"Every pack in the valley had their Alpha… and I had the misfortune of marking the one who didn't want me."
The full moon hung low, silver and heavy, casting a pale glow over the clearing. Frost glimmered on the tips of the grass, turning the ground into a field of tiny stars. The pack had gathered in rigid silence, the kind that spoke of fear, loyalty, and curiosity. Every heartbeat around me thumped like a drum… except one. His.
Alpha Draven stood at the center, a tower of authority and menace. Even the wind seemed to hesitate in his orbit. His dark eyes scanned the crowd, sharp and predatory, until they landed on me. No pull. No recognition.
I could feel every pair of eyes burning into me, a collective anticipation that made my skin prickle. They expected something—pleading, trembling, tears, collapse. They wanted drama. A Luna who had been rejected would shatter. That was the tradition. That was the rule.
Not me.
"I have chosen my Luna," Draven's voice cut through the clearing, low and cold as obsidian. "And she is not you."
A ripple ran through the crowd, whispers echoing under the silver moonlight. Some gasped. Some froze, uncertain if their eyes were deceiving them. And the Luna beside Draven… she smiled, the kind of delicate, controlled smile that screamed privilege and manipulation.
I said nothing. My arms remained crossed. My jaw was firm. My pulse steady. I had anticipated this moment. I had prepared. I had expected betrayal, humiliation, rejection. But I had not expected the mark to appear.
Because it did.
Pain, sharp and searing, exploded across my wrist. The heat was intense, blinding even. My vision blurred for a heartbeat as every nerve in my body flared. And then… I felt the mark.
His mark.
The mate bond.
The crowd froze. Eyes widened, whispers turned to frantic murmurs. Their collective gaze weighed on me, but I felt nothing. Not the slightest pull. Not a spark of desire. Not the faintest trace of destiny.
Draven's eyes, dark and stormy, locked onto me. The Alpha who had so confidently rejected me now faced a reality he could not command. My body bore his claim, but my soul remained untouchable, untamed.
I felt a small, bitter amusement. He was human beneath the mask of authority. Even an Alpha could be unsettled when the rules bent against him.
"Do you… feel it?" His voice, usually unwavering, carried a note of tension. Almost a growl. Dangerous. Fragile. Like admitting uncertainty could shatter him completely.
I met his gaze evenly. Calm. Cold. "No," I said softly, letting the single word stretch over the stunned silence. "I feel nothing."
A tremor ran through the assembly. The Luna beside him stiffened. His advisors exchanged worried glances. Draven's jaw clenched, shadow flickering across his face. Pride, control, dominance—all threatened by a single heartbeat that refused to bend.
"You will learn," he said finally, low and dangerous, eyes narrowing into slits. "The bond does not lie. One day… you will."
I smiled faintly. A hint of challenge playing across my lips. "Maybe. But not today."
The pack parted automatically as I turned. Every step deliberate, silent, powerful. Behind me, I felt the Alpha's gaze burn a trail across my back, frustration and obsession mixing in a storm I couldn't yet touch… but would.
The moonlight glinted off the claws of the warriors lining the clearing. Their breaths steamed in the cold night air, synchronized like a ritual heartbeat. I noticed the subtle shifts in the pack hierarchy—who moved closer, who whispered to whom, who dared glance at Draven and then away in fear.
The council members, stoic as stone, hid their panic poorly. An Alpha's mistake was rare. This… this was unprecedented. A mate rejected publicly, yet still marked.
I could feel the whispers following me: "She's the Luna who doesn't bend." "The bond has failed… somehow." "Does the Moon Goddess herself watch over her?"
I ignored them all. Their curiosity, their fear, their judgment—it was meaningless. What mattered was me, and the storm that had just begun.
My mind drifted briefly to the moment the mark burned into my skin. The pain had been sharp, yes, but also… different. Unlike any marking I had seen before. A mate bond was supposed to bind, pull, ignite. Mine… did none of those things. Instead, it whispered of challenge, defiance, and danger.
Draven, of course, did not understand this. How could he? He was used to obedience. Submission. Women who melted beneath his stare, who begged to be claimed. And now, he had a mate who was untouchable—not by him, not by fate, not by the Moon Goddess herself.
I walked to the edge of the clearing, letting the pack part for me like water around a stone. The cold bit at my skin, but I barely noticed. My mind was already calculating, planning, predicting. Every slight, every snub, every cruel word he had directed at me over the years—I stored it all. Not for vengeance. Not yet. But for power.
Draven's voice came then, softer, almost pleading. "Do not think you are untouchable. One day, this defiance will burn you."
I laughed softly, a sound that carried faintly over the frost-covered grass. "Perhaps. But not tonight, Alpha."
And as I disappeared into the shadows at the edge of the clearing, I sensed his eyes following me still. Not just watching—but analyzing, calculating, obsessed. He did not yet know that the mark he thought was meaningless would become the very thing that drew him to me.
The wind whispered through the trees, carrying the scent of the pack and the lingering trace of him. My own heartbeat was steady, deliberate, and unafraid. Tonight, I had survived. Tonight, I had endured. But tomorrow… tomorrow, the game began.
Because I was the Luna who could not feel.
And he was the Alpha who could not control.
And somewhere in the tension between us, a bond had already begun to twist, unseen, unyielding, inevitable.