Nightshade Mha

Ever since I was little, I knew my future mate would be one of two Alpha candidates: Mitchell or Jax. Even with all their Alpha pride, I never once doubted that set future. The pack elders always said it was natural for Alpha candidates to focus on getting stronger and controlling the pack. My mother, Lyra, even told me that every brutal fight they got into was so the winner could give me, their Luna, the ultimate honor. That is, until I and Elara – this Omega stray they'd taken in – got ambushed and captured by our old enemies, the Nightshade pack. Mitchell and Jax only had enough of the life-saving Moonpetal herb for one of us. And they both chose to give it to Elara. To save myself in that fire, I forced a shift. The power surge was too much. The heat twisted my cheekbone, and just like that, I was disfigured. After they dragged me out – like an afterthought – I watched those two future Alphas crying over Elara, who didn't have a scratch on her. "Thank the Moon Goddess, Elara, you're alive." "Once we sort out who's the new Alpha of Blackwood, whoever it is will give you the most honored spot right under the Luna, Elara. Don't you worry. We'll give you the best of everything our pack has, make sure you never suffer again." "Elara, you're the real Luna in our hearts." When I came to, I cut off that ridiculous mate bond for good. Empty promises and a trampled destiny? I was done with it. But after I left, they stayed by my cave every day, begging me to come back.

I thought being sold to pay my father's gambling debts was the worst thing that could happen to me. I was wrong. Dragged to an auction house for the supernatural elite, I became a blood servant to Lucian Aion, the coldest, most ruthless billionaire vampire in New York. He owns half the city, answers to no one, and treats humans like disposable toys. For two years, I survived his cruelty, his indifference, and the humiliation of being nothing more than his personal blood bag. I cleaned his penthouse, stayed invisible, and counted the days until my contract ended. But everything shattered the night I discovered I was pregnant. Impossible. Vampires can't have children with humans. Yet here I was, carrying what shouldn't exist. Before I could tell Lucian, I found him with Viviana Drakov in the council chamber, a pureblood vampire heiress and his ex-fiancée. She was pregnant too. And Lucian chose her. He threw me out into the streets like garbage, calling me a liar, a fraud, a desperate human trying to trap him. Fine. I'll survive. I always do. But three months later, when rogue vampires hunt me for the hybrid baby in my womb, Lucian comes crashing back into my life with a revelation that changes everything: I'm not human. I'm the last descendant of the Nightshade bloodline, vampire royalty everyone thought was extinct. My child isn't just a hybrid. It's the prophesied heir that will shift the balance of power in the supernatural world. And Viviana? She's been lying about everything. Now Lucian wants me back. His vampire council wants my baby. Viviana wants me dead. But they all forgot one thing: I'm done being anyone's victim. They wanted a war? They're about to get one.

"Ava, you don't have to do this. Come back to the pack." Hayes spoke, catching up to me. He's right. Why am I doing this? I'm his Luna, so why am I fleeing? Tears burning at the back of my eyes, I stare straight into his eyes. "I, Ava Chester, reject you, Hayes Reid, Alpha of Nightshade Pack as my Mate." Immediately the words left my lips, I felt something snap—my heart feeling torn—and my wolf winced. "I—I won't accept this rejection, Ava." He managed to say, amidst deep gasps. Wasn't he the same person who hated me from the very first day he saw me?! I saw pain—and something else I couldn't quite figure out—flash through his features as he bored his eyes into me, as if only realising now how much pain he had caused me. If anyone had told me two months ago that I would one day reject Hayes as my mate, I'd have had the person executed and his head put on a stake. •~. .~• Ava, betrothed to Hayes, is in love with him and has wanted nothing more than finally meeting him. But her fantasies of him had been nothing but that—mere fantasies, as she realises that Hayes wasn't who she had thought him to be. After loosing his mate, and brother to a rogue attack, Hayes is left as the new alpha of the pack without a chance to properly mourn his loss. With the sudden death of his mate, he decides to enclose his heart. As the new alpha, Hayes is faced with the duty of getting a Luna, especially as his betrothed has now reached marriageable age, despite him not wanting it. While still mourning the loss of his first mate, how, then, was he to crown another his Luna?