RISE OF THE LUNA

The ballroom was a different world.

Golden chandeliers dripped from the ceiling like frozen sunlight, casting a warm glow across velvet drapes and polished marble floors. Music drifted through the air-something elegant and old. Laughter rippled in waves, and the scent of roasted meats and honeyed wine mingled with the perfume of unmated she-wolves, each more radiant than the last.

I stood against the farthest wall, half-hidden behind a towering floral arrangement, my borrowed dress clinging to me like guilt. It wasn't mine. Maura, the head cook, had forced it on me, along with a stern, "Just go. No one will notice you anyway."

She was half right.

No one ever noticed Ava Rivers. Not unless I was in the way.

I was the lowest-ranking omega in Silver Hollow-the one who cleaned the warriors' blood from the training mats, who delivered towels to the she-wolves allowed to train in the gym, and who slept in a storage closet behind the kitchens. I wasn't born to this pack, and they never let me forget it.

Tonight was supposed to be the same. Invisible. Quiet. Background.

Then he entered.

Alpha Damon Spears.

Even the music seemed to pause as he stepped into the ballroom. The crowd parted with an unspoken reverence, bowing their heads, baring their necks. He strode in with the confidence of a man born to rule-broad shoulders wrapped in a midnight black suit, silver cuffs gleaming against dark skin, and a gaze that could cut through steel. His presence stole the air from the room.

My wolf stirred, ears twitching, restless.

I swallowed hard. Damon was beautiful in the way wildfires are-dangerous, untouchable, hypnotic. He was also the reason for tonight's celebration. His twenty-eighth birthday. The day he became eligible to find a mate.

And clearly, every unmated she-wolf here had the same idea.

I watched them flutter to his side like moths to flame, giggling, brushing his arm, offering drinks and stolen smiles. Damon nodded politely, accepting each gift with a coolness that said he wasn't impressed.

I turned away. I didn't belong here. This wasn't my world.

The moment I shifted my weight to leave, a sharp voice cut through the air.

"You."

I froze. Not because I didn't recognize the voice-but because I did.

Damon.

Slowly, I turned back around. He was looking right at me.

No. Through me.

The crowd had gone silent. Dozens of heads swiveled in my direction. I wanted to melt into the floor.

"You." He took a step closer. "What's your name?"

My mouth was dry. "A-Ava."

His eyes narrowed slightly, as if testing the word on his tongue. Then he stiffened.

And everything changed.

The scent hit me first-rich, smoky cedar and storm-washed earth. My knees buckled. My wolf surged forward, howling, clawing at my chest. Something ancient flared to life in my bloodstream, racing toward him like lightning down a wire.

My heart stopped.

No. No, no, no.

This couldn't be happening.

His expression twisted-shock, disbelief, then something colder. Denial.

The bond snapped into place like a steel trap.

He was mine.

And I was his.

I didn't need anyone to say it. I felt it in my soul.

The Alpha of Silver Hollow was my mate.

And he looked horrified.

A whisper rippled through the room like wind through tall grass. "The omega?" "Her?" "That can't be right."

I stepped back instinctively, suddenly aware of how loud my heartbeat was.

"No," Damon said. Not to me. To the universe. His voice was strained, laced with confusion and rage. "No. This is a mistake."

The bond recoiled like it had been slapped. My wolf whimpered, ears flat.

I didn't know what to do-what to say.

"I don't accept this," he said, louder now. "There's no way the Moon Goddess would bind me to her."

A fresh sting bloomed in my chest.

I tried to breathe. I tried to hold the pieces of myself together.

But his words kept slicing them apart.

He turned to the gathered wolves. "Everyone-leave. Now."

Silence. Then movement. The ballroom emptied in record time, gasps and murmurs trailing behind.

I stood frozen.

Damon stalked toward me, eyes glowing faintly, power crackling like lightning beneath his skin.

"What are you doing here?" he snapped.

"I-I was just-Maura said-I didn't mean-" My voice was paper-thin.

"You shouldn't have been at this event."

"I didn't know-"

"You knew." He snarled. "You were hoping. Just like the rest of them."

My nails dug into my palms. "That's not true."

"I'm the Alpha," he said. "You think I can afford to be mated to an omega-one no one respects? One who has no lineage, no strength, no standing?"

The words were weapons, every syllable striking true.

