The Luna's Destined Mate

Serena's POV

"I, Alpha Michael Greyson hereby reject you as my mate and the Luna of the Black Moon Pack."

The words resonate in my head over and over again. "I reject you, reject you, reject you, reject you, reject, reject, reject..."

Rejection, something that I should be familiar with. Something that I AM familiar with. After all, my parents abandoned me when I was born. Me, an omega, the one caste in our world that is the rarest and supposed to be treasured, loved, cherished.

But then, I should have known that no freaking good thing ever came to me. Not one. The one thing, the one thing that was supposed to give me comfort, give me joy and grant me an escape from all the pain I've been going through, my mate,- I gasp out, doubling over from the pain- doesn't even want me.

When I woke up today on my eighteenth birthday, I thought today was going to be a great day, the day I found mate and finally became complete. However, I didn't expect this.

I feel numb. Everything is muffled around me. I can't hear anything over the ringing in my ears before then I feel it.

The pain. The excruciatingly horrible, terrible, pain that makes me feel like my insides are melting. Tears run down my cheeks and I fall down, clutching my knees in a fetal position as I manage to gasp out.

"Why?"

Michael walks towards me and I look up at him through blurry eyes, the pain in them questioning him, searching for an answer, a reason for this cruelty.

He smirks and gives me an answer. An answer I already knew but was not ready to accept.

"Because you're a disgrace, a mistake. What werewolf can't turn into their wolf. You're more of a monster because you're an omega. What a waste. You're a disgrace to the moon goddess. You disgust me." He spits out.

As he speaks, each word is like a spear, piercing through my heart and making it bleed.

It hurts because although he has rejected me, the connection is still there.

With each strand that represents my union already starting to fray, the link is still there, barely hanging on because I refuse to let it. Because I refuse to acknowledge his rejection of me.

I crawl closer towards him, my knees scraping against the rough ground as I hold his leg and whimper. "Please, please don't. Please, I'll do anything. Please don't reject me. You're my mate." I cry out.

He kicks off my hand on his leg and crushes it beneath his boot as I cry out in pain.

"Ahhhh! "Please, please, Michael, it hurts."

"Shut up, don't call me your mate. Now say the words. Say it." He screams in my face.

I shake my head furiously. "I won't do it. Please. You're my fated mate."

He kicks me in the stomach, the pain causing a grunt from my lips. "That's what you think."

As I clutch my hand to my aching belly, I wonder what he could have meant by that. We couldn't be anything but fated mates.

I look up at him with anguish in my eyes. "You may have rejected me but I won't. You can't make me."

Michael stands up from his crouched position in from of me and turns to his Beta, Dom.

"We'll see about that. Dom, hit her until she she's ready to reject the mate bond."

Dom answers Michael, astonishment evident in his tone.

"Now Alpha, maybe we shouldn't. She already looks like she's in more pain than what an average rejection would cause. Maybe we should-"

Michael's fury is evident when he uses his Alpha tone, leaving no room for Dom to question him.

"Are you questioning your Alpha?"

Waves of dominance are released and I see everyone through my blurred vision exposing their necks in submission as whimpers ring out into the night air.

"No Alpha!" Everyone responds, although the question was directed at Beta Dom.

"You two, hold her and make sure she doesn't move. Don't stop until my mate-" He spits out the word with so much contempt like it's a disease.

"is ready to reject the bond. In fact, anybody is free to take a swing at her until she's ready to give up. I insist."

I feel the slight command behind that word. He is making sure anybody who has doubts know it's not a mere suggestion.

I feel the presence of the two people behind me though I can't tell who it is. I am lifted off the ground and make to stand upright. I see Dom come in front of me, his expression regretful as he mouths the words "I'm sorry" to me.

His eyes are pleading for me to understand.

I look away and look at Michael instead. Begging, pleading with my eyes to make him stop, to make him end this nightmare. Instead, he sneers and tells Dom.

"Make sure you don't pull back your punches."

Dom grits his teeth and punches my stomach and I bend over from the impact and cough out blood, the metallic tang filling my mouth and it suddenly hurts to breathe.

Dom probably broke a rib but I don't fall because of the hands holding me up, leaving me open and defenseless for anyone to take I hit at me.

