The Rejected Luna Is A Phoenix Heir

Verya's POV

As I applied the final bandage, the smell of herbs and blood filled my nostrils, lingering after I placed the last strip on the side of the injured wolf. The wolf cried out, his reversion causing him to lie helpless and naked on the bed.

"It's okay," I whispered. "Your wound is healing. Tomorrow, you will walk around again."

The wolf nodded feebly but lacked energy to say anything. I straightened up and wiped my hands on my apron while Mira, another healer, entered the room with her arms folded.

"I'm still here," she remarked.

"Where could I go?"

"To the ceremony, Veyra. In several hours." Mira stepped closer and lowered her voice as if sharing a secret with me. "Elder Theron asked all the healers to attend the ceremony today. You know how it works; the wolves whose essence does not find its match may act erratically during the process. They might faint, suffer from the essence sickness, and even worse. We are expected to be nearby."

I focused on cleaning out the metal tray by the cot, making sure not to make eye contact. "I'm aware of the procedure, Mira. No reminders are necessary."

"You weren't sure I would show up," she said. "You only come if you have to."

That much was true. The whole idea of the mating ceremony made me sick. It always turned into a night of glares and gossip, all of the wolves nudging each other and snickering under their breaths as I passed by. I may have lost hope of ever being liked by any of the pack members, but it still didn't mean I liked being constantly reminded of that fact.

"I will attend. As a healer. Not anything else."

Mira offered me an apologetic smile, one of those smiles that she had perfected over the years, the one of pity disguised as understanding. "It is not expected of you, Veyra."

I did not respond. I simply nodded and returned to sorting my things, watching as Mira's footsteps faded out of the room.

It was just past noon when I slipped into my clean healer's coat and set out towards the grounds where the ceremony would take place. Wolves had formed groups, arraying themselves in their best attire and chatting happily and excitedly.

I stayed at the outskirts of the gathering, standing close to the tent that the healers had put up along with our supplies. Some of the wolves glanced at me as they walked past; I heard the same old whispered remark: *There goes the scarred one.* They giggled softly as I kept my eyes straight ahead and my hands folded in front of me as usual.

The Elder Theron Veyl mounted the platform as everyone hushed down. The silver wolf was an elderly one, his voice carrying clearly through the still clearing.

"This night," he started, "we all gather here to witness something that cannot be coerced, purchased, or refused – the union of true mates. A wolf's soul is never dishonest. It doesn't look up the status, the attractiveness, or the richness. It yearns for its equal only." His gaze ran over the assembly. "Let's begin."

One by one, the unmated wolves approached the center of the clearing and began to emit streams of glowing essence. The elders would guide them until they linked to the other wolves' essence with a flash of light. Cheers erupted when each new link was made. I remained where I was, uninvolved in what happened. No matter how much I tried to get into this place and its ways, there was no room for me.

Until Elder Theron announced another name, and the clearing fell silent.

"Alpha Kaizen Rourke."

As Kaizen walked up to the platform, the cheers were transformed into hushed respect. He was the type of Alpha that could inspire stories. Taller, broader than all the rest, with dark hair covering sharp gray eyes that seemed to see everything. He made every wolf in the clearing stand up straighter.

"Alpha Kaizen, release your essence," commanded Elder Theron.

Kaizen shut his eyes. Soon after, the stream of glowing essence emerged from him, far stronger than anything else I saw tonight.

No reaction.

Elders glanced at each other. Theron moved closer to the reading stones, frowning while examining them. "No reaction," he mumbled almost to himself.

Whispers started around the clearing.

"Might be because the reading isn't right," someone from the elders stated.

"Might be because the Alpha's mate isn't present this night," another elder suggested.

Kaizen clenched his teeth but remained silent.

Theron waved his hand, trying to keep everyone silent. "Alpha, if I might suggest – give more essence. A better reading will find what we're missing."

Kaizen let out a long breath. "Alright."

Kaizen gave more essence, and this time its power was enough to make some nearby wolves take a step backward. It spread into the air, much more powerful than before.

I watched it drift through the clearing, half from habit and half because I couldn't help but look. It passed from one couple to the next, past the elders, the unmated wolves ready and waiting up front.

And then it turned.

It drifted away from the crowd and made its way to the tent of the healers - *to me*.

"What-" I breathed, stepping backward.

But it did not stop there.

I heard a gasp from behind me. Mira put her hand to her mouth. Wolves closest to me scattered as the essence made its way to me, wrapping around my arm before I could move to stop it.

It entered my skin.

Warmth began to fill me, sudden and strong, like something finally fitting together after all this time. My legs were about to give out on me as I clutched the healer's table.

It was completely silent in the clearing.

All the wolves were staring at me.

