The Alpha Who Didn’t Know Her

Elara stood at the altar in her white mating gown, her hands were trembling as Kai walked down the aisle with every pack member watching, but he moved past her like she didn't exist and stopped beside Maya, taking her hand instead.

"I, Kai Silvercrest, Alpha heir of the Silvercrest pack, reject you, Elara Whitmore, as my fated mate, he said facing Elara"

The bond snapped and Elara fall to the floor, pain tear through her chest so fast that she couldn't breathe while gasps echoed through the hall and her wolf screamed inside her head, their connection shattering into pieces.

"I choose Maya Thornwood as my Luna," Kai said, his voice sounded as he lifted Maya's hand high. "Her wealth and bloodline will strengthen this pack, something a mate bond alone can't do."

Maya wouldn't look at her and that's when Elara knew that her best friend had known this was coming, had probably helped plan it while pretending to care about wedding preparations and practicing their vows together.

"Ceremony's over," Kai's father announced from the elders' section. "Maya Thornwood is recognized as the chosen Luna."

The whispers started immediately—pathetic loser, go that she got rejected, she was never good enough—and Elara scrambled to her feet and ran, as two hundred faces turned to watch her flee through the doors.

She drove too fast through Crescent Falls and didn't stop until she crossed into human territory, parking outside Lucky's Bar where nobody knew her name or what had just happened and she could drink until the pain stopped clawing at her insides.

Whiskey burned going down but she ordered another and then four more, letting the alcohol blur the edges of everything until the bartender's face started doubling.

"Bad day?" a man asked, sliding onto the stool beside her.

His voice felt familiar but cologne masked his scent and a baseball cap shadowed his face and Elara was too drunk to care, too broken to question why he bought her next drink without asking.

"The worst day," she said and meant it.

They drank together until the room spun and her fingers went numb and when he offered to drive her home she couldn't remember where her keys were anyway so she nodded and let him help her outside.

His car smelled like a wolf, but she didn't care and she gave him her address before passing out against the window, surfacing only once when he lifted her from the seat but everything tilted wrong and she couldn't focus on where they were.

She woke up in pieces—unfamiliar ceiling, wrong color walls, even the bed sheets, she didn't remember having one like this—and immediately she sat up fast with her head pounding.

The bed was empty beside her and she was naked, her dress folded on a chair across the room and her heels sitting neatly by the door like someone had taken care while she was unconscious.

There was nobody, no note or any sign, just an empty hotel room and the sinking realization of what she'd done with a stranger whose face she couldn't even remember.