Rejected By The Alpha Hockey Captain And Then Claimed By His Brother

Rosalie's POV

"Good luck with the game," I said, leaning in. My lips brushed his cheek, warm against the chilly air coming off the rink.

He leaned down and kissed me back, "Thank you."

He started to turn, his skates cutting a little line in the ice, but then he stopped and looked back at me, his eyes all serious and heavy.

"After the game...we need to talk, okay?"

My heart did this weird drop, like when you miss a step on the stairs and your stomach floats up into your throat for a second. I forced myself to nod, keeping my face totally still, just playing it cool so he wouldn't see.

"Yeah, sure."

Then he skated away and the crowd went absolutely crazy, screaming and banging on the glass as he joined the rest of the team. I just stood there, watching the back of his jersey move through the bright lights.

Two years. We have been together for two whole years and I still get this terrifying feeling whenever he says we need to have an adult conversation. It is ridiculous.

I let out a breathless laugh at myself, shaking my head.

It is probably just something about his schedule, or his family, or literally anything else. I shouldn't worry myself over nothing.

But my mind wouldn't just let it off because why did he sound like that? He never uses that specific tone unless something is really, really wrong.

Did I do something? I try to think back to this morning, or yesterday, or last week, searching my brain for any little mistake I made. Oh god, what if he's already tired of me?

The ice looks so big and bright and my eyes are starting to blur a little bit because I am getting too worked up. I blink fast, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

He hasn't even said anything bad yet and here I am, practically planning our breakup in my head while a thousand people are cheering for him.

The house felt way too quiet when I got back. Easton had gone off with the boys to celebrate the win, so I just sat there in the silence, waiting and when he finally walked through the door later that night, the air in the room instantly went thick with tension.

He didn't spare me a glance and there was this awkward silence stretching between us, pressing down on my chest until I couldn't take it anymore.

"How'd it go?"

"Good," he replied flatly.

Oh...uh well guess he's tired, might as well change the topic.

"Our twenty-first birthdays are coming up soon," I said, my voice sounding a little too desperate to break the quiet. "I am just so excited about it. Aren't you?"

But he didn't reply this time, he just worked around the room, looking at literally everything else but me. It was so incredibly awkward, but I couldn't stop myself. I kept pushing, hoping he would break.

"Finally, we won't just be boyfriend and girlfriend anymore," I went on, my hands squeezing together. "We will be mates. We can have pups, and life is going to be so-"

"I'm tired," he cut me off, "I need to rest, can we talk about this tomorrow?"

My heart felt like it actually broke right there in my chest. He didn't even acknowledge what I said, it was like I was talking to a wall.

The pain of it made my throat go tight as tears stung the backs of my eyes.

He turned around to leave the room, his back to me, and panic flared up through the heartbreak. "Easton," I called out, my voice cracking a little. "You said before the game... you said we needed to talk?"

He paused right at the threshold of the door with his shoulders tense, his whole body stiffening as if he was physically holding himself back from saying whatever was really on his mind.

"I need you to run an errand for me," he said finally, "Towards the northern boards."

I froze. My entire body went numb with fear.

The northern boards, everyone knew about that place. It was notorious, dangerous, a place where people went and didn't come back.

"Why?" I whispered, my voice shaking so badly. "You could just send the guards? Or Owen? He is your beta, he handles stuff like this."

"Because I need someone I can trust to hold the information that is going to be given to you," he said.

He finally turned around to face me and I couldn't look him in the eyes. I started fiddling with the fabric of my dress, my fingers twisting the material over and over as my eyes darted all around the room, anywhere but at him.

"But it is so dangerous out there," I rambled, my thoughts beginning to spiral all over again. "The rogues, the terrain, what if something happens? It isn't safe for me, Easton, you know what people say about the northern-"

"The guards will accompany you," he cut me off again, shutting down my panic like it was nothing. "They will make sure you return safely."

His tone was... final, like there was no room for arguments, no space for me to say no. He was my future alpha, my boyfriend of two years, and he was just looking at me with those cold eyes. I swallowed the giant lump in my throat and slowly nodded my head.

The road out there was so long, it would take me three whole days, maybe even more, just to go back and forth through that terrifying territory.

My chest hurt so much from the way he was acting, but he said he needed someone he could trust and he trusted me. If he needed me to do this for him, for us, then I would do it. I had to.

×××

The next morning, everything was already packed and ready by the door before I even fully woke up, which felt weirdly fast, like he was rushing me out.

