The Return Of The Rejected Luna

Elara

The ceremonial stone was biting cold against my bare knees, a familiar pain I had long learned to ignore. Around me, the air was thick with the cloying scents of perfume and anticipation, a stark contrast to the smell of bleach and old cooking grease that clung to my Omega tunic.

I kept my head bowed, my tangled brown hair a curtain hiding me from the world. Be invisible, Elara. Be nothing. It was the mantra that had kept me alive for eighteen years.

"Tonight, we are blessed!" Elder Maeve's voice, thin and reedy, carried on the wind. "Tonight, our Alpha Kael finds his Luna, his other half, to lead this pack into a new era of strength!"

A wave of excited titters and rustling silk swept through the she-wolves of the Bloodmoon Pack. I could picture them without looking: perfect hair, sharp claws painted a subtle silver, eyes gleaming with ambition. Every single one of them believed she was the one the Moon Goddess would choose.

A heavy silence fell, so sudden and complete it was like a physical blow. He had arrived.

Alpha Kael.

I didn't need to see him to feel him. His power was a living entity, a crushing weight that settled over the clearing, demanding submission. It coiled in my gut, a primal fear that was part instinct and part learned terror from the many beatings I had received at his pack's hands.

"Moon Goddess," his voice was a low rumble, the sound of an approaching landslide. It vibrated through the stone, up my legs, and settled deep in my bones. "I, Kael, Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack, stand before you. I am ready. Show me my mate."

I squeezed my eyes shut, my knuckles white where I gripped the rough fabric of my tunic. Please, not me. Not that I have a chance, but please just let this end.

The air grew charged, the kind of electric hum that comes before a lightning strike. I dared to peek through my lashes. High above, the full moon seemed to swell, pouring a single, concentrated beam of silver light down upon us.

The beam moved with an unnerving intelligence. It passed over Seraphina, the Beta’s daughter, whose smug smile faltered for a fraction of a second.

She was the pack's choice, the one everyone assumed Kael would select if the Goddess didn't deliver. Her scent of nightshade and arrogance was almost suffocating, even from the back.

The light swept on, ignoring dozens of other hopefuls. It was getting closer. My heart began to pound a frantic, painful rhythm against my ribs. It slid over the last of the ranked she-wolves and moved towards the Omega section.

No. No, it's a mistake. It's just passing over.

But it wasn't.

The beam of light settled on me.

For a moment, there was nothing. No sound. No breath. Just an intense, impossible warmth that soaked into my skin, chasing away the chill for the first time in my