Semua Bab Rejected By My Alpha, Chosen By His Ruthless Brother. : Bab 1 - Bab 10

"I, Alpha Kael Blackwood, reject you, Aurora Ashwood, as my true mate." The words hit her like a fist to the ribs. Aurora's knees locked. For one absurd second she thought she had misheard him, that the wind off the training fields had twisted his voice into something cruel. Then she saw his face. Calm. Certain. Not even the decency to look ashamed. Three years of quiet promises, of late nights spent planning a future together, and he stood there delivering her destruction with the same composed expression he used for approving trade agreements. Around them, the entire Moonfang Pack stood frozen under the rising moon, hundreds of eyes swinging from their Alpha to the woman he had just humiliated in front of every soul who mattered. The Mate Ceremony altar, draped in silver cloth and moonflowers she had helped weave herself that morning, suddenly felt like a stage built for her execution. "Kael." Her voice cracked hard on his name, and she hated herself for it. "Why?" "Selene will

"Stand down, brother." Kael's voice shook with the effort of forcing command back into it, every syllable trembling at the edges despite how hard he was clearly fighting to sound certain. "Release her, or so help me, brother or not, I will call every warrior in this pack against you." "You could try it," Darius said, and something in the flatness of it made the threat sound almost bored. The two brothers faced each other across the frozen clearing, and Aurora, still caught in the circle of Darius's arm, felt the tension between them settle over the crowd like a second, heavier weight than the one that had already dropped everyone to their knees. No one moved to enforce Kael's threat. No one dared. She could feel the eyes of every warrior in the clearing calculating odds none of them liked, weighing loyalty to their Alpha against the very real possibility that answering his call meant walking straight into something none of them would walk back out of. "You have no authority here at

"He humiliated me tonight, in front of everyone." Selene's voice cracked through her private chambers, sharp enough that the two advisors seated across from her flinched in unison. She hadn't bothered changing out of the frost colored gown from the ceremony, hadn't bothered doing anything except pace the length of the room since the moment Darius Blackwood walked out of that clearing with a prize that was supposed to have made her the most envied woman in three territories, a prize she'd spent a year positioning herself to claim. Every step she took across the stone floor felt like it was grinding down another layer of the composure she'd spent years perfecting, until she wasn't entirely certain how much of it remained. "My lady, the situation is unusual, but hardly a reflection on you personally, if I may say so." "Everyone in that clearing watched me get overshadowed by a rejected nobody in front of every witness that mattered tonight." Selene rounded on the advisor, a thin, nervo

The scream never came.That was the strangest part, Aurora would think later, turning the memory over again and again in the hours that followed. She never got the chance to scream at all, and some part of her would spend a long time wondering whether a scream might have changed anything at all that night.She woke to a hand clamped over her mouth and a blade already pressed flat against her throat, cold enough to sting, close enough that she felt every tremor in the arm holding it there. Moonlight spilled through the window she hadn't thought to check before sleeping, and by its pale light she caught the shape of a hood, a stranger's eyes, and nothing else before her body locked with terror too absolute for thought. Her mind screamed at her to fight, to twist away, to do something, and still her body refused to obey, pinned by a fear more complete than anything she'd felt even at the altar hours earlier. Somewhere distant and useless, a part of her noted the room still smelled of

"Again. Faster this time." Two days had passed since Darius walked out that door to finally answer his father's second summons, and he still hadn't told her what was said behind those closed doors, only that training would keep her sharper than waiting ever could. Thorne circled her slowly and steadily across the wide practice yard, broad shoulders relaxed in the deceptive way of a man who had survived three decades of combat by never once looking as dangerous as he actually was. Aurora squared her stance firmly, wooden practice blade heavy in her tight grip, sweat already stinging her eyes despite the cool morning air, her muscles aching in places she hadn't known could ache at all until roughly two hours ago. The yard around them had begun to fill with early risers, warriors stretching before drills of their own. "I've been at this for two full hours already now," she said, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of one trembling hand. "My arms feel like solid lead right now, Thor