Chapter 4 THE REJECTION

Five days.

It has been five days since the Ritual. Since the bond snapped into place and Kael turned his back on it like it was nothing.

I replayed what happened about a thousand times in my head. Every blink. Every breath. Every movement of his body as he walked away.

But each time I told myself the same thing: it wasn't real. Not like that.

Maybe he was in shock. Maybe it was politics. Maybe-Moon help me-he felt it too, but didn't know what to do with it. Kael Thorn was the Alpha. Trained to be cold. Taught to choose duty over desire.

Maybe no one had ever chosen him without wanting something in return.

I would be that person for him if he let me in.

I'd paced holes into the Healers' wing floors thinking about it. I had abandoned my work, the only thing that made me valuable, but the head healer had understood. I didn't know how long she was going to do it anymore, though.

Eliah had tried to talk me down. Even Neriah, the old witch who sometimes came through the outer markets, muttered warnings when she saw me staring out the window too long.

But I couldn't let it go.

Not until I knew for sure.

So when the pack's Harvest Dinner was announced, a yearly celebration under the waning moon, hosted in the central square with food, music, and mandatory appearances, I knew I had to go.

I hardly showed my face there, but this time I had to.

Not to eat or dance.

But to ask and to face him.

To give him the chance to speak the words he hadn't said that night.

Maybe he would explain. Maybe he would look at me, see me, and remember that the Moon had chosen us for a reason.

I dressed in my best, what little that meant. A black cloak over a threadbare dress that once belonged to the Hall matron. I braided my hair with a single fireweed bloom Eliah had snuck to me that morning.

"You sure about this?" she'd asked, worry etched in every word.

"No," I'd said. "But I need to hear it."

And so I went.

The square was glowing with lanterns and laughter. Wolves filled every bench and corner, chewing roasted meat, sipping moonflower wine, telling stories they'd told a hundred times. The Elders sat at the front under the high canopy, raised on a platform that overlooked the crowd.

Kael sat in the center of them.

He looked the same; impossibly tall, and eerily composed. He wore a cloak fastened with a crescent-moon clasp. His shoulders were squared, and his posture was perfect. Like it always was. No emotion showed on his face. He was a statue carved in authority.

But I felt him the moment I stepped into the square.

His eyes didn't flick toward me, but the bond pulsed like it had sensed my nearness, and I couldn't help but shiver lightly. I clutched my cloak tighter around me and stepped forward.

Wolves shifted as I passed. Some whispered. Some smirked.

I was the girl who got chosen by the Moon... and abandoned by her mate.

But I didn't stop.

Every step toward that platform was heavy, but I kept walking. Right through the tables. Right up to the front where the Alphas and Elders sat.

Kael saw me coming.

Still, he said nothing.

I reached the edge of the platform and dropped to one knee.

"Alpha Kael," I said softly, but clearly enough for those around to hear. "May I speak with you?"

He didn't answer right away.

One of the Elders leaned in. "What is the meaning of this?"

But Kael raised a hand to silence him.

Then he stood.

The entire square quieted.

He stepped forward, looking down at me like I was something inconvenient he'd stepped in.

My throat tightened. My heart beat hard in my ears.

"Please," I whispered. "You haven't said anything. Not since the Ritual. I felt it. I know you did too. The bond-"

"There is no bond," he said flatly.

I blinked. "But-"

"You are mistaken."

The words were sharp. Unyielding. Cold as winter steel.

Something in me shattered to pieces.

I stood, shaky, voice trembling. "The Moon chose-"

"The Moon was wrong."

The crowd gasped. A ripple of shock moved like wind through tall grass.

Even the Elders looked uneasy. The moon was never wrong.

I searched his face for something. Anything. A flicker of guilt. A flinch. A shadow of doubt at his words.

But there was nothing in his gaze for me.

He looked at me like I was a problem to be solved. A nuisance to be removed.

"I don't understand," I said, barely holding my voice steady. "Why?"

Kael stepped down off the platform until we stood face to face.

He didn't lean in or whisper.

He said it loud enough for the entire pack to hear.

"You are not worthy to stand by my side."

The square went silent.

I dropped to my knees, not from submission, but because my body stopped knowing how to hold me up. His words hurt.

My wolf whimpered inside me in grief and shame wrapped around me like a second skin. I couldn't breathe past it. Couldn't move through it.

Kael turned without another word and walked back to his seat.

And like I wasn't there, the crowd returned to eating like nothing had happened.

Like I was no one. I stayed on my knees long after the world moved on.

I don't know how long I knelt there.

At some point, Eliah came. She tried to touch me, but I flinched.

"I need to go," I said. My voice didn't sound like mine.

I stood slowly, one step at a time, and walked out of the square.

No one stopped me.

No one looked at me.

I chuckled bitterly, not like they never had, really. I made it to the edge of the woods before my knees buckled again.

As I collapsed onto the ground, breath ragged, my skin suddenly burned. I yelped.

My palms scorched against the earth, and heat exploded in my chest, searing and unfamiliar. I clutched at my ribs as if something inside was clawing to get out.

Then the fire came. It burst into life from inside me.

A flicker at first. Then a spark. Then a curl of smoke rose from my fingers.

I gasped and backed away from myself. The ground where I'd touched had turned black. A single wildflower had caught flame.

"No," I whispered, staring at my hands. "No, no, no-"

But the heat didn't stop.

It surged again, this time behind my sternum, like a second heartbeat. Like something older than me had just awakened, stretching from a long, angry sleep. My wolf stirred inside me.

For the first time since Kael turned away, she didn't sound broken.

She sounded awake, and she was furious.

I dropped to all fours, trying to catch my breath, trying to calm whatever was rising.

The earth steamed beneath me.

I pressed my palms into the dirt, willing the fire back down.

"Not now," I whispered. "Please. Not now."

But I knew deep down, where instinct lives that something had cracked open. The rejection had done more than wound me.

It had unleashed something.

And it wasn't going back in.