After My Alpha Rejected Me, I Awakened as Royalty

Three days before the ceremony, I stood in the great hall and watched my mate bury his face in another woman's neck.

The rehearsal feast was supposed to be a formality. White linen on the tables. Candles everywhere. Visiting Alphas from allied packs filling the room with their foreign scents and polite laughter. I wore the pale blue dress Arthur had chosen for me last month, back when he still chose things for me.

Paige announced the game just after the second course. She stood at the head table with a silk blindfold dangling from her fingers, smiling that bright, empty smile she saved for public moments.

"A little fun before tomorrow's ceremony," she said. Her voice carried easily across the hall. "The Alpha must identify his mate by scent alone. Tradition says a true bond needs no eyes."

The hall erupted in approving murmurs. Arthur laughed—a sound I used to love—and stood without hesitation. He took the blindfold from Paige's hand. She tied it carefully across his eyes, her fingers lingering at the back of his head longer than necessary.

I sat at the side table where Omegas were placed during formal events. My hands rested in my lap. I told myself it would be fine. He would find me. He always found me.

Paige stepped back and gestured to the crowd. "Ladies, if you would."

A dozen she-wolves rose and moved toward Arthur, giggling. I stayed seated. The game wasn't for wolves like me. But then Paige's gaze landed on me, sharp and deliberate.

"Lilian," she said sweetly. "You too, of course."

I stood. My chair scraped against the floor. The hall was watching now.

Arthur stood in the center with his arms slightly extended, head tilted as though listening. The she-wolves circled him in a loose ring. I took my place at the edge, keeping distance between myself and the others.

Paige walked among us, arranging people like flowers in a vase. She moved me twice—farther from Arthur each time. Then she stopped in front of a tall brunette Gamma and whispered something I couldn't hear. The Gamma stepped back. Paige slid into the empty space.

She was standing three feet from Arthur. I was across the circle.

Paige raised her hand. "Begin."

Arthur inhaled slowly. His shoulders relaxed. He stepped forward, bypassing two she-wolves without even turning his head. Another step. He was moving with certainty now, the kind of certainty I hadn't seen him direct toward me in months.

He stopped directly in front of Paige.

My mark burned cold. Just for a second. A flash of ice across my neck that made me flinch.

Arthur reached out. His hand found Paige's shoulder, slid down her arm, settled at her waist. She didn't move. Didn't breathe. The hall had gone completely silent.

He leaned in. Slowly. His nose traced the line of her throat from collarbone to jaw. He stayed there. Breathing her in. His mouth curved into a smile I knew too well—the private one, the one that used to be mine.

The hall exploded. Laughter, cheers, someone's whistle cutting through the noise. Arthur pulled the blindfold off, still smiling, and looked down at Paige. Her hand was resting on his chest. He didn't move it.

"Got you," he said.

Paige's smile was radiant. "You did."

The mark on my neck was still cold. I touched it without thinking. My fingers found the raised skin, the incomplete bond that never quite settled. It felt hollow. Like pressing on a door that used to open and finding only wall.

Arthur finally looked across the circle. His eyes found mine. For a moment—just one—something flickered in his expression. Uncertainty, maybe. Or guilt.

Then Paige laughed, bright and loud, and his attention snapped back to her. The moment was gone.

I sat down. No one noticed. The hall had already moved on, toasting, talking, the game forgotten as quickly as it started. I folded my hands in my lap and stared at the candles until they blurred.

Hana appeared at my side sometime later. She set a glass of water in front of me without speaking. She was a Delta—strong, direct, one of the few wolves in Ironridge who looked at me like I was a person instead of a mistake.

"You okay?" she asked quietly.

I nodded. My throat was too tight to answer.

She didn't leave. Just stood there, a steady presence at my shoulder, while the feast continued around us and Arthur laughed at something Paige said.

The cold mark pulsed once more. Faint. Distant.

I touched it again. This time I didn't look away from the candles.