[Mallory's POV]

"Let me go!" I screamed as my stepmother dragged me by my left wrist and pulled me out of my room.

I was naked, and yet she didn't care. She wanted to report me to my father.

"Leave me alone!" I bit her right hand with force, and she flinched and let go. I ran back into my bedroom to get dressed as fast as I could.

"Mallory! Mallory!" She banged on my room door, and I knew I would be reported.

It was 1 a.m. I looked at the door and went to pull it open after I finished dressing. I donned a short red dress that fell past my knees.

However, as I unlocked the door, my father, Alpha Bruce Adonis, stood there and smacked me across the face the moment I opened it.

"What were you doing in here? And why does this place smell of sex? Who was he?" Dad walked into my room, grabbed my bedsheets, and sniffed them angrily.

"Tell me, Mallory! Who did you mate with?" My father demanded. He stared at me with disappointment.

"Dad, I wasn't mating with anyone," I lied, lowering my gaze.

My father marched up to me angrily and grabbed my left arm.

"Mallory, I made a promise to your mother that I would protect you, and yet you couldn't wait to find your real mate. You foolishly slept with someone. Speak now! If I find out from the camera who you slept with, you will both be banished!" My father threatened, his blue eyes narrowing at me.

I didn't want Ace Lennox to be banished. He was the pack's future Alpha since my father has no son. Ace was very skilled in combat and fought well. He had defeated some packs that wanted to destroy ours.

I looked away from my father's face, hesitating to tell him who I had slept with.

"Speak now! Or forever remain silent!" my father threatened as he adjusted his black garment.

My stepsister Sonia came in, dressed in a white nightgown that shimmered because she always made sure to buy the best quality dresses.

"Dad, Ace and I did it," I announced.

My father's eyes widened in shock, before he glared at me.

"You are lying about Ace. Why couldn't I detect his scent here? Has it gotten to the point where you have to lie about Ace Lennox?" My father yelled, and I lowered my head.

"Dad, Ace is the one who came here to meet me," I told him.

He yelled at me. "Shut up! I am going to ask you for the last time. Who did you mate with?"

"It was Ace Lennox. He was here. He left through the window," I said.

My father went to the window and looked out.

"Ace cannot fly from this window because we're on the second floor. I see you don't want to tell me who the man you slept with was. As much as you don't have any scent, Ace has a scent of pinewood. You think I don't know what my fellow pack members smell like, much less the future leader of my pack?" Dad said to me angrily.

Sonia cried. "Mallory is lying, Father. Let us call Ace and ask him. She wants to force him to become her mate just because she sees us together."

Even though Sonia was taller than me and believed she would become the next Luna, I was her older sister.

"I am not lying. Ace was here, and he slept with me. Maybe he used a scent suppressant," I said.

My stepmother walked into my room and smacked me very hard across my left cheek.

"Shut up, Mallory! I cannot continue to stand and watch you slander the pack's future. Honey, Mallory needs to be punished, so that she can learn her lesson. Maybe it's because she knows Sonia is bound to become the future Luna and marry Ace. She wants to destroy their future together," Luna Lily stated, as she looked at my father's face.

"Honey, if you cannot punish Mallory, allow me to punish her. She is only worthless and of no value in this pack," Luna Lily added.

My father stood there silently.

"Guards! Take Mallory downstairs, and Sonia, call on Ace. He needs to answer to Mallory's accusations before I decide on her punishment," my father stated, as he walked away from the room angrily.

"Father, I am not lying. Ace and I are true mates! You all have to believe me!" I cried as my stepmother ordered the guards to drag me out of my room. I was taken downstairs to the first floor.

The guards forced me to kneel, while my father waited for Ace's arrival.

A few minutes later, Ace walked into the grand foyer looking like he had just taken a bath. His brown hair was wet, and he wore a yellow shirt and black shorts. He was very tall, and he looked from me to my parents.

"Greetings, Alpha Bruce. You sent for me," Ace bowed before my father, who stood at the Alpha's chair.

"Yes, Ace Lennox. I need you to tell me the truth before I decide on your punishment with my first daughter. You should know that lying to your Alpha warrants banishment. I hope you are aware," my father stated, staring at Ace angrily.

"Yes, Alpha Bruce," Ace replied with a bow of his head, avoiding looking at me.

His parents rushed into the hall to find out what was happening.

[Mallory's POV]

"Good evening, Alpha and Luna. We saw Sonia arrive and summon Ace. What's the matter?" Ace's father, Beta Andrew, asked.

My father looked at his Beta and sighed.

"Mallory accused Ace of sleeping with her in her room. Is that true, Ace?" My father demanded, and Ace's parents gasped.

