Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the King

Victoria's heels clicked sharply against the marble floor as she approached me in the corridor, her lips curled in that familiar smirk that made my stomach tighten. Three days had passed since my collapse at the dinner, and each hour seemed to drain more of my remaining strength.

"Omega," she called, the title a deliberate insult on her tongue. "Alpha Gabriel's chambers need preparation for our pre-mating rite tonight." She leaned closer, her floral perfume—a manufactured imitation of what my natural scent once was—suffocating me. "Every corner must be perfect. I'll inspect it myself."

I kept my eyes lowered, the way an Omega should. "Yes, Luna Victoria."

"I'm not Luna yet," she corrected, her voice honeyed with false sweetness. "But soon. Very soon."

Luna whimpered within me. *His chambers. Our chambers. They should have been ours.*

I silenced her with gentle reassurance. We had no right to those thoughts anymore.

Gabriel's private quarters were painfully familiar yet achingly different. The furniture remained the same—the massive oak bed, the bookshelves lining the walls—but Victoria's possessions had begun to invade the space. Her silk robes draped across a chair, her perfumes lined his bathroom counter.

My hands trembled as I dusted the bookshelves, each movement sending waves of exhaustion through my failing body. Behind a row of leather-bound volumes, my fingers brushed against something hidden. Curiosity—a dangerous indulgence—made me pull it forward.

A stack of letters tied with a faded blue ribbon. My letters. The ones I'd written to Gabriel during those first blissful weeks after discovering our mate bond. I'd thought he would have burned them.

Unwisely, I lifted them to my nose, inhaling deeply. His scent still clung to the paper, mingled with the faint trace of what my own scent had been—wild roses after rain, vibrant and alive. So different from the withered, dusty aroma that followed me now.

"Snooping, Omega?"

I startled, the letters slipping from my grasp and scattering across the floor. Victoria stood in the doorway, her eyes narrowed with suspicion and triumph.

"I was just cleaning," I whispered, dropping to my knees to gather the fallen papers.

She crossed the room and deliberately stepped on one of the letters, the heel of her shoe puncturing the delicate paper. "These should have been destroyed long ago. Just like your place in his life."

I said nothing, focusing on retrieving the letters with as much dignity as my position allowed.

Victoria moved to the closet, pulling out Gabriel's ceremonial Alpha cloak—the one he would wear for their mating ceremony. The rich, dark fabric gleamed in the afternoon light, embroidered with silver thread that formed the Silvermoon Pack's ancient symbols. I had once dreamed of standing beside him as he wore it, my hand in his as we accepted the pack's blessing.

"I'm carrying his pup," Victoria announced suddenly, her hand moving to rest on her still-flat stomach. "We confirmed it yesterday."

The world tilted beneath me. Luna howled in anguish, the sound echoing only in my mind but so powerful it nearly made me double over.

"Once I bear his heir," she continued, watching my reaction with cold satisfaction, "there will be no reason for him to keep you here. You'll fade from memory, just as you're already fading in body." She ran her fingers along the cloak. "It's almost poetic, isn't it? You chose to leave him, and now you get to watch as I take everything that should have been yours."

She didn't know. She couldn't know that I was dying because I had chosen to stay with him in the only way I could—by giving him my life force through a ritual that had saved him from his mother's curse.

"Finish your duties," she ordered, turning toward the door. "And Aria?" She rarely used my actual name. "Don't touch his things again. They're not yours anymore. They never will be."

After she left, I stood alone in his chambers, surrounded by the remnants of what should have been my life. On the shelf above his desk sat a small wooden box I recognized—the one where he kept the ring he'd planned to give me at our mating ceremony. My fingers itched to open it, to see if it was still there, but I resisted.

Some wounds were too deep to reopen.

---

The territorial patrol wasn't meant to include me. As an Omega, I was relegated to household duties, not pack protection. But Elder Elara had insisted I needed fresh air, and Marcus had arranged for me to join the outer perimeter check—the easiest route, far from where Gabriel would be leading the main patrol.

The winter forest was beautiful, snow dusting the pines like powdered sugar. For a brief moment, walking among the trees, I felt almost like my old self again. Luna stirred within me, drawing strength from the natural surroundings.

*Remember how we used to run these paths?* she whispered in my mind. *How the wind felt in our fur?*

"We'll run again someday," I lied, knowing we both recognized the falsehood.

I had fallen behind the others, my pace slowed by weakness, when the scent hit me—unfamiliar wolves, their musk tinged with aggression. Rogues, crossing into Silvermoon territory.

My body reacted before my mind could catch up. Luna surged forward, desperate to protect what had once been our home. The shift began violently—my bones cracking, my skin burning as pale, thinning fur erupted across my body.

"No!" I gasped, fighting against the transformation. "We're too weak!"

But it was too late. The partial shift tore through me like fire, my human form and wolf battling for control. I collapsed into the snow, my body contorting unnaturally, caught between forms. Pain blinded me as my consciousness flickered like a dying flame.

Through the haze of agony, I sensed rather than saw his approach. Gabriel's powerful aura washed over me seconds before his scent—pine, earth, and raw power.

"Aria?" His voice, for once stripped of its cold command, sounded almost like it had years ago when he'd called my name in tenderness.

I couldn't respond. My partially shifted body convulsed in the snow, blood staining the white crystals crimson beneath me. Luna was fading, retreating deep within to preserve what little strength remained.

I felt strong arms lift me, cradling my broken form against a warm chest. Through half-lidded eyes, I saw Gabriel's face above mine, his expression unreadable except for a flicker of something that might have been concern.

"Hold on," he ordered, but this time without his Alpha command. "Just... hold on."

Darkness claimed me as he carried me back toward the pack house, my blood leaving a trail of scarlet drops in the pristine snow behind us.

---

The waning moon cast long shadows through the windows of Victoria's dressing room. My hands shook as I helped her into the white ceremonial gown—the same design I had once sketched for my own mating ceremony, in another lifetime.

"Careful with the lace," Victoria snapped as my trembling fingers fumbled with the delicate fastenings. "This gown cost more than your worthless life."

The irony of her words almost made me laugh. She had no idea how little value remained in my existence—how each day drained more of my life force into the void.

The white fabric shimmered in the moonlight, pearls and silver thread catching the pale glow. It was beautiful—exactly as I had imagined it would be when I wore it to become Gabriel's Luna.

Luna thrashed within me, recognizing the dress from our shared dreams. *Our dress. Our ceremony. Our mate.*

The room spun suddenly, the white fabric blurring before my eyes. My legs gave way, and I sank to the floor, gasping for breath that wouldn't come. The familiar copper taste of blood filled my mouth as my wolf's anguish tore through what remained of my strength.

"Pathetic," Victoria said, looking down at me with contempt as I knelt at her feet, drowning in the white sea of fabric that should have been mine. "You can't even manage this simple task without falling apart."

She didn't understand. None of them did. I wasn't just losing my place or my status.

I was losing my life, one heartbeat at a time, for a love that now looked at me with nothing but hatred.