Chapter Two: The Rejection

Marina's Pov 

I was scrubbing the front steps when I felt it.

The pull started in my chest and spread through my whole body like fire. I dropped the brush. Soapy water splashed across my feet. My hands started shaking.

My mate was here.

I'd waited so long for this. Six years of sleeping in that cupboard, six years of Alia's cruelty, six years of being called worthless—it was all about to end. My mate would see me. He would take me away from this place. He would love me.

I stood up so fast I got dizzy. My wet hands wiped uselessly on my dirty uniform. I probably looked terrible. My silver hair was falling out of its braid. My uniform had soap stains and mud on the knees. But it didn't matter. The bond didn't care about things like that. He would see past all of it.

He would see me.

I followed the pull around to the front of the pack house. A car I didn't recognize was parked in the driveway. Alpha Marcus stood on the porch with Luna Diane and Alia. And there, walking up the steps, was a man in an expensive suit.

Alpha Derek of the Riverside Pack. I knew him. He visited sometimes for pack business. He was maybe thirty years old, brown hair, average height. Nothing special about him except that he was an Alpha.

And the pull was coming from him.

My mate was Alpha Derek.

My heart hammered in my chest. This was it. This was really happening. I took a step forward, then another. My legs felt shaky but I kept moving.

"Alpha Derek," Marcus said, shaking his hand. "Good to see you again."

"Always a pleasure," Derek replied. His voice was smooth. Pleasant. He turned to smile at Alia. "And Miss Alia, you've grown since I last saw you."

Alia giggled. Actually giggled. "Thank you, Alpha Derek."

I was ten feet away now. Derek's head turned slightly, like he'd heard something. His eyes found mine.

The bond snapped into place.

I felt it lock between us, solid and real. This was it. This was the moment everything changed. I waited for him to smile, to move toward me, to say something.

His face went blank. Then his lip curled up like he'd just smelled something rotten.

"Mate," I whispered. I couldn't help it. The word just came out.

"What did you say?" Alpha Marcus's voice was sharp.

"He's—" I looked at Derek. He was staring at me with disgust. Actual disgust. "He's my mate."

No one said anything for three seconds. Then Alia burst out laughing.

"Her? YOUR mate?" She laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. "The wolfless maid is your mate?"

"There must be some mistake," Luna Diane said quickly. "She doesn't even have a wolf. The bond can't—"

"I feel it," Derek interrupted. His voice was cold. Flat. "Unfortunately."

That word hit me like a slap. Unfortunately.

"Well, this is awkward," Marcus said. He didn't sound sympathetic. He sounded annoyed. "Derek, I apologize for—"

"It's fine," Derek said. He was still looking at me. His eyes moved from my dirty uniform to my tangled hair to my bleeding hands. "It's not a problem because I'm rejecting her."

The words didn't make sense at first. I heard them but my brain couldn't process them.

"What?" I said.

"I reject you as my mate." He said it clearly, like he was reading from a script. "I, Alpha Derek of Riverside Pack, reject you."

Pain exploded in my chest.

I'd been hit before. Alia had shoved me down the stairs once. A pack member had punched me for dropping a plate. I knew what pain felt like.

This was different.

This pain came from inside. It felt like something was being ripped out of my chest while it was still attached. I couldn't breathe. My knees buckled. I hit the ground hard.

"Oh, stop being dramatic," Alia said.

I couldn't stop. The pain kept getting worse. It spread from my chest to my throat, my head, my stomach. Everything hurt. Everything was wrong.

"Get up," Alpha Marcus snapped.

I couldn't get up. I was curled on the ground trying to remember how to breathe.

"I apologize for the disturbance," I heard Marcus say. "Alia, call someone to remove her."

"Actually," Derek's voice said, "she needs to accept the rejection. Otherwise the bond stays partially intact."

"Fine. Get up and accept it," Marcus ordered.

I managed to lift my head. The world was blurry. Derek stood there with his arms crossed, waiting. Alia looked disgusted. Marcus looked impatient. Luna Diane wouldn't even look at me.

"I—" My voice came out as a whisper. "Why?"

"Why?" Derek repeated. He laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh. "Look at yourself. You're a maid. You don't even have a wolf. Did you really think I'd want you?"

"The bond—"

"The bond made a mistake," he said. "I'm an Alpha. I need a strong Luna. Someone worthy of my pack. You're not even worthy of being a regular pack member."

