The Rejected White Wolf and Her Lycan King

On our third anniversary, I went to the Pack Registry to submit a design portfolio, hoping to surprise my husband.

The clerk looked at me with pity and whispered, "Honey, the system won't let me. Your Mate Bond was severed three years ago."

I stared at the screen in horror. Not only had Alpha Bennet quietly rejected me, but he had also registered a "Companion Contract" with Gianna—my former best friend who had maimed my right hand in an "accident."

I tracked them to the Sacred Lake. Hidden behind a tree, I heard Bennet laugh.

"I love that she's helpless," he told Gianna, pushing her on the swing he built for me. "I love that she can't Shift or draw. It makes me feel like a god."

He wasn't protecting me; he was clipping my wings to keep me in a cage.

When Gianna later framed me as a Rogue intruder, Bennet didn't recognize me in the dark. He whipped me five times with a silver lash, savoring every scream, unaware he was flaying his own wife.

He thought he had broken me. He thought I would die in that basement.

Instead, I severed the bond myself and vanished across the ocean.

One year later, I returned to Paris as a renowned architect with a mechanical arm and the Lycan King by my side.

When Bennet saw me and fell to his knees begging for a second chance, I simply turned my back and revealed the scars he gave me to the cameras.

"You didn't love me, Bennet. You only loved my pain."

Chapter 1

Harper POV:

The fluorescent lights of the Pack Registry office buzzed overhead, a low-frequency hum that drilled straight into my migraine. I sat on the hard plastic chair, my left hand white-knuckled around my handbag. My right hand—or the ruin that remained of it—was buried deep in my coat pocket.

"Name?" the clerk asked. She was a middle-aged Beta, smelling of stale coffee and indifference.

"Harper Cline," I said. "I need to update my biometrics. I'm submitting a portfolio for the Royal Moon architectural bid."

The clerk typed, her gum snapping softly. Then her fingers stopped. She squinted at the terminal, then up at me. The boredom in her eyes curdled into pity.

"Luna Harper," she whispered. "Honey, the system won't let me."

"Why not?"

"It says here... your status is restricted. Your Mate Bond was severed three years ago."

The floor seemed to tilt. "That's impossible. I am the Mate of Alpha Bennet Crosby. Today is our third anniversary."

The clerk turned the screen. The text glowed in aggressive red: STATUS: BOND SEVERED. INITIATED BY ALPHA BENNET CROSBY.

Below it, a secondary entry burned into my retinas. On that same date, a "Companion Contract" had been filed.

Name: Gianna Skinner.

My breath hitched. Gianna. My former best friend. The woman who handed me the silver-laced drink the night of the "accident." The woman Bennet swore he'd locked in the dungeon for maiming me.

"He told me she was exiled," I whispered.

"System doesn't lie," the clerk said softly. "Gianna Skinner is listed as a resident of the Alpha's private estate. East Wing."

Just then, a voice echoed in my skull. Sickeningly sweet. The Mind-Link.

Happy Anniversary, my little bird. I have a surprise. Meet me at the Sacred Lake. I love you.

Bennet. His voice used to make my wolf purr. Now, staring at the screen that documented his betrayal, my inner wolf let out a low, mournful keening.

"Thank you," I told the clerk, my voice hollow. "Don't tell him I was here."

I drove to the Sacred Lake, a secluded spot in Blackwood territory. I didn't walk to the dock. I parked a mile out and crept through the treeline, keeping downwind.

Laughter drifted through the pines.

I crouched behind a massive oak. There, on the swing Bennet had built for me, sat Gianna.

She looked radiant. Not a prisoner. A queen.

Bennet stood behind her, pushing the swing. He looked at her with a hunger he hadn't shown me in years.

"Bennet, stop!" Gianna giggled. "What about the cripple? Isn't she waiting for her anniversary dinner?"

I flinched.

Bennet chuckled, a dark rumble. "Let her wait. Where is she going to go? Without me, she's just a broken thing. A bird with no wings."

"Do you love her?" Gianna asked, dragging her heels to stop the swing.

"I love that she's helpless," Bennet said, leaning down to kiss her neck. "I love that she can't Shift. She can't run. She is completely dependent on my protection. It makes me feel... like a god."

He pulled a velvet box from his pocket. A diamond necklace shimmered with protective blue magic.

"For you," he said. "To keep you safe while I play house with the invalid."

Gianna squealed, throwing her arms around him. The scent of her perfume—synthetic lilacs masking the musk of her wolf—drifted on the breeze.

My knees hit the dirt. I clutched my chest. The pain wasn't physical; it was the shattering of a reality I had desperately clung to.

He didn't love me. He loved my brokenness.

Mind-Link blocked.

I slammed a mental wall up. For the first time in three years, the sorrow in my gut turned into something hot and jagged.

Rage.

I looked down at my gloved right hand. I couldn't draw with it. I couldn't Shift. But I was Harper Cline, the architect who designed the pack's headquarters before my life was stolen.

I would win that competition. I would go to the Royal Moon Pack. And I would burn this false life to the ground.