But he wasn't done.

"I need a Luna who can lead, Ava. Who can stand beside me. Not someone who cowers behind plants and flinches when I speak."

Tears burned behind my eyes. I refused to let them fall.

"I didn't choose this either," I said quietly.

That stopped him. For a moment.

I stepped forward. "You think I wanted this? I've spent my life being no one. Less than no one. I was happy being invisible if it meant surviving. I don't want your title. I don't want your pack. I didn't come here looking for a mate, Damon. I came because I was told to."

The silence between us stretched, taut and trembling.

"I don't care what the Moon Goddess intended," he said at last. "This won't happen."

And just like that, the bond cracked.

Pain ripped through me like claws down my spine. I staggered backward, clutching my chest.

He'd rejected me.

Not in ceremony. Not formally.

But the intent was clear.

I bit down on the scream that threatened to tear from my throat. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

He turned his back on me.

I left before I crumbled.

I didn't remember getting back to the servant wing. Or how I got out of the dress. Or when the sobs started. Only that they didn't stop. Not for hours.

The bond still pulsed inside me-wounded, raw, but alive. Rejection didn't kill it, not completely. It just... poisoned it. Turned something beautiful into agony.

My wolf whimpered softly, licking wounds that wouldn't heal.

He was supposed to be mine.

And he hated me for it.

Somewhere around dawn, the pain dulled enough for thought to return.

I sat on the floor, wrapped in a thin blanket, staring at the moonlight bleeding in through the narrow window.

You survived this long, I told myself. You'll survive this, too.

But I didn't know if that was true.

Because surviving without a heart was a different kind of death.

And Damon Spears... had taken mine with him.

The sun rose cruelly bright.

Golden light spilled across the servant wing's narrow corridor, as if daring me to leave the fragile darkness of my room. My eyes felt raw, heavy with sleeplessness and grief. I hadn't shifted. I hadn't eaten. My bones ached with the weight of what Damon Spears had said-of what he'd done.

He was my mate. And he had rejected me in front of half the pack.

Not formally, not with the ceremony and words that would sever the bond completely-but with enough contempt to make it clear.

I didn't belong.

I never had.

And now, I never would.

But life in Silver Hollow didn't stop because an omega's heart was torn in half. There were linens to wash. Floors to scrub. Breakfast to be served. Maura had pounded on my door at dawn, her voice gruff with concern masked as anger.

"If you don't come out, they'll talk worse than they already are," she'd said. "You show your face, keep your spine straight, and act like you don't care. Or they'll eat you alive."

Too late.

They already were.

I kept my head down as I entered the kitchen, but it didn't matter.

The whispers started the moment I stepped through the door.

"She actually came."

"Has she no shame?"

"An omega, the Alpha's mate? Goddess must've made a mistake."

I ignored them, or tried to. My fingers trembled as I picked up the tray of breakfast rolls meant for the training hall. My wolf, still licking the wounds of the night before, stirred weakly. She didn't have the strength to fight back. Neither did I.

"Must be nice, huh?" someone muttered as I passed. "Throw yourself at the Alpha, get your scent all over him-maybe she thinks that's enough."

"She's probably faking it. How could someone like her be fated to him?"

A sharp laugh followed. "If I were the Alpha, I'd reject her too."

I flinched but kept walking.

My chest burned with humiliation. My palms sweated against the edges of the tray. I hadn't thought it was possible to feel worse than I did last night-but this was a different kind of pain. The kind that dragged you down in pieces. Slowly. Publicly.

The halls echoed with voices as I made my way toward the training field, where the warriors would be gathering. My path took me past the main corridor-the one that overlooked the courtyard. There, I caught sight of him.

Damon Spears.

Training with two of his lieutenants, bare-chested and gleaming with sweat under the morning sun. Movements fluid. Controlled. Lethal.

But it wasn't his body that made me freeze.

It was the way he avoided looking up at the window I stood behind, as if he knew I was there. As if he felt it.

The bond still pulsed, even now-weak, strained, but alive.

He didn't want it.

And yet... he hadn't rejected me fully. Not in the way that would truly break it.

Why?

Before I could answer the question in my own head, a sneering voice rang out beside me.

"Careful, Ava. Wouldn't want your poor little omega heart to flutter again."

I turned to see Liana.

