Rejection

Bella's POV

I had always known that my father hated me.

From the very first day my mother brought me to his mansion years ago and told him that I was his daughter, his hatred had been unmistakable.

He had sent us away that very same day, threatening to kill her if she ever dared to return and ruin his reputation.

She was a lowly omega.

A threat to his position as the Beta.

A disgrace to his name.

His stain.

But my mother had refused to disappear quietly.

She took her case before the Alpha Council.

Because of their ruling, my father had been left with no choice but to acknowledge me as his child and take my mother into his household as a concubine.

It was never the life she wanted.

She knew Beta Maxwell would never truly accept an omega who had been forced into his home.

Before he could make her life unbearable, she fled with me instead.

Only a few days later, the small house where we had sought refuge burned to the ground.

My mother died in that fire.

I survived only because I had been playing outside when the flames swallowed everything we owned.

With nowhere else to go, I was brought back to Moonstone Pack.

My father took me in as one of his children.

At least, that was what everyone believed.

In reality, I had never been anything more than an obligation forced upon him by the Alpha Council.

I had spent years convincing myself that, despite his coldness, perhaps a small part of him had eventually accepted me.

I had been wrong.

His hatred had never faded.

If anything, it had only grown stronger with time.

"Peony is my legitimate daughter."

His voice echoed relentlessly inside my head, each word cutting as deeply as when he had first spoken it.

"By tradition, she is the one meant to be Jaxon's mate. I don't know what dark magic you used to steal her mate bond three years ago and make Jaxon's wolf recognize you instead, but it ends today. Request a rejection from him if you still want me to consider you my daughter."

There had been no anger in his voice.

No hesitation.

Only complete indifference.

As though asking me to give up the man destined for me was no different from asking me to leave the room.

"I'll die in peace knowing he is mated to Peony instead of you," he had continued mercilessly. "An omega-born shame. A stain on my family name. Knowing you are the one crowned Luna disgusts me."

Those words followed me with every step I took toward Jaxon's chambers.

They echoed so loudly inside my mind that they almost drowned out the sound of my own footsteps.

Disgust.

Not at myself.

But at the painful realization that no matter how hard I had tried, I had never truly been given a chance.

All these years, I had done everything I possibly could to earn my father's acknowledgment.

I became useful.

I strengthened Moonstone Pack.

I stood faithfully beside Jaxon.

I swallowed every humiliation without complaint.

Even when Peony became Jaxon's mistress, I forced myself to stay silent.

I convinced myself that allowing her to remain at his side, even as his lover or future concubine, might soften Father's hatred toward me.

Perhaps, if I gave them enough, they would finally leave me with the one thing fate had chosen for me.

But that had never been enough.

It had never been his goal.

Nothing I could have done would ever erase the shame he believed flowed through my veins.

A tall wooden staff suddenly dropped before me, blocking my path just as I reached Jaxon's chambers.

The warriors standing guard firmly crossed it between us, leaving no space for me to pass.

"The Alpha is in an important meeting and cannot see anyone right now, Luna," the first guard said.

He deliberately emphasized the last word before adding with unmistakable meaning,

"Anyone."

I looked from one guard to the other, refusing to back away.

"Mindlink the Alpha and tell him I am at his door," I ordered, lifting my chin despite the storm raging inside me. "I have something urgent that I need to discuss with him."

"Mindlink my Alpha?" the second guard repeated with a mocking laugh, his eyes openly filled with contempt as they settled on me.

"I am the Luna. Do you not know who you're speaking to?" I demanded, my voice hardening as anger slowly replaced the hurt threatening to consume me.

If no one else in this pack remembered my position...

Then I would make them remember.

But I stopped.

Because threats had never worked.

"Shouldn't a Luna be able to communicate through the pack's mind link?" the second guard continued, pretending to have only just realized something. "Oh... I probably forgot."

His gaze slowly traveled over me, and I immediately understood what he meant.

I was wolfless.

Even though I was mated to Jaxon, my wolf had remained dormant.

When I turned nineteen and his wolf saw me during his coronation ceremony, I had believed that my own wolf would finally awaken because of our bond.

