Chapter 1: Rejected

Brave's POV

I was lost in that set of deep green eyes and that perfectly carved face that could make the hearts of any she-wolves beat away out from their chests.

The way he stared back at me made me forget that I had a pair of boxers pressed against my nose.

Sadly for the green-eyed stranger, I had a crush already. And mine happened to be one of the finest men in Crescent Pack.

"Hey, you there!" He stared at me blankly, while I tried to avoid those ridiculously seducing eyes.

I waved one hand sharply. "Yes, you, shoo away now, quick." His brows lifted but the dead meat still didn't move.

"We will pretend I never caught you sneaking around the Alpha heir's room."

Again, he said nothing. My lips pressed tightly into a thin line.

Maybe he's deaf? Doesn't speak English? Or stupid.

Possibly both; saving lives was becoming a really difficult chore these days.

I'd never seen him before in Crescent Pack. One of my biggest flexes was that I knew everyone. As the chief Omega, a fancy word I'd coined for the Pack's slave, I'd memorized the faces of everyone I'd served. Which is every member of the pack.

The green-eyed stranger had no distinct wolf scent on him either.

My gaze assessed him closely. It could only mean he was one of the visiting Omegas sent to assist with the preparation of the Alpha games that will be kicking off today in Crescent Pack.

If so, they had forgotten to warn him that wandering around Alpha Dan's private quarters was the surest method to lose a limb. Maybe an arm alongside.

"And you are? Little cub?" A deep, calm and masculine voice rumbled from his chest. It was almost paralyzing.

Good, he speaks English, that is a start at least. I tried to avoid whatever deep bass he had in his voice.

"Little cub?" His eyes studied me further, my skin burned.

"You will be dead before you know who I am; if you don't shoo away now!" I replied.

Little cub? That's a new one. Most pack members just called me fat, fat legs, filthy or the first condescending name that poops in their twisted head. It was more evidence that he isn't from around here.

"Sneaking and sniffing a man's boxers will get you on the execution dock faster than missing my direction will!" He replied with a rather cold edge to his voice.

Heat rushed into my face at the realization that the boxers were still stuck in my hands. I quickly tossed the shorts aside. I couldn't even look him in the eyes anymore. I only half chuckled, awkwardly.

"Sorting, I was sorting the Alpha Son's dirty clothes," I said under one rushed breath.

"With your nose?" He frowned at me.

I frowned back, more like a scowl actually.

"What do you know?" I followed his gaze from the shorts back to my face. He said nothing and I preferred it when his mouth was running like a tap. Now I couldn't tell whether a stranger saw me as a pervert.

I've had a lot of names over the years, but I've kept my crush for Dan so well, a stalker hasn't been added to the list.

"Don't look at me that way, little omega!" I had to tiptoe to smack his head. The moment I touched his head, something hot and strange passed through my fingers and his expression hardened.

'What was that!' I quickly pulled away from green eyes.

"Go to the kitchen, tell them that Brave sent you. We need extra hands arranging the trays for the visiting Alphas!" I bit the inside of my cheeks to force down whatever flush was rising to my cheeks.

It felt good ordering someone around for the first time, until he finds out I'm a fraud.

"Brave!" He repeated my name, with a sour look on his face.

"Cool, you have my name, go now! I heard Alpha douchebag Callum is visiting. We need to give him a wonderful treatment so he doesn't ever think of returning to commit any mischief."

A cold chill ran down my spine just from echoing his name in my thoughts. Alpha Callum, the cruel Lycan king that has never revealed his face in public.

Rumours had it that he killed his father to take the Alpha position amongst other impressive deeds on his CV.

The most scary part was he always had a mask on, and that was because if anyone saw their hideous face, they would die.

For the first time, he has decided to grace the world Alpha conference with his presence and for one, I'd never want to cross paths with the cunt.

The thoughts of the cruel Lycan king drained off from my face; my stomach churned. He was a myth and the clicking heels I heard were a constant nightmare that could only belong to one person.

I shoved green eyes harder into the doorway before he could get another word off from his mouth. At least I saved him before she arrived.

Before Helen reached me, my head was already dipped, as low as it could get.

"Good morning, Helen!" I greeted when her feet stopped in front of me.

Her gaze swept through my body. I shivered, because I realized it way too well. That scrutinizing glare only came when I had done something. Or when things weren't going well with her.

Either way, it couldn't be that I had done something wrong. I had done her laundry as she said, slipped a note into Alpha Dan's shirt just as she wanted me to last night. I even stayed out all night to get the freshest dew since that's the only water she would drink and I needed three bottles of it.

