The Alpha’s Public Rejection

Blood beads slid down my palm, dripping onto the pure white fur rug, blooming like a mournful crimson flower.

At that moment, Selene returned.

She saw the blood on my hand and froze for a heartbeat before striding forward to grab my wrist.

"What happened to you? Have you lost your mind again!"

She pulled out the healer's kit, intending to bandage my wound, her brow furrowed with what seemed like genuine concern.

My entire body trembled. I wanted to howl, to demand answers, to lunge at her and tear her apart with my claws.

But I had no strength left.

"Just go. Go be with Darian."

"I don't need you here."

Her communication crystal chimed—Darian playing the wounded wolf again.

Selene answered without hesitation, then hurried away.

I reached out through the pack link to my liaison, ordering her to prepare transport.

"To the ancestral den!"

Time to reclaim what was mine.

When I arrived at the Stormclaw ancestral estate with the pup cradled in my arms, the entire pack erupted into chaos.

My grandfather and grandmother, the elder aunts and uncles, the pack elders—everyone gathered around us.

"Oh, my precious great-grandpup!"

Grandmother Aurora carefully took the child from my arms, her weathered face breaking into the widest smile I had seen in years.

"This pup was born during your time beyond the borders? That year you traveled to the distant territories?"

Grandfather Fenris was so moved his hands shook. He looked at me with eyes full of approval and pride.

"You actually kept a pup hidden from us! For three whole years!"

I explained that the pup had been sickly since birth, requiring care from healers in neutral territories far from pack lands. That was why we had kept him secret.

Now that he was healthy and strong, I had finally brought him home.

No one questioned this story.

No one knew that my heart had already died in that cold healers' den, alongside my unborn pup who never drew breath.

Grandfather scanned the empty entrance of the den, confusion crossing his features. "Where is Selene?"

"Busy, I suppose. I haven't seen much of her lately." My voice was carefully flat.

The rewards the elders bestowed upon me were staggering in their generosity.

Grandmother Aurora brought out her most treasured possessions—moon-silver rings passed down through generations, ancient territory maps inked on preserved hide, ceremonial daggers worth more than entire lesser packs' holdings. One ancestral relic after another, each beyond measure in value.

Grandfather Fenris transferred five percent of Stormclaw Holdings directly into my name, making me the youngest member of the Pack Council with a single declaration.

I smiled and accepted everything.

All of this was what I deserved.

It was what I had purchased with my pup's life.

No one knew that in the deepest corner of my private chambers, I had carved out a hidden space.

There were no expensive ceremonial robes or Alpha regalia stored there.

Only a small memorial tablet, carved from sacred blackwood.

No name was etched upon its surface.

Before the tablet lay a small rattle I had bought with my own hands but could never give, along with a few pitifully tiny garments meant for a newborn pup.

Every night, when the pack fell silent and the moons rose high, I would lock myself in that hidden corner.

I would hold that small tablet, running my fingers over its smooth surface again and again.

"Little one, your father is here."

"Little one, today your great-grandparents brought so many toys. If you were here, you would have them too."

"Little one, do you blame your father? Your father was useless, couldn't protect you..."

I never howled my grief aloud. I only let the tears fall silently, soaking into the wood I clutched against my chest.

The place where my heart should be felt like a wound that would never heal—cold wind rushing through the emptiness, the pain so sharp I could barely breathe.

That was the secret shared only between me and my lost pup.

Selene eventually returned to the ancestral den, but she did not dare approach me.

Grandfather Fenris, before the entire gathered pack, pointed his walking staff at her and snarled that she was a disgrace. Her mate and pup had returned home, yet she was nowhere to be found.

She was made to kneel in the ancestral shrine through the entire night, a punishment witnessed by all.

She probably could not understand how the Kael who once loved her desperately, who let her control him completely, had suddenly become this cold stranger.