I was rejected by the Alpha who promised to love me, and claimed by the monster who would burn the world for me.

The moment I smelled him, my heart stopped beating.

Mate.

The word slammed into my soul like lightning.

For eighteen years, I had prayed for this moment. Eighteen years of being called cursed. Wolfless. Mistake. The omega who couldn't shift, couldn't hear her wolf, couldn't even grow claws when the other girls did at thirteen.

My mother died giving birth to me. My father never forgave me for it. The pack never let me forget it.

But all that pain was supposed to end tonight. Tonight was my eighteenth birthday. The night every wolf finds their mate.

And I found mine.

He stood in the center of the pack house, surrounded by light and power. Alpha Kaden Blackwood.

He was twenty-one now. Taller, broader, his black hair cut short, his jaw sharp. The Alpha title had settled on him perfectly after his father's death last winter. He wore his black ceremonial Alpha jacket, and every unmated she-wolf in the room was staring at him like he was the Moon God himself.

He was my best friend. Once.

When we were kids, before I knew I was wolfless, before everyone decided I was nothing, Kaden used to hold my hand and promise he'd protect me. He used to chase the boys who threw stones at me. He used to sneak me extra bread when my father locked me in the attic without food.

"Don't worry, Aria," he would whisper back then. "When we grow up, I'll make you my Luna and no one will ever hurt you again."

I held onto those words for ten years.

I should have let them go.

My legs were shaking as I pushed through the crowd of beautifully dressed she-wolves. My dress was old, faded blue, two sizes too big. My shoes were scuffed. I hadn't been invited to the ceremony — omegas never were — but tonight was different. Tonight was my birthday. The Goddess couldn't be that cruel.

"Kaden," I whispered.

My voice was so small I thought he wouldn't hear me over the music.

But he did.

His head snapped toward me instantly. His nostrils flared. His golden-brown eyes widened.

He smelled it too. The mate bond. Sweet, intoxicating, undeniable. Like pine and snow and something that was just... us.

For one perfect, stupid second, I saw his lips part. I saw his eyes soften. I thought he was going to smile. I thought he was going to say my name the way he used to.

Then his father’s Beta, a tall man named Marcus, stepped beside him and whispered something in his ear. I didn't hear what it was. But I saw Kaden's face change.

The softness vanished. Replaced by something cold. Something disgusted.

"You?" He said, and his voice was not soft anymore. It was loud. So loud the music stopped. So loud the entire hall turned to look at us. "You think YOU are my mate?"

A ripple of shocked laughter went through the crowd.

My cheeks burned hotter than fire. "Kaden... please... it's me... Aria..."

"Don't say my name," he snarled, taking a step back like my scent offended him. "Don't you ever say my name with that wolfless mouth."

I flinched. "But the mate bond—"

"There is no bond!" He shouted, and his Alpha voice made the chandeliers shake. The younger wolves whimpered and lowered their heads. "The Moon Goddess would never be so cruel to pair an Alpha like me with a cursed, wolfless omega like you! You can't shift! You have no wolf! You are weak! You are a disgrace to this pack!"

Every word was a knife. Each one deeper than the last.

I was crying now, openly. I couldn't stop it. "Kaden, you promised... you said you'd protect me..."

"I was a child!" He laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Do you really think I would make YOU my Luna? My father has already arranged my mating with Selene, daughter of Alpha Magnus of the Northern Pack. She has a pure white wolf. She is strong. She is worthy. What are you?"

I had no answer. I was nothing. That's what they had always told me.

My father was in the crowd. I saw him. He didn't look at me. He stared at the floor, ashamed that his cursed daughter was making a scene.

Kaden saw I was broken, and he decided to finish it.

He stepped forward, grabbed my chin roughly, forcing me to look into his eyes. His claws had extended slightly. His wolf was close to the surface, angry.

"I, Alpha Kaden Blackwood, of the Blood Moon Pack," he said, each word slow and deliberate, so the Goddess herself could hear it, "reject you, Aria Thorne, as my mate and Luna."

Silence.

Then pain.

Oh Goddess, the pain.

It wasn't emotional. It was physical. It was spiritual. It felt like someone reached into my chest, grabbed my heart and my soul and ripped them in half. A white-hot, blinding agony that started in my chest and shot through every vein, every nerve.

I screamed. I screamed so loud my throat bled. I fell to my knees, clutching my chest, gasping for air that wouldn't come. The bond was snapping. Tearing. Bleeding.

Through my tears, I saw Kaden stumble back, his own hand flying to his chest. He felt it too. Rejection hurts both mates. But he hid it quickly behind anger.

"Get her out of here," he ordered his warriors, his voice hoarse. "She is no longer part of this pack. She is banished."

Two large warriors grabbed my arms. I was too weak to fight. My whole body was shaking from the rejection pain.

They dragged me across the marble floor, past the staring, whispering, laughing crowd. Past my father who still wouldn't look at me.

The large oak doors of the pack house were thrown open. Outside, a blizzard was raging. Snow fell hard and fast.

They threw me out like trash.

I landed hard on the frozen ground, my knees scraping, my palms bleeding. My thin dress offered no protection from the wind.

"Don't ever come back, wolfless girl," one warrior spat before slamming the doors shut.

The lights from the pack house went out. The music started again inside. They were celebrating. Without me.

I lay in the snow for a long time, crying until I had no tears left, shaking until I couldn't feel my fingers.

I had nowhere to go. No family. No pack. No mate.

So I did the only thing left.

I stood up, barefoot, bleeding, broken, and walked into the Forbidden Forest.

Everyone knows the stories. No wolf goes into the Forbidden Forest and returns. It belongs to monsters older than werewolves. Lycans. Demons. The dark things that even Alphas fear.

Good. Let them take me. Let it be over.

The deeper I walked, the darker it got. The trees were so tall they blocked the moon. The snow was up to my ankles, then my knees. My feet were numb. My dress was soaked.

I finally collapsed against a large, ancient tree, my energy completely gone. My eyes fluttered closed.

Just before darkness took me, I thought I heard footsteps. Large. Heavy. Not human. Not werewolf.

And a pair of glowing golden eyes watching me from the shadows.

A deep, low, inhumanly beautiful voice growled through the blizzard:

"Who dared hurt what is mine?"