My Mate Rejected Me for His Pregnant Luna

I woke in a bed that wasn't mine.

The sheets were clean. Soft. The room smelled like cedar and something medicinal I couldn't place. My back burned where the silver had cut me, but the pain was duller now—wrapped in gauze and some kind of salve that numbed the edges.

I tried to sit up. My body protested. Everything hurt.

"Easy." The voice came from the corner. A man I didn't know—broad-shouldered, scarred, with the kind of stillness that marked a warrior who'd seen real combat. "You're in the Bloodmoon guest wing. Name's Silas. Gamma to Prince Hudson."

Bloodmoon. Lycan Court. The words felt distant, like something I'd read in a book once.

"How did I—" My throat was raw. I swallowed and tried again. "How did I get here?"

"Carried you." He nodded toward the doorway. "Barnaby led us to the cellar. Heard him howling from outside the pack house. Followed the sound."

Barnaby. I turned my head and saw him there—thin, scarred, crouched just inside the threshold like he was afraid someone would kick him out. When our eyes met, his shoulders dropped half an inch. Relief.

"He can stay," I said quietly.

Silas didn't argue. Just gave a short nod.

A woman in healer's robes entered—Bloodmoon insignia on her sleeve. She examined the wounds on my back without speaking, her fingers cool and precise. When she finished, she looked at Silas.

"Silver scars. Permanent. The bond severance is complete—I can feel the hollow where it was." She paused. Glanced at me. "But the wolf that just woke up? That's Alpha blood. No question."

Alpha blood.

I'd spent ten years without my wolf. Ten years building a pack on strategy and politics alone because the wolf inside me had gone silent after my birth pack burned. And now—now she was awake. I could feel her there, restless and bright, like a second heartbeat.

"Prince Hudson wants a full report before the signing," the healer said to Silas. She left without waiting for a response.

Silas stood. "You rest. We'll handle the rest."

I wanted to ask what "the rest" meant. But exhaustion pulled at me, and my eyes closed before I could form the words.

---

I woke again to the sound of footsteps in the hall—too many, too fast. Voices raised. Then silence.

Then a pressure in the air that made my wolf surge to the surface.

I forced myself upright. Barefoot. Still in the torn clothes from the cellar. Silas was gone. Barnaby stood at the door, staring down the corridor with wide eyes.

"What is it?" I asked.

He didn't answer. Just stepped aside.

I walked to the doorway and looked.

The great hall was visible from here—the same hall where Dominic had rejected me hours ago. Now it was full again. Wolves lined the walls. Betas. Gammas. Warriors in formal dress. Dominic sat at the head table with Estella beside him, the moonstone pendant still around her throat.

And then the doors opened.

A man entered. Tall. Dark-haired. He moved like water—smooth, unhurried, inevitable. The wolves nearest the door went still. Then the ones behind them. A ripple of silence spreading through the room.

He stopped in the center of the hall.

And the air exploded.

It wasn't a sound. It was a force—an aura so powerful it dropped every wolf in the room to their knees. Necks bared. Heads bowed. I felt it too, the instinct to submit, but my wolf pushed back. Held me upright.

Dominic—Alpha of Silverfang, the man who had ruled his pack with absolute authority for fifteen years—knelt. His neck bared before his own wolves. Before the visiting dignitaries. Before everyone.

The man's eyes shifted. Silver-white. Lycan.

Hudson.

His gaze swept the room. Stopped on me in the doorway. I saw his expression shift—something unreadable passing over his face. Then he looked at Dominic. At Estella. At the moonstone pendant.

When he spoke, his voice was flat. Calm. The kind of calm that made you afraid to breathe.

"I will formalize no alliance under current Ironvale leadership." He didn't raise his voice. Didn't need to. "Estella is unfit to represent any pack in any capacity."

Estella's face went white.

"I will negotiate only with Clara."

Every head turned toward me.

Dominic tried to speak. His mouth opened. But Hudson's aura pressed down harder, and Dominic's words died in his throat.

Hudson walked toward me. The wolves parted without him asking. When he stopped, he was close enough that I could smell him—pine and winter air, something sharp and clean.

"Can you stand?" he asked quietly.

I nodded.

"Good." He turned back to the room. "This meeting is over. I'll return when Ironvale has leadership worth my time."

He walked out. The aura lifted. Wolves gasped for air.

I stood in the doorway, watching Dominic pull himself to his feet. His hands shook.

Estella stared at me. Her fingers closed around the moonstone pendant.

And I realized—for the first time in ten years—I wasn't afraid.

---

Estella found Hudson in the corridor an hour later.

I watched from the guest wing entrance. She'd changed clothes—something elegant, soft blue, the kind of dress that made you look approachable. The concerned Luna. She smiled as she approached him.

"Prince Hudson," she said warmly. "I apologize for the confusion earlier. Clara—she's been through so much. The rejection was hard on her. I think she's trying to—well, to manipulate the situation. For sympathy."

Hudson stopped walking. Turned to face her.

"Go on," he said.

Estella's smile widened. "She was Dominic's mate, yes. But the bond wasn't strong. He had to make a difficult choice—for the pack's future. You understand. Leadership requires hard decisions."

Hudson listened. Didn't interrupt. Didn't react.

When she finished, he tilted his head slightly.

"Name the three primary allied packs in the Stormbreak coastal agreement," he said.

Estella blinked. "I—what?"

"The Stormbreak agreement. The one that doubled Silverfang's territory. Name the three allied packs."

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Her smile flickered.

"I don't—that's not my area. Dominic handles—"

"Clara brokered that agreement," Hudson said quietly. "Personally. She can recite every clause from memory."

Estella's face went tight.

Hudson stepped past her. "Thank you for your time."

He walked away.

Estella stood alone in the corridor. Her hand rose to the moonstone pendant. She gripped it hard enough that her knuckles went white.

I stepped back into the guest wing before she could see me.

But I'd seen her face.

And for the first time, I saw the crack.