Tall. Golden-haired. The Beta's daughter. She was draped in silk and smugness, sipping a glass of juice like it was fine wine. Two of her friends flanked her, all dressed too nicely for breakfast.

"Or maybe," she added, leaning in, "you're hoping he'll change his mind. That if you mope around enough, cry in enough corners, he'll suddenly decide you're worthy."

I said nothing. I didn't have the energy.

Liana clicked her tongue. "You're not. You're nothing, Ava. An orphan no one wanted. A stray mutt taken in by pity."

Something inside me snapped-not fully, not loudly-but it shifted.

I set the tray down, slowly.

"I didn't ask for this," I said, voice low. "I didn't want to be his mate."

Liana scoffed. "No? Then why were you at the party?"

"Because I was sent. Maura made me go. I had no idea the bond would snap that night."

She stepped closer. "Doesn't matter. You still thought you had a chance, didn't you?"

I looked her in the eye. "I didn't. And I still don't."

For a moment, she faltered.

I picked up the tray again. My voice was steadier now.

"But don't mistake quiet for weakness, Liana," I added. "The Moon Goddess chose me. You can question it all you want. It won't change the truth."

Her eyes narrowed. "You think that makes you Luna?"

"No." I gave a bitter smile. "It makes me dangerous."

Then I walked away.

The words echoed in my head all the way to the training hall. I didn't know where they'd come from. I didn't even know if I believed them. But for a brief, burning moment, I felt taller.

The whispers still followed me through the corridors-snide remarks, glances, the low hiss of judgment slithering through the air. But I kept moving. I had work to do. I had breath in my lungs. That was enough.

For now.

But something was shifting. I could feel it beneath the skin of the pack. A tension. A tremor. As if something had cracked loose the moment the bond was revealed-and now nothing could go back to the way it was before.

By midday, the gossip had spread far beyond the kitchens.

I heard my name on the lips of guards. I saw warriors look me over with thinly veiled curiosity. Some with disgust. A few with pity.

But one glance from Beta Marcus said it all-cold, assessing, like he was calculating whether I was a threat.

By dusk, I knew the storm was only beginning.

And Damon?

He hadn't sought me out once.

Not to explain.

Not to finish the rejection.

Not to apologize.

He was waiting. Watching. And for reasons I couldn't understand yet, he was holding back.

Which meant he still felt the bond.

Still hadn't let me go.

The question wasn't if he would.

It was when.

And whether I'd survive it.

The air in the woods behind the estate was thick with pine and silence. Not even the birds dared to sing. I'd been summoned after dusk, a folded note slipped under the door of the linen closet where I'd been scrubbing floors on my knees. No signature. Just a place. A time. And the command to come alone.

I knew it was him.

And I went.

Not because I owed Damon Spears anything.

But because some part of me-small, spiteful, aching-needed to look him in the eye.

The clearing he'd chosen was deep enough to be out of sight of the pack's houses, but close enough to feel the weight of Silver Hollow pressing in on all sides. Moonlight broke through the trees in thin ribbons, lighting his silhouette like something carved from shadow.

He didn't turn when I stepped into view.

I didn't speak.

For a moment, we stood there like ghosts. Like strangers.

Then his voice cut the stillness.

"You came."

It wasn't a question. It wasn't warm.

I swallowed. "You summoned me."

Damon turned then, and for a second ,just a second ,his expression betrayed him. He looked tired. Not physically. Not in the way warriors wore exhaustion. This was deeper. Like his soul had been wrung dry.

But then it was gone, tucked behind the cold steel of his Alpha mask.

"I thought it best we speak where no one could listen in."

"Because humiliating me in public wasn't enough?" I said, sharper than I meant to. The bite surprised even me.

His jaw twitched. "That wasn't my intention."

"You rejected me in front of the entire pack."

"No," he said, voice low. "I didn't. Not fully."

I stared at him. "Then why am I here?"

He looked at me then, and it wasn't cold-it was worse.

Detached.

Like I was a problem he needed to solve. A puzzle that didn't fit into the picture he'd planned for his life.

"You need to reject the bond."

I blinked.

For a second, the wind died. Or maybe it was just something inside me that stopped.

"You want me to do it?"

"Yes."

"Because you can't?"

He didn't answer. Which was answer enough.

I laughed once, hollow. "Coward."

