REJECTED OMEGA : THE ALPHA KING'S STOLEN MATE

Liana pov

The moon hung like a silver eye above the Ceremony Grounds, casting its cold light over the waiting crowd. My bare feet pressed into the stone circle as whispers rippled through the gathered pack members. Their eyes burned into me not with reverence, but revulsion.

"Freak," someone murmured.

"Still hasn't shifted," hissed another.

I kept my chin high, hiding the truth like I'd done for the past eight years.

If they knew I'd shifted at ten... if they knew what I'd become that night under the bleeding moon... they'd burn me alive.

Tonight wasn't about the truth. Tonight was about him.

Jaxon.

The Alpha's son. My fated mate.

The one who promised he'd always choose me.

The one who looked right through me now as he stood before the Stone of Binding, his golden hair gleaming under the moonlight. He hadn't spoken to me since he'd returned from Alpha training in the North. And now, as I stepped toward him for the mate-bond confirmation, his posture stiffened.

Beside me, my sister Selene purred with satisfaction. Her emerald dress shimmered like envy itself. The crowd adored her. Beta-born, beautiful, and venomous. No one knew the monster behind her perfect smile.

I stood in the circle, heart thundering, ready to claim what the Moon Goddess had promised me.

Elder Madra's voice rang out across the stone.

"Tonight, under Luna's gaze, the Alpha heir shall confirm or reject the bond fate has chosen for him. Jaxon Thorn, do you accept Liana Rosewood as your fated mate?"

I didn't breathe. The wind stilled.

Jaxon looked at me right through me, his gaze flat and unreadable.

Then he laughed.

A cruel, hollow sound that made my skin crawl.

"Liana?" he sneered. "She's a powerless Omega. I don't want a broken mate."

The words sliced deeper than claws ever could.

Gasps echoed. My vision blurred.

"I reject this bond," he said. "I reject her."

The rejection shattered something ancient and sacred inside me.

Pain lanced through my chest, a tearing, searing agony as the bond unraveled. My wolf howled inside, furious and unbound. But I bit it back, forcing her down, because I couldn't shift. Not here. Not now.

"Then the bond is broken," Elder Madra declared solemnly. "By his will, the Moon's tie is undone."

The pack turned away. Disgusted. Relieved.

Selene stepped forward, her green eyes glittering. "So sad," she cooed. "Guess the Moon Goddess made a mistake."

Then she leaned closer, whispering where only I could hear. "Or maybe you were never meant to have anyone at all."

She walked away, her laughter a blade against my soul.

I stood alone in the circle.

Rejected.

Humiliated.

Unmated.

But not broken.

No, just caged.

Because the real Liana was still locked inside.

And one day, she would break free.

I didn't sleep that night.

Not with the whispers echoing outside the packhouse.

Not with Selene standing at my door, gloating in silence.

Not with the ache in my chest where a bond used to be.

I sat in the attic, surrounded by dust and forgotten relics, staring at the silver pendant my mother had left me the only thing she managed to save before she died protecting my secret.

The pendant pulsed against my palm.

"You were born too early," she'd told me the night I shifted. "Too powerful. If they find out, they'll kill you, just like they killed the last White Wolf."

So I pretended. Played Omega. Faked weakness.

Until tonight.

Because now the whole pack thought I was nothing.

Which meant... I was finally free to become everything.

The next day, Selene struck.

She told the Elders I'd attacked her after the ceremony. Claimed I'd tried to poison her with dark magic. That I was unstable. Dangerous.

"Check her aura," she said sweetly, tears in her eyes. "It's not normal. She's cursed."

And when the Elders summoned me and forced me to stand before the Ritual Flame, the fire turned blue, the mark of unknown power.

Gasps rang out.

"She's not like us."

"She's hiding something."

"She's dangerous."

And then Elder Madra spoke the words that sealed my fate:

"Until her wolf surfaces, she is to be placed under watch."

Which meant exile.

No training.

No mate.

No future.

Just silence.

Just chains.

Selene smiled the whole time.

They sent me to the Eastern Woods, barely a territory, more like a graveyard of failed shifters and forgotten Omegas. The old cottage creaked in the wind, and my only company was the ghost of my past.

But at night, I ran.

Not as a wolf, never that.

But fast enough to remember.

Fast enough to almost feel free.

Until the night the howls came.

It started with one.

Then dozens.

Deep, guttural howls echoing across the trees, shaking the earth.

I froze on the ridge, heart hammering, as shadows spilled through the forest below.

Rogues.

Not the scraggly, starving ones that fed on scraps.

These were soldiers.

Organized.

Hunting something.

Or someone.

Me.

I turned to run, but a figure blocked my path.

He stepped from the shadows like a god carved in moonlight. Towering. Broad-shouldered. Dressed in black and silver armor that shimmered with runes.

His eyes locked on mine and glowed gold.

Everything in me stopped.

The bond struck like lightning.

Raw. Overwhelming. True.

I stumbled back. "Who"

"Alpha King Kael of the Northern Thrones," he said, voice like thunder. "You've been hiding, little wolf."

My throat went dry. "I don't know what you mean."

But he stepped closer, inhaling my scent.

Then he said something that shattered the ground beneath me.

"You're mine."