The face of Elder Theron turned ghostly white. And Kaizen was standing motionless on the stage; the glow of his essence was faintly visible between us, his look of shock imprinted on every feature of his face.

I stared at my hand, the barely perceptible glow which had disappeared under my skin, and then at all the faces staring at me. My mouth had gone dry. There was no way for my mind to accept what my body already did.

"I am the Alpha's mate?!" I exclaimed.

Veyra's POV

I could not do anything. The tingling sensation of my arm, where the essence had penetrated my skin, remained, as well as the feeling of warmth in my chest, although fear was creeping up my throat.

The clearing exploded around me.

"An omega?! *Her*?!" screamed a woman from the front row, pointing at me as if I were something hideous.

"It is not possible," came yet another voice. "Just look at her face. Just look at her. There is no way the Alpha's wolf chose *that*."

I shrank at their words, but before I could even attempt to defend myself, hands grabbed my arms on either side. Turning to see the guards flanking me, I could not make out any expression on their faces.

"Wait-" I managed to say.

"You have to come with us," the guard said, tightening his hold and beginning to pull me along.

"But I didn't do anything!" I cried out, turning to glance back at the platform, desperately trying to spot either Kaizen, Elder Theron, or anyone else who could tell me why I was being taken away. Kaizen stood right where he had been, frozen in shock, staring at his own hand as if it had betrayed him.

Nobody stopped the guards. Nobody spoke up for me.

The guards led me directly to the council chambers, a place I had only ever seen from the entrance whenever I had delivered herbs to the elders. I was shoved into the middle of the chamber where a semi-circle of council members sat, staring at me with rage and disgust.

"Explain yourself," snarled one of them before I could get my words out.

"Explain what?" I asked. "I don't-I don't have a clue any more than you do!"

"Don't try to fool us, girl," said yet another council member, reaching forward from his chair. "The chosen mate of the Alpha is no accident. What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" I said, my voice wobbling despite my efforts to keep it steady. "I hardly know the Alpha. I've never had a private conversation with him. I can't even bring myself to look at him if he walks past me on the pack grounds."

"That sounds believable."

"You think I'm lying?" I asked, balling my fists at my sides. "You know how I am treated in this pack. Would I want this? Do you really think I'd want all those wolves staring at me as if I was some kind of monster?"

One of the older council members, a thin woman with piercing eyes, tilted her head as she scrutinized my face. "That scar of yours," she said. "What is it? Where did it come from?"

"From an attack on me as a kid. You already knew that."

"Do we?" she replied. "Or is it something more sinister?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You see, dark magic always leaves its mark," she said. "It's possible that your scar wasn't a consequence of any accident."

"That's ridiculous," I said, raising my voice without meaning to. "I have been working as a healer here since I was twelve years old. You've all seen my healing powers. You've all sent your own wolves to me. And now suddenly, I am some kind of witch?"

"It would explain how an omega managed to make the Alpha's essence choose to her," another council member interrupted me. "With forbidden magic, such manipulation isn't impossible."

"I didn't force anything!" I said. "I didn't even want to attend the ceremony tonight. Ask Mira. Ask any of the healers. I was going to stand in the back the entire night and go home the moment it was over."

The door opened before the council could say anything, and Elder Theron entered, his face showing annoyance.

"Enough," he said, cutting off all conversation. "This is not how an investigation should be conducted. We will not trap a scared girl and shout at her about accusations that have no proof behind them at all."

"Elder Theron," the thin council woman started, sitting up. "Do you not realize why we are concerned? An *omega* has been picked as Luna-"

"Wolf essence does not pick based on status," Theron said sharply. "It does not care about looks or money or the importance that person has in the pack. Wolf essence picks based on compatibility that goes far beyond what we can ever see with our eyes. I have overseen more matings than any of you still alive in this pack, and I have never seen essence act like this for no reason at all."

"Then how do you explain it?"

"I don't need to explain it," Theron stated. "The bond speaks for itself. Whatever any of your feelings on it may be doesn't alter the fact that this is what the essence has shown."

The entire room became quiet, except for the door opening and Kaizen entering once more.

All eyes were on him.

"Alpha," Theron stated, somewhat softer. "I take it that you are here to contest the bond."

"I am here to reject it," Kaizen declared bluntly.

A sinking feeling went through my stomach, even though I was not sure why I expected otherwise. Of course he would reject it. How could a guy like him ever willingly be with a lady like me?

"Kaizen," Theron stated softly, "you can't just-"

"There has been a mistake," Kaizen declared sharply. "My wolf would not choose this omega. It won't choose somebody that I have never even met in my life. There is a mistake with the reading, or something else has messed it up. But there is no way I will accept this as my mate bond."