The journey was miserable, the road was freezing and deserted, just endless trees and gray skies that made everything look scary and shadowed.

My mind kept playing tricks on me because of the quiet. It felt like days and days had passed, like I had been traveling for a lifetime, but when I looked at the sky it had only been a few hours.

Suddenly, a guard screamed from behind us. "It's an attack!"

Everything happened too fast and before my brain could even process the words or understand what was happening, something hit us hard.

I was knocked clean off my ride, flying through the air before slamming hard onto the frozen ground. The wind was completely knocked out of me as I scrambled to sit up, gasping for air, my eyes went wide as I watched my guards instantly shifting and fighting off a whole pack of wild, vicious wolves.

My breathing grew so erratic. I wanted to help, I wanted to jump in and fight for my life, but I was just sitting there in the dirt... useless. I couldn't channel my wolf, no matter how hard I screamed inside my own head for her to wake up, nothing happened.

Tears started streaming down my cheeks...this was it. I was going to die out here in the freezing cold, and Easton wouldn't even be here. I squeezed my eyes shut as the snarling got closer, believing this was my absolute end.

But then, suddenly, the snarling and snapping sounds stopped, and everything went quiet. I forced my eyes open, and my stomach completely flipped as I saw all my guards laying there, lifeless on the ground.

The attacking wolves began to shift back into their human forms. They walked over and towered right above me, blocking out the sky. I shrunk back into the dirt, shaking so hard my teeth were clicking together, and started begging.

"Please," I sobbed, the tears burning my face. "Don't kill me..."

One of the men looked down at me with this awful smirk. "Oh a lady? Why don't we just have our way with her first," he muttered to the others, his eyes moving over me.

My heart stopped, I couldn't even breathe. But before he could step closer, the man standing in the middle slapped a hand against his chest, stopping him.

"No," the leader said, "We need her to pass the information."

The leader slowly knelt down in front of me, "it's her lucky day."

I was vibrating with terror, trying to pull away, but he reached out and gently brushed a stray piece of hair away from my face. His hands were freezing. He gave me this smile that made my blood run cold.

"Tell your dear alpha Easton," he whispered, his eyes locked onto mine, "that we are coming for him."

×××

Before I even knew what was happening, the wolves vanished into the trees, leaving me behind in the snow. Only one of my guards had somehow survived the attack, and together, we dragged ourselves all the way back home.

By the time we finally made it through the pack gates, it was already the middle of the night. My body was aching, my clothes were ruined, and my mind was racing at a million miles an hour.

All I could think about on the long, freezing walk back was Easton. I had to warn him, to tell him that these monsters were coming for him, and I needed to tell him how I almost died out there. I needed him to hold me and tell me I was safe.

I hurried up the stairs, my breath catching in my throat, but as I reached our bedroom door, a sound made me freeze.

It was a giggle, a soft, high-pitched female giggle drifting right out from the slightly opened door.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I actually shook my head, thinking my brain was just playing tricks on me. It had to be a mistake...it had to be.

I took a slow step closer, my eyes wide as I leaned in to look through the tiny gap in the door.

My lungs emptied as I saw Easton tangled up in the sheets with a woman.

A woman I had never seen before in my entire life...a woman that...wasn't me.

My heart didn't just break this time, it completely stopped beating and the world started tilting sideways. I took a sharp step back, my boots heavy against the floorboards, and I clutched my hands over my chest because the pain was so physical I thought I was going to throw up.

"No," I breathed out, the word barely a whisper, "No, no, no."

And then, like a lightning strike, the realization hit me so hard it made me dizzy.

The northern boards, the notorious, deadly territory.

He knew exactly what was out there.

So this is why he sent me away.

He didn't send me to get information, he didn't send me because he trusted me...he sent me out there to die.

He sent me to be killed off so he could be with her.

Rosalie's POV

I heard voices, far away.

That was the first thing that woke me up. My eyes felt like they were glued shut, and when I finally managed to blink them open, everything was a massive, blurry smudge. I couldn't make sense of the ceiling or the walls.

But then my chest started to ache as that deep, crushing weight came slamming right back into my ribs, and the memory of the bedroom door, the giggle, the sheets-it all flooded my brain.

It had to be a nightmare. I had to have just fallen asleep and had the worst dream of my entire life.

I scrambled to sit up, my head spinning so fast I felt sick, and that was when I noticed the white curtains and the smell of rubbing alcohol.

The pack infirmary.

Why was I in the infirmary? I couldn't remember collapsing.

