Born From The Ash
He rejected her under the moonlight. Now fate has thrown them into the same war...
Aria Ashborne was supposed to be forgotten the castaway of a fallen pack, the daughter of a disgraced Alpha. But fate has a cruel sense of humor. When Alpha Kaiden Blackthorn the brutal enforcer of the Northern Territories discovers she is his fated mate, he rejects her in front of the entire council, branding her unworthy.
But Aria doesn't beg. She doesn't break. She builds. She builds in silence.
Now a fierce warrior leading her own rebel wolves, she's forced into an uneasy alliance with Kaiden when a deadly new force begins tearing through the werewolf ranks. Old enemies. New secrets. And a bond neither of them can truly sever.
What happens when hate burns hotter than desire? And when the one person you swore to destroy... might be the only one who can save you?
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Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
THIRD PERSON'S POV
The woods were colder than she remembered. Aria tore through the underbrush, her feet steady even as her heart cracked in silence. Cera and David trailed behind, saying nothing. They didn't need to. They had seen what happened.
They had heard the rejection.
The scent of pine and fire still clung to her skin- his scent. The Moon had branded it into her senses, and now it haunted her every breath.
She wanted to rip it out. Tear it from her lungs, do anything to erase the scent, erase him from her every sense.
"Aria." Cera called softly. "We need to stop." She says, looking at her with worried eyes.
"I'm fine." Aria replies, cold and steady, and continues walking down the path.
"You're bleeding." Cera again says, trying to convince her.
Aria looked down at her palm sliced from a sharp branch she hadn't noticed. Blood streaked her fingers, but she barely felt it. Not compared to the ache beneath her ribs.
She clenches her fists, her nails digging into her skin, over the wound and let the wound bleed and hurt her to erase the uneasiness in her heart.
"I said I'm fine." Aria snapped, looking back at them and glared in warning, as if they again speak a word she will rip them to shreds.
Cera said nothing more, nor did David say anything, as they continued walking towards their camp.
They reached the outer edge of the rogue camp just before dawn. There are no fires. No noise. Only shadows shifting in the trees. The others rose as she approached, sensing something was wrong.
Mira stepped forward, her brow furrowed as she looked at Aria's blank face and her hand bleeding. "What happened?" She asked.
Aria didn't answer. She walked past them, disappearing into her tent, leaving everyone puzzled and confused behind her.
Her brother, Alexander, looks at his sister disappearing in her tent, and he feels somehow uncomfortable in his heart. He has never seen her so silent or blank like this ever!
"What's wrong with my sister? Did something happen during the ceremony?" Alex asks, looking back at Cera and David.
"I think...it's best if she tells you herself." David says, and also walks back into his tent, so he doesn't have to answer their questions.
"Go and rest, we have a lot of work tomorrow." Cera says, before she also goes into her sleeping place.
Alexander looked back at their pack in confusion, but Mira and Jax were also as clueless as him. They also goes to rest, while Jax stays behind to keep an eye on their safety.
Aria settled in her tent, intending to fall asleep and forget everything that happened in the ceremony but she didn't sleep.
Instead, she sat before her mirror, staring at the bond mark on her collarbone- the faint silver thread that still shimmered, despite the rejection.
"It should've faded." She whispers to herself, touching her collarbone, and is lost in thoughts.
But it hadn't.
She lies in her bed, tossing and turning all night, trying to sleep but sleep was nowhere near her. The next morning, she wakes up irritated.
She walked through the heart of the camp. The rogues kept their distance. They respected her strength, her leadership, but now they feared her silence more than her rage.
She passed Jax, who's sharpening blades. Mira bundling herbs, Alex helping her, and Cera watching.
"Why won't you tell us what happened?" Mira asks, looking up at her.
Alex and others stop working and look at her, because in the morning Cera has explained what happened in the ceremony after being pressured by everyone for their leader's sour mood.
Aria didn't stop walking. "Because I don't owe anyone an explanation for being rejected." She answers without turning back.
"You rejected him too." Cera says, standing behind her and looking at her sharply.
"I had to." Aria replies, looking around the camp for any traces of intruder, but finds none.
"You wanted to?" Jax asks, cocking his eyebrows at her.
Aria turned sharply, glaring at them as she stated loud and clear. "What I want doesn't matter. What matters is that we don't fall apart. We keep moving. We stay alive."
Cera's gaze turns hard. "Then maybe it's time we stop hiding. Maybe it's time we fight." She says her voice shows the evidence of her anger.
"We're not ready." Aria sighs, shaking her head to calm her heightened nerves and try not to burst on their constant nagging.
