All Chapters of Rejected for being human : Chapter 11 - Chapter 16

Serena The wind was cold. Colder than I expected for this time of year, and colder still because we had nothing but a thin blanket of hope wrapped around our shoulders. The clothes on our backs were wrinkled from hurried packing, our bags heavy with everything we owned—which wasn’t much. Just a few dresses, some savings my mother had hidden away over the years, and a soul-crushing silence we hadn’t been able to shake since we were cast out. We had left the Moonclaw estate just before dawn. No fanfare. No goodbye. Just shadows and guards who didn’t bother looking us in the eyes as we walked through the gates one last time. I didn’t cry when we left. I was numb. But now, as we stepped into the streets of a small, unfamiliar town—miles away from the forested wealth and elegance of the estate—I felt the tears burning at the edge of my eyes again. This place wasn’t much. The buildings were old but not falling apart. Simple brick and cement, most of them two

Serena The moment I named him, something inside me settled. “Ari,” I whispered as I held him close in the quiet of our little room. His skin still soft and warm, his silver eyes blinking up at me like they already knew too much. It was the name I’d chosen before he was even born. It meant lion-hearted. It meant brave. And to me, it meant mine. — Ari was the light that pulled me out of the darkest night of my life. He grew faster than I imagined. Within months, he was crawling across the floor with wild determination. By the time he turned two, he was running—bare feet slapping against the old wooden boards of our apartment, giggling as he chased the light pouring through the window. “Mama!” he shouted, his voice bright as morning. He called me that every day. Sometimes twenty times in a row, just to hear me say, yes, Ari? again and again. Other times, it was softer—when he was tired or scared or hurt. A little whisper as he reached for me, arms stretching w

Serena’s POV I didn’t sleep. Even with Ari safe, breathing gently beside me in the softest bed I’d ever touched—my body wouldn’t rest. Not while the woman who tried to hurt him still breathed down the hall. Not while the man who’d thrown us away two years ago stood at our door like a guard dog that finally remembered what it was supposed to protect. I sat by the window, watching the horizon shift from black to blue, waiting for the courage that had never truly left me. Kael had claimed Ari. And I’d seen the pain it cost him. The weight of it. The truth hitting him like a blade to the ribs. But that didn’t erase what he’d done. A father claiming his son isn’t redemption. It’s the bare minimum. — By morning, I’d made up my mind. Ari stirred beside me, and I bent low, kissing his damp curls. His skin was cooler now, his breathing steady. But his body was still weak. He needed peace. Safety. A mother’s love, not politics. And definitely not a mansion where