After My Mate Rejected Me, the Lycan King Claimed Me

The negotiation table was a battlefield I knew well. As the Luna of the Shadow Moon Pack, I had spent the last ten years perfecting the art of war with words. Across the mahogany table, Alpha Marcus of the Silver Claw Pack was sweating, his pen hovering over the trade agreement that would secure our borders for another decade.

"It seems equitable, Luna Sabrina," Marcus grunted, finally signing. "Your husband is a lucky man to have a mate with such a sharp mind."

"Luck has nothing to do with it, Alpha," I replied smoothly, organizing the documents. My hand instinctively brushed my flat stomach. I hadn't told Lorenzo yet. I wanted to surprise him tonight after the treaty was signed. A pup. Finally.

The heavy oak doors swung open, interrupting my thoughts. Kehlani Grant, Alpha Marcus’s daughter, sauntered in. She was beautiful in a superficial way, all blonde curls and polished ambition, but her presence usually annoyed me. Today, however, it froze me in place.

"Daddy, look," she chirped, waving a diamond bracelet that caught the light. "My mystery Alpha sent it."

As she breezed past me to sit on the edge of her father's desk, the air shifted. Her usual scent—a cloying, artificial vanilla—was there, but underneath it lay something else. Something rich, earthy, and terrifyingly familiar.

Cedarwood and rain.

My wolf, Sasha, bristled instantly. *That is our mate's scent.*

I stopped breathing for a second. Lorenzo? No. Lorenzo was at our pack house, miles away, managing the warriors. But the scent was fresh, clinging to Kehlani’s skin like a second layer of perfume.

"Kehlani," I said, my voice steady despite the ice spreading in my chest. "That is a lovely gift. Who is this mystery suitor?"

She smirked, her eyes glinting with a malice I hadn’t noticed before. "Oh, someone very powerful, Luna Sabrina. He’s building me a palace, actually. Says I deserve a throne, not just a pack house."

She hopped off the desk, and a folded piece of paper slipped from her designer purse, fluttering to the floor near my foot. She didn't notice. She was too busy preening for her father.

When she left, I dropped my pen. Bending to retrieve it, I palmed the paper. It was a contractor’s invoice. *Luxe Construction.* The coordinates pointed to a plot of land in the neutral territory between our packs.

My heart hammered against my ribs. I finished the meeting on autopilot, my diplomatic mask firmly in place, but inside, I was screaming.

I didn't go home. I drove to the coordinates.

The structure rising from the forest floor was not a house; it was a fortress of glass and stone, modern and obscenely expensive. I parked my modest sedan and walked toward the open front doors. The contractors were on lunch break, leaving the site silent.

I walked through the grand foyer, my heels clicking on marble that I recognized. It was the same imported Italian stone I had wanted for the pack hospital renovation—the renovation Lorenzo had claimed we couldn't afford.

I climbed the floating staircase, drawn by a sick intuition. The master suite was already furnished. A massive bed sat in the center of the room, draped in silk. But it was the painting above the fireplace that brought me to my knees.

It was an oil painting. Lorenzo, looking strong and regal, with his hand resting possessively on the shoulder of a seated woman.

Kehlani.

The brass plaque on the frame read: *Alpha Lorenzo and his True Luna.*

The world tilted. Ten years. Ten years of building his pack, managing his alliances, warming his bed, and waiting for a child. And he was building a shrine to another woman with our money.

Sasha howled in my mind, a sound of pure agony, but I shoved the pain down. I needed answers. Now.

I drove back to the Shadow Moon territory at breakneck speed. The guards at the gate waved me through, oblivious to the fact that their Luna’s life had just incinerated.

I stormed into the pack house. The scent was stronger here. Vanilla and cedarwood. It led straight to Lorenzo's office.

I didn't knock. I threw the double doors open so hard they banged against the walls.

They were there. Lorenzo was sitting in his leather chair, and Kehlani was straddling his lap, her fingers tangled in his hair. They didn't jump apart. They didn't look ashamed.

Lorenzo looked up, his eyes cold and annoyed, as if I were a maid interrupting a private meeting.

"Get off him," I said, my voice low and trembling with suppressed rage.

Kehlani giggled, sliding off his lap slowly, smoothing her skirt. "I told you she'd find out eventually, Ren."

"Lorenzo," I choked out, holding up the crumpled invoice. "The house. The accounts. The painting. How could you?"

He stood up, adjusting his cuffs. He looked at me with a detached, bored expression that hurt more than hatred. "Sabrina. Stop the theatrics. You’re embarrassing yourself."

"Embarrassing myself?" I stepped forward, tossing the paper onto his desk. "I am your mate! I have served this pack for a decade!"

"You have served as a business partner," Lorenzo sneered, walking around the desk to stand beside Kehlani. He wrapped an arm around her waist. "Look at you. You’re stiff. Political. Cold. You manage the pack like a corporation. Kehlani... she is what a wolf needs. She is fire. She is my destiny."

"I am pregnant," I wanted to scream. But the words stuck in my throat. I wouldn't give him that ammunition. Not while he held her.

"I want you out of the Luna suite by tonight," Lorenzo said casually, as if discussing the weather. "Kehlani will be moving in."

"You can't do that," I whispered. "The pack loves me. The Elders—"

"The Elders listen to their Alpha!" Lorenzo’s voice boomed, utilizing the Alpha tone that forced my wolf to whimper in submission. He stepped closer, towering over me. "Let’s make this simple, Sabrina. You are not my true mate. I settled for you because you were useful. You aren't anymore."

He leaned down, his face inches from mine. I could smell her on his breath.

"Step down voluntarily," he hissed. "Accept the rank of Omega. You can clean the floors and stay in the servant's quarters. If you refuse, I will strip the title from you by force, and I will make sure you are left with nothing. Choose."