“I, Asher Stormrider, Alpha of Crimson Fang, reject you, Diana Nightshade, as my luna.”
The words struck like a blade forged from ice and fire.
For a heartbeat, the world did not exist. The bonfire crackled somewhere far away. The murmurs of the pack faded into a dull, ringing void. Then the pain came—violent, consuming, merciless.
It tore through Diana’s chest as though invisible claws were shredding her from the inside. Her knees buckled, breath leaving her lungs in a broken gasp. It felt as if her soul were being ripped from her body, dragged out through her heart inch by agonizing inch. She clutched at her chest, fingers trembling, nails biting into fabric as tears burned behind her eyes.
No pain—no wound, no broken bone, no punishment she had ever endured—compared to this.
She would not wish this on her worst enemy.
“Why…?” The word slipped from her lips, barely more than a whisper.
This was supposed to be her night. Her eighteenth birthday. The night she would celebrate with her pack, surrounded by warmth and laughter, waiting for the moment her wolf would step forward under the full moon. The disappointment of midnight passing without a shift had already weighed heavily on her heart, but that pain was nothing compared to this.
Nothing compared to finding her mate…
And losing him in the same breath.
Asher Stormrider stood before her, tall and unyielding, his alpha presence filling the clearing like a storm cloud. His expression was cold, distant—calculating. Not once did he reach for her. Not once did his eyes soften.
“I cannot have a wolfless for a mate,” Ash said, his voice carrying easily through the silent crowd. “A luna must be strong. She must be able to protect the pack in my absence. How can you protect anyone when you do not even have a wolf?”
The words were not shouted. They were calm. Measured.
And infinitely cruel.
“I am not wolfless,” Diana choked out, forcing herself to stand upright despite the pain tearing through her. “I can hear her. She’s here. She said it’s just not time yet. Please…” Her voice cracked as desperation seeped in. “You are my mate.”
The bond screamed in protest between them, wild and frantic, like a living thing refusing to die quietly.
“Do not make this more difficult, Diana,” Asher’s jaw tightened. “Accept the rejection. If you fight it, the pain will not stop.”
Diana turned slowly, her gaze sweeping across the gathered pack—faces she had known her entire life. Wolves she had laughed with, trained beside, trusted.
One by one, they looked away. Some shifted uncomfortably. Some stared at the ground. Some wore expressions of pity thinly veiled with judgment.
So this is what they think of me, she realized.
Weak.
A burden.
A luna was unworthy because they believed she had no wolf.
Her chest tightened further, grief piling atop humiliation. They cannot scent her, Diana realized bitterly. Artemis is hiding herself.
Her parents broke through the stunned stillness then. Her mother’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, trembling but fierce, as if she could shield her daughter from the entire world through sheer will alone. Her father stood in front of her, shoulders squared, eyes blazing with fury as he glared at the alpha.
But they were only pack members.
Her mother is a helper in the pack kitchen.
Her father is a guard in the dungeon.
And Diana knew nothing they said would matter.
'It’s better this way,' a familiar voice murmured gently in her mind.
Artemis.
Diana swallowed hard.
'Why?' She asked silently, pain and confusion flooding her thoughts. 'Why won’t you let them know you’re here?'
'Because it is not time,' Artemis answered calmly. 'No one should know who we truly are.'
The wolf’s presence was strong, steady—nothing like the weakness everyone believed her to be. Artemis had been with Diana since she was twelve. She remembered her first shift at thirteen. She remembered the power, the control, the strength. She remembered everything.
'They will never scent me,' Artemis continued. 'I can hide myself. That is why they think you are wolfless. And that belief will protect us… for now.'
Diana’s heart clenched. 'But he’s our mate.'
'Our real mate will accept us,' Artemis said firmly. 'He will not see us as less. He will stand beside us, not above us.'
A slow, burning resolve began to take root beneath the pain.
'We do not need this pack,' Artemis went on. 'Only our family. We will grow stronger. Strong enough to stand beside the one who truly deserves us.'
The wolf retreated then, slipping deeper into Diana’s mind, leaving behind not weakness, but steel.
Diana straightened.
The pain still throbbed in her chest, but she no longer let it bend her spine.
She lifted her chin and met Alpha Asher Stormrider’s gaze head-on. Her eyes were wet, red-rimmed, but they burned with determination.
“I, Diana Nightshade, accept your rejection,” she said clearly, her voice steady despite the storm raging inside her. “I accept your rejection to be your mate and luna, Alpha Asher Stormrider of Crimson Fang. From this day forward, our mate bond is severed.”
The bond snapped.
Asher staggered back, a sharp gasp tearing from his throat as his hand flew to his chest. His eyes widened in shock—pain flashing across his face before he could mask it.
He hadn’t expected that.
He hadn’t believed it would hurt this much.
Diana watched him for a brief moment, watched the realization sink in, then turned away.
Her parents wrapped her in their arms once more, holding her as though she were still a child they could protect from the world. Diana clung to them, whispering that she needed to leave, that she needed to go back to their cabin and be alone for a while.
They nodded, silent tears slipping free as they escorted her away.
The moment she was out of sight—out of judgment, out of whispered speculation—Diana broke. Her tears came hard and fast, sobs wracking her body as she stumbled through the trees. She let the pain consume her, let the humiliation carve itself into memory.
Tonight, she would fall apart.
She would mourn the mate she lost before she ever truly had him. She would remember every face that turned away.
And tomorrow—
Tomorrow, she would rise.
She would train harder than anyone in Crimson Fang. She would hone her human body until it was unbreakable. She would fight, bleed, and endure until no one could ever call her weak again.
She would train her wolf in silence.
She would become unstoppable.
And one day—one day—this pack would regret believing she was nothing.
Because Diana Nightshade and her Artemis were not weak.
And when her true mate came, she would be strong enough to stand beside him as an equal.
Aksara