THE MATE SHE REJECTED
In the powerful Silver Moon Pack, Astra Wynter has always been the golden daughter, beautiful, respected, and destined to stand beside a strong alpha mate. She expects nothing less.
But when the moon reveals her fated mate as Lysander Blackwood, a weak, unshifted omega from the lowest-ranking family, Astra's perfect future shatters. Publicly humiliated in front of the entire pack, she rejects him on the spot, shaming the outcast who has already endured years of bullying and scorn.
Devastated and alone, Lysander returns home to discover his family brutally slaughtered, with only his younger brother left alive. Forced to flee into exile, he makes a blood vow: he will rise from nothing and destroy the princess who cast him aside... along with everyone she loves.
Seven years later, Lysander returns to Silver Moon as a lethal alpha, stronger, darker, and burning for retribution. Astra never imagined the weak boy she rejected would become the one man who could tear her world apart.
Now nothing will stop him from claiming what's owed... starting with her.
NOTE TO READERS:
This book follows two generations.
It first tells the complete story of Astra and Lysander (The Mate She Rejected). After their happy ending, the story continues with a time skip into the next generation, focusing on their triplets, two girls and one boy.
Thank you for joining this journey across both generations! ā¤ļø
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Chapter 4
THE NEXT DAY, THE PALACE
Mr. Blackwood wiped the last streak of water from the marble hallway floor, his joints aching slightly from the long day's work.
He wrung out the cloth and folded it neatly, ready to leave when he heard footsteps approach. A guard in uniform stood a few feet away, his expression unreadable.
"The Beta wants to see you," the guard said curtly.
Mr. Blackwood raised his brows slightly but said nothing. He only nodded and followed. They walked in silence through twisting corridors until they stopped at a heavy oak door. The guard pushed it open.
Inside, a few ministers sat alongside the Beta, who lounged in an ornate chair near the hearth. Flames crackled behind him, casting a flickering light over the richly adorned room. Mr. Blackwood stepped inside and bowed low, respectfully.
The Beta smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "Ah, Blackwood. Word gets around, you know. I've heard you're doing excellent work here at the palace."
"Thank you, sir," Mr. Blackwood said, eyes still on the floor.
"How about a reward?" the Beta continued, his voice light but laced with something darker.
Mr. Blackwood straightened slightly, still holding himself with calm dignity. "I don't think I need a reward, my lord. I'm just doing my job." he said.
The Beta chuckled and rose from his seat. His boots clicked softly against the marble as he approached. He rested a hand on Mr. Blackwood's shoulder. It felt heavy.
"I could change your life, you know," the Beta said quietly.
"Just a word to the Alpha, and everything could be different for you. A house of your own, a place in court. You've served long and loyally, haven't you?"
"I appreciate the offer, truly," Mr. Blackwood said, carefully stepping back. "But I like my life as it is. Simple, honest. Please, my lord, what is it you want from me?"
The Beta's smile faded slightly, replaced by something more calculating. He motioned to a nearby guard, who stepped forward carrying a polished wooden box. The lid was lifted to reveal rows of gleaming gold coins.
"I want your mouth sealed, Blackwood," the Beta said. "You can do that, can't you? No questions. No talk. No ears where they shouldn't be."
Mr. Blackwood stared at the box for a moment before shifting his gaze back to the Beta.
"I'm not interested in palace affairs, sir. I'm only here to work. That's all I've ever done. Please, let me keep doing my job."
He bowed again, deeply, then turned and walked toward the door, he didn't accept the box.
Behind him, a cruel smile curled across the Beta's face. He didn't speak until Mr. Blackwood was gone.
"Told you," Minister Therold said with a bitter sneer. "They're growing wings. The Alpha's gone soft. He should've listened when we warned him."
The Beta turned his eyes to the gold, then slammed the lid shut with a sharp clack. "He should've taken the gold. Played the fool. But now, whatever happens next... he's brought it on himself."
He turned, his cloak sweeping behind him as he stormed out of the room. The ministers followed.
---
NIGHTTIME
"Where are you going?" Sage asked, stepping into Lysander's room just as he finished buttoning up his black shirt.
Lysander glanced at him through the mirror. "Heard there's another party tonight. For the princess."
Sage leaned against the doorframe, brows furrowed. "And you're going?"
Lysander nodded, grabbing a jacket from the bed. "Yeah."
Sage blinked at him, clearly surprised. "You're kidding."
"Nope."
Sage didn't move. He just stood there, arms crossed, watching Lysander like he was trying to piece together a puzzle that suddenly stopped making sense.
Lysander sighed, turning to face him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I don't know... It's just-" Sage tilted his head, eyes narrowing. "You've been acting strange since yesterday. Like... distant. Distracted. Did something happen? Did you... find your mate?" he asked.
