One thousand five hundred wolves are going to see me rejected tonight.
They don't know it yet. To tell the truth, neither should I. But I can feel it in my bones—the same bones that never once cracked and reformed into a wolf.
The Silver Moon Pack considers the first shift a holy day. To them, I'm a glitch. A mistake in the bloodline. I would rather be anywhere else in the world than standing on this sacred stone platform.
The smell of pine, musk, and pheromones saturates the air. To the rest of the pack, this is destiny. To me, it smells like a firing squad.
I clench my fists to make sure they do not shake. My white silk dress is too simple—a sadistic mockery of the "guest of honor" position I was meant to play.
Next to me stands my sister, Elara. She looks like a goddess, woven in gold and smelling of jasmine and triumph.
"Don't you dare cry," she whispers, her voice like a blade. "You desecrate this family just by breathing. I hope one of the wretched Omegas from the fringes has mercy on you, so you can finally cease to be Father's greatest disgrace."
I don't respond. She's right. I have no life in a world of predators.
The crowd falls silent as Alpha Killian steps out of the thicket.
When an Alpha of high esteem enters a room, the air doesn't just shift—it collapses. Killian is a mountain of violent power. His eyes are an icy blue, smoldering with an obsidian hunger tonight. He is searching for his Luna.
My heart pounds against my ribs.
A violent, physical jerk hits the center of my chest as Killian passes the women in the row. A strand of gold hooks my soul and tugs. My breath catches. Fire burns in every cell of my body.
Him. It's him.
The Mate Bond.
I never imagined the Moon Goddess would give a gift this great to a "freak" like me. Hope flares in my chest. Maybe the whispers will finally stop. Maybe my father will finally look at me with pride. I'll be wanted.
Killian halts in front of me.
His shadow swallows me whole. He bends, sniffing my neck. I see a spark of recognition in his eyes—a flash of gold that matches the heat in my blood.
I open my mouth to say his name—
His face twists with pure disgust. He recoils as if he has stepped in something foul.
"You?" The word drips venom.
"Killian…" I reach out, my hand trembling. I just need to touch him. To prove this is real.
He smacks my hand away so hard I nearly fall off the platform. He doesn't look at me like a mate. He looks at me like a disease.
"I, Alpha Killian of the Silver Moon Pack, hereby reject you, Seraphina of the House of Blackwood, as my mate and my future Luna!"
The agony is a physical explosion.
The golden thread doesn't just snap; it shatters. The shards cut through my nerves like shrapnel. I tumble to the rock, clutching my chest, unable to draw even a single breath.
"You have no wolf." Killian's voice is cold, dead. "A Luna is a symbol of power. You are a defect. I shall not defile my family's blood with a human masquerading as a wolf."
"The Goddess…" I gasp through hot tears. "She chose—"
"Then the Goddess was wrong!"
Killian walks away without a second look. He strides across the platform and stops directly in front of Elara. My sister doesn't look surprised; she looks victorious.
He slips his hand around her waist, pulling her flush against him. "This is a woman who deserves the Silver Moon. Elara Blackwood, you shall be my Luna!"
The crowd erupts into howls and shouts. My own pack is praising the man who just destroyed me.
My father steps forward. I look for a spark of the man who once carried me on his shoulders, but his eyes are frozen glass.
"Alpha Killian is right," he says, his voice devoid of feeling. "A defect has no place here. Seraphina, you are a dishonor to our name. You are stripped of your rank. You are pack-less."
He pauses, and the next word is scalding.
"You are Rogue."
The audience gasps. A Rogue status is a death sentence.
"Get out," Killian commands, not even troubling to look at me. "Leave our lands by daybreak. We will hunt you down like the animal you aren't."
I stand. My legs are weak, but I do not fall. There is a hollow crater in my chest, but something new is growing in my stomach. Something cold and hard.
"You think power is only teeth and claws, Killian?" My voice is surprisingly steady. "I hope that serves you well when the darkness finds you."
He just laughs. "Die in the Dead Lands, Seraphina. That's where you belong."
I don't pack a bag. I just walk away, straight toward the trees.
I head for the Dead Lands—where no wolf has survived in a hundred years. But as I cross the border, the ground throbs. A heartbeat, matching my own.
Killian believes he has discarded a blemish.
He has no idea that he just gave birth to his biggest nightmare .