Everyone in Bloodpine Pack thinks I'm weak.
The quiet girl.
The overlooked one.
The wolf who listens more than she speaks.
They think silence means fear. They don't know silence means control.
I was gathering herbs behind the packhouse when the pain hit—white-hot and burning, rushing through my chest like wildfire.
My breath caught.
My wolf lifted her head for the first time in years.
Mate.
Wolves around the training field lifted their noses.
"Someone just found their mate."
"Who is it?"
"Where is that coming from?"
The bond pulled me forward.
I stepped into the clearing.
And froze.
Alpha Kael Draven.
The future Alpha. Strong. Respected. Untouchable.
He turned toward me like gravity dragged him.
His eyes flashed gold.
His wolf whispered through the bond:
"Mate."
My heart stopped.
Lila—my beautiful cousin—grabbed his arm possessively. "Oh, don't be ridiculous," she scoffed, stepping in front of him. "Kael, no. Not her."
Kael didn't speak. He just stared at me—at the girl he never looked at twice.
The crowd whispered:
"Aria? She can't be the Luna."
"She's too quiet."
"She never shifts."
"Why would the Goddess match him with her?"
Kael's jaw clenched.
"Aria Hale," he said, voice tight, "this cannot be right."
I swallowed hard. "I didn't choose it."
Lila flicked her hair. "Then do the obvious thing."
Kael inhaled deeply, the muscles in his jaw locking. Then he spoke the words that would shatter everything. His voice rang across the training grounds, perfectly clear, perfectly formal.
"Aria Hale of Bloodpine Pack, I, Alpha Kael Draven, son of Alpha Garrick Draven, reject you as my mate and future Luna."
Gasps.
Whispers.
My chest burned as the bond cracked, ripping through me like claws.
My wolf whimpered.
But I didn't let the pain show.
I stood straighter.
The air around me shifted—subtle, ancient, unnoticed by most but felt by the few whose wolves were sensitive.
Kael waited, expecting tears.
Expecting silence.
Instead, I met his eyes.
My voice was soft, calm, and painfully controlled as I answered with the proper ritual words:
"I, Aria Hale, daughter of Maren Hale, accept your rejection."
A shockwave pulsed between us—clean, sharp, final.
Kael staggered back half a step.
Lila blinked. "W-what was that?"
Kael's wolf snarled inside him, unsettled.
I bowed my head once. "May the Moon Goddess witness it."
That was the tradition.
And the ending.
Kael took a step toward me, confusion cracking through his confidence.
"Aria… something just happened. That wasn't normal."
I took a step back.
"It wasn't your problem to understand," I said softly.
"Aria—"
I turned and walked away before he could finish.
My wolf didn't cry.
She didn't break.
She rose.
And Kael Draven had no idea the Luna he threw away was the one the Moon Goddess had chosen for a purpose far greater than him.