The Defective Mate He Rejected Is A White Wolf

I stood at the altar in my lace gown, the heiress of the Sterling Pack, waiting to marry the man I had protected for years.

To soothe his fragile ego, I had taken suppressants to hide my wolf, letting everyone believe I was "defective" and unable to shift.

But when the priest asked for his vows, Liam didn't say "I do."

Instead, he looked toward the back of the hall where his pregnant mistress stood with a toddler.

"I can't let my bloodline die out with a broken mate," Liam announced to the entire city's elite.

He looked at me with cold, hard eyes.

"I reject you, Ava. Sarah carries a strong male heir. You are nothing but a wolf without a skin."

The humiliation burned as I coughed up blood onto the white roses, the bond shattering in my chest.

He thought he was discarding a useless cripple. He didn't know that the only reason he felt strong was because I had dimmed my own light.

I wiped the blood from my lip and looked up. My eyes, usually hazel, flashed a blinding silver-white.

"I accept your rejection."

I turned and walked away, leaving him with his stolen happiness.

He didn't know that when I returned five years later, I wouldn't be alone.

I would be coming back with a Lycan King, and I would own the very ground he stood on.

Chapter 1

Ava POV:

The scent of rain usually calmed me. It smelled like the deep forests of the Sterling territory, where the ancient pines touched the sky. But tonight, standing on the balcony of the Pack House, the air smelled wrong.

It was the eve of the Full Moon, the night before my wedding.

My nose twitched. Beneath the scent of damp earth and pine, there was something else clinging to my fiancé's jacket as he walked onto the terrace. It was cloying. Sickly sweet. Like peaches left to rot in the summer heat.

It was the scent of an Omega in heat.

"You're late, Liam," I said, keeping my voice steady. My wolf, drugged into silence for years, clawed at the back of my skull. Danger. Betrayal.

Liam Conner, the Alpha of the Crescent Tech Pack, adjusted his cufflinks. He looked handsome in the moonlight, with his sandy hair and sharp jawline. But his eyes were shifting, refusing to meet mine.

"Business, Ava. You know how it is. The merger with the Northern Pack is complicated," he said, walking over to kiss my cheek.

I pulled back slightly. The smell was stronger now. It made my stomach turn.

"You smell like her," I whispered.

Liam stiffened. "Like who? I told you, I was in a meeting. Probably just some secretary's perfume. Don't start this again, Ava. Not tonight."

He sighed, a sound of exaggerated patience that made me feel small. That was Liam's talent. He was an Alpha from a minor pack who had climbed the social ladder by latching onto me, the heiress of