Cera stepped closer. "Or you're not ready?" She says, looking into her eyes bravely, and tries not to quiver away in fear.
The silence stretched between them like a blade. Everyone held their breath, as only Cera has the audacity to question their leader, Aria, like this.
Not even Alexander has that much audacity to stand across his sister and question her like Cera. Probably because Cera is the first one who joins their pack and fights along with Aria.
Across the lands, in Blackridge, Kaiden stood in the training yard, battling his sparring partner to the ground for the third time.
"She rejected you back." Elias said calmly from the sidelines.
"I don't care." Kaiden replies sharply, striking at him.
"Your wolf does." Elias says with a smug smile while defending himself from his strike.
Kaiden didn't respond. His breath was ragged, his fists aching. The bond should have severed completely. It should have faded.
But it hadn't.
He could still feel her like a ghost in his blood. His wolf paced beneath his skin, clawing, howling, to surface and go claim their mate.
At night, he dreamed of her. Not as she was but as she might have been, in another life. Kind, sweet, beautiful and his. His lovely wife. His beloved mate.
But that's not who they are right now, in this life.
His enemy. His mate.
The one the Moon had chosen.
The one he had thrown away.
He went to the Council the same morning and Garran greeted him with narrowed eyes.
"You rejected the Ashborne girl. Yet the bond remains." He says, gritting in annoyance.
Kaiden didn't flinch and coldly belittle him. "It means nothing."
"It means everything." Garran growled. "And if you don't resolve it, others will. The Ashborne bloodline was dangerous. If the girl is still alive, if she still carries that legacy-"
"I'll take care of it." Kaiden interrupted, feeling his wolf growling at the sense of their mate in danger.
"See that you do." Garran scoffs, glaring at him.
Kaiden left from there without another word. But as he crossed the courtyard, his steps slowed, when the realisation hits him.
Take care of it. How?
Kill her?
He couldn't.
Wouldn't.
But if not that then what?
In her tent, Aria stares at the blade in her hand. The dagger was old, etched with her father's sigil.
She closed her fingers around the hilt, holding it tightly in her grip.
"I am not broken." She whispered. "And I am not his." Her voice wavers but she holds a steady grip on the dagger like it's a promise.
But her wolf stirred at the lie.
Because somewhere in the back of her heart, she could still feel his name.
Kaiden.
And it ached.
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7.1
The last thing I remembered was the blinding flash of my starship crashing. But instead of a rescue crew, I woke up tied to a wooden post, surrounded by hostile beastmen.
My universal translator kicked in just in time to hear their priestess, Chelsea, declare that I was a cursed demon who ruined their hunt. To save the clan from winter starvation, I was to be burned alive.
The flames were already blistering my legs, and jagged stones hurled by the crowd gashed my forehead. I barely negotiated a three-day reprieve to find them food, venturing into the deadly primeval forest.
I found a massive supply of wild potatoes and even gained the protection of Bronson, a terrifyingly powerful saber-toothed tiger beastman.
But Chelsea wouldn't stop.
She labeled my food as poisonous, tried to sentence me to starve in a penitent's cave, and when my agricultural knowledge proved her wrong, she invoked an ancient law. She incited the tribe's savage warriors to fight over me, turning me into breeding property.
I was a scientist offering them endless food, yet their primitive ignorance and one woman's vicious jealousy kept pushing me toward a brutal end. I was terrified, completely powerless against their monstrous physical strength.
As five ruthless challengers drew their bone axes to claim me, I begged Bronson to leave me and run.
Instead, he pulled me against his scarred chest and kissed me fiercely in front of the entire clan.
"She is my mate," he roared, unleashing a soul-crushing aura. "Anyone who wants her, come at me together."
7.2
Aria was born with a fire in her soul a mysterious ember that hums with a power even she cannot control. Ordinary life was never meant for her, but when shadowed creatures rise from the Veiled Realm, kingdoms teeter on the edge of war, and an ancient prophecy stirs from the depths of forgotten magic, Aria discovers that her gift may be the only thing standing between life and annihilation.
As she struggles to master her abilities, Aria is thrust into a world of ruthless warlords, cunning sorcerers, and dark beasts that hunt from the shadows. Every ally she meets could be a traitor, every enemy may hold a secret, and every choice she makes carries the weight of a realm cloaked in mystery and danger.
Amid the chaos, a forbidden bond ignites with a warrior whose strength matches her own, a connection that could either become her greatest strength or her deadliest weakness. As love, betrayal, and destiny collide, Aria must confront the shadows of her past, embrace the power within her, and decide whether she will rise as the savior of the Veiled Realm or fall and let it burn.
