Rise of the Rejected Luna
Chigozirim Nduagu · Ongoing · 132.5k Words
Introduction
Elena Rivers thought her mate ceremony would be the beginning of everything. Instead, Alpha Damien Blackthorn shattered her world with rejection.
Humiliated before the Silvercrest Pack and branded as weak, Elena is left heartbroken and alone. But when Damien returns with a chilling warning—leave before it’s too late—she realizes his rejection was never about her flaws. It was about a curse.
Whispers of a cursed bloodline, betrayal within the pack, and a prophecy buried in the Shadowlands begin to surface. As enemies close in and her hidden strength awakens, Elena must choose: succumb to the pain or rise into the Luna she was never meant to be.
Chapter 1
“Say the words, Elena.”
Alpha Damien’s voice rolled across the clearing like a storm breaking, deep and unyielding. The silver moon crowned him, his dark hair gleaming as if spun from midnight itself, and those golden eyes locked on mine with a heat that should have anchored me. Instead, it burned the air from my lungs.
The pack circled around us, hundreds of wolves standing shoulder to shoulder, their breath misting in the autumn chill. The silence throbbed with the weight of the ritual. Tonight was the moment every wolf dreamed of—the claiming of a mate, the crowning of a Luna. Tonight, every doubt that had haunted me since childhood would be silenced.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and lifted my chin. For years, I had heard the whispers—weak, unworthy, too fragile to lead. Tonight, I would prove them wrong. Tonight, before the Moon Goddess and every watching eye, Damien and I would seal a bond no force could sever.
I drew in a steadying breath, let it fill me, and spoke. “I, Elena of Silvercrest Pack, accept Alpha Damien Blackthorn as my—”
“Stop.”
The word struck harder than claws. The air around us stilled. Even the torches guttered, flames shrinking as if afraid to burn.
Damien’s gaze, which only moments ago had pinned mine with the promise of forever, slipped away. His voice, when it came, was merciless, each syllable sharpened by the weight of an Alpha.
“I reject you.”
The ground tilted. The bond—our bond—screamed inside me, tearing, unraveling, but not cleanly. Something clung stubbornly to my soul, a frayed thread that pulsed like a wound refusing to close.
Gasps tore from the crowd, sharp and cruel. Some wolves pressed hands to their mouths, others laughed, jagged sounds cutting me open like broken glass. The whispers I had carried for years—weak, unworthy, unfit—now had their proof.
Pain ripped through my chest, hot and raw, crushing my ribs until every breath was a battle. My knees wavered, but I forced myself to stand tall. Pride was all I had left.
“You… you can’t,” I choked out, my voice trembling. “The bond—”
Damien’s golden eyes flared, colder than winter’s bite. “I just did.”
The pack stirred, unease rippling through the circle. And then came the laughter. Smooth. Poisonous.
Seraphina.
She glided forward, black silk clinging to every curve, her jeweled necklace catching the firelight with each movement. Her lips curved into a slow, poisonous smile.
“Poor little Elena,” she purred, her voice pitched to carry. “Did you truly believe the moon would crown you Luna? Look at you—you can barely keep standing.”
The pack didn’t argue. Their silence was worse than their laughter. Not a single voice rose in my defense. My heart twisted.
I turned back to Damien, desperate for the man I thought I knew. For a flicker of a heartbeat, I saw it—pain, raw and unguarded, flashing in his eyes. But then it vanished, smothered under steel.
“You’re weak, Elena,” he said, his voice cutting deep. “The pack needs strength.”
The words struck harder than his rejection. Seraphina’s smirk deepened. She touched Damien’s arm with a possessive grace, long fingers brushing his sleeve. My wolf snarled inside me, wounded and enraged, but powerless.
Her gaze locked with mine. “Don’t worry,” she whispered with venomous sweetness. “I’ll take very good care of him.”
The crowd murmured, some voices tinged with pity, more with dark amusement.
“No,” I whispered, broken. “This isn’t fair.”
“Fairness is a child’s tale,” Seraphina replied, tilting her head so the jewel at her throat glimmered. For a moment, it burned too brightly, a strange ripple of heat brushing against my skin. My wolf recoiled, shuddering as if recognizing something ancient and wrong.
The torches sputtered, smoke rising thick and choking. A low, keening cry broke inside me, the sound of my wolf mourning, hollow and broken.
“Leave, Elena,” Damien ordered. His voice was iron, cruel in its finality. “Before I make you.”
The earth swayed beneath me. This night, meant to crown me Luna, had become my public ruin.
“That’s enough!”
The voice cut through the night like a blade.
Jonah.
He pushed through the circle of wolves, his broad shoulders scattering them aside until he stood at my side. His dark eyes burned with fury as they locked on Damien. “You can’t do this to her.”
The air thickened, tension crackling like lightning.
“Stay out of this, Jonah,” Damien growled.
“I won’t.” Jonah’s stance was unshaken. “She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.”
The pack held its breath. The flames themselves leaned closer.
