THE REJECTION

The heavy oak door swung open, hitting the wall with a dull thud. Elowen stood in the doorway, her vision swimming through the haze of a brutal, unguided shift. Her burning eyes locked onto the source of that intoxicating scent of rain-soaked pine and dark spices.

It was him.

Krovos Ebonlith.

The cruel alpha’s son who had made her life a living hell. The boy who physically abused her ever since his girlfriend—her stepsister—ran away.

The Moon Goddess must harbor a deep, sickening hatred for her to orchestrate this twisted joke. Krovos was her destined mate.

Inside the study room, the heavy presence of four powerful men pressed down on the air. Alpha Vorick, Alpha Xarion, her own father Beta Varkas, and Krovos had been deep in discussion. Now, a suffocating silence swallowed the room. The tension shattered the moment Elowen crossed the threshold.

Krovos stared at her. The intoxicating scent weaving between them was undeniable. Recognition dawned on his harsh features, twisting rapidly into pure disgust. Humiliation radiated from him in dark, suffocating waves. He clenched his fists at his sides, his chest heaving with mounting fury.

He refused to accept this sacred bond. He would rather die than mate with the girl he despised.

"I, Krovos Ebonlith, reject you as my mate. May our bond severe for good! I don’t accept you as my mate!" Krovos roared the formal declaration, his voice echoing off the stone walls for all the men to hear.

Elowen stood frozen. Her battered body swayed on the spot. She stared with empty eyes at the vicious bully who had tormented her for a year. Exhaustion clawed at her bones. She possessed zero desire to mate with her tormentor.

She looked him dead in the eyes and parted her trembling lips.

"I accept your rejection."

The words left her mouth in a weak, breathless whisper.

The severing of the sacred bond struck her like a physical blow. A raw metaphysical agony ripped through her chest, tearing her soul in half. This unseen devastation crashed into the already excruciating physical pain of her unguided shift. Her feverish body gave out. Her knees buckled, and she crashed to the hardwood floor. Darkness swarmed the edges of her vision. The last fading sight she registered was her father, Varkas, abandoning his stoic posture and rushing toward her fallen form.

Then, the world faded to black.

Elowen woke up to a stark, gray ceiling. The familiar dampness of the lonely omega’s quarters greeted her blurred senses. A dull, throbbing ache radiated from her chest to the tips of her toes.

Varkas sat quiet beside her narrow bed. Dark circles lined his eyes. The moment he noticed her stirring, he leaned forward and tentatively reached out a hand to check her feverish forehead.

Elowen jerked her head away, avoiding his touch.

"You stopped caring about me a long time ago, father. Leave me alone like you always do." Her voice dripped with ice, cutting through the quiet room.

Varkas froze. His extended hand hovered awkwardly in the air before he pulled it back. He straightened his spine, finding his cold composure once more. His face morphed into a mask of devastating, bureaucratic indifference. He looked at his daughter not as a father, but as a high-ranking pack official delivering a verdict.

"Due to ancient pack superstition, a rejected mate is deemed a dangerous symbol of bad luck. The alpha is formally banishing you. You are ordered to pack your belongings and leave the Ebonlith pack by tomorrow." Varkas delivered the words with zero emotion.

Elowen laid there in stunned silence. The suffocating weight of this bleak reality crushed the remaining breath from her lungs. She had survived the agony of the rejection, only to be cast out like garbage.

Varkas stood up and walked toward the wooden door. His hand grasped the knob, but he paused, glancing back over his shoulder to drop a final, soul-crushing blow.

"Because you did not go through your first shift smoothly, it has severely weakened your wolf spirit. There is a high probability you will lose your wolf forever."

The door clicked shut behind him.

Left alone in the quiet room, Elowen curled into a tight ball. The silence was deafening. The threat of losing her wolf—the very essence of her identity—tore at whatever fragments of her heart remained. They were throwing her away. She had to pack. She had to leave before tomorrow.

Across the pack house, a storm raged inside the alpha’s office.

Krovos paced the floor like a caged beast. His chest heaved with ragged breaths. The scent of rain-soaked pine was gone, replaced by the bitter tang of his own fury. He glared across the mahogany desk at Alpha Vorick.

"I don’t care, father, she will not go anywhere. She will stay as a servant in the pack house!" Krovos demanded, slamming his fist onto the polished wood.

Vorick remained seated, steepling his fingers. His expression was a stone wall.

"You rejected her, Krovos. A rejected mate brings bad luck to the clan. She must be banished." Vorick cited the ancient law with an unyielding tone.

"That is a stupid, archaic superstition!" Krovos snapped, baring his teeth.

He refused to grant Elowen the freedom to leave his grasp. She belonged here, under his heel. The thought of her walking out of the territory, free from his torment, made his blood boil.

But as his anger flared, a sudden, haunting image flashed across his mind. Elowen crumbling to the floor. Her pale, sweaty face. Her frail, battered body hitting the hardwood after his impulsive, angry rejection.

His breath hitched. He knew she had been burning up with fever. He knew she had been desperately struggling through her first shift alone in the dark. The realization hit him like a freight train. The brutal metaphysical blow of his rejection on top of a shifting body could very well kill her wolf spirit.

He had wanted to punish her. He had wanted to break her. But he never intended to destroy her inner wolf.

Krovos raked a hand through his hair. His twisted possessiveness clawed at his chest. He could not stop thinking about her. He could not stop picturing her broken form lying on the ground. The thought of Elowen dying or leaving drove him to the edge of madness.

"She is not leaving." Krovos ground out the words, his voice dropping to a dark, obsessive register. "She stays."

Without waiting for his father to argue, Krovos spun on his heel and stormed out of the office.