Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the King

The mind-link hit me like a physical blow, my daughter's confusion and hurt flooding through our bond with devastating clarity. I was in the kitchen preparing lunch when her small voice echoed in my head, trembling with barely contained tears.

*Mommy, why won't Daddy look at me? He keeps talking to the new boy and ignoring me during training. Everyone's staring and whispering.*

My hands stilled on the cutting board, the knife clattering to the counter. Through our maternal bond, I could feel her standing alone on the training grounds, watching her father lavish attention on Capri's pup while treating his own daughter like she was invisible.

*It's okay, sweetheart,* I tried to soothe through the link, though my own heart was breaking. *Daddy's just... helping the new pack member settle in.*

But even as I sent the reassurance, I knew it was a lie. This wasn't about helping anyone settle in. This was Seth choosing Capri's child over his own, and our seven-year-old daughter was bearing the brunt of his cruel favoritism.

I abandoned lunch and rushed to the training grounds, my Luna instincts screaming that something was terribly wrong. What I found there made my blood run cold.

Seth knelt beside Capri's pup, his voice warm and encouraging as he adjusted the boy's stance. "That's perfect, Connor. You're a natural fighter." The pride in his tone was unmistakable—the same pride I'd been desperately hoping to hear him use with our daughter for years.

Meanwhile, my little girl stood fifteen feet away, her practice sword hanging limply at her side as she watched her father shower affection on another child. The other pack members had noticed too, their whispered conversations creating a buzz of speculation that made my skin crawl.

"Alpha Seth's really taken to that rogue's pup," one warrior murmured to another.

"Poor little Luna," came the reply. "She looks lost."

I wanted to storm onto that field and demand Seth remember his own daughter, but Luna protocol held me back. I couldn't undermine his authority in front of the pack, no matter how much my maternal instincts were screaming.

That evening, after Capri had arrived with her carefully crafted sob story about her "deceased mate" and "adopted" pup, I watched Seth personally escort them to the family wing of the pack house. Not to the guest quarters where visiting wolves belonged, but to our private family area.

"They'll be more comfortable here," Seth explained, though he wasn't really explaining to me—he was justifying his decision to himself. "Connor needs stability after everything he's been through."

"And what about what our daughter needs?" The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Seth's jaw tightened. "She needs to learn that pack comes first. That's what being an Alpha's daughter means."

But we both knew this wasn't about pack loyalty. This was about Capri Green, the she-wolf who'd held Seth's heart long before I'd ever entered the picture.

I waited until the next morning, when the pack house had settled into its routine, before I finally confronted him in his office. The familiar scent of leather and pine that once comforted me now felt suffocating as I closed the door behind me.

"We need to talk," I said, surprised by how steady my voice sounded.

Seth didn't look up from his paperwork. "If this is about yesterday's training, the pack needs to see that I treat all pups fairly."

"Fairly?" The word came out sharper than I intended. "You ignored your own daughter while fawning over Capri's pup. How is that fair?"

Finally, he raised his head, and what I saw in his eyes made my heart sink. There was no guilt, no remorse—only irritation that I was questioning him.

"Don't be dramatic, Stella. I was helping a traumatized pup adjust to pack life."

"By traumatizing your own child in the process?"

Seth stood abruptly, his Alpha aura flaring. "Enough. You're being jealous and petty, and it doesn't suit a Luna."

The accusation hit like a slap. "Jealous? Of a child?"

"Of Capri," he said quietly, and there it was—the truth I'd been dreading for ten years.

The silence stretched between us, heavy with unspoken truths and broken promises. When he spoke again, his voice was cold, clinical.

"I accepted you as my Luna because I needed the political alliance with your father's pack to secure my position as Alpha. You knew that. We both knew what this arrangement was."

Each word was a dagger to my heart, but I forced myself to remain standing. "And Capri?"

"Capri was... is... the woman I actually love."

Ten years. Ten years of believing that somewhere beneath his distance, Seth cared for me. Ten years of hoping that our mate bond meant something more than a business transaction.

"I see," I whispered.

Without another word, I turned and walked to the filing cabinet where Seth kept important pack documents. My fingers found the mate bond contract we'd signed a decade ago—the legal document that bound us together for a minimum of ten years.

I pulled it out and scanned the terms with new eyes, seeing clauses I'd ignored in my naive hope for love. The contract was clear: either party could terminate the bond after the ten-year minimum period with six months' notice.

Six months. I had six months left of this arrangement.

"What are you doing?" Seth asked, wariness creeping into his voice.

"Reading the terms of our agreement," I replied, folding the contract carefully. "All of them."

As I walked toward the door, contract clutched in my trembling hands, I felt something shift inside me. The devoted, hopeful Luna who'd entered this office was gone. In her place stood a woman who finally understood the difference between a mate bond and a business arrangement.

And for the first time in ten years, I was ready to choose myself.