I had waited.

I had hoped.

Three years had passed.

I still hadn't heard even the faintest whisper from the wolf that was supposed to complete me.

That alone left me powerless, unable to access the pack's mind link like every other member of Moonstone Pack.

A sharp pain suddenly ripped through my chest.

It came without warning, so fierce that my breath caught in my throat.

My knees buckled beneath me, and I crashed hard onto the cold stone floor.

The guards burst into laughter.

"Has the wolfless mutt become too weak to even stand?" one of them whispered to the other.

They thought I couldn't hear them.

They had forgotten that although I lacked a wolf, I still possessed werewolf instincts.

My senses were often sharper than those blessed with wolves.

No whisper was ever truly quiet to me, no matter how softly it was spoken.

Another wave of agony tore through my body.

This time, I didn't need anyone to tell me what had caused it.

Jaxon.

The mate bond betrayed me once again.

It carried every emotion and sensation straight into my body.

I could feel the overwhelming pleasure surging through him.

I could hear Peony's breathless sounds echoing faintly through the bond.

Even the rhythm of their movements reached me, each pulse of the connection twisting like a blade through my heart.

So this...

This was the important meeting.

I squeezed my eyes shut for only a second before forcing myself back onto my feet.

This wasn't the first time I had endured the pain of his betrayal.

So why should this one destroy me?

That was the question I kept asking myself as I clenched my fists until my nails dug painfully into my palms.

"Move," I ordered, my voice low but trembling with barely restrained rage as I faced the guards again.

"I am the Luna," I continued coldly. "Think carefully about how it would reflect on Moonstone Pack if I reported to the Alpha Council that their appointed Luna is treated like this."

Moonstone Pack might have learned to disrespect me.

The Alpha Council never would.

Tradition bound every Alpha to their laws.

It was the very same tradition that had forced Jaxon's wolf to claim me as his mate against his own wishes.

Three years.

That was the time the Council allowed before a marked mate had to be fully accepted.

Those three years ended today.

No pack dared challenge the Alpha Council and escape the consequences.

Every Alpha feared their judgment.

Every Alpha except the Lycan King of the North, whose kingdom had long ago severed all ties with the Council and its traditions.

Jaxon would never risk sharing that fate.

The guards exchanged uneasy glances before reluctantly stepping aside.

The moment they did, I walked forward without hesitation.

I shoved the heavy wooden doors open.

They slammed violently against the walls, the deafening sound announcing my arrival throughout the chamber.

Neither of them stopped.

Neither of them even attempted to separate.

If anything, Peony noticed me first.

A slow, satisfied smile curved onto her lips as she deliberately wrapped herself closer around Jaxon, openly flaunting the intimacy that had always been denied to me.

She wanted me to witness it.

She wanted me to suffer.

And through the mate bond...

I did.

Every heartbeat.

Every unbearable second.

I stood there, unable to move, watching my mate choose another woman while knowing they were both fully aware that I was standing there.

"Bella."

Jaxon's voice finally broke through the suffocating haze surrounding me.

"What brings you here?" he asked casually after he had finished, as though I had interrupted nothing more than an ordinary conversation.

My gaze slowly shifted toward the bed.

He sat upright without the slightest trace of guilt, completely naked and utterly unbothered.

Behind him, Peony leaned comfortably against him, triumph shining openly across her face as her fingers slowly traced his bare chest.

She never once looked away from me.

I swallowed hard, forcing down the bile rising in my throat.

Only moments ago, I had come here intending to plead with him.

I had planned to beg him not to believe whatever lies might soon be told about me.

I had been prepared to sacrifice my dignity once again.

To endure and wait.

Just as I always had.

The realization struck with crushing force.

For three years, that was all I had ever done for a man who had never once spared me the same devotion.

Three years had passed.

Nothing had changed.

Nothing ever would.

I drew in a slow, shaky breath before lifting my head.

Something inside me finally broke.

Or perhaps...

For the very first time in years, something inside me finally healed.

For the first time, I wasn't begging.

"I, Bella Maxwell," I said, my voice steady despite the tears threatening to fall, "have come to reject you, Alpha Jaxon.”