From Rejected to Royalty

I slipped back into the Silvermoon Pack house just before dawn, when I knew most pack members would still be sleeping off the festival. My eyes burned from hours of crying, but no more tears would come. All I felt now was a hollow ache where my heart used to be.

The silver dress I'd been so proud of hours earlier hung in tatters around my knees—I'd torn it climbing through the forest in the dark. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing did, except getting my few precious belongings and disappearing before anyone could witness my humiliation in the harsh light of day.

I crept up the stairs to the small room I'd been given at the edge of the pack house—not in the family wing where Steven lived, of course. Never there. Always at the periphery, just like my place in the pack. Seven years, and I'd never truly belonged.

'Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?'

Steven's voice froze me at the top of the stairs. He stood in the shadows of the foyer, his face half-hidden in darkness. I hadn't sensed him—I never could, without a wolf of my own.

'What's there to say?' My voice sounded strange to my own ears, raw and brittle. 'You made your choice very clear tonight.'

He stepped forward, and I hated how my traitorous heart still leapt at the sight of him—sandy hair tousled, blue eyes bloodshot. Had he been drinking? Celebrating?

'Lauren, you have to understand.' His tone was placating, the same one he'd used countless times when pack members had slighted me. 'The pack needs a strong Luna—'

'Don't.' The word shot from me like a bullet. 'Don't you dare make this about the pack.'

Something in my voice must have surprised him. His eyes widened slightly.

'Seven years, Steven.' The words tumbled out, gaining strength. 'Seven years I waited for you to mark me. Seven years I endured your sister's cruelty, your mother's cold shoulders, the whispers, the jokes—all because you promised me it would be worth it in the end.'

'I never meant to hurt you.' His face hardened, defensiveness replacing guilt. 'But be reasonable. You don't have a wolf. How could you ever be a proper Luna?'

The truth I'd always feared, finally spoken aloud.

'Then why?' I demanded, my voice rising. 'Why string me along? Why let me believe we had a future?'

'Because I felt sorry for you!' he shouted, his composure finally cracking. 'The sad little orphan girl with no wolf, no family, no pack. What was I supposed to do when the Moon Goddess played this sick joke on me?'

Each word was a knife, but at least now I was bleeding truth instead of lies.

'You could have rejected me years ago,' I whispered. 'Given me a chance to find someone who actually wanted me.'

'And look weak to my pack?' He laughed bitterly. 'I'm going to be Alpha. I couldn't reject my fated mate without a replacement.'

'So I was just a placeholder until you worked up the courage to claim Jessica?'

His silence was answer enough.

'How long?' I asked, needing to know the full extent of the betrayal. 'How long have you been with her?'

He looked away. 'It doesn't matter.'

'It matters to me!'

'Three years,' he muttered.

Three years. Half our relationship had been a lie.

The sound of slow, deliberate applause cut through our standoff. Sarah stood at the entrance to the family wing, her smirk visible even in the dim light.

'Bravo,' she drawled. 'The wolfless wonder finally figured it out. Only took you half a decade.'

I turned away, determined not to give her the satisfaction of seeing me break. 'I'm getting my things and leaving.'

'Oh, these things?' Sarah's voice dripped with malice as she followed me to my room, Steven trailing behind.

She reached my nightstand before I could, snatching up the simple silver frame that held the only photo I had of my parents—taken months before the car accident that orphaned me at eight years old.

'Sarah, don't,' Steven warned, but there was no real authority in his voice.

'What's the matter, brother?' she taunted. 'Worried about the feelings of this human lover? This wolfless nothing who almost contaminated our bloodline?'

Before I could react, she dropped the frame to the floor and ground her heel into it, the glass cracking with a sound that echoed the breaking of my heart.

'No!' I lunged forward, falling to my knees to gather the shattered pieces, cutting my fingers on the broken glass.

Something snapped inside me then—not just my heart, but the last thread of hope that had kept me tethered to this place, to these people. To him.

I rose slowly, blood dripping from my fingertips onto the wooden floor. The room had gone deadly quiet.

'I, Lauren Mitchell,' I began, my voice steady despite the trembling in my limbs, 'reject you, Steven Hayes, future Alpha of Silvermoon Pack, as my mate.'

Steven's face drained of color. 'Lauren, don't—'

'I sever the bond forced upon us by the Moon Goddess.' The ancient words flowed through me, power I didn't know I possessed. 'I reclaim my heart, my soul, and my future from this false union.'

Pain exploded between us as the bond began to tear. Steven doubled over, gasping.

'I walk away from you freely, unburdened by your name, your pack, or your claim.'

With the final word, something snapped inside my chest—a whip crack of agony that stole my breath but cleared my mind. For the first time in seven years, I felt truly, terribly free.

I turned my back on Steven's shocked face and Sarah's wide eyes, clutching the broken frame to my bleeding heart.

I was done being anyone's placeholder.