I swung my legs off the mattress, my knees shaking like jelly. I didn't care, I just needed to find Easton. I needed to see his face and have him tell me that none of it was real.

Disoriented and stumbling, I pushed past the doors and stepped outside into the cool night air.

And then, I just stopped as the noise hit me first.

Loud music, cheering of a crowd and laughter everywhere.

The entire pack square was completely covered in bright, glowing fairy lights and long silver banners. There were rows and rows of food, people dancing, and then-the howling started. A massive, beautiful chorus of wolves throwing their heads back in joy.

I slowly tilted my head up, my eyes widening so wide they hurt to see the moon. It was big, round, and glowing a blinding white.

My breath caught. A full moon? But... hadn't it just been midnight when I got back? Hadn't it only been a few hours since I saw Easton in our room? How was it a full moon already?

"Hey! Wait, please," I choked out, grabbing the sleeve of a pack member who was rushing past me with a tray of drinks.

"What's the celebration about?"

The person stopped, turning to look at me and the second they recognized my face, the smile dropped off their mouth as they looked at me with this awful, stinging disdain, their nose crinkling up like I was something dirty on the bottom of their shoe.

"It's the Alpha's mating ceremony," they said, their voice dripping with pity and disgust. They shook their head, looking me up and down. "Such a shame. Everyone really thought you were going to be Luna."

I staggered back, my boots slipping a little on the dirt. My mind was reeling, spinning around and around so fast I felt dizzy.

This had to be some sick, twisted joke everyone was playing on me...it had to be.

I shoved past the person, knocking into their shoulder, and started running straight into the thick crowd. I didn't care who I ran into or who I pushed out of the way.

"Easton!" I screamed, my voice cracking, "Easton!"

But I couldn't see him through the sea of people.

Suddenly, the loud music began to quiet down, and the roaring crowd started to settle, parting right down the middle. I stopped running, my breath coming in ragged, short gasps as I watched the space open up.

There he was.

Easton was walking down the aisle toward the altar. And right beside him, holding his hand, was a woman. She was beautiful, but my eyes dropped down to her stomach. She was pregnant, very obviously pregnant under her white dress.

Easton had this look on his face, this huge, beaming smile that I had never, ever seen on him in the two whole years we had been together. It completely broke something inside me as I raised my hand and slapped my own cheek, hard, over and over.

"Wake up," I told myself, but the pain was real, and the lights didn't fade, and the tears just kept falling freely down my face, blurring everything.

They reached the front, and the pack priest stepped forward, his voice booming over the silent crowd. "Do you, Easton, take Brenda to be your true mate and Luna forever?"

"I do," Easton said. His voice was so clear, so proud.

And that was the exact moment something inside my mind just snapped. I couldn't hold it in for another second.

"Easton!" I screamed his name at the top of my lungs, the sound tearing from my throat and echoing right through the middle of the silent crowd.

I started running straight toward the altar, my fingers digging into the fabric of my dress to hoist it up so I wouldn't trip over my own feet. The crowd parted for me like I was a ghost, loud gasps and angry murmurs rippling through the people as I broke past the front row.

I stopped right in front of him and he froze.

"Rosalie," he breathed.

"Tell me it's not true," I whispered, my voice shaking so hard it felt like my teeth would shatter. But then the sadness just turned into anger and I screamed at the top of my lungs, pointing my finger right at the pregnant bride beside him.

"Tell me all of this is just a fucking joke! Easton, tell me!"

He shifted his weight, his chest heaving as he looked around at the hundreds of pack members watching us. He looked annoyed, like I was an inconvenience ruining his perfect night.

"Rosalie, stop," he said, his voice dropping low, trying to sound authoritative. "Go back to the infirmary. You aren't well. We will talk about this later."

"Talk about this later?" I let out a sharp, hysterical laugh, tears blinding me. The pain in my chest was so heavy I could barely stand. "Is that why you wanted me to die? Is that why you sent me off to the northern boards? So you could be with her?"

The crowd went completely dead silent, even Brenda let out a tiny gasp, her hand flying over her pregnant stomach.

"I thought you loved me," I sobbed, stepping closer until I could smell his familiar scent, the scent that used to make me feel safe but now just made me sick. I reached out and grabbed the front of his shirt, my fingers bunching the fabric, pulling him down to my level.

"Two years, Easton! How could you do this to me? How could you?"

He didn't soften or look guilty.

Instead, his hands came down around my wrists and pried my fingers off his shirt, using enough force to shove me backward as I stumbled, my boots losing traction on the dirt, and I almost collapsed onto the floor, barely catching myself.

