Kael:
The word echoed in my head. “Reject her”.
My father’s command was absolute, a reflection of the roaring inferno of outrage in my own chest. I stared at the Omega. Elara. I barely knew her name. She was a fixture of the kitchens, a shadow in the halls, notable only for her silence and the dirt that always seemed to smudge her pale skin.
And this… this was what the Goddess had chosen for me?
A wave of nausea rolled through me. The mate bond, a phantom pull I had dreamed of my entire life, was trying to form. It felt tainted. Wrong. It was a whisper of a connection, thin and fragile, but it was there, trying to link me to this… weakness. This nothingness.
"Kael?" Seraphina’s voice was a silky caress beside me, her perfectly manicured fingers digging into my bicep. "Don't let her shame you. Shame us all."
I looked from Seraphina - beautiful, powerful, the daughter of my Beta, a perfect candidate for Luna to the Omega girl cowering in the moonlight.
Elara’s eyes, a startlingly clear shade of green, were wide with terror. They were swimming in unshed tears, and for a sickening moment, I felt a pang. The bond. It was trying to make me feel her pain.
My wolf snarled in my mind, a confused and enraged beast. Mate is weak. Not Luna. Not for us. But… MATE.
I shoved the feeling down, crushing it with the force of my will. My pack was watching. The Elders were watching. My father was watching. My legacy, my authority, my entire life was on the line. An Alpha cannot be seen to be weak. And she was the ultimate weakness.
"Do it, my son," my father's voice was lower now, a dangerous growl meant only for my ears. "Or I will."
That was all it took. No one threatened my authority.
I took a deliberate step forward, then another, until I stood directly over her. She flinched, curling into herself as if expecting a blow. She was so small, so fragile.
The scent of her fear was a bitter stench in the air, mingling with an odd, underlying scent I couldn't place. Something like rain on old stones and a flower I didn't know the name of.
It didn't matter.
"Stand up," I commanded. My Alpha voice boomed, leaving no room for disobedience.
She scrambled to her feet, her body trembling so hard I thought she might collapse. She kept her head bowed, her eyes fixed on the dirt between my boots.
"Look at me," I snarled.
Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted her head. The moonlight caught the trail of a single tear escaping her eye, tracing a clean path through the grime on her cheek. The sight ignited a fresh wave of fury in me. She was making me look like a monster. She was making me feel.
"I, Kael, Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack," I began, my voice ringing with cold, formal power. Each word was a stone I was using to build a wall between us.
Her breath hitched. A soft, wounded sound, like a dying animal. Her green eyes pleaded with me, a silent scream for mercy I refused to hear.
My wolf howled in agony in my mind, clawing at the cage I had built around my heart. NO! DON'T! MATE!
I ignored him.
"I reject you," I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "I reject you, the wolf-less Omega Elara, as my mate."
I felt the bond, that thin, tentative thread, strain and then snap. The backlash was instantaneous and violent. A searing pain, white-hot and blinding, ripped through my chest, as if someone had torn a piece of my soul right out of my body. I staggered back, a gasp escaping my lips.
She crumpled to the ground, a strangled sob tearing from her throat. The glowing Luna's Mark on her hand flickered and then died, leaving behind only raw, red skin as if it had been burned away.
The pain in my chest was excruciating, a gaping void that left me breathless. But as I looked at her pathetic form on the ground, all I felt was rage. This was her fault. She had caused this.
"And I reject you," I added, my voice dripping with venom, needing to inflict as much pain as she had just caused me. "As a member of this pack."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Banishment. It was a death sentence.
"You are nothing to me," I spat, turning my back on her. "You are nothing to anyone."
I walked back to the center of the clearing, every step an agony. I could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on me, see the mix of shock, pity, and relief on their faces. I had done what needed to be done. I had cut out the disease before it could spread.
My father clapped a hand on my shoulder, his expression one of grim approval. "You have done well, my son. You have proven your strength."
I felt hollow. Empty. But I could not show it. I raised my head, scanning the crowd, my gaze landing on Seraphina. She was watching me, her eyes gleaming with triumph and desire.
A plan formed in the void of my chest, a way to fill this gaping wound with power and control. A way to prove to everyone, and to myself, that the Omega meant nothing.
I held out my hand to her. "Seraphina."
Her breath hitched, her eyes widening in disbelief and then dawning ecstasy. She practically glided to my side, her hand fitting perfectly in mine.
"As Alpha of this pack," I announced, my voice booming, forcing the pain down, down, down until it was a cold, hard knot in my stomach. "I have the right to choose my own Luna. A Luna of strength, of pure blood. A Luna who will honor this pack."
I looked directly at Seraphina. "I choose you."
The clearing exploded in cheers. The pack roared its approval, their relief and joy a balm on my wounded pride. Seraphina launched herself into my arms, her lips finding mine in a possessive, triumphant kiss.
And over her shoulder, through the cheering crowd, I saw two pack warriors dragging the Omega away. She was limp, unconscious, a discarded toy. Our eyes met for one final, fleeting second.
The look in them wasn't hatred. It wasn't sadness.
It was emptiness. The look of a soul that had just been utterly and completely destroyed. And as they dragged her into the darkness, a single, horrifying thought pierced through my rage.
What have I done?