Each word made the pain worse.

"Now accept the rejection so I can get on with my day," he said.

I looked at Alpha Marcus, at Luna Diane and at Alia. They'd raised me. I'd lived with them for fifteen years. They were watching me suffer and they didn't care. They just wanted me to hurry up and get it over with.

"Say it," Marcus growled.

My chest felt like it was caving in. The bond was still there, connecting me to Derek, and it hurt. It hurt so much I wanted to die.

"I—" I gasped for air. "I accept—"

The pain got worse. I didn't think it could get worse but it did.

"I accept your rejection," I forced out.

The bond snapped.

The pain stopped all at once. It didn't fade—it just stopped. I was left there on the ground, hollow and empty. I could breathe again. My chest didn't hurt anymore but something was missing. Something important had been torn out and thrown away.

"Finally," Alia muttered.

Derek brushed off his suit like I'd gotten dirt on it somehow. "Thank you for your hospitality, Alpha Marcus. Shall we discuss the territory agreement?"

"Of course. Let's talk in my office." Marcus stepped over me like I was a piece of trash on the ground. Luna Diane and Alia followed him. Derek went last, not even looking at me.

The door closed behind them.

I was alone on the porch, still on my hands and knees. My arms shook. My whole body shook. I waited for the pain to come back but it didn't. I just felt empty.

Then the emptiness filled with something else.

Rage.

Pure, white-hot rage that burned away everything else.

I'd waited six years. Six years of their abuse. Six years of hoping, believing, trusting that my mate would save me and he'd looked at me like I was garbage and thrown me away.

They all had.

I pushed myself up off the ground. My hands were bleeding but I didn't care. My legs were steady now. The shaking had stopped.

I looked at the pack house. At the closed door. At the windows where I could see shadows moving inside. Derek was probably sitting in Marcus's office right now, drinking expensive wine, laughing about the pathetic wolfless girl who thought she deserved an Alpha.

They thought I was broken. Thought I'd crawl back to my cupboard and cry myself to sleep like I always did.

They were wrong.

I walked down the steps. My feet hit the ground with purpose. I wasn't running away. I wasn't hiding.

I was done.

"Where do you think you're going?"

I turned. Alia stood in the doorway with her arms crossed, that familiar smirk on her face.

"The steps aren't finished," she said. "And you need to clean my room before dinner. I made a mess just for you."

I stared at her. This girl who'd made my life hell for years. Who'd humiliated me every chance she got. Who was standing there right now, still trying to grind me down.

"Clean it yourself," I said.

Her smirk vanished. "What did you say?"

"I said clean it yourself. I'm done."

"You don't get to be done," she snapped. "You're nothing. You have nowhere to go. No one wants you."

"You're right," I said. My voice was calm. Cold. "No one wants me. So I have nothing left to lose."

I saw the flicker of uncertainty in her eyes.

"If you walk away, my father will—"

"Your father will what? Disown me? He already did. Beat me? I'm leaving anyway. Kill me?" I smiled. It felt wrong on my face, like my muscles didn't remember how. "Let him try."

I turned and walked away.

"You'll be back!" Alia shouted after me. "You'll come crawling back because you have nowhere else to go!"

I didn't respond. I just kept walking.

I made it past the pack house, past the training grounds, past the boundary of Shadowmoon territory. My feet carried me into the forest. The unclaimed lands where rogues lived and smart wolves didn't go.

I didn't care about smart anymore.

The sun was setting. The forest got darker. I walked until I couldn't see the pack house behind me anymore. Until I was deep enough that their scent was gone.

Then I stopped.

I stood there in the middle of the forest, alone, with nothing but the clothes on my back and rage burning in my chest.

What now? I had no plan. No supplies. No wolf to protect me if something attacked.

But I also had no Alpha Marcus. No Luna Diane. No Alia. No Derek.

I had freedom and I had so much anger it felt like it could burn down the whole forest.

That's when I felt it.

Another pull. It was different from the first one. This was strongeonger. It made the bond with Derek feel like a weak thread compared to a steel cable.

No. That wasn't possible. You only got one mate. Unless—

Second chance mates. The stories said they were rare. So rare most wolves never got them. But if your first mate rejected you, sometimes the Moon Goddess gave you another chance.

This pull was coming from deeper in the forest.

I should have been careful and approached slowly. But I was past being careful and scared.

I followed the pull until I saw firelight through the trees to a campsite.