Chapter 1 : I REJECT YOU

“Are you pregnant, or are you just fat?”

For one second, I genuinely believed I had misheard him.

The music was too loud, the chandeliers were too bright, and the hundreds of werewolves packed into the Aurelia Royal Hall were making enough noise to swallow a sentence whole.

But Prince Caelan Drake had always possessed

a voice that could find me through a crowd. I knew the sound of it better than I knew my own.

So there was no mistaking what he had said.

My hand remained suspended over the glass of champagne I had never intended to drink, my fingers tightening around the stem until the crystal threatened to crack.

Across from me, Prince Caelan’s mouth curved with a look of amusement as though he had just made a clever observation and was waiting for everyone else to appreciate it.

Then everyone began to laugh, the sound spread through the royal court.

I looked at Caelan and he was still staring at me.

At my body.

The deep wine-coloured gown my mother had insisted I wear tonight because, in her words, if you insist on looking like a woman twice your size, Devanne, at least dress like royalty.

The gown hugged me from my breasts to my hips before falling heavily around my legs, and for the first time that evening I became painfully aware of every inch of myself.

My stomach. My arms. My thighs, which I’d spent months toning during wolf runs and still never quite managed to love. The curves I had spent years learning how to disguise beneath oversized tunics and training leathers.

I suddenly wished I had worn black. Something that would have hidden me instead of outlining every curve beneath the candlelight.

I had been working for months to make myself smaller, telling myself that if my waist tightened, if my stomach flattened, if my thighs became leaner, perhaps I would finally look the way a princess was supposed to look.

One sentence from Caelan made all of that effort feel worthless.

I wished I had worn armour and had stayed in my room.

Most of all, I wished I had never come here.

Because this was supposed to be the night my life changed. The Mating Gala happened once every generation in the royal bloodline.

It was the night the heirs of the great packs presented themselves before the court, and for those lucky enough to discover their fated mates, it was considered the beginning of a new era.

I had spent my entire life hearing about this night. I had imagined it when I was thirteen. My mother sang about it when I was eighteen.

Even at twenty-one, when I had finally accepted that fantasies were for girls who had never been taught how cruel people could be.

And now I was twenty-three, standing beneath a thousand golden candles while the man I had loved since childhood looked at me as though I were something embarrassing he’d discovered on the bottom of his shoe.

Caelan lifted his chin. “Answer me.”

My throat tightened. “I heard you.”

“Then answer.”

The court had gone silent again. Enjoying the entertainment. I could feel hundreds of eyes crawling over me, waiting to see what I would do.

I wanted him to take it back.

I wanted Caelan to look at me and laugh, then tell everyone he had been joking. To say my name the way he used to when we were children and I had scraped my knee climbing the eastern wall.

Devanne.

Instead, he looked at me with disgust.

“I was asking because you keep staring at me like you’ve been waiting your entire life for this moment.” His eyes travelled over me again. “And I suppose you have.”

I could feel my humiliation spreading through the room, passing from face to face like a secret everyone was delighted to know.

Something inside my chest cracked but I swallowed it down.

“You’re right.” My voice sounded strangely calm.

Caelan’s eyebrows lifted.

I forced my fingers to loosen around the champagne glass. “I have been waiting.”

The smile disappeared from his face. For the first time, uncertainty flickered in his eyes.

Good.

The moment Caelan had stepped into the hall tonight, something inside me had gone painfully still. My wolf had risen. My pulse had thundered.

The scent of cedar and winter air that belonged uniquely to him had wrapped itself around me, and the bond had snapped into place so violently that I had nearly dropped my glass.

I had known before he even reached me.

My mate.

The word had lived inside me for less than ten minutes. It had already become a wound.

Caelan’s expression hardened. “Then perhaps you should have waited for someone else.”

The words landed harder than the insult. I stared at him.

He stepped closer, and the crowd parted instinctively for the future Alpha Prince.

“You knew what was expected of me,” he murmured, his tone turning vicious.

“I didn’t ask you for anything.”

“You didn’t have to.” His voice lowered further, meant only for my ears. “My parents made me get engaged to you so you would be eager to help the kingdom. You were a political prop, Devanne. Kept around to be useful. But now? Now you're just useless.”

I almost laughed.

Useless.

I had never wanted his stupid crown. I had wanted him. That was the pathetic part. The boy who once told me that being different was better than being ordinary. The boy who had promised me, when we were seventeen and stupid and hiding beneath the old oak tree, that if the Moon ever chose us, he would choose me back.

I remembered every word. Apparently, he didn’t.

Caelan turned his back on me and faced the High Alpha. “My lord.”

My father didn’t move yet Caelan lowered himself onto one knee.

And suddenly, I understood. And everyone did too.

Then he said the words that would follow me for the rest of my life.

“I reject Devanne Rovin as my fated mate.”