But I saw what no one else did. When the bond had torn, Jonah had staggered too, clutching his chest as if something invisible had coiled around his heart. Standing this close, I could feel it—the faint echo of the bond pulsing in him as much as in me.
Why?
Seraphina’s laughter cut the silence, low and mocking. “How noble, Jonah. But you can’t save her. Not tonight.”
Hope flickered in me, fragile and fleeting. Then my knees buckled. I fell hard onto the cold ground, stones biting into my palms as tears blurred my vision.
“This ceremony is over,” Damien declared, his voice sharp as steel. Wolves recoiled under his command. One by one, they turned away, whispering as they melted into the night.
Still on the ground, I lifted my gaze. Damien’s lips parted as though he would speak—but then his jaw clenched, and he strode away.
And in that moment, I knew: this rejection wasn’t only about me. Something darker threaded beneath his cruelty, something he dared not name.
A scent reached me before her shadow did. Seraphina.
She leaned close, her breath brushing my ear. “Run while you can, Elena,” she whispered. “The forest has teeth… and they’re hungry for you.” Her fingers brushed the jewel at her throat, and it pulsed faintly against my skin. Not firelight. Something else. Something alive.
She straightened, heels clicking as she melted back into the dispersing crowd.
It wasn’t mercy. It was a promise.
I stayed kneeling, the earth cold and merciless beneath me, my chest burning with grief. And then—
Heat seared across my wrist.
I gasped, yanking back my sleeve. A crescent-shaped mark blazed on my skin, glowing silver as though carved by the moon itself.
A voice rose inside me, ancient and commanding, sharp as a blade and eternal as the stars.
Rise, Luna.
My heart thundered. My breath caught. And in the shadows, Seraphina turned once more. She smiled, the kind of smile that said she had been waiting for this moment all along.
This night was not my end.
It was the beginning.
Last Chapters
#111 Chapter One Hundred Thirteen: The Symphony of Scars
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#110 Chapter One Hundred Twelve: The Garden of Stone and Seed
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#109 Chapter One Hundred Eleven: The Anatomy of a Memory
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#108 Chapter One Hundred Ten: The Whispering Wall
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#107 Chapter One Hundred Nine: The Council of Shadows and Stone
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#106 Chapter One Hundred Eight: The Warden and the Wolf
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#105 Chapter One Hundred Seven: The First Fracture
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#104 Chapter One Hundred Six: The Scarification of Hope
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#103 Chapter One Hundred Five: The Calculus of a Soul
Last Updated: 4/10/2026#102 Chapter One Hundred Four: The Unspoken Treaty
Last Updated: 4/10/2026
You Might Like 😍
Chosen By The Lycan King
Where The Ice Gives Way
Blake Atlas scents his mate the moment Charlotte arrives. The bond hits hard and unmistakable, but Charlotte doesn’t recognise it. She doesn’t know why her chest keeps pulling toward the one boy she absolutely cannot afford to want. Blake is Charlie’s new hockey captain. Charlie’s chance at making something good. Charlie makes it clear; his sister is off-limits and Blake tries to do the right thing, but secrets don’t stay buried forever. Rogues prowl the edges of town. The ice cracks. The bond tightens. Then Charlotte’s rare white wolf awakens, the very thing that makes her powerful, also makes her a target.
Shanti needs Shakti. (Peace needs strength.)
Where the Ice Gives Way is a slow-burn YA paranormal romance filled with fated mates, protective alpha energy, fierce sibling loyalty, found family pack bonds, hurt/comfort, and quiet, aching tension. It’s a story about first belonging, learning to be cared for, and what happens when the girl who has always held everyone else up finally falls, and someone catches her.
Taste of Fate: The Vampire King's Human Mate
He reached for the back of my head and pulled me up just enough to reach my neck. When his fangs slid into me, the pain was instant, electric. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My hands found his shoulders, clawing for something to hold. My legs kicked. Tears streamed down my cheeks.
He moaned against my throat as he drank, and the sound was devastating.
Real Heiress, Hidden Boss
On the engagement day, my fiancé slipped a ring on her finger. My parents handed me a train ticket to oblivion.
They celebrated their victory while I disappeared.
What they didn't realize was that letting me go was the worst mistake of their lives.
I am the surgical prodigy saving lives that science deems hopeless. I am the muse of the art world. I am the true heir to a dynasty they couldn't even dream of.
Now, I am back.
Not as the girl they abandoned, but as the storm they prayed would never come.
My ex-fiancé kneels in regret. My fake sister chokes on her jealousy. And the CEO who once looked through me? He is now crawling, desperate to taste the success he once threw away.
The joke isn't on me.
It's on them.
Fated to the Lycan
Ashlyn Ambrosia, the daughter of Khalid Ambrosia is a weak hybrid vampire that doesn't act like one. Unable to draw blood from a living soul and unable to kill. She's been mocked for this by her own family too. Her world comes crashing down when she's taken away by her Clutch most hated adversary.....
Lucifer Saunron is a ruthless lycan male alpha of the Nightwing pack known for his bravery, skills in war and an unquenchable taste for women. In the long feud between the lycans and the vampires and the battle that ensued, to his greatest displeasure he's fated to the daughter of the Vampire king.