One by one each of my pack mates come up and deliver a blow. I hear laughter in the background. Are they enjoying this?

Then I begin to feel a different kind of pain from the literal soul crushing agony I'm experiencing.

Rather than run away from it, I embrace it but it still pales against the pain the fraying mate bond is making me feel.

I feel someone yank my hair back while another punches me. I kick to the gut. I slap on my face. Another kick to the kidneys. My face is so battered that I barely see.

"Enough!"

Serena's POV

Michael commands as he walks up to me and holds up my chin so I am looking directly at him.

What I see in his eyes lets me know it is time to give up. I was holding up hope that maybe something, anything would make him change his mind but I was wrong. There's nothing but rage and anger and disgust. It's much more than my inability to shift. It's something else and what hurts most is that I don't know what it is.

As I say the words, absolute glee appears on his face as he realizes that he has broken me just cements what I saw. I am nothing to him. It's over, finished.

"I, Serena Infirma," I choke on my surname because even that portrays who I am. Weak, useless, pathetic. That's the name they gave me when they found me abandoned as a baby at the pack border. I was so weak that they thought I wouldn't survive my first year.

Weakness is a taboo amongst wolves. You cannot show yourself as anything but strong, competent, useful. Anything other than that gives others the room to dominate you. That's the reason I have always been treated like a joke all my life.

Michael shifts his hand from my chin and goes to pull on my hair as I cry out in pain again.

"Be quick about it. Don't waste my time."

I, I Serena Infirma accept your rejection as your mate and r-renounce my position as the Luna of the Black Moon Pack. There, I said it, now please let me go." I whimper out.

He yanks on my head harder. "Hold on, I'm not finished with you yet."

"What more do you want?" I whisper brokenly as tears well up in my eyes from the pain.

At that moment, he orders the pack seer to come forward and she performs the rites to unbind us as mates and she declares . "You are no longer mates in the eyes of the moon goddess. Nothing binds you. This shall be a sign that you are cast out, unwanted."

She takes out a blazing poker with the words 'outcast' inscribed on it and hands it over to Michael who instructs makes the wolves holding me hold out my wrist. He grins maniacally slow as realization dawns on me. No, he couldn't, he wouldn't.

"W-what are you doing? Please don't. You don't have to do this." I turn to Dom. " You can't let him do this. Please help me!"

Dom goes to stand in front of me, shielding me from Michael's view. "Alpha, is this really necessary? You already-"

Michael growls low, his wolf taking over. "Shut up and get out of my way. Or are you questioning your Alpha? You will hold out her hand and that's an order." He commands with his Alpha tone.

Dom tries to fight the command but can't. He manages to grit out before going to take my hand from the wolves holding me down. "You're making a mistake Alpha."

Michael just narrows his eyes and repeats the order. "Hold. Out. Her. Arm. Now."

As Michael comes closer with the blazing brand in his hands, I begin to struggle, trying to get away from the grip.

"Shhhh! Don't move. It'll be over soon. I'm so sorry Siri." He whispers my childhood nickname with regret in his eyes, breaking my heart in two.

As Michael places the hot brand on my flesh, his eyes light up with delight as my howl of agony rings out in the dark, the sound causing birds around to take flight.

After he is done he puts the brand away and his next words are the nail in the coffin that finally wreck me completely.

"I, Alpha Michael reject you and banish you from the Black Moon Pack. Leave and never come back."

"Alpha, don't." Beta Dom tries to stop him but the words have already been said. It wasn't enough that he rejected me as his mate, he had to banish me from the pack with no means of protection in this sorry state. What kind of sick bastard does this?

Michael instructs the guards to drag me to the outskirts of the pack boundary and when I am tossed out, left to die, an injured, wounded Omega without the protection of a pack's boundary and I lie on there on the forest floor beaten, broken and utterly destroyed until I finally surrender to the cold embrace of darkness.

Nicholae Lykon's POV

I hate patrolling.

Trust me, I know how important it is to do so and the necessity of it but in the past 500 years of my life, I have basically seen it all.

No, it's the endless waiting that pisses me off. I have been waiting for so many things for so long I basically wrote the book on patience.

Being the Alpha of the most powerful pack on the continent, I could easily assign the task to someone else but something has been bothering me recently.

