Chapter 2 The Rejection Threat

The hall was too silent, so silent that even the sound of my breath felt like thunder. All eyes were on me, like I was some cursed stranger who dared to walk into their sacred ceremony.

I wished the ground would open and swallow me.

The mark still burned on my neck, proof that the Moon Goddess herself had tied me to Damien, the most powerful Alpha this pack had ever seen. Yet the way he looked at me—it wasn’t pride, it wasn’t love. It was disgust.

“You must be joking,” Damien’s voice came low, dangerous, like he wanted to erase me with words alone. His gray eyes swept over me from head to toe as if I was some weak dirt under his boots. “The Goddess can’t be serious. A human? My mate?”

The crowd gasped and whispers rushed like wildfire.

“She’s weak.”

“She can’t even shift.”

“What will the other packs say if our Alpha has a human Luna?”

“She will be a shame to us.”

Each word stabbed me deeper. I bit my lip, trying to hold my tears, but my body betrayed me. My hands trembled, and my eyes stung.

And then Clara’s voice cut through, sharp like a dagger. Of course she would speak. Clara, the beautiful she-wolf everyone wanted as Luna. She tossed her golden hair back and smirked at me.

“This is a disgrace,” she said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “How can the Moon Goddess make such a mistake? Damien deserves a strong she-wolf, not a fragile little human who can’t even protect herself.”

Laughter followed. Cruel, ugly laughter. Some covered their mouths like they pitied me, but their eyes sparkled with wicked joy.

I turned my face away, wishing I could vanish. Why did the Moon Goddess choose me? Why didn’t she leave me alone in my corner, invisible like always?

Damien clenched his jaw. His whole body was stiff, his fists tight. He looked at me again, and in his eyes I saw no mercy. “I won’t accept this,” he said. “I, Alpha Damien, reject you—”

“Stop!” The elder, old Marcellus, raised his staff before Damien could finish. “You can’t speak those words so easily. The bond will answer.”

Damien growled low in his chest. “I don’t care. I won’t be tied to this human.” His voice thundered. “She will never be my Luna.”

The laughter grew louder. My chest tightened until I could barely breathe. Clara stepped closer, her eyes glittering with victory.

“Do you see now?” she hissed at me, her words like venom. “You’re nothing, Elara. Just a human girl pretending to belong here. You’ll destroy this pack if Damien accepts you. You should have never been born.”

Her words shattered me.

I pressed my shaking hands against my ears, but it didn’t block out the voices—the mocking, the insults, the laughter.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to beg the Goddess to take back her mistake. Tears streamed down my face, hot and endless. I hated myself in that moment. Why me? Why couldn’t I have been born like them—with claws, with fangs, with strength? Why did I have to be the weak human in a world of wolves?

“Damien, please,” Clara said sweetly now, her voice dripping with fake innocence. “Don’t let this bond chain you. You belong with someone like me, not her.”

Something inside me broke.

I turned and ran, but before I could escape, Damien’s voice roared behind me.

“I, Alpha Damien of Silver Moon Pack, reject—”

But before the last word left his lips, a scream ripped out of him.

He fell to his knees, clutching his chest as the mate mark on his neck blazed with fire. The crowd gasped as his skin burned with golden light.

I froze where I stood, my heart pounding in terror.

The Moon Goddess wasn’t letting him reject me.

And just like that, the humiliation turned into horror—for both of us.

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I ran out of the hall, blind with tears. The night air was cold, but it wasn’t cold enough to numb the ache in my chest. My legs carried me to the back of the pack house, far from their whispers, far from their laughter.

I dropped to the ground, hugging my knees, sobbing until my whole body shook.

“What did I do wrong?” I whispered into the darkness. “Why was I born this way? Why can’t I just disappear?”

My voice cracked with pain. My throat burned. Every insult they threw at me kept replaying in my head.

“She should have never been born.”

“She’s weak.”

“She’s a mistake.”

Maybe they were right. Maybe I was a mistake.

The stars above twinkled, but they felt so far away. Even the Moon that had marked me felt like it was mocking me now. I pressed my hand against my chest, but the emptiness inside me was worse than any wound.

A twig snapped behind me, and my heart leapt in fear.

“Elara…” Clara’s voice came softly this time, but it carried the same poison. She stepped into the dim light, arms folded, her smile cruel. “Crying won’t change anything. You’ll never be enough. Damien will never want you. No one in this pack will ever follow a human Luna.”

Her words sank into me like knives.

I wanted to scream at her, to fight back, but I had no strength left. All I could do was lower my head and cry harder.

Clara leaned closer, whispering the final blow: “You should run away, Elara. If you care for this pack at all, you’ll disappear before Damien finds a way to destroy you.”

She laughed softly and walked away, leaving me broken.

I stayed there in the dark, my tears soaking the earth. My heart was shattering piece by piece, and the only thought left in me was one I hated to admit.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I should have never been born.

But just as I whispered those words into the night, the mate mark on my neck pulsed with fire again, spreading warmth through my veins. It was like the Goddess herself was reminding me—my story wasn’t over yet.

And that terrified me more than anything.