My knees gave out.

I hit the marble hard, one hand flying to my chest as pain ripped through me.

It felt like someone had reached inside my chest, wrapped their fist around my heart, and ripped it in half.

I gasped. A sound escaped me before I could stop it.

The room disappeared. For several seconds, I could hear nothing except the violent ringing in my ears.

Then another voice cut through the silence.

“I accept the Moon’s second choice.”

Elara.

I turned.

My sister stood beneath the chandeliers in a gown of silver silk, her golden-brown hair cascading down her back, her delicate face arranged into the perfect expression of surprise. She looked beautiful. Of course she did.

Elara always looked beautiful. She had been born with the kind of face people wrote poems about and the kind of body mothers held up as an example to their daughters.

She looked at Caelan. Caelan looked at her.

And then he smiled.

The court erupted. Applause thundered through the hall. Someone shouted congratulations. The musicians, after an awkward pause, began playing again.

And I laid there in the middle of it all, feeling like I had become invisible despite the space I filled.

Nobody looked at the girl who had just been rejected. They were looking at the new royal couple. Caelan took Elara’s hand. She glanced at me. For a moment, our eyes met. There was guilt there. I saw it.

She looked away. That hurt more than if she had smiled.

I pulled myself off the ground, my wine dress stained with dust. “Congratulations,” I said my chest still hurting.

Caelan looked at me. His expression softened for half a second. I hated him for that. Because pity was worse than cruelty.

“Devanne—”

“Don’t.” The word came out quietly. He stopped.

I looked at my sister. “Congratulations, Elara.”

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

I nodded once. Then I turned around. I walked through the crowd with my head high while whispers followed me like insects.

“Did you see his face?” “She really thought he’d choose her?” “Perhaps she is pregnant.” “Gods, imagine being rejected in front of the entire court.”

I kept walking. Past the dancers, the musicians and the enormous marble staircase. Past the guards who suddenly found the floor fascinating.

I reached the doors. Someone called my name but I didn’t turn around.

The moment the heavy oak doors closed behind me, I ran.

The palace corridors blurred around me. My slippers slapped against marble as I tore through the east wing, past portraits of dead alpha kings and luna queens who had never had to worry about whether their bodies were worthy of love.

My lungs burned. My chest hurt. I didn’t stop until I reached the servants’ passage beneath the western staircase.

There, finally, I collapsed against the stone wall.

The first tear slipped down my cheek. I wiped it away furiously. Another followed. Then another.

“No.” My voice cracked. I pressed both hands over my mouth. “No, no, no.”

I refused to cry. Not for him. Not after what he had done.

I wanted to be proud. I wanted to hold myself together. But grief had no respect for either. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cold floor, my knees pulled against my chest, my expensive gown pooled around me like a cruel joke.

For twenty-three years, I had been told that being different made me strong. Tonight, I learned the truth. Sometimes being different simply meant everyone knew exactly where to hurt you.

My weakness was laid bare for them to see.

I stayed there in the dark until the tears finally stopped. When I lifted my head, I heard voices echoing from the nearby corridor.

Guards.

“Has anyone seen Princess Elara?”

“No. The Supreme Alpha King’s delegation is already at the northern border. She needs to leave now if she's going to make the rendezvous.”

My heart stilled.

The Supreme Alpha King. Kaelen Varek.

Even the name carried a chill through the kingdoms. He ruled the Northern Territories with an iron fist, had never lost a war, and was said to have killed an entire rebellion without drawing his sword. Tonight, he had come to Aurelia for one reason. The peace treaty.

And the bride promised to him was my sister Elara.

I pushed myself to my feet. My reflection caught in a nearby windowpane. For a moment, I barely recognised the woman staring back at me. Red eyes. Smudged makeup. Full cheeks. A trembling mouth.

I looked exactly like the girl they had laughed at.

Then I remembered Caelan’s voice.

Are you pregnant, or are you just fat?

Something inside me went dead and cold.

Fine. Let them have their perfect princess. Let Caelan have his beautiful mate. Let the entire kingdom celebrate the woman they believed deserved everything.

I was done begging the world to see me. I grabbed a dark travelling cloak hanging from a nearby hook. The palace gates were closing for the night, but there were other ways out. I knew every hidden passage in Aurelia. I had spent years being overlooked. For once, being invisible might actually save me.

Somewhere beyond the northern border, Kaelen Varek was waiting for my sister.

He had been promised a princess.

Instead, he was going to find an empty palace.

I didn’t know what the Supreme Alpha King would do when he learned that his bride was gone.

I wanted no part of it.

For once, being overlooked might save me.

I pulled the hood over my head and slipped through the servants’ passage.

Tonight, I was done being the obedient daughter, the rejected mate and the embarrassing princess.

I was leaving.

Franky, I only hoped he’d kill them all.