All Chapters of Rejected by My Alpha, Claimed by the Lycan King: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Lyra’s POVMy hands wouldn't stop shaking.I smoothed the front of my white ceremony dress for the third time, even though there was nothing left to smooth. Mira had sewn it herself, and it fit perfectly. That wasn't the problem."Stop fidgeting," Selene said from the doorway. She didn't look at me when she said it. She never really looked at me. "You'll wrinkle it before you even get there.""Sorry." I dropped my hands to my sides.She adjusted the pin in her own hair, checking her reflection in the mirror instead of checking mine. "Seraphine was ready an hour ago."Of course she was.I followed Selene out into the hallway, my bare feet cold against the wooden floor. Tradition said no shoes for the binding — nothing between a wolf and the earth on the night the moon chose her mate. I'd dreamed of this ceremony since I was twelve years old, watching older girls walk this same hallway toward their futures.Tonight it was mine.Kael had been distant the last few weeks. Busy with pack ma

Lyra’s POV My hands wouldn't stop shaking long enough to fold anything properly.I gave up on folding and just shoved things into the bag instead — a spare dress, my mother's old hairbrush, the small carved wolf Elias gave me when I was seven. Things that fit in my arms. Things that felt like mine, back when I still believed I had a place here.The candle on my desk had burned down to almost nothing. I didn't light another one. Dawn was close enough that the dark had started thinning at the edges of my window, gray instead of black."You don't have to do this alone."I spun around, heart slamming, and found Mira standing in my doorway with her own satchel already packed."Mira." I pressed a hand to my chest. "You scared me half to death.""Sorry." She stepped inside and shut the door softly behind her. "I couldn't sleep. I figured you couldn't either.""I have maybe an hour before I need to leave." I turned back to my bag, hands still trembling. "There's nothing to figure out. I just

Lyra's POV Firelight flickered against my closed eyelids before I even opened them.I woke slowly, my whole body heavy in a way that felt wrong, like I'd been carried somewhere instead of walking there myself. The ground beneath me was hard, but something warm covered me — a cloak, thick and unfamiliar, smelling faintly of woodsmoke and something else I couldn't name.I sat up too fast."Easy." A man's voice, low and steady, from somewhere close by. "You're safe."My whole body tensed. I scanned the small clearing quickly — a fire burning low between two logs, trees pressing close on every side, and no sign of the mist or the howls that had chased me through the border.Then I saw him.He sat across the fire, watching me with an intensity that made my skin prickle, silver eyes catching the firelight in a way that seemed almost inhuman. Tall, even sitting down I could tell that much, with shoulders built for carrying more weight than most men would ever need to."Where am I?" My voice

Lyra’s POVRowan hadn't gone for horses alone.He returned within the hour just as promised, but leading four additional riders behind him, all bearing the same silver wolf emblem stitched into their collars. At their head rode a broad-shouldered man with a scarred jaw and sharp, watchful eyes, who dismounted before his horse had even fully stopped."There's a border garrison two miles east," Rowan explained, before I could ask. "Cassian's men, stationed to watch the Mooncrest line. Didn't seem wise to ride three weeks through open country with just the two of us as escort.""Darius Blackmoor," the man said simply, offering me a short nod instead of a smile. "Captain of the Royal Guard. I was out here inspecting the border garrisons when Rowan came riding through looking for spare horses. Lucky timing, it seems. He filled me in on the short version — I'll want the long one eventually, but it can wait until we're moving."He was already crossing toward the ridge where the watchers had

Cassian’s POVI'd worn a path into my own study floor by the time Rowan found me."You're going to wear through the stone at this rate," he said, letting himself in without bothering to knock. "Should I be worried, or is this just your usual brooding taken to a new level?""I don't brood.""You absolutely brood. It's practically a second profession for you." He dropped into the chair across from my desk, watching me pace with the kind of patient amusement that only ten years of friendship earned a man. "But this feels different. What's wrong?"I stopped at the window instead of answering right away, staring down at the courtyard three stories below, though I wasn't really seeing it. My wolf had been restless since the moment we'd ridden through the gates — worse, if anything, now that Lyra was somewhere in this palace instead of riding at my side where I could see her."My wolf won't settle," I admitted finally. "Not since the border. It's like something in me expects her to vanish th