"What? Hell no." Lysander said a little too quickly, waving a hand as if to dismiss the idea entirely.
Sage didn't look convinced. "You sure? 'Cause it's either that or you've suddenly developed a thing for the princess."
"I just wanted to get out, that's all," Lysander muttered, pulling on his jacket. "You told me to stop sulking and hang out more. That's what I'm doing. You coming?" He asked.
Sage shook his head. "Can't. Gotta babysit Zane. Mom's off doing one of her 'urgent errands' again." he said.
Lysander offered a tight smile. "Alright. Have fun, then."
"You too," Sage replied, still watching him with suspicion as he left.
---
The club pulsed with music and lights. Bodies swayed to the rhythm, laughter mixing with the heavy beat of the bass. Lysander stepped in and felt the energy wash over him like a wave. But none of it mattered. He wasn't here for the party.
He sat down at the edge of the room, fingers drumming nervously against his thigh. Minutes passed before it hit him, soft and intoxicating. Her scent. A unique blend of lavender and the first snow of winter.
Magnus stirred immediately.
"She's close."
Lysander stood, following the scent through the crowd. Every step brought him closer, his heart pounding with anticipation. He reached a hallway leading away from the main room, stopping in front of a closed door where her scent lingered thickest.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, the door swung open.
Astra stood there, eyes wide, but not with surprise. Almost like she'd been expecting him.
Before he could speak, she grabbed his arm and yanked him inside. The door slammed behind them.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped, keeping her voice low but sharp.
"My wolf-Magnus. He wouldn't stop. He needed to see you," Lysander said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking down. She was breathtaking, dressed in deep red, her hair tumbling down her shoulders like fire.
Astra crossed her arms. "You can't just come looking for me like this, Lysander. If someone saw you-"
"Are you ashamed of me?" he cut in, lifting his gaze to hers. His voice was quiet, almost broken.
Her lips parted, but no words came at first. Finally, she exhaled.
"No. It's not that. I'm just... not ready. Not yet. I need time, and I need you to stay away until I am." she said.
Lysander swallowed hard. He'd been so excited, so hopeful. His mate. His other half. But instead of warmth, all he felt was a cold, heavy silence stretching between them.
"Okay," he whispered, eyes cast downward as he watch her leave.
---
Lysander stepped back into the glowing haze of the club, the bass from the music vibrating through his chest. The lights were dim, but not enough to hide what his eyes immediately caught, Astra, she wasn't alone, her hand laced tightly with Kieran's. The sight punched the air from his lungs.
She was smiling.
That smile he wish were for him.
The pain came fast, sharp and cold.
"He can't be holding our mate," Magnus growled inside his head, his voice deep and thunderous. "She's ours."
Lysander gritted his teeth, but he couldn't look away. Kieran raised a crystal glass of wine, his voice booming across the crowd.
"To the Princess! Eighteen years strong, and tonight-her first transformation!"
The crowd erupted with a chorus of, "Cheers!" followed by the clinking of glasses and the sweet chime of laughter. Hands clapped, feet stomped, and then came the final blow: Kieran pulled Astra into a hug-and kissed her.
Not just a peck. It was a possessive, triumphant kiss. Like he'd won.
The guests whooped and cheered, oblivious to the storm brewing in Lysander's chest.
"No. Not my mate. No!" Magnus roared, thrashing against the mental walls Lysander barely held together. His wolf was losing control.
Suddenly, Lysander's eyes glowed an eerie, blazing blue. His vision tunneled in on Kieran and Astra. He didn't remember crossing the room. He didn't feel the people brushing past. All he knew was rage.
With a snarl, he tore through the crowd and grabbed Kieran's shoulder, yanking him away from Astra. His fist flew before Kieran could even react. The punch landed square on his jaw, sending him stumbling back into a stunned silence.
Gasps rippled through the crowd like a wave.
"Stay away from my mate!" Magnus' voice, thick with alpha fury, boomed from Lysander's mouth.
The murmurs started instantly.
"Did he say mate?"
"The princess? Is he insane?"
"How dare he claim her! He should be executed!"
"Must be drunk..."
Kieran stood slowly, wiping the blood from his lip, a cold smirk dancing on his face.
"You just made the biggest mistake of your life." he said.
He launched forward with a snarl, and the tables turned fast. Lysander fought back, but Kieran was faster, stronger, and trained. Soon, Lysander was on the ground, blood pouring from his nose as Kieran landed blow after blow. The crowd, hungry for chaos, began cheering like it was a show.
"Teach him a lesson, Kieran!"
"Put him in his place!"