He takes her in as his mistress opposing what the moon goddess proposes.....
With a life that is filled with secrets and mysteries that Ashlyn would discover, would she be able to withstand his hell as he battles with his inner demon despite his cruelty?
The Unbreakable Oath
The First Female Alpha
The man I was meant to marry—the rising Alpha, the pride of the Pack—thrusting into another girl like I didn't exist.
But I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I didn't even flinch.
Because the pain had carved me hollow long before he ever touched her.
He thinks I'm weak. That I'll stand by his side in two days, smile for the ceremony, and hand him my loyalty with the Alpha title.
But he's wrong.
I'm not the broken little Luna they think I am. I'm the storm they never saw coming.
The Pack worships him, but only I know the truth buried beneath his perfect lies. So I'll take everything he wants most—the throne, the title, the crown he was born to wear—and win it out from under him, in front of everyone who ever called me unworthy.
Screw the Pack. Screw the respect. Screw being tame.
I'm fury dressed in skin, madness wearing heels, and heartbreak turned into a goddamn weapon.
They wanted a loyal Luna??
Instead...
They created a monster.
And when the throne is finally mine...
The Pack won't remember the name of the Alpha who betrayed me.
They'll remember the woman who took his crown...
and became the First Female Alpha.
The Lycan Kings and the White Wolf.
The Spy Who Left
"I still can't believe she actually did it. Aria Hart, filing for divorce. Who saw that coming?"
"How long do we think it'll take before she comes crawling back?" Another voice joins the conversation.
"Three days," Victoria declares. "Five at most. She has no money, no skills, no family. Where's she going to go?"
When Aria Chen divorced billionaire Leon Hart, New York's elite sneered, betting she'd crawl back within days. She never did.
Three years later, the world is rocked when Dr. Aria Vale, CEO of a revolutionary cybersecurity empire, steps into the spotlight. The mysterious genius who built a billion-dollar company from nothing is none other than Leon's discarded wife, the woman everyone thought was just a pretty ornament.
Now, every powerful man wants the queen Leon threw away a renowned scientist seeking partnership, a financial titan proposing an empire, and an actor offering devotion. Each sees the brilliance Leon ignored.
Then Leon discovers the truth: Aria's sacrifices, her secret double life, and the daughter she's been raising without him. For the first time, the man who once took her for granted must fight for her love. But can he compete with men who valued her from the beginning?
A story of love, betrayal, and power where the king must kneel before the queen who never needed saving.
A Queen Among Darkness (Book 4 in the Gods' Saga)
For centuries, she has been on the run, helping the supernatural community under the cloak of anonymity while she works to clear her name and save the very people after her from destruction.
Enemies are closing in, but an unexpected complication befalls her when she realises she’s been fated to someone who wants her species exterminated. After all, an evil chance seldom comes alone.
A Queen Among Darkness is the 4th book in the Queen Among Series/The Gods' Saga. This is an interconnected series. To see how it ends, I recommend reading the full series.
Books in the series in order:
A Queen Among Alphas - Book 1
Bite-Size Luna - A Queen Among Alphas Prequel (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Snakes - Book 2
A Queen Among Blood - Book 3
A Queen Among Darkness - Book 4
Whole Again - A Queen Among Alpha's spin-off (available under book 1)
A Queen Among Tides - Book 5
Valor, Virtue, and Verve - Tides Prequel Spin-off (will be available under book 5)
A Queen Among Gods - Book 6
Runaway Empress - A Queen Among Snakes Prequel (will be available under book 2)
A Queen Among Tempests - Book 7
Dark Vocation - Darkness spin-off (will be available under book 4)
A Court of Arcane Souls Anthology (side character short stories exclusive to Ream)
Royal Shadow Series (Next Generation Coming Soon)
Invincible Upon Release: The Strongest Mage
Her family looked down on him, and even she herself said coldly: “You’re not worthy of being my husband.”
Everyone thought this newly released good-for-nothing was just a poor fool who’d taken the fall for his brother.
Thorne said nothing.
He merely raised his hand, gently pressing his bride’s forehead.
In an instant, the chaos in her eyes faded. Holy light surged from beneath the church, shooting into the sky.
The world’s only candidate for the Saintess, blessed with holy power, slowly opened her clear eyes before him.
Dangerous Love with the Mafia
Driven out by her adoptive mother and sexually harassed by her boss, she stumbles into a seedy bar, desperate to drown her sorrows. There she meets Alex: sharp, devastatingly handsome, and impossibly charming.
What starts as a wild one-night stand blossoms into a tender, almost surreal romance—art galleries, riverside walks, and whispered promises that feel too perfect to be real. But when Alex vanishes without a word after a morning of gentle intimacy, Sarah is left with a hollow ache and a creeping doubt.
Their encounter was no accident. Behind Alex's blue eyes and skilled touch lies a darkness far deeper than she ever imagined—and the love that burned so bright may come with a price that could destroy her.