"The wolf essence makes no errors," Theron said, his tone decisive. "You should be well aware of this."

"If so, then I'm an exception," Kaizen replied. "Get her back home."

The guards started walking towards me once again, and I opened my mouth to say something... anything. But there were no words to say in that moment; there wasn't a thing to say. I had been preparing for rejection all my life, and somehow, it still hurt me in ways I hadn't expected.

The guards walked me back to my small house on the outskirts of the pack's territory, saying nothing the whole time. I collapsed onto the floor the moment I stepped inside my house, staring at my hands – at the slight shimmering of the essence under my skin.

*Why me?*

I asked myself over and over again, but I didn't find a single answer. I had avoided Kaizen for years. I'd done everything in my power to escape his notice simply because I knew what others thought about me.

So how had that wolf selected me as its mate?

I pushed my hands against my eyes, struggling to catch my breath. Maybe there was something wrong with me after all.

I didn't have much time to contemplate this.

The heavy knocking sounded at my door, and without waiting for me to respond, they barged inside. These guards weren't the same as those who had taken me to my home.

"You've been called back to the palace," one of them told me.

"Now?" I demanded, springing to my feet. "Why?"

"The Imperial Council is in session," he told me. "They are initiating an investigation into the bond."

My heart sank, but I followed them back into the cold night air.

There were even more high-ranking officials in the chamber this time around, some of whom I knew only by name. Kaizen was standing toward the front of the room, his arms crossed over his chest and a stone-faced expression set in place. I was ordered to stand near him, close enough for me to sense the tension coming off of him in waves.

"This bond cannot simply be ignored," an Imperial Council member was saying as I approached, obviously continuing an argument that began before I arrived at the chamber. "You are the Alpha of this pack, Kaizen. It is no small matter to reject a true mate bond."

"I understand the importance of my role," Kaizen replied. "That is precisely the reason I cannot enter into a bond that I know to be fake."

"It may very well be false," a second member of the council spoke up. "But the repercussions of your refusal do not rest solely on yourself. The breaking of a true mate bond that has been formed in true essence has been known to bring ill luck to a whole Alpha's pack. Weak warriors. Poor harvests. Diseases spreading quicker than they ought to."

"But this is not a matter of pride," Kaizen snarled. "This is a matter of the fact that my wolf doesn't pick weakness. Someone without status, without power, without-" He cut himself off, but the damage had been done, and I could feel myself turning red with shame while trying to keep my face expressionless.

"Be careful, Alpha," Theron cautioned softly from where he was standing by the council platform.

Kaizen ignored him. "I will not accept this mating," he repeated, his voice raised this time, like if he shouted loud enough, it would change the fact.

"Then there is nothing left for us but to be very cautious," the head of the council stated. "If you choose to reject the bond formed by wolf essence, then we need an explanation. A reason that will satisfy the law."

Kaizen's eyes met mine for the first time since I had come into the room, cold and impenetrable. Then he turned his gaze back to the council.

"I want a test for black magic done! I will not accept this mating!"

Veyra's Point of View

The witch arrived just moments before sunrise.

I was standing in the middle of the council hall, surrounded by guards stationed in all corners of the room, as an old woman dressed in dark robes started forming a circle of bones and herbs around my feet. Her eyes were as milky white as those of a blind woman, either because of her age or her craft – I didn't know. She was working with a sort of slow motion, muttering words I didn't understand.

"Please," I begged. "I have never practiced black magic in my life. I don't even know how to do it."

Not a single one of the council members answered me. Kaizen was near the platform, with his arms crossed, watching the proceedings with the same detached look he had worn ever since his wolf had chosen me. He had not changed his mind in the slightest. He had no doubts whatsoever.

"You don't need to look at me like that," I blurted out, unable to hold back. "I know that you have already come to the conclusion that I am guilty, but I want to tell you that, regardless of what the test will show, I never practiced dark magic."

Kaizen glanced at me in a split second. "Then there is nothing to be afraid of the ritual."

A witch raised a hand before I could react. "Silence," she croaked. "Essence doesn't reveal its secrets through noises."

I held my tongue tightly as she started circling me, her fingers barely touching my skin. She was whispering some words in a steady rhythm, and I felt an unusual pressure in the air as it pushed against my chest as if it had invisible hands.

"Essence of this girl," the witch spoke softly. "There is something under it. Something ancient."

"What does that mean?" asked one of the council members.

The witch's already dark eyes narrowed even more as she continued with her inspection, sliding her hand down the length of my arm without touching me. "Traces," she muttered. "Faint, but there. Dark threads embedded into her essence."

"No," I said, feeling fear rising up in me. "It's not possible. I have never-"

"Black magic," the witch declared, standing up. "There are traces of black magic in her essence."

