Chapter 1
You're right. I expanded your line without being asked — that was my mistake.
Here's the corrected version, keeping your line tight and matched in length:
I died for the mate bond.
In my past life, I choked on my own blood in the snow, taking a silver bullet for Kael. My reward? He married Seraphina over my fresh grave.
Never again.
Now, standing alive in the packhouse, I stared at the man I once died for.
"I reject you, Elara. You're a pathetic Omega," Kael spat, his lip curling in front of the entire pack. "You will never be my Luna."
He wanted tears. He expected me to break. Instead, I wiped a smear of blood from my split lip and gave him a razor-sharp smile. "I accept your rejection."
The crowd froze. But the silence didn't last.
A suffocating aura slammed into the room, dropping wolves to their knees. The heavy oak doors splintered open. Silas. The bloodthirsty Alpha King of the North.
He ignored the bowing elites and walked straight up to me. His burning gaze pinned me in place.
"Since the guy threw you away," Silas rumbled, a grin splitting his face, "From this second on, you are mine."
Elara's POV
Pain. White-hot, blinding pain.
Like someone reached into my chest and ripped something out by the roots. Ice water flooded my lungs. I snapped awake and sucked in a breath — thick, rank with scent. Restless. Excited. And the unmistakable stink of wolves enjoying the show.
No bullet wound. No warm blood. No feeling of life leaking out of me, beat by beat.
Above me hung the giant crystal chandelier of the Silvermoon gathering hall. Around me, rows of wolves in their finest.
"Elara. I'm talking to you. Don't play dumb."
That voice cut in from straight ahead. Low. Cold.
I lifted my head, forced my eyes to focus. Kael.
Broad shoulders. Tall. Dominance coming off him in waves. In those dark gray eyes, nothing but condescension and impatience.
I was back. My twentieth birthday. Our binding ceremony.
Last time, it was today. Kael stood right there and announced in front of the whole pack that he would NOT take some low-rank Omega with no family and barely any shift as his Luna. He wanted a stronger mate — someone to help him hold the throne.
Back then, I dropped to my knees and grabbed his pant leg, sobbing, begging him not to leave me. I told him I could learn. I could get stronger. We were fated mates — forsake the Moon Goddess and she'd curse us both.
He kicked me off and turned to wrap his arm around the woman who'd just walked in — Seraphina. The Northern pack's war goddess.
After that, I became the pack joke. Dignity stripped down to nothing, and STILL I followed him around like a dog. Until that territorial conflict. I took a silver bullet for him and died in the snow. When I took my last breath, he didn't even look at me. Too busy asking if Seraphina was hurt.
"ELARA!"
His brow drew tight and his Alpha aura slipped out on its own. A couple of low-rank wolves flinched.
"Last time, Elara. The mate bond was a mistake. Silvermoon is expanding, and I need a Luna who can fight beside me — not some useless burden who can't even protect herself."
Murmurs broke out across the hall.
"See? No way the Alpha picks her."
"An orphan living off her dead parents' money, and she's aiming that high?"
"She's gonna cry again. Pathetic."
Kael tilted his chin up. Something certain flickered in his eyes — he had my tears, my screaming, my clinging all mapped out. He even shifted his weight, like he was bracing. Like me getting too close might dirty his clothes.
I looked at that face. The face I once loved until I lost myself in it.
It all felt RIDICULOUS.
Fate's chain snapped right then. No heartbreak. Just a lightness I'd never felt before.
I straightened my back, smoothed the wrinkles out of my dress, and looked him dead in the eye.
"Fine. I accept your rejection."
Kael went still. His pupils shrank. "What?"
"I said, I agree to sever the bond." I stepped forward. "If the Alpha thinks I'm dead weight, then we do this by pack law. Right here. In front of everyone. Break it."
The hall went dead. Not a sound. Everyone stared at me like I'd grown a second head. In our world, a mate's rejection is the worst humiliation a wolf can take. They figured I'd grovel. Instead, I gave him a clean cut.
Kael's face went ugly. Shock. Then fury. He took my calm as a challenge — as some little play for attention.
"This is your little play for attention?" He ground his teeth. Voice low. "Come on, Elara. Walk away now and I'll let you keep a room on the edge of the territory."
"You wish, Kael." I smirked. "You think the world spins around you? And hey — you're not good enough for me, so have a nice life with your future Luna. Go on. Do it."
I held his stare. Didn't blink.
Kael stared back. Chest heaving.
"You accept," he forced out, one word at a time.
"Yeah. I accept."
"Fine." He sucked in a breath. Every wolf in the hall stopped breathing.
"I, Kael, Alpha of the Silvermoon pack, reject Elara as my fated mate. I reject her as Luna of this pack. I sever our mate bond."
Every word landed like a hammer to the chest.
My turn. He watched me, waiting for the tears.
I didn't cry.
"I, Elara, accept this rejection." My voice was dead flat. "I accept that our mate bond is severed. I don't want you."
The last three words landed — and pain tore through me. Like a rusted saw dragged down my spine.
I clenched my jaw. Sweat soaked my back. Not a single cry escaped me. My knees didn't even buckle.
The bond was severed.
That dead weight in my chest was gone — for good.
I pulled my hand free, took out a handkerchief, and dabbed at the blood welling up on my wrist. Then I dropped it at Kael's feet.
"From now on, we go our separate ways."
I turned. Didn't look at him again. Walked straight for the hall doors.
Behind me, Kael's breathing came ragged. That look — all rage and something he wouldn't name — bored into my back.
But he didn't stop me.