We got a report on one of the packs in California who were under suspicious of practicing witchcraft and trafficking in young werewolves and the High Council requested that my pack investigate.

Normally I would have ignored the request from those pompous assholes since I wasn't fucking answerable to them but something about the pack called to me and more importantly, intrigued my wolf. Something that hasn't happens in decades.

I call for Logan, my Beta's attention through the pack's mind link.

"Something is definitely wrong with this pack. Look at the way their boundary is defended. It seems like anyone can literally walk in and there's barely a scent marking this territory as taken."

Logan agrees with my observation.

"You're right Alpha, even the North end of the boundary is just defended with meager guards. I seems like a trap. Like they're trying to lure wolves who might think is area is unmarked."

The Northern boundary of any pack is the most important for any wolf pack because it is the most common point of entry for outsiders.

In fact, it is considered rude to come into a pack from any other direction and is sometimes seen as a hostile action. As such, it is the most heavily guarded. The fact that there are few sentries at the Northern border shows not just gross negligence but also calls for great suspicion.

There is definitely something wrong. But there's something else. Something I haven't quite figured out yet. My wolf Orion's growl just reinforces my suspicion. He hasn't spoken to me in decades and when he occasionally does, it's usually in growls and grunts. He gave up hope after waiting decades for his, our, Mea Lunaria.

I can see Orion in our mind space, his hackles razed and teeth bared. He is definitely restless. Nothing has held his attention for years and I want to know what it is.

I tell Logan through the mind link to be cautious but he responds cockily.

"I always am Alpha." I can hear the cocky smirk in his voice and I growl to get his attention so he knows I'm not joking. I don't know why I am on edge like this but I have a feeling we have to be alert.

"I'm not joking, Logan. You and the others cover the Western and Southern end of the border. I'll take the East. Shift to your wolf forms. Report any suspicious activity to me immediately and don't go alone. Be alert, don't let them know we are here yet and make sure to hide your scents. I won't tolerate any mistakes. Am I understood?"

"Yes Alpha." Logan and the others echo through the pack bond.

I walk towards the eastern part of the pack boundary. As I approach I feel my wolf press at my consciousness. Orion is restless and wants to take over. I let him as I feel the shift take over me and I change into my midnight black wolf.

Orion trots towards the tree line away from the eastern border. Something seems to have gotten his attention but I haven't sensed it. At least not yet.

Orion is an ancient spirit who has been existing for generations. When I met him as a boy, he told me that he was a conquering emperor whose empire stretched over several lands and kingdoms long forgotten in his past life. When I asked him why I didn't know him, he told me that he was one of the 'lost kings' but didn't dwell on the subject.

He doesn't like to talk about his past. He just prefers to have his orders obeyed which was why we struggled for dominance at the beginning since I also won't submit and take anyone's crap.

All werewolves meet their wolves when they come of age. Wolves are reincarnated ancient spirits who were supernaturals in their past lives. However, not all supernatural creatures reincarnate into spirits. The goddess selects who would be worthy of reincarnation based on how they lived their previous lives.

The strength of your wolf determines whether you fall into the Alpha, Beta Omega casts and so on.

Of course, your initial temperament also plays a role in what cast you become. It is usually obvious from a young age what cast you belong to.

Wolves are primal beings who are driven purely by power and instinct and the more powerful your wolf, the more powerful you are and your ability to have control over your wolf is what separates you from going rogue.

Werewolves are born with acute senses more than the average human but you do not come into your full powers until your wolf spirit manifests in you at maturity. In my case, Orion manifested in me when I was ten years old. Something that had never happened before.

Your wolf spirit lends their powers to you and amplifies your own. While a werewolf's spirit is a part of one's consciousness and identity, they have their own thoughts and have greater senses that a typical werewolf's supernatural abilities because they are more in tune with the earth and have a greater more direct connection to the Moon Goddess and in turn, her powers. The older you are, the more powerful you become.

Orion is able to sense things even I can't and it was probably why he was able to sense whatever it is that has him so worked up.

He sniffs and his nose flares as he picks up the scent of blood. He gets more anxious and follows the scent which gets stronger the deeper he goes into the forest.

"What is it Orion?"