REJECTED BY THE PACK, DESIRED BY THE KING

Chapter 1: The Shattered Bond

The Great Hall of the Silver Moon Pack didn't smell like a celebration. To Elara, it smelled like an execution.

The air was thick with the scent of five hundred unwashed wolves, roasting meat, and the suffocatingly sweet perfume Selene had doused herself in. Elara stood in the shadows near the kitchen arched doorway, her hands tucked into the oversized sleeves of her threadbare tunic. Her fingers were raw, stained red from scrubbing the stone floors since dawn.

"Look at her," a voice snickered nearby. It was a group of Omegas, girls Elara had grown up with, now looking at her like she was a bug under a boot. "She actually thinks she's going to shift tonight. Nineteen and still smells like a human. Pathetic."

Elara kept her gaze fixed on the floor. Just let the Moon Goddess be kind, she prayed. Just give me a mate who will take me away from here.

"Move, runt."

A heavy shove sent Elara stumbling forward. She hit the floor, her palms stinging as they scraped against the grit. Above her stood Selene, radiant in a gown of shimmering silver silk-the color Elara's father used to say belonged only to the true Alpha bloodline.

"You're dripping sweat on the rug, Elara," Selene sneered, her voice a poisonous honey. She leaned down, her golden hair brushing Elara's ear. "Tonight, when Kaelen is announced as the future Alpha, I'm going to make sure your first act as a pack-less rogue is to scrub the scent of your failure off my shoes."

"The ceremony hasn't started, Selene," Elara whispered, her voice cracking. "The Goddess decides, not you."

Selene's laugh was like breaking glass. "The Goddess doesn't waste fated mates on broken things."

Suddenly, the heavy drums began to beat-a rhythmic, primal thrum that vibrated in Elara's marrow. The crowd parted like the Red Sea.

Kaelen stepped into the center of the hall.

He looked like a god carved from cedar and stone. His leather vest was tight across his broad chest, and his hazel eyes glowed with the approaching lunar peak. He was the son of the Alpha, the strongest warrior in three territories, and the man Elara had secretly loved since they were children.

The High Priest stepped forward, raising a chalice of silver-tipped blood. "The moon reaches its zenith! Let the fated bonds be revealed!"

A hush fell so deep that Elara could hear the frantic thud-thud-thud of her own heart.

Then, it happened.

A spark ignited in the center of Elara's chest. It wasn't a spark-it was a wildfire. It roared through her veins, a golden heat that raced toward the center of the room. At the same moment, Kaelen stiffened. His head snapped toward the kitchen shadows. His nostrils flared, catching a scent that only he could track.

The crowd gasped. The golden thread of the mate-bond was visible for a split second, shimmering in the air between the Alpha's son and the kitchen maid.

"No," someone