The Moonstone Hall glowed beneath the light of the full moon, its pillars carved with ancient runes that seemed to pulse with power as the pack gathered. My pulse thrummed in my ears, louder than the hushed whispers and shuffling feet around me. Tonight was supposed to be the night I had dreamed of since I was a girl—the night the Moon Goddess revealed my mate.

I had always known who it would be.

Kaelen Stormrider.

Alpha. Leader. The man whose very presence made the ground shift and the air grow heavy. He was strength, discipline, and untouchable authority. But he was also the boy I had once glimpsed from afar, the one whose storm-grey eyes haunted my dreams long before I understood what the mate bond meant.

Every fiber of me believed this night would bind us together forever.

And yet, as I stood in the ceremonial gown the elders had placed on me—white silk that shimmered like moonlight—I could barely keep my knees from trembling. My wolf, restless beneath my skin, paced in circles, anxious and hopeful all at once.

“She looks nervous,” someone whispered as I passed.

“She should be. The Alpha deserves better,” another sneered.

I kept my chin high, refusing to show weakness, though my stomach twisted with knots. I’d grown up hearing the rumors about me. Too quiet. Too timid. Too ordinary to be Luna. Still, I had clung to the belief that the Moon Goddess did not make mistakes. That She had chosen Kaelen for me, and me for him.

When I reached the dais, my breath hitched. Kaelen stood there, tall and unyielding, dressed in black that seemed to devour the torchlight. His face gave nothing away. His jaw was sharp, his posture rigid, and those storm-grey eyes fixed on me like cold steel.

I searched them desperately for warmth, for some flicker of the bond I knew tied us together.

But all I saw was distance.

The elder’s voice rang out, steady and ceremonial. “Moon Goddess, reveal the bond you have woven.”

The world stilled. For a heartbeat, nothing moved. Then the bond snapped into place with undeniable force. A thread of golden fire coiled around my chest and pulled toward Kaelen. My lungs filled with his essence—rain, wind, the sharp bite of a coming storm. My heart soared. My wolf howled with joy.

It was real. It was him.

My eyes burned with tears of relief. Finally. Finally, he’s mine.

But Kaelen’s lips parted, and the words that left them shattered me.

“I reject you.”

At first, I thought I had misheard. But the crowd’s collective gasp proved otherwise.

The bond twisted painfully, searing through me like molten glass. My knees buckled, and I gripped the edge of the dais to keep from collapsing.

Kaelen’s voice was as cold as the winter wind. “Aria Blackwood, you are not fit to be my Luna. I, Kaelen Stormrider, reject you as my mate.”

Every syllable cut into me.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My chest felt as though claws had ripped my heart straight from it.

Whispers erupted all around. Some sounded pitying. Most mocking.

“I knew it.”

“The Alpha would never choose her.”

“Pathetic.”

And then came the cruel laughter—Lyra Vale’s, sharp and triumphant, ringing above the rest.

I wanted to scream, to beg him to take the words back, but no sound left me. Only the echo of his rejection, replaying endlessly in my skull.

Kaelen didn’t even flinch. His eyes, those storm-cloud eyes I had once loved, were unreadable stone.

I forced myself to stand taller, though my insides were bleeding. I would not let them see me break. Not here. Not now.

Before I could find the strength to walk away, a voice rang out from the shadows.

“I’ll take her.”

The words crashed through the hall like thunder.

Gasps followed, louder than before. I turned, disoriented, and my gaze landed on him.

Darius.

Kaelen’s younger brother. The rebel. The wildfire. The one mothers warned their daughters about—the Stormrider who fought more than he spoke, who smirked at danger, who wore his scars like trophies. His dark eyes burned with something dangerous as he stepped forward.

“If my brother is too blind to see the gift the Goddess gave him,” Darius said, his tone mocking but his gaze locked fiercely on me, “then I claim her. Aria Blackwood is mine.”

Chaos exploded around us. Shouts. Outrage. The council leapt to their feet.

“This is forbidden!”

“The bond cannot be stolen!”

But Darius kept walking, unhurried, as though none of their fury touched him. He mounted the dais, closing the distance between us. My breath caught as he reached for me, his hand steadying me before I could stumble again. His touch was warm, grounding—so different from the icy void Kaelen had left behind.

“You can’t,” I whispered, my voice raw.

Darius leaned closer, just enough for me to hear him over the din. “Watch me.”

The world tilted on its axis. My wolf stirred uneasily, caught between pain and a strange new pull. It wasn’t the mate bond—but there was something undeniable, some fire that licked at my skin where his hand pressed against me.

I glanced at Kaelen, desperate for some reaction—anger, regret, anything. But his face was as cold and still as carved stone. He had rejected me, and now he stood there as his brother claimed what he had thrown away.

The humiliation was too much. My heart couldn’t take it.

I tore free from Darius’s grip and fled down the steps, ignoring the gasps, the whispers, the laughter that chased me out of the hall.

The night air struck my face like ice. I ran blindly, my ceremonial gown tangling at my ankles, my feet carrying me away from the torches and the eyes and the shame.

I didn’t know where I was going. Only that I had to get away.

The trees loomed ahead, dark and endless—the Shadow Woods. Every child in the pack grew up fearing it. They said witches lingered there, that restless spirits prowled between the mist. But fear meant nothing to me now.

Pain drowned out everything.

Branches clawed at my gown as I stumbled deeper into the woods. My chest burned as though Kaelen’s rejection was still tearing through me, ripping at my soul. My wolf whimpered, a broken sound that echoed inside me.

Rejected.

Unworthy.

Tears blurred my vision until I collapsed to my knees on the damp earth. My hands dug into the soil as though I could anchor myself, but nothing could hold back the flood of grief.

Hot tears poured down my cheeks. I pressed my forehead against the ground, wishing it would swallow me.

“Why?” My voice cracked in the darkness. “Why me? Why wasn’t I enough?”

The silence pressed in heavy around me.

But then—something shifted.

The air grew thick, charged. The shadows seemed to hum. And then a voice, soft and strange, brushed against the edges of my mind.

Rise, child of moon and shadow. This pain is only the beginning.

I froze. My breath caught, my tears stilled.

“Who’s there?” I whispered, my voice trembling.

No answer came. Only the eerie hush of the forest. Yet inside me, something flickered—a spark I had never felt before, small but undeniable.

It pulsed in my chest, warming the place where Kaelen’s rejection had left a wound.

Destiny had not just taken a twist on her, it actually

had only just begun