Rejected by My Alpha, Crowned as the Queen

I was the Luna of the Pack, bonded to my Alpha mate, Jaxon, for five years. But tonight, he brought another woman into our suite.

He claimed Elara was a pure Omega who needed protection. To please her, he used his Alpha Command to force me to my knees and watched coldly as she framed me for attacking her. When I miscarried his pup from the impact of his violent shove, his eyes held nothing but disgust.

"Let her sit there and bleed. Maybe it'll teach her some respect."

The nightmare didn't end there. Elara deliberately unplugged my comatose adoptive mother's life support. When I lunged at the murderer, Jaxon grabbed a glowing red-hot metal wand and seared my scent gland off completely, destroying my identity to protect his new obsession. He forced me to sign a Rejection contract and threw my bleeding body into the freezing woods.

I couldn't understand how the boy who once swore to the Moon Goddess to protect me had become such a cruel, blind tyrant. I gave him my soul, only to be discarded for a manipulative liar.

But Jaxon didn't know the truth about my bloodline.

When he showed up at the underground auction to publicly humiliate me, he didn't expect the legendary Alpha King to step forward and crush his entire pack's pride with a single breath.

Because I wasn't a lowly, abandoned Omega. I was the King's biological daughter, and it was time to take my throne.

Chapter 1

Selena POV

The memory of my mating ceremony was a taste of ash on my tongue.

I still remembered the precise moment Jaxon claimed me, his teeth piercing the sensitive skin of my neck to leave their permanent mark.

A profound warmth had bloomed from the wound then, spreading through my veins and silencing a restlessness I had never known I carried. We had found our safe harbor.

But tonight, that harbor was burning to the ground.

The full moon hung heavy in the sky, its raw lunar energy making every wolf in the Pack restless. I hurried down the grand hallway of the Pack house, gripping a glass vial of blue medical suppressant. It was for Elara. She was burning with an uncontrollable heat, her body practically oozing a cloying berry sweetness, thick as fermented syrup, that coated my throat and made my stomach clench.

I paused outside the heavy oak doors of the Alpha suite. They were cracked open, hushed voices drifting into the corridor.

"Did you really let those Rogues attack her last year just to break her pride?" Elara murmured, her breathy voice dripping with manufactured innocence.

"She has far too much pride for a low-ranking Omega," Jaxon replied. The callousness in his voice was a physical thing, a shard of ice lodging itself beneath my ribs. "She needs to learn her place. Once her spirit breaks, she'll fall in line and accept a shared mate dynamic."

The air was stolen from my lungs. My inner wolf whimpered, curling into a tight ball as the sacred mate bond connecting my soul to his began to fray, a sensation akin to having my sinews methodically unraveled.

*Five years. Five years I had endured his coldness, believing the boy who once gave me his last piece of meat in winter was still somewhere inside him. But that boy was gone. And I was done waiting for him to return. *

I closed my eyes, reaching into a mental frequency I had kept buried for five long years.

*The frequency my true father had given me the night before my mating ceremony, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "This bond-mark will only activate when you willingly surrender your pride and call for me, little one. I will not steal your choices from you—even to save you from your own stubborn heart." I had never used it. Not when Jaxon first raised his voice. Not when he first looked at another woman. I had believed I could fix him. I had been a fool. *

I surrender. Take me home.

A deep, commanding voice replied instantly, vibrating against my skull. Arriving in three days.

*Three days. I just had to survive three more days in this house of monsters. Then I would burn every bridge and never look back. *

I shoved the heavy doors open. Jaxon spun around, a flicker of genuine shock crossing his features before he instinctively stepped in front of Elara, using his broad shoulders to shield her. Peeking out from behind him, Elara flashed me a wicked smirk and deliberately flared her sweet, cloying scent to provoke me.

"I was just helping the Alpha calm his nerves," Elara cooed.

"Someone slipped silver powder into my drink," Jaxon lied without missing a beat. "She was helping me sweat out the poison."

Bile coated the back of my throat. I stepped forward and shoved my hands hard against his chest. Jaxon's eyes flashed with dark fury. He squared his jaw, his voice dropping into the irresistible, bone-crushing resonance of the Alpha's Command.

"Stand down, Selena!"

A pressure that commanded obedience on a cellular level crashed over me. The Alpha's command severed the link between my will and my limbs; the muscles in my calves went slack, and my kneecaps struck the hardwood with a sound that vibrated up into my teeth.

"Don't act crazy," Jaxon growled, glaring down at me. "You were attacked by Rogues, and I took you back in. We're even."

He actually had the nerve to promise that once he was done playing his games with Elara, I could go back to being his Luna. My soul flatlined. Tears spilled hot over my eyelashes as I gave a slow, numb nod.

Elara stepped out, brazenly rubbing her cheek against his shoulder to mix her cheap scent with his pine aroma.

"You're a snake," I whispered, staring dead into her eyes. "I taught you how to track rabbits when you were freezing and starving."

"Watch your mouth," Jaxon snapped. "She comes from nothing. She's simple and pure."

Right on cue, Elara gasped, forcing crocodile tears to her eyes. She suddenly lunged, grabbing my paralyzed hand and violently yanking it against her own face. My fingernails dragged across her cheek, leaving a thin red scratch.

"Alpha, it hurts!" she shrieked.

Jaxon let out a furious roar. Before I could even blink, he shoved me backward with the full, devastating force of his werewolf strength. I flew through the air, my lower back striking the sharp corner of the stone hearth of the fireplace.

A sickening pop echoed through the suite.

A split second later, a warm, wet sensation rushed down my thighs, followed by the heavy, suffocating scent of fresh blood.

*I pressed my hand against my stomach, and when I pulled it back, my palm was painted crimson. The life that had been growing inside me—the pup I had not yet told him about—was slipping away. And Jaxon was already walking out the door. *