond, yes, but my heart mourned something older. Something lonelier.

The hope that one day, I would eventually be enough for someone. A person who would see my flaws as irrelevant and love me for what I am…not just focusing on the things I couldn't be.

By dawn, I’d stopped running. I couldn’t. My legs gave out from under me as I stumbled into a clearing ringed by ancient trees, their branches twisting up like fingers clutching at the sky. I collapsed at the base of one, breath ragged, head pounding.

Tears dried on my cheeks without me noticing.

I curled in on myself, small beneath the vast, indifferent sky. My hands fisted in the dirt as if I could disappear into the ground, unseen and forgotten.

“What now?”

“Where do I go?”

No answer came. Only the sound of the wind blowing through leaves, the distant call of some night creature retreating with the slow but steady rise of the sun.

I slept, eventually. Not from peace, but from exhaustion. Dreamless, empty sleep that gave no comfort but at least let me leave my reality for a little while.

Hunger woke me.

Not starvation, not yet, but the hollow ache of a body denied the comfort of food and water for a bit too long. My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. My limbs protested every movement. My head throbbed in rhythm with my heartbeat but I knew I had no choice, so I rose.

Somewhere beyond these woods lay other packs and territories. Maybe one would take me in. A rogue, a stray, a broken thing — but alive. Willing to work. Willing to serve. Wolves respected survival, didn’t they? Even if they didn’t respect me. I had no other choice but to find a way.

I tore strips from my ruined dress to cover up the  worst of my scratches, and tied my hair back in a loose ponytail with shaking fingers. I walked deeper into the trees, slow but steady.

The further I walked, the quieter the world became. No birdsong. No rustle of prey in the underbrush. Only the wind, cold and biting against my skin.

I felt the weight of eyes and a pickle at the back of my neck long before I saw it — a presence circling unseen. Not prey. Not a harmless creature. A predator.

A wolf.

My breath hitched. My senses stretched thin trying to assess the location of the wolf, but my wolf remained silent. Still caged. Still broken.

I might have decided to become a rouge with my actions, but I thought I'd have the chance to present myself to them. Explain the circumstances that led to my presence in their territory and plead for fair consideration. I wasn’t ready to face this. Not without my wolf. Not alone.

But alone was all I had left.

The growl came first.

Low. Warning. From somewhere just beyond sight. I froze. Slowly and carefully so as not to trigger his predator instincts completely, I turned.

Yellow eyes gleamed from the shadows between trees.

Huge. Dark. Wrong.

Not just a wolf. An Alpha’s wolf. And something feral flickered beneath its gaze, something barely held in check by an almost non-existent human restraint. Foam crusted the corners of his mouth. Scars marked its flanks like old battles half-healed.

Fear rooted me in place.

It stepped forward. Massive paws sinking into the soil with its teeth bared at me in warning.

I did not run. I couldn't .

If this was how I died, so be it.

The wolf circled, head low, scenting me. Snarling soft beneath its breath. Not attacking. Not yet.

Studying.

When it lunged, I didn’t scream. I braced for the pain and screwed my eyes shut as I didn't want to witness myself being torn apart.

But claws did not tear me open. Teeth did not close around my throat.

Instead, jaws caught the ruined fabric of my dress, lifted me like prey too pitiful to kill. Dragged me through the dirt and leaves that littered the ground, taking me deeper into territory I didn’t recognize.

Into the heart of the Crimson Pack.

The compound was nothing like Moon Stone’s elegant halls and polished marble. Crimson Pack’s territory bore a resemblance to their alpha. A rough terrain littered with stones and earth and timber, rough structures rising like fortresses to the sky and shielding the pack grounds from view. Wolves watched from rooftops and shadows, eyes gleaming with malice, teeth flashing when they scented me.

The wolf dropped me and transformed so I was now staring at the feet of a man.

Tion.

Alpha of Crimson. Feral. Mad, they whispered. Dangerous and unstable.

He looked down at me with gold eyes that mirrored his beast’s. No pity. No surprise. Only curiosity, sharp, cutting and cold.

“Another stray,” he said. His voice was rougher than gravel, low with disuse or disdain. “Or a spy.” Accompanied with a grin that promised pain if I was the latter.

“She’s Moon Stone’s,” someone growled behind him. “Weak. Latent. Rejected.”

Tion’s head tilted. Not like a man. He moved like a predator regarding prey, something beneath notice and not worth full attention. “Even better.”

Hands seized me. Rough and unforgiving, dragging me from the ground littered with dirt and stones through a dark hall to a cell hidden underground.

After being roughly thrown in,I heard the iron door slam shut behind me before I even had the chance to utter any sort of plea.

No food. No water. No answers.

Only the certainty that I had escaped one hell only to stumble into another.