The first thing I felt was the pull.
It wasn't gentle. It wasn't a whisper of fate I could ignore. It was sharp, insistent, as if something inside my chest had finally woken from a lifetime of sleep.
The mate bond.
My wolf stirred before I even realized. It tugged at me, stretched inside me, whispering that he was near. The bond had been waiting for this moment, silent and patient, until the Moon decided it was time to awaken. And tonight, the night of the mate ceremony was that moment.
I clutched the edges of my ceremonial robe, my palms slick with sweat. My heart beat far too loudly for an Omega who had spent her life pretending she belonged nowhere. I had always been small, quiet, easily overlooked. But tonight, the bond burned beneath my ribs, telling me that my life, my very existence, was about to change.
The great hall stretched out before me, cavernous and imposing. Torches lined the stone walls, flickering against the ancient carvings of our ancestors, Alpha and Omega bonds etched into the rock, the story of our pack immortalized in stone. The smell of burning oil, sharp and acrid, filled my nose. I could taste the tension in the air. Tonight was sacred. Tonight was destiny.
And yet, a knot of fear twisted in my stomach.
The Lycan King.
Kael Nightfang.
I knew I would see him before the ceremony even began. Even from across the hall, his presence bent the air around him. Alphas straightened, elders whispered in hushed tones, and even the Moon seemed to pale under the weight of his dominance. And there he stood, at the center of the hall, his black ceremonial armor catching the torchlight, every inch of him exuding power, control, and danger.
I swallowed hard. My wolf trembled at the recognition of its mate. The bond screamed. He is mine. And I am his.
A soft gasp escaped me. I hadn't meant to make a sound. But the bond is demanding, insistent, impossible to ignore. My knees shook. My wolf stretched, claws pressing against the inside of my chest, desperate, untrained, raw.
I had always known this moment would come. The elders had whispered about it when I was a child, about the Omega who would claim the Lycan King's attention. I had dreamed of it quietly, secretly, never daring to hope. But the reality of seeing him, feeling the bond awaken with its violent insistence was far more intense than I imagined.
The elder beside me cleared his throat, breaking my spiraling thoughts. "Lycan King Kael Nightfang," his voice echoed across the hall, "the Moon has revealed your fated mate."
All eyes turned to me.
I could feel every gaze, every whisper, every shiver of anticipation in the room. Even the youngest Omegas craned their necks to look. My chest ached with the weight of attention. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to vanish into the shadows.
But the bond would not allow me to move.
Kael's silver eyes, cold, piercing, untouchable finally fell on me. My pulse jumped, the air seemed to thicken. Every instinct in my body screamed at me to kneel, to prostrate myself before him, to accept what I had secretly longed for.
And yet… something in his eyes stopped me.
Recognition did not shine there. Relief did not soften his expression. His eyes were sharp, unyielding, and horribly filled with something I had never expected.
Disgust.
My stomach lurched.
"This is… a mistake," the elder said cautiously.
Kael's jaw tightened. He raised his voice, so everyone could hear, so the words would cut straight through me like a blade. "I feel it," he said, cold and unflinching, "and I refuse it."
I froze.
Refuse.
The word hit me harder than any physical blow ever could. My knees buckled slightly, my hands gripping my robe for support. My wolf shrieked inside me, claws raking against my ribcage in frustration and fear. How could he refuse me? How could he reject what the Moon itself has chosen?
The murmurs in the hall swelled. Shock, confusion, disbelief. Pack members whispered to each other, eyes darting between Kael and me. The elders exchanged worried glances, uncertain of how to proceed. But Kael's eyes never left mine. Cold. Unyielding. Cruel.
"An Omega," he said, each word deliberate, heavy, sharp as stone, "weak, untrained, unworthy."
The pain in my chest deepened, not from the bond tearing, not from my wolf's cries but from his words. Every syllable was a judgment, a dismissal of my existence, a public humiliation before the pack I had dreamed of leading alongside him.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to vanish into nothingness.
But the bond would not let me.
I felt it snapping, burning, twisting. My wolf howled in agony, a sound that I could feel in my bones. My hands clawed at my chest as if I could stop the tearing, stop the pain, stop the rejection that had just shattered everything.
I stumbled forward, nearly collapsing, as Kael turned away. His back to me. The silence that followed was heavier than any noise.
Every eye in the hall was on me. Every whispered comment, every pointed stare, every shocked gasp landed like blows.
The elder stepped closer, his hands raised in what I assumed was a plea for reason. "My King"
"I said no," Kael interrupted, voice low but cutting, final. "Elara is rejected as my mate."
The world tilted. My knees gave way. I fell to the stone floor, the ceremonial robe sliding against cold, unforgiving stone. I pressed my hands against my chest, trying to steady the violent rhythm of my heart, trying to silence the wailing inside me. My wolf shrieked one last time before retreating, defeated.
And then silence.
Kael did not move toward me. He did not offer comfort, not even a hint of acknowledgment. He turned fully, walking toward the center of the hall, leaving me on the floor an Omega, humiliated, rejected, forgotten.
I wanted to disappear. To crawl under the shadows and never be seen again. But even in despair, I knew this was not the end. Something in me was stirring, different from the pain, different from the humiliation. A quiet, simmering spark. A spark of strength.
I forced myself to sit up, though every movement hurt. My eyes burned, but I lifted my chin, glaring at the floor. I would not give him the satisfaction of tears. Not entirely.
The pack around me whispered, some in pity, some in judgment. I could feel their eyes, weighing me, measuring me, questioning my worth. I had always been underestimated, overlooked, dismissed. But this… this rejection was different. Public. Total. Inescapable.
And yet… there was a thrill in it. A spark of awakening. The rejection, though it crushed me, also reminded me of one thing: I was alive. My wolf was alive. And no matter what he thought, no matter how coldly he treated me, my power, my true power was only beginning to stir.
Kael, oblivious to the storm he had set in motion, spoke to the council of Alphas. I could see him, every movement precise, every word calculated. His back was perfect armor. Impervious. Untouchable. And yet… I saw it too late: a twitch of unease. A moment of hesitation. Something small but it was there.
The bond was gone for now, ripped violently, but traces lingered. It screamed, whispering promises I didn't fully understand. Promises that this was not over. That the Omega he rejected was stronger than he knew.
I dragged myself to my feet. My robe clung to me, torn in places from the fall, my palms scraped, my chest tight with pain. Every inch of me ached, every fiber of my being wanted to crumble. But I refused.
I would not break completely. Not yet.
Tonight, the Lycan King rejected me.
Tonight, I became nothing in the eyes of the pack.
But tomorrow… tomorrow, they would all see.
The sparks in my chest burned brighter, and I understood the first cruel truth of being a mate rejected: power does not come from acceptance. It comes from survival, from rising when all think you have fallen, from embracing what they refuse to see.
I would rise.
And he, Kael Nightfang, the Lycan King who turned his back on destiny would regret it.
The hall emptied around me, whispers fading, the echoes of my humiliation lingering like smoke. I stood alone, trembling, torn, but alive. My wolf pressed against me, small but fierce, whispering secrets of strength I had yet to comprehend.
And I smiled, quietly, venomously, at the thought of the day I would return not as a broken Omega, but as a force they would all bow before.
The Lycan King had rejected me.
But the Moon had not.
And that… was only the beginning