Chapter 2 Alpha Chains

Layla's POV

Kade. His name slammed into me like a blade. He stood there, tall and beautiful, his golden eyes fixed on mine like I was a puzzle he couldn't solve.

The future Alpha of Nightfang. Ruthless. Deadly. Beautiful in a way that was almost inhuman.

My mate? No... No, the Moon Goddess must've made a mistake.

I pulled my arm out of his hold like it burned. My chest rose and fell quickly. My wolf, who had been quiet for so long, whined inside me, but it wasn't in joy. It was fear.

"Are you mine...?" His voice was low, shocked, but not kind. Not gentle. Like he couldn't believe the words himself. "Are you my mate?"

His eyes, molten gold and burning, searched my face for answers I didn't have. I shook my head hard. "No. You can't be."

His face twisted, confused at first, then he grew angry. "You're... you're an omega."

The words felt like being hit. His lips curled, as if the word tasted bad on his tongue. "No. This-this is wrong."

"Kade..." I said, my voice shaking. He took a step back. His jaw clenched, and I could see it, the way the truth was sinking into his bones like poison. He looked like a god cut from stone, and for a moment, I wondered if the Moon Goddess truly had cursed me.

"No," he growled. "No, I reject you, Layla Blackthorn. I reject you!"

The words hit harder than claws. I felt it-not just in my chest, but in my soul. Like knives digging into my ribs. Like something old being ripped from me.

I dropped to my knees, the ground rushing up too fast. My hands hit the dirt, shaking. My breath left my lungs all at once.

My wolf screamed, but what next... no sound came out of me. Just shaking, quiet, and pain. It wasn't supposed to feel like that.

My mate... my assumed other half-I had just pulled our link apart like it meant nothing.

Kade didn't wait to see what he'd done. He turned back and walked away like he had made a mistake he'd rather forget.

I stayed on the ground long after he left me alone. It took everything to crawl back toward Silverclaw's border. My body felt like it was breaking apart, cell by cell. I held my stomach like it might fall open, and my lips were cracked from biting down on screams I couldn't let out.

The trees blurred together. My vision dimmed at the edges, and then I saw her.

"Ivy," I breathed, wondering if it was real. She was there. My only friend, the only one who hadn't turned her back on me.

"Oh Goddess... Layla." Ivy ran to me, dropped beside me, and pulled me into her arms. "What is going on here?" she asked me.

I shook against her, broken pieces. She held me tight, like she could keep the pieces together.

"I heard the howls," she said softly, brushing hair from my face. "What happened?"

I didn't answer. I couldn't. The words would only break me again. She held me tighter. "It's okay." You're safe. You're okay now.

But she was lying. I wasn't okay. I wasn't anything; my mate had rejected me without even trying to know me. I was weeping.

No questions. No reason. He just disgusted me, and still... still-I felt the pull. Even as my bones ached. Even as my wolf went silent again, curling into some dark place inside me where I couldn't reach her. Even after refusal, the tie tugged at me like a cruel joke.

The next day, the rumors began. Celeste, of course, was the first. "Oh, you mean that poor Layla," she said with a fake pout. Our little omega got herself rejected. Can you blame him, though?

Laughter followed her words like smoke. I kept my head down, but I could feel it... eyes on me, snickers behind my hands, the words following me like ghosts.

"Rejected omega." "Must've begged him." She cursed." Every time I walked into the exercise yard, it got worse. No one hit me, but they didn't have to. Their words were sharper.

Their quiet was louder. Even Ivy couldn't stop it all. She tried. "Ignore them, Layla. They're just scared of you."

I wanted to believe her, but how could they be scared of someone like me? Someone broken, rejected, and weak?

Even my wolf wouldn't answer me anymore. I sat outside the healer's hut one evening, trying to wrap a cut on my arm. Really, I was just trying to breathe.

Kael hadn't come back. He had saved me, said I was his. But where was he now? Had he left me too?

I didn't have answers, only the ache in my chest and the sound of Kade's words in my head:

I reject you. The Moon Goddess was cruel, and now the whole pack knew just how useless I was.

One night, I woke up to the sound of footsteps outside my window-soft, careful. I rolled from my thin cushion and crept to the wooden screen. My hands shook as I peeked through.

Kael stood in the darkness, arms crossed, face unreadable.

I rushed out the door before I could stop myself. "You left," I said.

He looked at me, eyes dark. "You were hurt."

"I'm still hurt," I said. "You didn't come."

"I wanted to," he said. But something was happening. The pack's not safe anymore." I looked at him. "What do you mean?"

He pulled something from his pocket-a stone. No, a pendant. The same one. The one that glowed.

Only now did it glow with a faint red light. "It's reacting again," he said. "And others have noticed." "Who?"

"Nightfang. Your pack. They're watching it. Hunting something." "What does it do?" I asked, my voice small.

Kael paused. "I don't know everything. But it's old. Sacred. And it's tied to you." "Me?"

He stepped closer. "Your name is written on the back." I froze. "What?"

He handed it to me. I turned it over. There, carved into the metal, almost too faint to see: L. Blackthorn.

My throat tightened. "What does this mean?" I said in a low voice. Kael's eyes flickered. "I think you're more than just some cursed omega."

Before I could speak, a sound snapped through the trees. Movement. Kael's head turned sharply. "We need to go." Now.

"Go where?"

He didn't answer. He grabbed my hand, and this time, I didn't pull away. We both ran together.

Through the trees, away from Silverclaw. Away from Nightfang. Deeper into unknown places.

Behind us, I heard the howls again, but they weren't coming for me this time.

They were coming for the pendant and whatever lies I was about to uncover. My life had already fallen apart.

Now, something bigger was waking up, and it had my name cut into it.