Embers will flare. Secrets will awaken. And one girl's courage will shape the fate of a hidden world forever.
7.3
Clara came home from a fourteen-hour board meeting to the sound of a piercing scream in the playroom.
When she rushed in, she found her husband, Chadwick, kneeling on the floor in a panic.
But he wasn't looking at their five-year-old son, Leo, who had a massive bleeding welt on his forehead.
Instead, Chadwick was trembling as he held the nanny's daughter, Autumn, who barely had a microscopic scratch.
"She needs ice. And antibacterial ointment," Chadwick snapped, carrying the nanny's daughter away and leaving his bleeding son behind.
From that moment, the nightmare only escalated.
Chadwick ordered Clara to cook a three-hour meal for the nanny's kid, threw away Leo's favorite toys because Autumn sneezed, and even secretly took the nanny and her daughter on Leo's promised Disney trip.
The final humiliation came at the Met Gala.
Right before their sponsor speech, Chadwick received a frantic call from the nanny claiming Autumn was having a panic attack.
He abandoned Clara in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, sprinting out of the ballroom.
Clara stood completely alone, the humiliation eating through her veins like acid.
She couldn't understand how a father could call the nanny's kid his "little princess" while watching his own son cry.
Why was he treating his own flesh and blood like garbage just to play savior to another woman's child?
Suddenly, the blinding camera flashes were blocked by a massive shadow.
Erasmo Chase, the heir to New York's largest financial dynasty, stepped out of the darkness and shielded her.
"A man like that is unworthy of your grief, Ms. Best," he whispered, pressing a silk handkerchief into her trembling hand.
Looking at the sharp profile of the powerful man beside her, Clara's shock hardened into a lethal, cold fury.
She was going to dump her family's shares, crash the board, and make Chadwick lose absolutely everything.
8.3
For six years, Lumi thought she had everything: a steady relationship with her devoted fiancé, Caius, and the promise of a perfect future. But the night before her engagement party, Lumi walks in on a betrayal she never imagined, Caius in the arms of her own cousin, Wren.
With her heart shattered, Lumi decides it's time to stop being the good girl. She creates a daring "sin list"-ten bold rules to break before the year ends. Rule #1: seduce a stranger. But when that stranger turns out to be none other than Caius' older brother, the dangerously alluring and untouchable Briggs, Lumi's game of revenge ignites a fire neither of them can control.
As each "sin" on her list pushes them closer, Lumi will have to decide if vengeance is worth the price, because loving him might be the most dangerous sin of all.
9.7
Blurb
"I, Alpha Jackson Caesar of the Black moon Pack, reject you as my mate!"
Rose, a poor and humble slave, enters into a world of power, betrayal and forbidden love.
Her life takes a drastic turn when she's saved by the feared yet kind Lycan Prince Aiden, her second chance mate. As their love gets stronger, jealousy and lies threaten to destroy them. Poisoned, kidnapped, almost killed. She unveils shocking truths. She is the long lost daughter of an Alpha and the rightful heir to a very powerful Pack. With enemies exposed, and love prevailing, Rose rises from a servant to a Luna, uniting two great Packs and reclaiming her destiny. But there's always a price to pay. Rose must fight to protect everything she loves.
7.5
I was Nyx, a top-tier covert operative. But when I opened my eyes, I was trapped in the unfamiliar, overweight body of a bullied girl named Eliza.
Before I could even process the body swap, the bedroom door splintered open. I was in bed with Julian Malone, a wealthy military heir, both of us heavily drugged. Cameras flashed wildly. It was a vicious setup to ruin his career, and I was the bait.
To save his family's reputation, Julian was forced to marry me. But the moment the wedding was over, he abandoned me. His elite family treated me like a disease. His mother froze my only bank account, trying to starve me into submission.
I even intercepted a private conversation between his parents.
"Once she's in a private facility, she loses all legal standing. We can sign anything we want on her behalf."
They planned to lock me up in a mental asylum and erase my existence entirely to get rid of the "trailer park trash."
To them, I was just a weak, pathetic pawn they could crush without a second thought. They thought they had backed a helpless girl into a corner.
They had no idea they had just declared war on a lethal weapon.
I didn't cry or beg. Instead, I bypassed their state-of-the-art security, cracked their safe, and stole the financial secrets that could destroy their entire empire.
"I want five hundred thousand dollars, or these files go to the IRS."
This time, I was playing by my own rules.