My Fated Alpha Rejected Me, So I Chose His Rival

My Alpha mate and I survived a deadly rogue attack years ago. He held my bleeding body and swore to the moon that I would be his only Luna.

But today, his cold voice echoed through the pack mind-link, officially announcing his mating ceremony with another high-ranking woman.

When I returned to the pack manor, his mother humiliated me by using her aura to press my Omega nature into the floor.

His new fiancée mocked my low status and flaunted her custom-made diamond ring-the very ring I had designed for my own coronation.

To keep me around as a hidden pet, Kael even arranged for me to marry a cheap, low-ranking lookalike of himself.

When I resisted, he used his Alpha Command to crush my shoulders, warning me not to ruin his pack's reputation.

I didn't understand why the man who once loved me could throw me away like garbage.

It wasn't until I accidentally found his diary that I learned his dying mother had used a forbidden blood oath to force his betrayal.

She traded her life for mine, and Kael chose his political duty over my soul, playing god with my life and expecting me to quietly bear the agony.

My heart completely died.

I threw his moonstone ring into the mud, leaving him on his knees desperately digging in the rain.

Then, I calmly called the rival Nightfall Alpha.

"Meet me at the Priestess temple tomorrow. We are severing the bond."

Chapter 1

Elara POV:

A low, coercive hum resonated along the invisible filaments of the Mind-Link, a vibration that felt less like a thought and more like a physical pressure against the inside of my skull.

It was the telepathic web that bound our Pack, usually a quiet murmur of border patrols and den-mother chatter. Today, the frequency was cold, imperious, bearing the singular voice of our Alpha.

My Pack, this message serves as the official announcement of my Mating Ceremony with Selene.

Kael's voice was a deep, steady tone in my head, as dispassionate as a royal decree read from a scroll.

The ceremony will take place soon to welcome your new Luna.

Deep in the hollow of my chest, where my inner wolf resided, a knot of something cold and feral tightened. She was an Omega, the lowest of our kind, but she knew the scent of her soul's other half. She knew it was the man who was at this very moment pledging himself to another.

I swallowed against a sudden, acrid dryness in my throat. I forced my voice to sound light, almost brittle, as I pushed my thoughts back through the psychic link.

"Congrats, Alpha. Want me to be a bridesmaid?"

The mental channel did not simply go quiet; it felt as if a vacuum had formed, sucking all warmth and sound from the connection. Then, the link was severed, leaving me in a darkness more profound than mere silence.

With the tip of one finger, I intercepted a single, scalding tear before it could trace a path down my cheek. But that tear was the last one I would shed for him. I swore it to the Moon Goddess herself.

Three days later, I returned to the Silver Moon Pack territory. The grand manor was ablaze with light for a welcome dinner, celebrating Selene's arrival. I walked into the dining room, keeping my eyes fixed on the long, polished grain of the wooden table.

Kael's mother, the former Luna of the pack, smiled at me, but the expression was a careful arrangement of facial muscles that failed to reach her eyes. She pushed a plate of roasted meat toward me. The food was drenched in her heavy, high-ranking scent-a smell of old roses and dominance that made the air taste metallic-a clear attempt to force my Omega wolf into submission.

"Eat up, Elara," she said softly. "You look so thin."

Selene sat next to Kael, her eyes cataloging the simple weave of my clothes with obvious disgust.

"She's just an Omega," Selene sneered, sipping her wine. "I don't know why you even let her sit at the main table, Kael. She barely qualifies as Pack."

Selene leaned closer to him, flaunting the fact that he did not push her away.

A strange, cold heat began to prickle the skin along my forearms. I might be an Omega, but I survived a rogue wolf attack because Kael's mother transferred some of her Luna life-force into me years ago. My spirit was not meant to bow.

I released my aura, letting the cold, sharp scent of winter frost and wild jasmine seep into the room.

"Don't act like the Luna of this pack yet, Selene," I warned, my voice dropping low. "You haven't finished the Marking. His bite isn't on your neck."

The color drained from Selene's face as my aura, a thing of ice and sharp edges, pressed against her own. Kael's mother shouted my name in anger, but I ignored her completely. I pushed my chair back and walked directly out of the dining room, heading for the stairs.

Behind me, I heard Selene's whisper, sharp as a blade: "That Omega needs to learn her place-or be removed from this Pack entirely."

I did not stop walking.

I was halfway down the second-floor hallway when a large hand gripped my arm. A palpable weight, heavy as a blacksmith's anvil, settled on my shoulders, making my knees threaten to buckle. It was the Alpha's Command, the absolute power that forced lower wolves to obey.

"Why did you embarrass her?" Kael demanded, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

I looked up into his cold, gray eyes, a band of iron seeming to tighten around my ribs.

"Why did you betray the Moon Goddess?" I asked, my voice cracking.

A memory, sharp and unwelcome, flashed behind my eyes-the dark woods, the sound of my own blood roaring in my ears. He had torn the bloodthirsty rogues to shreds to reach me. He had cradled my broken body against his chest, swearing to the moon that he would be my Mate forever.