Damon's eyes flashed, the faintest glint of gold beneath the blue. "You think I'm enjoying this? You think I haven't torn myself apart since the moment that bond snapped into place?"

"Then why-"

"Because it wasn't supposed to be you!" he snarled.

The forest held its breath.

I flinched like he'd struck me, but he kept going, words tumbling out like poison he couldn't hold back any longer.

"I've trained my whole life to lead Silver Hollow. Every decision I've made, every sacrifice-it was all for this. And then the Goddess ties me to an omega? A servant?"

"I didn't ask for this either"

"No," he said. "But you should've walked away the moment you felt it."

My throat burned. "You don't walk away from the bond. You know that. You feel it. It owns you."

He looked away.

And that hurt more than anything.

"I'm not who they wanted for you," I whispered. "I'm not even who I wanted to be. But I didn't make this choice. Neither did you. So don't stand there pretending like I lured you into it."

His fists clenched at his sides. "Do you think I don't know how they look at you now? How they talk? They'll never accept you. Not as Luna. Not as anything."

I swallowed hard. "Then maybe you should've stood by me instead of letting them tear me apart."

The words hung between us, and for once, Damon didn't have a reply.

The wind picked up, rustling through the trees. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled.

"I'm giving you an out," he said finally. "I'm trying to spare you from what comes next."

"Or you're sparing yourself."

His eyes flicked to mine-sharp, furious. "You think this is easy for me?"

"No. I think it's easy to let someone else carry the burden," I said, stepping closer. "You want me to be the one who breaks it. You want me to be the traitor to the bond so you can stay blameless in the eyes of the Goddess."

"You don't understand what's at stake."

"Then explain it."

But he didn't.

Because he couldn't.

Because the truth wasn't about strategy or politics.

It was fear.

Damon Spears, Alpha heir, ruthless warrior, powerful male... was afraid.

Afraid of what it would mean to be mated to someone like me. Afraid of what the others would say. Afraid to admit he wanted something the pack would never understand.

And I... I was tired of being afraid.

"I won't do it," I said softly.

His eyes darkened. "Ava-"

"You want it broken? Do it yourself. Say the words. Sever the bond. Look me in the eye and reject what the Moon Goddess gave us."

He looked away again.

I almost laughed.

Coward, my wolf whispered.

Then he stepped toward me.

Slow. Measured. Every inch of him coiled, restrained.

He stopped just shy of touching me.

I felt the bond between us hum-torn, frayed, but not dead.

"Don't make me do this," he said. And for the first time, there was a crack in his voice.

I hated that it softened something in me.

I hated that I still felt him.

"Why not?" I asked, almost a whisper. "You've already broken everything else."

He closed his eyes. For one brief moment, he let the wall fall. I saw it then-the war inside him. The ache. The conflict.

"I smell you in every room I walk into," he said, voice hoarse. "I hear you in my dreams. Even now, I can feel your pain like it's my own."

Tears burned behind my eyes. I refused to let them fall.

"But I can't protect you," he went on. "Not from them. Not from the weight of what being mine would mean. They'd destroy you. And I'd let them."

He opened his eyes.

And they were filled with something dangerously close to regret.

"You deserve better than that."

I hated that I believed him.

I hated him for being right.

Slowly, I took his hand.

He flinched but didn't pull away.

And then I said it.

"I, Ava Lennox, reject this bond."

My chest clenched. My wolf screamed.

Damon's breath caught.

But I wasn't done.

"I reject you, Damon Spears, as my mate. And I release you from what the Moon Goddess has tied between us."

The forest went silent.

The bond snapped.

Like a string pulled too tight.

Like a bone breaking under pressure.

I staggered back a step. Cold washed over me.

Damon didn't move.

He looked at me like I'd gutted him.

Maybe I had.

But he'd asked for it.

"I hope you get the Luna you want," I said, voice shaking.

He didn't reply.

I turned.

And this time, he didn't stop me.

I walked away from the clearing, from the man fate had cursed me with.

I didn't cry.

Not until I reached the edge of the trees.

Not until I was sure he couldn't hear me.

And even then, the sob that broke free wasn't just grief.

It was rage.

Rage at the Moon Goddess.

At Damon.

At myself.

But beneath the fury, beneath the ache, something else stirred.

Freedom.

Painful. Hollow. But real.

The bond was gone.

And all that remained was me.

Bruised.

But unbroken.