He looked down at me, his eyes cold and full of disgust.

"Why would I ever want someone as weak and wolfless as you to be my mate?" he sneered, his voice cutting through the quiet air so everyone could hear it. "You're nothing, Rosalie. You're a liability to this pack."

And as if that wasn't enough, "I, Easton of the IronVale Clan, reject you, Rosalie, as my mate," he said, his voice echoing over the speakers so every single person could hear it.

"And I accept Brenda as my chosen Luna."

The words felt like an actual series of blows to my chest. I fell back onto the hard dirt, stunned and broken, my knees giving out entirely as I watched him turn away from me as he wrapped his arms around Brenda, pulling her in and kissing her deeply right there on the altar in front of everyone.

As the kiss broke, he looked down at me one last time, his mouth twitching into a cruel line. "It was never about you, Rosalie. It was never going to be you."

A strange numbness started creeping through my veins, freezing me from the inside out. I couldn't move. I couldn't even find the words to cry anymore.

My mind went completely blank, just staring at the dirt. Tonight was supposed to be the night.

It was my twenty-first birthday. My wolf was supposed to finally surface tonight. I had held onto that one tiny shred of hope, thinking that if she just woke up right now, I could show Easton, show the entire pack, that I wasn't the weak, useless girl they all thought I was.

Deep inside my soul, I reached out. I screamed into the empty darkness of my mind, begging for my wolf, praying for even the tiniest spark or a sign from the Moon Goddess...anything.

But I was met with... silence.

There was nothing there. My heart shattered for a second time, the pieces literally grinding into dust.

I really was wolfless.

The silence around the altar didn't last long as suddenly, the crowd erupted into wild cheers for the new Alpha and Luna, the sound turning into ugly boos and jeers the moment their eyes landed back on me.

"Get out of here!" someone yelled.

Before I could even try to stand, a crumpled plastic cup hit my shoulder, followed by food and small rocks raining down on me.

And nobody stopped them, nobody cared.

Two guards stepped forward, their hands clamping onto my arms as they brutally dragged me off the altar like I was a piece of trash being cleared away for the real celebration to begin.

Easton's POV

The doors of the packhouse slammed shut, cutting off the distant roar of the celebration outside. My father didn't even wait for the latch to click before he turned on me, his face twisted in a dangerous sneer.

"What is the meaning of this nonsense, Easton?" he barked, slamming his fist onto the desk.

"Dragging that girl off the altar like a common rogue in front of the entire IronVale Clan?"

I didn't blink and kept my posture straight, my expression controlled. "It was the only way to handle it cleanly, Father. A public rejection leaves no room for her to contest the title."

To be fair, I hadn't wanted things to happen quite like this. The scene she made was messy, and I hate mess. But I felt no regret because a pack cannot be run on sentimentality, and it certainly cannot be run by a Luna who possesses no wolf.

I looked over at Brenda, who was sitting quietly, her small hand resting over her stomach. I loved Brenda. She gave me everything I actually needed to secure my position, she gave me strength, a prominent lineage, and a legacy.

The pregnancy hadn't been planned, of course. It was a miscalculation in timing, but a logical one to utilize. She was pregnant with the next Alpha heir and she had to be my Luna. It was the only sequence of events that made sense for the future of IronVale.

Then there was Rosalie. Just thinking about her made me recoil. She was all soft, quiet, and pitiful, always looking at me with those wide eyes like she was waiting to break.

It annoyed me and looking back, I honestly wondered how I had even fallen for her in the first place. It must have been a temporary lapse in judgment, a youthful distraction before I understood what real power required.

Why would I ever waste time on a liability when a perfect, capable woman like Brenda was standing right here?

Brenda caught me looking and offered a soft smile. She stood up, walking over to press a quick, sweet kiss against my lips. "Don't let him get to you, Easton," she murmured.

"We won."

But before I could answer, her smile completely vanished and her face contorted into a mask of agony, all the color draining from her cheeks in a fraction of a second. She gasped, her fingers digging violently into her dress as she clutched her stomach.

Panic, pierced right through my chest. "Brenda? What is it? What happened?"

She couldn't even speak, instead a loud, piercing scream tore from her throat as her knees buckled entirely, sending her crashing onto the floorboards. She curled into a tight ball, sobbing and clutching her abdomen.

"Help!" I roared, the sound vibrating the walls as I dropped to my knees beside her, my hands shaking as I tried to hold her up. "Get the medical team in here now! My baby-Brenda, look at me!"