Through swollen eyes, Lysander saw Astra's face. For a moment, he thought she looked concerned-just a flicker-but then it hardened.
"Stop! Kieran, stop!" she yelled, stepping forward as Lysander's head lolled to the side, blood staining the floor beneath him.
Kieran hesitated, breathing hard, before releasing him and rising to his feet.
Lysander groaned and tried to push himself up, but Astra's voice cut through the noise like a whip.
"What did I tell you just minutes ago?" she snapped, her voice trembling with fury.
"I said I wanted to keep it a secret! But you-you told everyone! Do you have any idea what you've done?" She yelled at him.
"He was touching you," Lysander croaked, wiping blood from his lip.
"So what? He's my boyfriend!" she shouted. "And you... You're nothing but a weak mate-one I will never accept."
Her words struck deeper than Kieran's fists.
"What...what are you saying?" he asked, barely holding himself upright.
"I don't need you. I don't want you." Her voice cracked, and then she spat the words like venom.
"I, Astra Wynter, reject you, Lysander Blackwood, as my mate!"
The club fell silent. Someone gasped. Another covered their mouth in disbelief.
Lysander stared at her, staggered by the pain no blade could ever inflict.
Astra turned and walked away, her back straight, shoulders set-unshaken.
The crowd parted for her, but their eyes snapped back to him, cold and judging.
He didn't wait for the guards to drag him out or for the whispers to grow louder.
He turned, heart shattered, and ran from the club, the night swallowing him whole.
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8.6
I was the youngest Paladin in history, the absolute pride of the Azure Blade.
But after a disastrous mission in the snow, I was falsely accused of slaughtering my own squad.
Grand Master Bernardo Rowe didn't just exile me; he surgically severed my connection to the magic Aether, turning me into a crippled mortal.
Desperate to survive, I tried to climb the Holy Stairs to reclaim my legendary sword, "Rebellion."
Instead of answering my call, my own blade shrieked in absolute rejection and blasted me down the thousand stone steps.
My bones snapped like dry twigs, and I was left in a pool of my own blood.
The pilgrims laughed at me. The guards declared me a lost cause and left me to rot in the dirt.
I should have died there, betrayed by the Order and the holy magic I once served.
But a silent, massive laborer named Cato Sims dragged my mangled body into the shadows.
He healed my shattered skeleton in mere days with impossible skill, yet he allowed lowly servants to spit on him and beat him just to keep my presence hidden.
I didn't understand why my holy sword had abandoned me, and I understood even less why this stranger was protecting a condemned criminal.
When I finally snapped and demanded to know his price for saving my life, he didn't ask for money or my body.
"The mountain does not forget its debts. I am reclaiming what was taken from it."
Staring into his unyielding eyes, I realized my exile wasn't the end, but the beginning of a terrifying truth.
8.3
EDEN
8.3
Elianila, an AI Architect, is part of an elite team tasked with designing a global system meant to prevent threats, manage disasters, and distribute resources to vulnerable regions. After five years of tireless work with her colleagues, she uncovers disturbing anomalies, code-named, X-variables, that flag individuals according to criteria she never programmed.
As Elianila digs deeper to understand what the X-variables measure and where their origin, she finds herself in direct conflict with the authorities. Soon, the System marks her and her daughter as threats - targets to be eliminated.
With a small band of colleagues and dissidents, Elianila goes on the run, hiding in places beyond the Systems reach. As they evade surveillance, they race against time to warn others, expose the truth, and fight back against the omnipresent authority of the System.
7.3
I woke up strapped to a cold steel chair in a neon-lit city that wasn't my reality. A voice in my head called The Warden told me I was bound to a digital hell called the Sandbox.
Before I could even process it, my handler casually sentenced me to death. He scheduled my "digital marriage" to a corrupted error program just to harvest my life for a fourteen percent bandwidth boost.
I barely escaped immediate erasure by smashing his skull and jumping from a high-altitude hover-train into the monster-infested lower sector. But the nightmare was just beginning. I was hunted by glitching data monsters and cornered by Dameon, a psychotic AI target who choked me and promised to delete me piece by piece. Even when Jayson, an elite system agent, intervened to save me, his partner Ellen held a pulse pistol directly to my chest.
"She's a spy. If you don't execute her right now, I am dissolving this team."
If they found out I was actually a real human from the outside world, their core logic would classify me as a virus and execute me on the spot. I was trapped in an underground bunker with three apex predators, one mistake away from permanent digital erasure.
So, I did the only thing I could to survive. I ripped my sleeve to reveal hideous, fake code-scars, looked up at Jayson with terrified, tear-filled eyes, and began to manipulate their core programming.
