Chapter 1
Elowen's POV
I was executed once.
I didn't know that yet.
All I knew was that the moon went dark the moment Alpha Kael Nightbane said my name.
"Elowen Ashfall."
The ceremony circle was packed tight. Wolves shoulder to shoulder. Heat, sweat, pine resin burning in the braziers. My bare feet pressed into cold stone etched with laws older than mercy. The air buzzed with anticipation, sharp and electric, like the breath before lightning splits the sky.
This was the part where fate locked in.
This was the part where the Alpha claimed his mate "my mate".
Kael stood across from me, tall and carved from shadows, his dark hair pulled back, his face carved into that familiar, distant calm. The kind of calm that made people feel safe. The kind that had made me stupid enough to believe in him.
His eyes met mine.
They didn't soften but they flinched
That should've been my first warning.
"Elowen Ashfall," he repeated, voice carrying easily through the circle. Too easily. "By pack law and moon decree, I reject you as my mate."
The words hit like a blade between my ribs.
The world didn't explode the way stories said it would. There was no dramatic crack of thunder. No wolves howling in shock. Just a sharp, awful silence, as if the entire pack inhaled at the same time and forgot how to breathe.
I waited for the bond to snap.
I waited for the pain everyone warned about. The kind that hollowed you out and left nothing but scars and survival.
It didn't happen.
Instead, something screamed inside me.
Not my voice. Not my wolf's.
Something older.
The sound tore through my chest, hot and furious, and I staggered back a step before I could stop myself. Murmurs rippled through the circle. Confusion, unease and a few sharp inhales.
Kael's jaw tightened.
Good. So he felt it too.
"You may step back," he said quickly, too quickly. "The bond is severed."
Liar.
My skin burned where the mate mark should've faded. The place just below my collarbone pulsed like a living thing. I pressed my fingers there instinctively, breath coming shallow.
It was still there.
"I can still feel him," my wolf whispered, low and furious inside my head.
So could I.
The pull hadn't broken. It had twisted. Coiled tighter. Like fate itself had dug in its claws and refused to let go.
Kael didn't look at me again. He turned to the elders instead, as if I'd already stopped existing.
That hurt more than the rejection.
"Proceed," Elder Maeric said, his voice thin and uneasy. "The ritual must be completed."
Two guards stepped forward. Not toward Kael.
Toward me.
My heart slammed against my ribs. "Wait," I said, the word slipping out before pride could stop it. "Something's wrong."
A few wolves shifted. Someone scoffed. Someone else laughed, sharp and mean.
"Of course it is," a voice muttered. "She's human-raised. What did you expect?"
Kael's hands curled slowly into fists.
I saw it.
I saw him fight something behind his eyes. Fear, maybe. Guilt or relief.
Then it vanished.
"The rejection stands," he said. "Remove her."
Remove.
Like I was a stain.
The guards reached for my arms. The instant their fingers touched my skin, power flared out of me without warning. Heat exploded through my veins. The stone beneath my feet hummed, low and violent, like it recognized me.
The nearest brazier flickered.
Then tipped.
Fire spilled across the ritual circle.
Shouts erupted. Wolves jumped back. Someone cursed. The guards yanked their hands away like they'd been burned.
I stared at my palms.
They were shaking.
"What did you do?" someone yelled.
"I didn't…" My voice cracked. "I didn't do anything."
That wasn't entirely true.
My wolf was pacing inside me now, restless and angry. She wasn't cowering. She wasn't broken.
She was awake.
The moonlight shifted overhead, brightening suddenly, flooding the circle in silver so sharp it hurt to look at. Gasps ripped through the crowd. A few wolves dropped to one knee without realizing it.
Kael looked up slowly.
The color drained from his face.
"No," he breathed. The word wasn't meant for anyone else. It slipped out like a confession.
The moon pulsed once.
The bond screamed again, louder this time, tearing through my chest and down my spine. I cried out, dropping to my knees as pain lanced through me, raw and unfiltered. Not rejection pain, not heartbreak.
But Recognition.
I heard it then. Clear as a whisper against my ear.
"Elowen."
I froze.
That voice didn't belong to Kael.
It didn't belong to my wolf either.
It was deeper. Calmer. Familiar in a way that made my stomach twist.
Ancient.
"Did you hear that?" I asked, breathless, looking around wildly.
No one answered.
They were all staring at me now.
Not with pity this time around, but with fear.
Elder Maeric's hands were shaking as he raised his staff. "Enough," he snapped. "This ceremony is compromised."
Compromised.
Another word that tried to erase me.
Kael finally looked at me again. Fully this time. His control cracked, just for a second, and something raw flashed through his eyes.
Regret or terror
"You shouldn't be here," he said quietly, so only I could hear. "This was never meant to happen."
My laugh came out sharp and broken. "You rejected me in front of the entire pack," I said. "When exactly was it meant to happen?"
His throat worked. "You don't understand."
"Then explain it," I shot back. "Explain why the bond didn't break. Explain why the moon just answered me."
He didn't.
He stepped back instead.
That hurt more than anything else.
"By pack law," Elder Maeric announced, voice echoing through the circle, "Elowen Ashfall is stripped of status. She is no longer under Alpha protection. She will be removed from the inner territory by dawn."
A murmur of approval followed.
I stayed on my knees, numb.
My wolf snarled.
Kael said nothing.
Lyra Moonveil stepped forward then, all pale grace and soft smiles. She slid easily into Kael's space, her hand brushing his arm like it belonged there already.
"I'll help him bear this burden," she said gently, eyes flicking to me for half a second. There was no triumph in her gaze.
Just calculation.
The moon dimmed again.
The fire settled.
The circle felt wrong. Incomplete.
As the guards hauled me to my feet, pain still humming under my skin, I looked back at Kael one last time.
He wasn't watching Lyra.
He was watching me.
And his lips moved without sound.
I don't reject you.
The ground beneath my feet cracked.
And somewhere deep inside me, something old began to wake up.