Rejected By Childhood Mate, Reborn In Power

I was born without a father, and my mother, Harmoni Castro, the Luna of our pack, treated me with cold indifference. The most frequent words she spoke to me were, “Have you trained today?”

She never cared about my life, my joys or sorrows—only my progress in training.

It wasn’t until I found a book on emotional detachment in her room that I understood. My mother wasn’t incapable of love; she had simply mastered the path of detachment. She didn’t understand what love was.

As I grew older, she demanded I follow the same path.

But by then, I had already met Jaxson Harper. His kindness and patience were a stark contrast to my mother’s coldness. The simple, genuine affection of a young werewolf had taken root in my heart, and I refused to become as emotionless as my mother.

So, while I outwardly obeyed her and trained in the path of detachment, I deliberately made a mistake when I was one step away from mastering it.

Now, I was just one move away from achieving complete emotional detachment.

I knelt on the training mat, feeling the dual sensations of searing heat and biting cold coursing through my body.

It felt as though my heart was being stripped bare, layer by layer—every thread of emotion, every ounce of love and hate, torn away until only raw, beating flesh remained.

I could almost hear it screaming in pain, as if those deeply rooted emotions were intertwined with my very being, their removal leaving me bloodied and raw.

A single tear slid down my cheek. When I opened my eyes again, I had mastered the path of detachment.

I took a deep breath, feeling my power surge to its peak. I knew I would perform well in the upcoming Pack Trials.

I straightened up and stepped out of the training room, only to be met by Cohen Powell, one of the Deltas in our pack, rushing toward me with a panicked expression.

“Thea, the Beta—Jaxson—he told me to tell you not to wander off these next few days. He said he’ll come to explain everything once he’s finished with his duties.”

Oh, I had almost forgotten. Today was the day Jaxson was performing the mark ceremony with his mate.

I shook my head, my voice distant and cool. “No need. I’ll be busy with training. I don’t have time for irrelevant matters.”

For me now, nothing mattered but training. Everything else was trivial.