The Alpha's Rejection

Karen POV "I came to save you," she whispered, rushing toward the chains. Her voice was sharp, cutting me off before I could speak again.Her face was pale in the dim torchlight, but her eyes burned with determination. "I know you’re not guilty, my lady. I couldn’t stand by and watch them kill you. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner… I was waiting for the right moment, when the guards wouldn’t suspect a thing."My throat tightened."Th-thank you," I croaked, voice breaking.The cuffs bit deeper into my wrists, but the ache in my chest was worse. She was risking her life for me.The metallic click of the lock echoed like thunder, and the chains slid free."Hurry," she urged, pressing a cloak into my hands. "Before it’s too late."We slipped into the narrow escape tunnel, breath ragged, footsteps too loud in the silence. Yvonne glanced at me quickly.“Luna, please stay safe.”I grabbed her wrist. “Aren’t you coming with me? They’ll suspect you. I can’t let you stay behind.”She shook her h

Karen’s POVFlashbacksThe courtyard burned with torches, shadows flickering over accusing faces. My chest heaved as I stumbled into the chaos only to see her.The previous Luna. Lifeless. Blood staining her pale dress.“No…” My whisper barely left my lips before a shrill voice cut through the crowd.“There! She did it!”I spun. Nelissa my chambermaid, the one who had sworn loyalty to me was pointing at me, tears streaking her face. “I saw her slipping a vial into Luna Rose’s cup! She said the old Luna stood in her way!”Gasps erupted. Wolves snarled. My knees nearly gave out.“That’s a lie!” My voice cracked as I tried to move forward. “I would never….”Another shout came from the Elder. His hand shot up, silencing the crowd. “Enough. You think we accuse you blindly?” His eyes gleamed with cold judgment.He raised a crystal device, its surface shimmering to life. A projection flickered in the night air. My heart slammed against my ribs as the image came into focus me, cloaked, standi

Karen’s POVZaiden’s last words echoed in my head. “Don’t leave this room.”At first, I thought it was just his Alpha possessiveness, his way of caging me. But then the howls began.The first was distant, sharp a patrol signal. The second came closer. Louder. Then another, and another, until the night split with a chorus that made every hair on my body stand upright.My wolf stirred restlessly inside me. Danger. Blood.I rushed to the window, pressing trembling fingers against the cold glass. Below, the courtyard had erupted into chaos. Sunrise warriors shifted mid-run, their clothes shredding as fur ripped through their skin. Rogues dozens of them came crashing over the eastern wall, snarling, frothing, their eyes glowing with feral red light.The clash was immediate. Wolves lunged at each other. Teeth tore. Bodies slammed into the ground with bone-cracking force. Screams and snarls tangled together until I couldn’t tell which belonged to Sunrise warriors and which belonged to rogues

Zaiden’s POVThe bond burned.At first, I thought it was just the echo of fear the fear she felt the night the rogues attacked Sunrise. But this… this was different.It clawed at my chest, sharp and unrelenting. Her pain. Her hunger. Her exhaustion. Every breath she struggled to take seared through me like fire.I slammed my fist into the oak table, splintering it down the middle. Papers scattered, Cole flinched, but I didn’t care. The room couldn’t contain the fury writhing inside me.“They beat her,” I growled, voice low and lethal. My claws ripped through my skin, my wolf too close to the surface. “Those filthy mongrels dared touch what’s mine.”Cole’s jaw tightened. “We’ll find her, Alpha. The patrols are sweeping the borders, the trackers….”“Not fast enough!” My roar shook the walls, golden fire blazing in my eyes. The wolf inside me raged, demanding blood, demanding her. “She’s suffering. Every second we waste, they hurt her.”Her fear lanced through me again. A blow. A cry she

Karen’s POVDays blurred together in the rogues’ den. Every sunrise and sunset felt the same dark, suffocating, hopeless.If I wasn’t mistaken, I might have stayed here for five days or more.They gave me wolfsbane every single day sometimes through a syringe, sometimes hidden in the food they shoved at me. Each swallow burned, each dose gnawed at my strength, and with every passing hour, I could feel my wolf slipping further away. Her voice grew faint, her energy dimming, until I feared one day I’d call for her and she wouldn’t answer at all.But if I was dying, then I refused to die quietly.The rogues thought they were clever, leaving behind their empty syringe after one of the injections, mocking me with it as they laughed. But to me, it was something else a chance.The next morning, when one of them came with the food tray, I forced a weak smile and rattled the chains dramatically. “You don’t need to bother,” I croaked, nodding toward the syringe still lying in the corner. “They