Chapter 1 Chapter 1

MICHELLE

“The Goddess must be fucking playing a prank on me to give me such a fat, wolfless bitch for a mate.”

Sigh. Here we go again.

Welcome to the life of Michelle Hawthorn: twenty-five, chubby, completely wolfless, and apparently the Moon Goddess’s personal stand-up comedy routine. Because standing in front of me right now was mate number five–and his reaction was an exact, play-by-play carbon copy of mate number four.

One. Two. Three. Four. And now five.

At this point, I wasn’t even surprised anymore. The shock had burned out somewhere around rejection number three. But as I sat on the waiting chair in the lobby at Saint Jude’s Memorial, the best hospital in the full werewolf world, my mind kept screaming the same desperate questions: Why? Why me? Wouldn't it have been better if the Goddess had just left me completely neglected? Just like my father does? It would have been infinitely better than enduring the gut-wrenching humiliation of yet another mate who was about to cast me aside like garbage.

I took him in, and what’d you know? He was gorgeous. As they always were. Tall, glasslike jawline, wide shoulders, and the prettiest green eyes I’ve ever seen, which were currently fixed on me with unfiltered disgust.

"Babe? What are you talking about?"

The voice belonged to the woman clinging to his wrist. She looked like she’d just walked off a runway–tall, slender, with flawless skin and perfect blonde waves.

"Babe, this... this fat pig is my fucking mate," he spat out, pointing a shaky finger at me. "I literally just felt the bond."

With a gasp, the girl’s face drained of all color. "What? How is that possible? I-I thought we were going to be mates! I thought... I thought it was just taking longer than usual! I thought it would snap eventually!"

Her voice was all cracky, and within seconds, tears were mapping down her cheeks. The commotion was already drawing eyes. Patients in the waiting room turned their heads, nurses paused at the desk, and whispers began to move all about.

Panicking instantly, Mate No.5 wrapped his arms around the crying woman. "Hey, look at me. Shh, don't cry, baby. Look at me."

"So what does this mean for us?!" she sobbed, shoving his chest. "Are you going to accept her now that you’ve found her? What about me?! What about our baby?"

My heart gave a sickening thud at that. A baby.

"No! Never!" he swore fiercely, kissing her forehead, her cheeks, anywhere he could reach. "You and our baby are my entire life. You hear me? I am never leaving you for some fat, wolfless bitch."

Ouch. Even with a heart calloused by four previous rejections, that one stung.

"I can't... I can't look at you right now!" the girlfriend cried, unable to handle the crowd's burning stares. She broke away from his grip and sprinted toward the glass double doors of the hospital.

"Wait! Princess, stop!" he yelled, taking a step to chase her. But then he stopped.

Slowly, he turned back toward me.

The look in his eyes was pure hatred. If looks could kill, I’d be a pile of ash on the floor.

"Are you happy now?" he snarled at me. "Can you see what your useless self just did?!"

Not bothering with a reply, I just sat there, letting out a long, weary sigh.

That silence was the wrong move. It set him off like a match to gasoline. In a blur of motion, he crossed the space between us, grabbed the collar of my shirt, and yanked me off my feet. His eyes flashed a furious gold– a clear sign his wolf had surged to the surface.

"I am fucking speaking to you!" he roared. "Show some damn respect!"

His Beta aura suffocatingly flooded the room. I felt the humans and low-ranking wolves around us cringe, bowing their heads under the sudden oppressive weight. But me? I felt nothing. Just a deep, hollow numbness. I stared back at him with dead, vacant eyes.

Noticing my complete lack of reaction, he scoffed and shoved me backward, causing me to stumble, my frame hitting the wall hard.

"Why am I even wasting my breath on you?" He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and aggressively wiped his hands, scrubbing his skin as if touching me had contaminated him. "You don't even have a wolf to command. A fat, useless waste of space. I bet the only thing that goes on in that huge head of yours is when your next meal is."

With a hard swallow, I kept my expression entirely blank, though my lungs burned.

"Let's make this quick," he sneered, tossing the handkerchief into a nearby trash bin. "I have a real family waiting for me. A perfect woman and my child. I would never trade perfection for... this."

Taking a step back, he stood tall and cleared his throat to deliver the words I had been waiting for all morning.

"I, Nathan Bowen, Beta of the Govan Pack, do hereby reject you..." He paused, his eyebrows pulling together as he looked me up and down. He didn't even know my name.

I forced down the lump of glass in my throat and whispered, "Michelle. Michelle Hawthorn."

Nathan’s eyes widened slightly. Recognition flickered across his features as he realized who my father was–Alpha Hawthorn. Alpha of this very pack. But the shock was instantly replaced by a cruel, mocking smirk. The rumors had clearly reached his pack, too. The Alpha's broken, heavy daughter who keeps collecting rejections like Pokémon.

"I, Nathan Bowen," he repeated, his smile widening, "hereby reject you, Michelle Hawthorn, as my mate."

It was the exact same feeling as the last four times. The invisible thread tied to my soul snapped violently, breaking my spirit straight in half. The agony radiated through my chest, and my knees buckled. I collapsed onto the cold hospital floor, clutching my chest as I gasped for air.

"I accept your rejection," I whispered into the floor tiles.

Nathan didn't waste another second. He shot me one final look of utter disgust. "Do the world a favor and stay hidden, Michelle." With that, he turned on his heel and sprinted out the doors after his pregnant girlfriend.

I was left writhing on the floor, the agonizing phantom burn of a broken bond searing through my chest. And right on cue, the whispers swelled around me like a swarm of angry wasps.

“Is that... five? Did she just get rejected for the fifth time?”

“Five mates?! Some people can’t even find one, and she’s had five? How is that even possible?”

“Well, look at her. Can you blame him? Who’d want a fat, wolfless mate when you could have a model?”

“She’s cursed. Seriously, Alpha Hawthorn must be humiliated.”

“Look at her just lying there... so pathetic.”

Not one person stepped forward. Not one nurse offered a hand. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressed my palms over my ears, and tuned it all out.