My father went absolutely mad with rage as he kicked the door open, his voice booming down the hallway with terrifying Alpha authority.

"Protect my grandchild!" He screamed at the guards and the rushing pack doctors.

"If that child dies, you die with them!"

I looked down at her dress and recoiled in horror upon seeing the red dark stain spreading on her dress, leaking out and trickling down her bare legs onto the floorboards.

"My baby!" Brenda shrieked, the sound terrified as she convulsed in my arms.

"Easton, my baby!"

The medical team swarmed the room, lifting her up onto a gurney and rushing her down the hall toward the infirmary in a blur of shouting and footsteps. I started to follow, my heart hammering against my ribs, but my father's arm slammed against my chest, blocking the doorway.

"Stay here," he ordered, "You cannot help her in there."

And that made me pause. I couldn't in fact help her there.

"This is all Rosalie's fault," he started, "that wolfless brat brought a curse into this house with her pathetic screaming. Something needs to be done about her, Easton and now."

He turned and stormed down the hall after the doctors, leaving me standing in the corridor. My hands were covered in Brenda's blood, my mind spinning and calculating the sheer damage of losing my heir, and a blinding rage began to take over.

I looked down the hallway and there she was. Rosalie was still on the floor where the guards had dropped her, curled up and staring blankly at nothing.

I didn't think as I walked straight over to her, reached down and grabbed a fistful of her hair, violently pulled her up until she was forced to look at me, her small face twisting in pain.

"Are you happy now?" I hissed, my voice vibrating with pure venom right in her face. "Is this what you wanted? You just couldn't walk away quietly, could you? You had to make your pathetic little scene."

"Easton-" she whimpered, her hands instantly flying up to grasp at my wrist, trying to ease the pull on her scalp.

"You'd regret this-"

"Brenda is bleeding out because of you," I snarled, tightening my grip until she gasped.

"Your bitter, useless presence ruined everything the second you stepped onto that altar. Don't think yourself a victim Rosalie, you're a parasite."

She just looked at me through her tears, her lips trembling. She didn't even have the strength to argue back.

Disgusted by the sight of her, I used all my force to shove her back down to the ground. She hit the floor hard, sliding a few inches away. I wiped my bloody hands on my trousers, looking down at her like she was nothing more than dirt.

"Listen to me very carefully," I said, my voice dropping to a deadly whisper. "If Brenda loses that baby, you won't live to see another day. I will personally make sure of it."

×××

The hours stretched on until the clock on the wall didn't even make sense anymore. When the doors of the infirmary finally swung open, the lead nurse stepped out, her face pale. She didn't have to say a single word because the look in her eyes said everything.

They lost the baby.

My heart and my mind completely shattered in that exact second. All the logical planning, the carefully constructed future of my lineage, the heir I needed to secure my position was just...gone.

A hollow void opened up in my chest, replacing the panic with an anger I couldn't name.

Almost immediately, before I could even process the weight of the loss, I was hauled out of the corridor and thrown straight into the packhouse council room.

My father and the senior council members were already seated around the long table. I dropped into my chair, my hands still faintly stained with dried blood, just sitting there reeling while their voices bounced off the walls.

"An absolute tragedy," Elder Thomas muttered, shaking his graying head. "The future of the IronVale Clan, taken before he could even draw breath."

"It wasn't a tragedy, Thomas. It was malice," my father, Alpha King Magnus, growled from the head of the table. He slammed both palms down onto the wood, "Let us look at the facts. Brenda was perfectly healthy, then that wolfless bitch interrupted the sacred ceremony, screaming her bitter curses, and within minutes, my grandchild was dead."

"The timing is undeniable," another councilman agreed, nodding solemnly. "A wolfless pack member brings nothing but bad luck and dark energy. Her jealousy poisoned the air."

I just sat there, listening to them piece it together. My mind was too broken to care about looking for details or evidence. They were right. Everything was fine until Rosalie showed up. Her pathetic, crying face had ruined my life, and now it had cost me my child.

"We need a full investigation to see if she used any rogue herbs-" Elder Thomas started, but my father cut him off with a vicious snap of his jaws.

"There will be no investigation," Magnus roared, his eyes flashing red, "There will be no trial for a parasite who brings misfortune upon the future Alpha's bloodline. I am the Alpha King, and my word is law. Rosalie is condemned."

He stood up, towering over the council table, his voice leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.

"By order of the Alpha King, she is to be cast into the Abyss," Magnus declared, his face hardening into stone. "Let the darkness have her. Cast her into the place from which no wolf has ever returned."