The Rejected Luna Queen

My mate marked another she-wolf in front of me, moments before our own mating ceremony was supposed to begin.

"I can still take you as my mate, but Lyla stays by my side."

Damon's voice echoed through the Blood Moon Pack's temple, shattering the last of my hopes.

I stood before the moonlit altar in my Luna gown, forced to watch my mate sink his teeth into another woman's neck.

Lyla.

That pathetic Omega was now nestled in my fated mate's arms, the fresh, bloody mark on her neck still weeping.

"Damon, are you insane?" My voice trembled.

He turned to me, his eyes empty of guilt. "If you want to be my Luna, this is my condition."

Gasps erupted from the pack. To mark another she-wolf before a mating ceremony was the ultimate insult to the Moon Goddess.

But I knew worse was coming.

Memories of my past life flooded back to me.

On this very day, I had screamed my refusal at Damon.

Bowing to the Goddess's law and the Elders' pressure, he banished Lyla.

She was chased down by a pack of rogues and fell from a cliff to her death.

After that, Damon never marked me.

He never treated me as his true mate, only with cold, cutting indifference.

He even lured me into the forbidden lands, framing me for breaking our pack's most sacred law.

I cried, I begged, but in the end, I was cast out by the entire pack.

And then, he killed me in the wilderness.

"You got Lyla killed," he had said. "Now you pay the price."

Not this time.

Seeing that I wasn't responding, Damon's brow furrowed.

"Selena, stop making a scene. Lyla needs my protection, and you—"

"And I what?" I cut him off.

Lyla sobbed softly in his arms. "Selena, I'm so sorry… I didn't mean for this to happen…"

Such a brilliant actress.

I slowly raised my hand to the moonstone necklace at my throat—the sacred symbol of fated mates.

"Selena, what are you doing?" My father's voice, laced with authority and a clear warning, came from behind me.

I didn't turn back.

Under the stunned eyes of every wolf present, I ripped the necklace from my neck.

The sharp crack of the moonstones shattering was deafening, like something breaking for good.

"I, Selena, daughter of the Blood Moon Alpha, hereby sever all ties with this pack."

I threw the broken necklace at Damon's feet.

"From this day forward, the fate of the Blood Moon Pack is no longer my concern."

The temple fell deathly silent.

My father's enraged roar erupted behind me. "You dare!"

I walked toward the temple doors without a backward glance.

"Selena! You get back here!"

"Banish her!" someone yelled. "A wolf who rejects her fated mate is a traitor! She has no place here!"

I paused at the doorway and looked back one last time.

Damon held Lyla, his eyes a mixture of relief and disgust.

My father's face was contorted with fury.

The rest of the pack members were pointing, their eyes full of contempt.

Good.

That makes leaving even easier.

Three hours later, with my loyal handmaiden, Maya, I stepped across the border into the Black Forest.

"My lady, are we really going to the Far North?" Maya asked, hurrying to keep up. "They say that place is…"

"Is what?"

"They say it's the territory of the Winterfang Pack. No one who enters that frozen wasteland ever comes out alive."

I kept walking. "Perfect."

If this world has no place for me, I will carve out my own.

I'll get stronger there.

I'll be reborn.

Five years later, a piece of news spread like wildfire across the continent.

At the centennial Great Pilgrimage, the legendary Alpha King Kael was rumored to finally be making a public appearance with his mysterious mate.

Every pack was gossiping, wondering what kind of woman could possibly be worthy of the legendary Alpha King.