Chapter #1 Rejection

Emara Dell POV

Moon Rite Amphitheater, Nightfall Range

The amphitheater glowed like a throat about to swallow us whole.

Torches burned along the carved stone walls of the mountain, and their flames hissed in the cold. Snow drifted lazily through the gaps overhead, catching the red shine of the full moon. The entire pack stood in rows, waiting to be blessed with fates that would shape the rest of our lives.

Roles. Ranks. Mates. My stomach churned. Rowan bumped my shoulder lightly. “You’re breathing like you’re about to pass out,” he whispered, his pale hair glittering with frost.

“I might,” I muttered.

“You won’t. If you drop, I’ll catch you. Gracefully. Like a gay woodland sprite.”

Despite everything, a soft laugh escaped me. But the anxiety didn’t lift.

Alpha Corvin Draxen stood at the center of the amphitheater, commanding and cold in a way only he could be. The moon painted his sharp features in silver and shadow. His dark hair fell over his forehead. His jaw was locked tight as he scanned the crowd.

Not the boy I grew up with. Not the boy who used to sneak me treats from the pack bakery. Not the boy who once pushed a bully off me and took the punishment for it. Not the boy who secretly told me I was “the warmest part of the pack.”

That boy died the day he became the Alpha. That boy died the day his father was murdered in cold blood and he found the body.

Or maybe he buried himself to survive the pressure. I never could tell. All I knew, is that boy was long gone.

Lyrina Veega stood near him, practically glowing. The moon adored her. Or maybe she adored herself enough for both. Perfect blonde hair, perfect fucking cheekbones, perfect everything. Even her shadow looked smug.

She shot me a sweet, venom coated smile. “Try not to faint, Emara. The goddess hates weakness.”

Rowan snorted under his breath. “The goddess also hates cheap perfume and narcissism, yet here she stands.”

I pinched his arm to stop him from laughing out loud.

Lyrina and I had grown up side by side. There were nights she slept in my bed because thunderstorms scared her. We braided each other’s hair. We whispered about Corvin, giggling about which one of us he would choose someday.

And then one day she decided the pack only had room for one girl beside him.

Spoiler: it wasn’t the chubby, soft hearted healer.

Now she was Corvin’s lover. His favorite. His future Luna, everyone assumed it. The elders. The warriors. The pack.

Even Corvin. Even me. The Moon Rite would simply make it official.

Corvin lifted his hand for silence. His voice boomed across the stone.

“We begin the Rite.”

Dozens of wolves inhaled sharply. My heart lodged in my ribs. A tingling crept down my arms as my wolf pressed forward, eager and terrified.

Corvin’s eyes swept the crowd until they landed on Lyrina.

“Lyrina Veega. Step forward.”

She did, with her chin held high, and her hips swaying just slightly, her confidence dripping like honey. The crowd murmured their approval.

Lyrina lifted her face toward the moon as if basking in her victory before it even happened.

But nothing happened. No glow. No warmth. No blessing. Not even the faint shimmer of a role designation.

Silence crashed over the amphitheater. Her smile faltered. Corvin blinked once, confusion tightening his jaw. Lyrina tried again, raising her chin a little higher. Still nothing.

Whispers rippled through the crowd.

“No way.”

“Is the moon broken?”

“She has to be Luna.”

“Has to be!!”

Corvin’s eyebrows pinched, irritation flickering behind his eyes. And then.....

A howl shattered the silence. A snarl followed. Then another. Then a dozen. Shadows poured from the trees like a flood of teeth.

Rogues.

The amphitheater erupted.

Wolves shifted midair, their bodies exploding into fur and muscle. Warriors launched toward the treeline. Torches toppled. Snow churned under claws.

“HEALERS!” Corvin roared, shifting mid-breath. His massive wolf burst forward, snarling. “Defensive circle! NOW!”

My legs moved before my mind caught up. Training took over. We circled the Alpha. Always protect the Alpha.

Always.

But then....A sound cut through the chaos. A scream. Small, and terrified. I snapped toward it without thinking.

A little girl, no older than six, was trapped beneath a splintered torch stand. A rogue was already charging toward her, jaws open, foam flying.

“Emara!” Healer Tayla shouted. “Don’t break rank!”

“Do NOT break rank!” Corvin barked, his voice cracking like a whip.

But the child’s sobbing…It hit something inside me I couldn’t ignore. My wolf surged forward, roaring. "Protect her."

“I’ll be back,” I whispered, already running.

The snow betrayed me more than once. I skidded hard, caught myself, dodged two fighting wolves, and lunged just as the rogue reached the little girl.

It snapped its jaws down....and I shoved my arm between them. Pain exploded through me as it buried its teeth deep. I screamed but held on, ripping its head away from her. She scrambled free and sprinted for the healers.

Relief slammed into me. Then claws raked across my ribs as the rogue tackled me to the snow. Before it could kill me, three warriors piled onto it, dragging it away.

My vision blurred with pain. Blood soaked through the sleeve of my robe. I tried to rise, and froze when Corvin approached.

His wolf form melted away, leaving him human, but no less terrifying. His chest was heaving. Blood dripped down his jaw. His eyes were like wildfire.

“You defied me,” he growled.

“I...I saved her,” I whispered. “She would’ve died.”

“I gave a direct order.” His voice shook with fury. “You made me look weak.”

“No...Corvin, I didn’t!!”

“Take her to the fucking stocks. Now.”

My stomach dropped. My breath caught.