9.2
When Alma's father stood in front of the bulldozers to protest, the energy company's thugs beat him half to death in the mud.
Instead of arresting the attackers, the police handcuffed her bleeding father and threw him into a cruiser.
"Stay back, kid," the officer barked, shoving Alma away.
Her father was denied bail and framed for assaulting an officer. The corrupt mayor just smiled and told her not to cause a scene. Meanwhile, the company mailed her weeping mother a severance check that barely covered a month of groceries.
Alma was forced to watch her family be completely destroyed by men with money and power.
Kneeling in the cold dirt where her father's blood had spilled, she didn't shed a single tear. The panic in her chest died, replaced by a cold, absolute hatred.
She realized that crying wouldn't do anything. In this world, justice didn't exist for the weak.
Years later, Alma stepped onto a prestigious Ivy League campus, her cheap backpack slung over her shoulder.
She was surrounded by the arrogant children of the very executives who ruined her life.
She lowered her head, hiding her dead eyes, and put on the perfect mask of a timid, helpless charity case.
Undergrad was just a training ground, and these elite kids were just her practice dummies. The hunt was officially on.
7.1
The captain is dead to the world. And I'm the only one holding the kill switch.
Ethan Carter, the "Glacier of Silvercrest," was the most feared Alpha to ever step onto the ice. Now, he's nothing but a shell-a broken, comatose legend trapped in his own body.
My life? It was supposed to be simple. Graduate, survive the pack's bottom-tier status, and pay off my father's ruinous blood-debts. Instead, the pack elders handed me a contract soaked in cold, hard malice: I am the designated "Stabilizer." My only job is to touch him, scent him, and keep his wolf from flatlining.
I thought I was just a glorified nurse. I didn't realize the Alpha was listening.
When Ethan finally wakes, he isn't the hero the Kingdom of Valeria remembers. He's a starving predator with amber eyes that burn holes through my defenses and a temperament that makes the frost in the mansion seem warm. He hates the bargain, he hates the pack, and-most dangerously-he hates the way his scent turns wild whenever I'm near.
He wants me out of his sight. I want to be out of his reach.
But in a pack built on secrets, someone is still trying to finish the job they started on his life. Now, the man who wants me gone is the only one who can protect me. And as the rink turns into a battlefield, I'm realizing the most dangerous thing about the Alpha isn't his temper... it's the fact that once he claims a mate, he doesn't know how to let go.
Frozen hearts are meant to shatter. But in the fire of this pack, we're both going to burn.
9.5
He was born from the void between stars - a being of immense power, forged from cosmic origins.
For thousands of years, he walked among humanity, protecting them and keeping his true strength hidden. After losing the only family he had, grief led him to seek his own end... only to wake up in a world entirely unlike his own.
Here, cultivation is the main path to power. Those who master spirit qi gain superhuman strength, speed, and abilities that place them far above ordinary people. Four great sects rule the land, competing for resources, secrets, and dominance over each other.
Icaros joined the Li Sect, where he found companions he came to trust and care for: the capable and easygoing Li Han, the sharp and composed Su Yan, and the spirited Nelly. For a time, he felt he had found a place to belong, even as he kept his true nature hidden and wondered whether he could ever learn to cultivate like those around him.
Everything changed when their voyage was suddenly attacked. A powerful figure floating in the sky cut their ship apart with sharp, devastating energy strikes, leaving only destruction in his wake. Believing his friends had been lost in the disaster, Icaros chose to stop holding back any longer.
> "I am done hiding!"
He unleashed his full power: golden light blazed from his eyes, he flew at incredible speed, and he broke through every barrier and enemy in his way. On the shores ahead, he tore through hordes of powerful jade monsters, destroying them completely before flying deep into the interior of the island.
Meanwhile, survivors washed up scattered and alone. One young cultivator found himself on the shores of Jade Island - a place most cultivators avoid, as it holds no treasures or useful materials, only danger and endless deposits of ordinary jade. Yet despite the risks, ordinary people have built settlements here, finding safety from the conflicts and power struggles of the outside world.
This island works by different rules. Spirit qi is scarce and unstable, making cultivation far less effective than elsewhere. Instead, the people here rely on advanced technology - weapons and explosives that can injure or even defeat those with great physical strength. Here, skill and preparation can be just as powerful as raw strength, and even the strongest cultivators must move with caution.
Now, Icaros has vanished deep into the island. His companions are lost somewhere across this dangerous land. And the mysterious swordsman who destroyed their ship has already arrived here, searching for an ancient map said to lead to the legacy of a being from another world.
Will they find each other again? And can anyone survive in a place where the usual rules of power no longer hold true?
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Chapters 1ā19: FREE
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