Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By His Billionaire Brother

My wolf is supposed to wake up today.

That's what everyone keeps saying.

"She'll feel it by sunset," the healer muttered this morning, pressing cold fingers to my wrist. "If the Moon Goddess hasn't completely forgotten her."

Very reassuring.

Now I'm standing in the middle of the Nightfall Pack's training grounds, bare-armed in the chill evening air, with a hundred wolves circling like they're waiting to watch me fail.

Again.

"Shift, Aria," Beta Rowan calls out, bored. He's seen this show before. "Close your eyes. Reach for your wolf. Same as always."

Same as always means: absolutely nothing happens.

I suck in a breath.

Close my eyes.

Reach.

In my mind, there should be a pulse. A spark. A presence brushing against my thoughts.

For eighteen years, all I've felt is a locked door.

I will reach for it again now.

My heart pounds. My palms sweat. Somewhere nearby, someone snickers.

"Maybe the Moon Goddess wants a refund," a girl whispers.

Laughter ripples through the crowd.

I grit my teeth and push harder, imagining claws bursting from my fingers, fur racing across my skin, bones reshaping into something powerful.

Come on.

Please.

Anything.

A headache blooms behind my eyes. The door in my mind stays closed.

I get... a faint tingle in my spine. Like static. Then it's gone.

Useless.

"Nothing," Rowan announces to the crowd, as if I'm not standing right here. "Again."

"I almost felt something," I protested, opening my eyes. "Just now. A flicker."

From the edge of the ring, a familiar voice cuts through the noise, smooth and lazy.

"That's what she said the last three years," Mira drawls. "And she still can't even grow a single fang."

More laughter.

Mira's dark hair is braided in intricate loops, her body lean and strong in a fitted training top. Future Luna material, everyone says. Powerful bloodline. Early shifter. Full control.

Everything I'm not.

I roll my shoulders back, forcing myself to meet her gaze.

"One more time," I tell Rowan.

He sighs like I'm wasting the entire pack's oxygen. "Fine. Last time. Then you need to get ready."

Right. The ceremony.

My stomach flips.

The mating ceremony starts in less than two hours.

I'm turning eighteen tonight.

The age when a wolf finally feels the pull of their fated mate. When the bond snaps into place and you just know.

At least, that's what I've heard.

Personally, I've never felt a single thing from my so-called wolf, let alone some magical bond from the Moon Goddess.

But a tiny, pathetic part of me still hopes.

Maybe I'll never shift.

Maybe I'll be the pack's shame forever.

But if I at least have a mate... maybe that will mean the Goddess didn't completely abandon me.

"One more time," I repeat, closing my eyes.

The ground is cold under my bare feet. The scent of pine and damp earth fills my lungs. I tune out the whispers, the bets being placed on whether I'll faint again, the low, amused