The room was immediately full of noise.

"I knew it," the skinny woman on the council said, getting up from her seat. "The scar. I've told you that the scar means something."

"This proves everything," someone else added. "She's done something with the ceremony. She's compelled the Alpha's essence to respond to her own."

"No!" I said, my voice breaking as I turned towards the witch. "Please, you need to check again. I've never cast such a spell. I don't even know how. Please, find out more before you accuse me of something I haven't done."

The witch ignored me; she had already turned to speak to the council, it seemed, her task done here.

"Please," I said, looking towards the council members, to whomever would listen. "I've been in this pack my whole life. Ask any wolf that I've healed, Mira and the others. I've never opened a spell book in my life."

Nobody answered me; nobody even looked me in the eye.

Kaizen stepped forward. "Then it's decided," he said. "The witch has proven what I thought all along. I want this false bond ripped out at once."

"Kaizen, please," I said, my voice breaking as I turned towards him. "I promise you that I'm not lying to you. I don't understand how this could happen, but I swear to you, I never-"

"Guards," he said, cutting me off without so much as glancing my way. "Restrain her. We're removing the bond tonight."

Hands grabbed at my arms and forcibly pulled me into the chair that had been set up in the middle of the room. Straps were tightened at my wrists, at my ankles, even around my waist, immobilizing me.

"Wait," I gasped, struggling feebly against the bindings. "Please, wait-"

The witch came toward me once more, hands held out in front of her, and suddenly I was afraid.

"This will not be pleasant," she said, her voice holding no mercy.

"Pleasant" hardly covered it.

As soon as she started on the extraction ritual, an agonizing pain ripped through me, as if some unseen force had clutched hold of the very essence of my being. I shrieked, my body arching against the bindings from the agony of the pain, spreading outward through my limbs.

"There is something wrong," I panted. "Please – it hurts –"

"Stay still," the witch ordered, even though I wouldn't have been able to move even if I wanted to. The wolf inside me cried out, struggling wildly as she felt herself torn apart, violently and relentlessly.

"Stop it!" I wept, hot tears running down my cheeks. "Please, I can't –"

Nobody tried to help me. I could see Kaizen through my eyes watering from the pain; he was standing right where he had been, staring ahead without the slightest hint of hesitation.

My pain peaked in such a way that it left me blinded by agony and spots of darkness in front of my eyes. I knew with certainty that in this very second, I was going to die. Whatever it was that the ritual did to me, it would rip me apart before finishing.

And then everything stopped.

The pressure dissipated in an instant, leaving me hanging limply in the restraints, trying to catch my breath. My wolf moaned weakly inside me, tired and dazed.

"It's done," she said. "The link is broken."

My muscles screamed in protest, but somehow I managed to raise my head enough to see what was floating in front of me-the essence that had entered me at the time of the ceremony, and that hadn't faded as I had expected, but had flown across the room.

"What's that?" somebody wondered.

It flew even faster, twisting in the air, and landed on the skin of a woman standing in a corner, surrounded by servants of the council.

All eyes were now upon her.

Maevra Thorne was petrified with her hand covering her heart, the place the essence had landed, her face a mask of horror and something else I couldn't identify.

"Maevra," one of the council members said.

"That is impossible," a new voice cut in. "The essence chose *her*?"

Chaos erupted in the room as the councillors leaped to their feet, arguing over what had just transpired. I was slumped against my restraints, unable to really comprehend the scene before me but knowing for certain one thing.

The essence never belonged with me in the first place.

"I told you," I said weakly, forcing the words out despite my tiredness. "I've been telling you that I haven't done anything to him, that I didn't use any magic. The essence only proved it."

Nobody was paying attention to me. Everyone was focused on Maevra in front of them, the glow of essence barely visible under her skin.

"Please," I called out once more, louder this time, the desperation eating through my vocal cords. "I'm innocent since the beginning. I need you to believe me."

Kaizen looked just as hard as he did before, his face even colder and distant as though the fact of my innocence was of no consequence when compared to what just happened in front of the entire council.

"This is it," he stated.

"What?" I asked softly.

"You used black magic, you tried to take what was never yours, you brought an abomination into this land and that would not be forgiven." He turned to the guards. "Get her away from my territory. She is now exiled."

"Kaizen-" I began, but I didn't have the strength anymore.

They got me out of the chair and pulled me to my feet, my legs wobbly and barely able to keep me standing as they dragged me towards the door.

Before I was dragged away from the room altogether, Maevra appeared in front of me.

"Maevra-" I said, but my voice failed again.

She looked at me with a look that I couldn't interpret, something calm and unhindered by what had just taken place around her. Then she leaned in close and whispered in a quiet, cold tone.

"This is not over..."