Unless… Her fingers twisted into my hair. My scalp burned as she yanked my head backwards and a gasp shot out from my chest.

"It's Luna to you! Water-log." She scowled.

"You caused everything. You're the reason that Dan has been refusing to see me all this while, you bastard."

"I didn't do anything," I retorted inaudibly. She only yanked my hair backwards even harder.

"If you weren't so fat, it wouldn't be so hard for Dan to notice me. Your extra weight keeps blocking the view. Why would anyone be such a whale!"

I wanted to tell her that maybe she was the problem. But I didn't dare to. One of the rules for my survival was having my lips shut and saying what the big shot wanted to hear, not needed to.

A sharp pain tore through my lips; my ears rang and I said nothing.

"I asked you a question that demands an answer, over-inflated balloon." Her hands struck me, again, and I didn't so much as dare to groan.

After 14 years of being the slave of the pack, I knew it would be stupid for me to argue back; it only gave them more excitement to hit me more.

"Filthy plump omega!"

That was the title I got if something had gone wrong between her and Alpha Dan. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth while I counted in my head.

Usually she'd stop at twenty when she was doing it just for the excitement and thirty was for when she got in another argument with Alpha Dan.

Everyone in the pack knew that Helen wanted in Dan's pants and frankly speaking, she had all that it took to be Luna.

She was slim and naturally beautiful. As the Beta's daughter, she'd spent most of her life preparing to be Dan's mate and there was me, the fat bullied omega that dared to have a crush on Dan, how ironic.

Another slap tore into my face and my knees buckled with pain. I braced myself up quickly. It was already way over the thirty-five count. Guess I had to find the reason she'd become upset after this and make a new benchmark off it.

"That's enough, Helen!" A voice cut through the room and my chest tightened.

"I'm only helping her ward off some fat, Dan, no hard feelings?" Helen hit me even harder.

"We have more than ten visiting Alphas including Callum; if you injure her, nobody knows the pack's kitchen as well as she does."

Helen glared before releasing her hands and I crumbled to the ground with a thud.

I should have raised my head, appreciated Dan for saving me repeatedly. He'd been saving me since I was seven years old, since the day he found me half frozen near Crescent's borders and convinced his father to let me remain in the pack.

Two weeks ago, on my eighteenth birthday, I begged the moon goddess to make him my mate. And I didn't even get a mate at all.

It was a foolish prayer to begin with. Alpha Dan and the extra large omega. A fellow omega would puke just from having me as their mate let alone the Alpha. It was pathetic, I was too.

A soft comforting scent drifted into the room, distracting me from my thoughts. It seemed like the scent of rain, maybe lavender.

I didn't know, and I didn't care either. I just inhaled deeply.

My wolf lifted her head, leaning into it. I pushed my nose forward despite the lingering stings of the slaps that I had received earlier.

When I raised my eyes, Dan was watching me closely and everything else in the room disappeared.

"Mate!" My wolf leaped through my thoughts and tears blurred my vision.

For years, I'd believed the moon goddess had forgotten me. I'd believed that even the moon goddess had thought so lowly of me that she didn't even bother giving me a mate.

Yet, a tall man, broad shoulders, the perfect culture and the statue of a God stood before me. My best friend, my protector and the best mate I could ever dare to dream of having.

"Mate!" I whispered with a racing heart, raising my eyes upwards to his gaze.

"Mate? What?" Helen turned with widened eyes.

"Alpha Dan... you're... you're my mate!" My lips curled up with a smile and Helen's expression collapsed.

"You lying pig." She launched at me with the fierce looks of a madwoman and I flinched really hard.

Alpha Dan caught her hands before they reached me and I was still curled up. He'd saved me again, my mate. "Don't!" He glared.

"So it's true?" She stumbled in her steps. Dan didn't reply.

"Reject her already, Dan. She will be a disgrace to the pack. I mean who will want a fat, ugly, and worthless omega for a mate?" she rasped.

Dan said nothing, his eyes fixated on me the whole time.

"We're mates!" I expected him to say something.

Stupid... that's how I sounded, and desperate too. My wolf lurched forward. She wanted to be claimed and lavished as the bond pulled us together into a firm knot.

"Cool!" Dan finally said, flatly.

"Cool?" The words hung between us and confusion arched into my face.

"I've known for two weeks." His words caused the colour to drain off from my face.

"I caught the scent on your birthday. Your wolf was too weak and slow to recognize the bond so I had to wait until she did. And now that she has, I can reject you and you will be able to accept my rejection."

My heart forgot how to beat.