Rejected Luna, Crowned by the Strongest Alpha

I woke in a rogue wolf's bed on my mating night.

I was naked beneath a silver sheet.

Dark claw-marks bruised my hips, and bite marks burned across my mating bond.

My Alpha mate stood in the doorway with half his pack behind him.

My best friend - Beta's daughter covered her mouth, but I saw satisfaction flash in her eyes.

In one breath, I was rejected, stripped of my rank, and exiled from the pack.

But the stranger beside me said, "I will answer for what happened."

"Elara."

Alpha Darius Blackwood said my name as if it were something rotten on his tongue.

I dragged the sheet to my chest. The room swayed around me—the carved moon pillars, the candles burned down to puddles, the ceremonial white gown torn across the floor. I remembered drinking tea with Selena after the bonding feast. I remembered her smiling and telling me not to be nervous. After that, there was only darkness.

The man beside me sat up slowly. He was broad-shouldered, scarred, and completely unfamiliar. A bandage circled his ribs beneath dried blood. His black hair fell over eyes the color of winter steel.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

His jaw tightened. "Caelan."

"Get away from her!" Darius roared.

Guards surged forward. Caelan moved between them and me even while half-dressed and wounded. He did not bare his teeth. He only watched every blade pointed in my direction.

Selena rushed to Darius's side. She wore the pale blue dress I had given her for my wedding. "We searched everywhere to find you," she said. "Elara, how could you do this to him?"

"I didn't." My voice cracked. "I don't know how I came here. I don't remember anything after the tea."

Darius looked at the marks on my skin. His face hardened.

The pack healer examined me. She found moonroot in my blood but claimed the amount was too small to prove poisoning. She found no injuries that satisfied men already hungry for scandal. Every question became an accusation.

Why had I left the feast?

Why was I in an unused guest lodge?

Why had Caelan's scent soaked into my skin?

I had no answers.

Caelan stood before the council with blood seeping through his bandage. "I remember entering the lodge because assassins were tracking me. I remember a sweet scent in the room. After that, my memory is broken. Whatever judgment you pass, leave her out of it. I will take responsibility."

His offer felt like another cage.

"I don't want anything from you," I snapped.

Pain flickered across his expression, but he only bowed his head.

My father arrived by mirror call before noon. Alpha King Garrick Vane did not ask if I was hurt. He stared at me through the enchanted glass and measured the damage to his alliance.

"The marriage must proceed," he said.

For one desperate second, I thought he meant Darius and me.

"Beta Mara's daughter carries Silvercrest blood and came as part of Princess Elara's bridal household," my father continued. "Selena Crowe will marry Alpha Darius in Elara's place. The alliance remains intact."

Selena began to cry beautifully. "I could never replace her."

Darius took her hand.

Something inside me went silent.

I had defended Selena since childhood. I had shared my tutors, jewels, and secrets with her. When noble girls mocked her for being a beta's daughter, I had broken one girl's nose.

Now she wore my gift and accepted my groom.

"You planned this," I said.

Her tears stopped for half a heartbeat.

"The tea—"

"Enough," my father said. "Do not deepen our shame."

The rejection ceremony began at sunset.

I stood barefoot in the Moon Court while hundreds watched from the stone terraces. Darius faced me in ceremonial black, Selena waiting behind him like a pale shadow. The priests cut our palms and pressed them to opposite sides of a moonstone altar.

We had not completed a true mate bond, but the ritual had already tied our wolves together. Breaking it felt like dragging burning hooks through my bones.

Darius spoke first. "I, Alpha Darius Blackwood of Ashborne, reject Elara Vane as my chosen mate and future Luna."

My wolf screamed.

My knees struck the stone. Heat tore down my spine, then changed to ice. I tasted blood. The crowd watched me shake while Selena slipped her arm through Darius's.

The priest ordered me to answer.

I lifted my head. "I accept your rejection."

The bond snapped.

Agony hollowed me out. I heard Caelan snarl from where guards restrained him. His eyes had turned completely silver.

Because his presence had caused the scandal, the elders declared him an enemy guest and expelled him from Ashborne territory. Because I had dishonored two ruling houses, they stripped my bridal rank and banished me beside him.

At the border, guards threw down my cloak and one small bag. Caelan landed on his feet when they shoved him. I did not.

He offered his hand.

I slapped it away.

"Don't touch me."

"All right," he said quietly. "But night is coming. We should move."

"There is no we."

I turned south toward Silvercrest. Before I had taken ten steps, a royal messenger emerged from the trees. He carried my father's seal and would not meet my eyes.

"Princess Elara Vane is dead to the crown," he recited. "She is forbidden from entering Silvercrest land. Anyone offering her shelter will answer for treason."

The messenger dropped a broken silver circlet at my feet.

My mother's circlet.

I stared at it until the forest blurred.

The kingdom that had demanded my obedience had erased me in a sentence. My fiancé had married my friend. My father had traded me for peace. Even my mother's memory had been broken and thrown into mud.

I sank beside the road and pressed both hands over my mouth, but the sound that escaped me was not human.

Caelan waited several paces away. He did not touch me. He did not tell me to stop crying.

When the last light vanished, he placed his coat on the ground within my reach.

"I have a place where Garrick Vane's orders mean nothing," he said. "Hate me if you need to, Elara. But don't freeze for people who abandoned you."

I looked at the stranger whose scent made my wounded wolf lift her head.

"Why do you care?"

His gaze held mine. "Because I woke in that room too. Because someone used both of us. And because, whether you believe it or not, I would rather cut out my own heart than hurt you again."

I hated the warmth his words gave me.

I hated that I reached for his coat.