"You promised me, Kael," I whispered, watching his jaw clench.

The air between us grew charged, a space so dense it felt as if it were resisting the very act of breathing. The scent of him, a mixture of dark pine and coming rain, was a physical presence. It was the Scent, the unique smell the Moon Goddess designed just for me.

I stepped closer, my body moving on the desperate, primal instinct of my wolf. I tilted my head up and tried to press my lips against his, trying to wake the dormant beast coiled deep within his blood.

For a split second, I felt the rough, searing heat of his breath against my mouth. Then, Kael grabbed my shoulders and shoved me back with a force that sent a jarring shock through my collarbones.

His chest heaved as he fought the Physical Surge, a feverish heat that felt as if it were scalding me from the inside. His eyes, for just a moment, flashed gold-his wolf surfacing, desperate to claim me. But then the gold died, crushed back to gray, and I saw something I had never seen before in Kael's eyes. Fear. Pure, absolute fear.

But fear of what? The question gnawed at me, colder than his rejection.

"Kael?" Selene's sweet voice echoed from the top of the stairs.

Kael quickly turned his head, his breathing instantly slowing to a normal pace.

"I was just going over the manor rules with Elara," he lied smoothly.

Selene walked over and wrapped her arm around his waist, looking at me with a victorious smile.

"Kael, I want to go to the city to try on my dress for the Mating Ceremony," she said.

I looked at the way her fingers curled into his shirt.

"I'm coming too," I said quickly. "I want to see exactly which boutique you're using."

I knew exactly which high-end store they were going to. It was the same place I had tried on a dress a year ago, back when I thought I was going to be his Luna.

An hour later, we stood outside the grand glass doors of the bridal shop. The air was taut, carrying a sharp, acidic scent from Kael, like ozone after a lightning strike.

I looked at the window display and smiled lightly.

"My former Mate brought me here once," I said aloud, watching the veins on the back of his hands stand out like knotted cords.

Selene laughed, a harsh, mocking sound.

"With that temper of yours, it's no wonder he Rejected you," she sneered.

She was talking about the ancient ritual where a wolf officially severs the soul tie with their Mate.

"At least the Moon Goddess chose me first," I snapped back. "You're just a political transaction."

Selene gasped, but I did not wait for her to complain to Kael. I walked straight into the shop, ignoring the staff, and went right to the back fitting room. I found the exact white dress I had chosen a year ago and pulled it on.

When I pulled the curtain back and stepped out, the entire room went silent.

I looked directly at Kael. His body was ramrod straight, and his gray irises began to constrict, the pupils shrinking to pinpricks as a feral, burnished gold bled out from their depths.

He was losing control.

"Take it off," Kael ordered, his voice so low and serrated it sounded as if it were being dragged over gravel.

I did not move. I simply stood there, wearing the dress I was supposed to wear when I became his, and watched his composure crack like thin ice.

"Make me," I whispered.

Kael's entire body went rigid. For one breathless moment, I thought he might actually do it-cross the room, tear the dress from my body, claim what the Moon Goddess had bound to him. But then he turned to Selene and told her to go look at veils on the other side of the store.

Once she was gone, he stepped into my personal space, his tall frame trapping me against the mirror.

"Don't play games with me, Elara," he warned in a low, dangerous whisper.

Before I could answer, my cell phone rang loudly in my purse. I reached in and answered it, pressing the speaker button.

"Hey, beautiful," Silas's deep, lazy voice filled the quiet space between Kael and me.

I looked Kael right in his golden eyes and smiled.

"I already found a new Alpha," I announced to the room.

The shop's ambient hum of ventilation seemed to die, leaving only the sound of my own blood pulsing in my ears. On the phone, Silas let out a low, amused chuckle.

"Is your brother bothering you, Elara?" Silas asked lazily over the speaker.

Hearing another Alpha call him 'brother' was the ultimate insult to a pack leader. The blood drained from Kael's face, leaving behind a pallor that made the shadows under his eyes look like bruises. His Alpha instincts began to riot, his scent turning sharp and aggressive in the small space.

He reached out, his large hand snatching the phone from my fingers. He pressed the end button so hard the screen threatened to crack, then tossed the phone onto a nearby chair.

He stepped closer, backing me up until my spine hit the cold glass of the mirror.

"You're lying," Kael said, his voice a dead, level thing from which all warmth had been scoured. "You don't have a new Mate."

He leaned down, his face inches from mine, his eyes returning to their cold gray color.

"Our Mate bond ended a year ago, Elara. Stop embarrassing yourself."

His words did not settle; they impacted, a dead weight in my gut that made it a labour to draw breath. I met his eyes without flinching.

"The bond the Goddess made cannot be ended by words alone, Kael. You know that. It lives in the blood. It lives in the soul." I stepped closer, close enough to see the vein pulsing at his temple. "And it is tearing you apart just as much as it is tearing me."

He said nothing. But his silence told me everything I needed to know. I turned and walked out, leaving him standing alone among the white dresses-a monument to a future that would never exist.