“Alpha,” Lyrina purred, stepping beside him. “She embarrassed you in front of the entire pack. She should be punished.”

Corvin didn’t look at me again.

“Take her now.”

Beta Arros Veega grabbed my arm, dragging me across the snow as people stared. Some looked confused. Some were amused. Some were even eager to watch.

In seconds, I was shoved into the old wooden stocks. The heavy beam slammed down around my neck and wrists.

Locked. Helpless. Exposed.

Snowflakes settled on my lashes as the hateful wolves of my pack gathered around me to revel in my suffering.

Lyrina sauntered forward, tossing an overripe fruit between her hands.

“Well,” she crooned. “At least you’re finally where you belong.”

She hurled the fruit at my face. It burst. Juice. Pulp. Humiliation. Laughter surged around me.

“Fat.”

“Useless.”

“Pig.”

“Who does she think she is?”

“Luna material? Please.”

My breath shook, and my ribs ached with each insult.

And then....the light shifted. A beam of moonlight, thick, cold, and unnaturally bright, dropped directly onto me.

The amphitheater gasped in unison. Corvin froze. Lyrina’s smile shattered. And then I felt it.

The bond. It snapped into me like lightning. Raw, overwhelming, and fucking undeniable.

Corvin’s eyes widened, and his hand curled into a fist. His breathing turned ragged as he stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

Mate. We both knew it. We both felt it.

His jaw clenched. His nostrils flared. His hands shook.

Then.... He fucking spat at my feet.

“I could never,” he snarled, his voice shaking, “have a fat, useless, weak mutt like you as my mate.”

The crowd gasped. My heart cracked.

“I need a Luna with teeth,” he shouted, turning to the pack, “not tits and ass.”

The laughter struck first. Ugly, sharp, and hungry.

It tore through the amphitheater like wolves ripping apart a fresh kill, and each sound tunneled into my skull until I felt hollowed out.

Corvin’s spit steamed on the snow at my feet.

My mate. My fated one. The boy I loved since childhood. The Alpha I admired. The man whose scent once made me blush.

He fucking spat at me.

My breath caught on something jagged, and something broke open inside my ribs. The pain wasn’t sharp. It was crushing. Slow. Like drowning in a lake with no surface.

I tried to inhale. I couldn’t.

My wolf whimpered inside my mind, soft, wounded, and confused. Her cry echoed the one rising in my own throat.

"Mate… why? Why?"

Corvin didn’t look away, not once. His eyes were cold, and burning with a cruel fire I didn’t recognize. A stranger was wearing his face.

“I need a Luna with teeth,” he repeated, louder this time, as if to make sure every soul within fifty miles heard him. “Not tits and ass. What could you possibly offer this pack? The Moon Goddess has made a terrible mistake!"

Lyrina laughed too loudly. Several she-wolves followed, eager to be on her good side. Warriors snickered. Omegas shook their heads in pity. One voice near the back whispered:

“What did she expect…?”

And that....That whisper hit harder than the rejection.

Because they were right. What did I expect? Why did a part of me dare to hope for something like a mate? Like love? Like being chosen?

Corvin turned away, but his words stayed, circling like vultures.

Fat. Useless. Weak. Mutt. Worthless healer.

The bond still pulsed between us, faint but undeniable. A golden thread wrapped around my heart, shimmering painfully under the moon’s glow.

And he was slicing it with every step he took.

Something inside me collapsed. Not snapped. Collapsed. Quietly and silently, like a rotten beam under too much weight.

My vision trembled. My body felt both too heavy and too light, like I wasn’t fully in it. The stocks bit into my wrists as I tried to steady myself, but there was no steadying.

Just humiliation. Raw and burning. Deep as bone.

I watched Corvin walk away from me with Lyrina on his arm. She looked back once, with smug satisfaction plastered on her face.

The crowd followed them up the stone steps, still whispering, still laughing, still pointing at the “joke” of the Moon Rite.

And I....I didn’t want to breathe anymore.

My heart ached so violently that I wished it would just stop.

Stop beating. Stop feeling. Stop humiliating me with every pulse. The mate bond hummed against my skin like a bruise, a cruel reminder of what I would never have.

I had imagined this moment so differently when I was younger. Corvin smiling at me. Corvin reaching for me. Corvin calling me his.

Not this. Never this. My chest tightened as tears blurred the moon overhead.

I had been rejected. Not in private. Not with mercy.

In front of the entire pack.

Publicly. Cruelly. Violently.

By the boy I had loved since I was old enough to understand what love was.

By the man who used to protect me from nightmares.

By the Alpha whose name I used to whisper into my pillow when no one was listening.

I felt like I was shrinking inside my own skin. Shrinking and disappearing. If the goddess had reached down right then and asked me if I wanted to go with her, I would’ve said yes.

Gladly. Desperately.

Because standing there, locked in place, covered in pulp and shame and moonlight I didn’t want....

....I wanted to die.

Not dramatically. Not loudly. Just quietly fade away, like I never mattered to anyone at all.

And maybe I didn’t.

The amphitheater emptied. The laughter faded. The torches hissed. The cold crept deeper.

By the time the last wolf left, leaving me alone under the blood-red moon, something inside me whispered a truth so painful it felt like a blade:

No one would care if I never stood up again.

Not Corvin. Not Lyrina. Not the pack. Maybe not even the goddess. My tears froze on my cheeks.

I closed my eyes.

And for the first time in my life.....

......I prayed for the pain to just.....stop.