"What? Ace, tell me it's not true," his mother, Lady Fiona, asked him.

Ace looked away from his parents, his fist clenched as he looked at me.

"Say something, Ace, and know that you cannot lie to Alpha Bruce. Did you touch Mallory? You know she's a useless she-wolf. She has no wolf, no scent, and seems like an ordinary human. How can you mate with a curse like her?" Ace's father queried him, and my fist clenched.

"I am not a curse!" I screamed aloud, as I hated it whenever they called me that.

"Shut up, Mallory! You killed your mother! Because of you, Ex Luna Comfort died on the hospital bed. What else do you want to do? Ruin our pack and my son's life?" Beta Andrew queried me, as he glared at me.

"I did not kill my mother. I did not ask to be born without a wolf or to be different from others. I never asked for any of it. I did not ask Ace to come into my room and slept with me. I am not the one who created myself, but the result of what my father gave my mother!" I screamed and cried, and Beta Andrew wanted to attack me on the ground where I knelt. But my father stopped him.

"That's enough, Andrew. It's not Mallory's fault that she was born differently, but what I want to know tonight is if Ace is the man who mated with my first daughter," my father demanded, his voice stern, and the large hall fell silent as all eyes shifted to look at Ace.

Ace lowered his gaze and replied, "Yes, Alpha Bruce."

"What?" Everyone in the hall gasped, including the guards who respected Ace, and they looked at him with disappointment.

I felt sorry for Ace, because of me, he was going to get banished or lose his future position as our next Alpha leader.

"Why, Ace?" his mother asked him tearfully. "Among all the beautiful she-wolves in our pack, why would you choose to sleep with Mallory? Why?" She sobbed, rushing to grab Ace by his shirt.

"Why, Ace? Why would you do this to me? I thought you loved me?" Sonia sobbed, clutching her mother's arm for support as tears poured out of her eyes.

Ace lowered his head and confessed, "Mallory is my real mate, and I cannot resist her. Forgive me, Alpha Bruce. But if you want me to reject her, I will do it. Please forgive me. I cannot fight the mating bond between us. Please..."

Ace dropped down on his knees before my father, who stood there silently, looking at us.

"Ace..." My father hissed, his voice filled with anger and disappointment.

"You disappointed me. Why didn't you reject Mallory when you found out she was your real mate? How can you be attracted to her when she has no scent or wolf?" My father asked Ace angrily, and everyone looked at him to answer.

Ace lowered his head and replied, "I blame the moon goddess, Alpha Bruce. Mallory is beautiful in my eyes, and she scents like jasmine. I don't know why others cannot perceive her scent. But she has a lovely scent, and I can smell her."

"Shut up!" My father thundered, as his cold voice boomed in the living room.

"I see that you are beginning to lose yourself because of Mallory. I will overlook your sins for tonight because you have shown your worth and that you can lead this pack well. And you have never been defeated in any battles before. But you must reject Mallory as your real mate. I shall not have you become mated with my first daughter, and Mallory shall be expelled from this pack. Failure to do so, then you will be expelled with her too. As I cannot risk putting all our pack members' lives in danger," my father concluded, and tears welled in my eyes.

"No, Father. You cannot force me to reject my mate. It's my birthday. I cannot reject Ace!" I cried, as I loved and wanted Ace too.

"Shut up, Mallory, before I cut off your tongue! You better get ready to accept Ace's rejection unless you want me to do what I ought to do after you killed my mate!" My father accused me, and I looked at him with tears in my eyes.

"I didn't kill Mom. The moon goddess knows that I am innocent. Someone else killed Mom so that she doesn't rule them as your Luna, and not me. How can I do such?" I asked my father, but he marched up to meet me and grabbed my long blonde hair.

"One more word from you, and I will snap your head off from your neck. Go on, Ace," my father let go and looked away from my face because I resemble my mother.

Dad hated to look at my face. He believes I was the one who killed his beloved late mate.

"Please don't do this, Ace," I tried to mind-link him not to reject me, but I knew that he had the entire pack to protect and look after.

"Ace..." I cried, not wanting him to reject me, and he closed his eyes and said those hurtful rejecting words.

"I'm sorry, Mallory. I, Ace Lennox, the Beta's son of the Bright Moon Pack, reject you, Mallory Adonis, as my mate," Ace said, and my heart burned from the pain of his rejection.

"Accept his rejection, Mallory," my father forced me, and I knew he was not joking about killing me.

With tears in my eyes, I shut them and accepted, "I, Mallory Adonis, accept your rejection, Ace."

As I said those painful words, I fainted.