The ceremony flames flickered in the wind, casting long shadows across the clearing. Tonight was supposed to be the most important night of Raina's life — the night she turned eighteen and the Moon Goddess revealed her mate.
The pack stood in a wide circle, eyes glowing under the moonlight. Some whispered excitedly, others stared at her with pity. She tried not to hear them. She tried to believe tonight would be magical.
Her heart thudded as she stepped forward in her simple silver dress. She wasn't like the others — born an omega, raised without parents, and always taught to stay quiet. But the Moon Goddess didn't care about bloodlines, did she?
She pressed her hand to her chest, silently praying.
Please… let me belong to someone.
The Alpha approached from the other side of the circle — tall, fierce, and impossibly beautiful. Kael, leader of the Blackfang Pack. His aura was impossible to ignore — raw dominance, barely restrained violence. His black shirt clung to his broad chest, and his dark eyes glowed gold in the firelight.
Raina's breath caught. Her wolf stirred for the first time.
Mate.
Their eyes locked. She felt it in her bones, like a thread snapping into place between them. Her soul screamed his name. Her knees nearly gave out.
Whispers echoed across the crowd.
"An omega? No way."
"She's his mate?"
"Impossible…"
Kael stepped closer, his gaze hard and unreadable. The fire cracked loudly between them.
He stopped a breath away from her. His jaw clenched. She waited for the words that would change her life forever.
And then he said that to them.
"I, Alpha Kael of the Blackfang Pack, reject you as my mate."
The world went silent.
Raina couldn't breathe. She felt the air leave her lungs as if she'd been punched.
She blinked, confused. "What…?"
Kael's voice was harsher this time, meant for everyone to hear.
"You are weak. Pathetic. You would shame me as Luna. I reject you."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Someone laughed cruelly.
"No…" Raina whispered.
The pain hit her chest like a steel claw, ripping straight through her. Her wolf howled inside her mind, heartbroken. Her knees buckled, and she dropped to the ground.
Her hands trembled on the dirt. "Please don't…"
Kael didn't even flinch. He turned away like she was trash.
"Leave my pack. You have no place here."
The warriors closed in. She didn't fight as they grabbed her arms. She couldn't. Her body felt cold, heavy, like her soul had been drained.
The last thing she saw before being dragged away was Kael — standing tall, proud, already looking at another she-wolf in the crowd.
They dumped her just outside the pack's border — in the dead of night, in the middle of the forest, without a coat or shoes.
"No one will come for you," one of the warriors sneered. "Don't get eaten."
The gate closed behind them.
Raina lay in the dirt, shaking. Her wolf was silent. Her mark burned. Her heart ached so loudly it drowned out everything else.
She curled into herself as the cold crept in, tears falling freely now. Her life was over. There was nothing left. She was unwanted. Rejected.
Useless.
She didn't hear the creature approach.
The crunch of footsteps snapped her eyes open. She jolted upright, heart racing.
Out of the trees stepped a tall, cloaked figure — not one of Kael's men, and not a rogue either. He moved gracefully, like he owned the world, and the shadows bent around him like they feared him.
His face was hidden under a dark hood. But she saw glowing silver eyes peeking through.
"I saw what he did," the voice said — deep, smooth, with something ancient in it. "I felt your pain from miles away."
She tried to speak, but her voice cracked. "W-Who are you?"
The man crouched in front of her. He reached out, slowly, gently — not to hurt her… but to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
And then he said something that made her blood stop cold.
"You don't belong to him, Raina. You were never his. You belong to me."