Chapter 1

SERENA POV

“I want nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with you.” I said coldly. “I withdraw and dismiss any bond or relationship between us. May the Goddess bear witness as I, Serena Blackwood, daughter of Alpha Asher Blackwood of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject Jayden as my mate and sever a bond that was never meant to be.”

The moment the words left my mouth, something inside me cracked, sharp and irreversible. My chest tightened, breath catching painfully as if my body itself rejected what I had done.

Artemis stirred violently inside me, her distress bleeding into my own emotions. I was human enough to understand why I was doing this. Wolf enough to feel that I had just committed an unforgivable act.

The mate bond didn’t shatter completely, it didn’t feel gone. It felt like it was being buried deep inside my chest, locked somewhere I couldn’t reach. Artemis, my wolf, cried out in protest, clawing at the walls of my mind.

“You're rejecting our bond?” Jayden asked, disbelievingly twisting his features. His eyes began to glow faintly golden, Zion, his wolf, pushing to the surface. I felt it immediately, the shift in him. Not dramatic, not violent, but unmistakable. Zion’s presence pressed against my senses, raw and restrained.

Artemis rose in response, alert and tense, recognizing him the way only a mate could. For a moment, everything else faded. It was just instinct meeting instinct.

“Yes.” My voice was calm, steady, even though agony was tearing me apart. “I want nothing to do with you. You’re nothing but a weak, unranked wolf.”

The lie burned as it left my mouth. Artemis snarled in protest, furious and wounded. Rank meant nothing to us. Power was presence, resilience, survival.

And Jayden had always carried himself with quiet strength, even when the world refused to see it. My instincts recoiled, even as my mind forced the words forward.

Jayden flinched as if I slapped him.

“So that’s it?” he asked quietly. “You’re rejecting the bond the goddess herself gave us, because of my status?”

“Exactly.” I lifted my chin, pretending the words didn’t taste like poison. “I’m an Alpha’s daughter. Someone important. And you? You’re just a rogue who can’t even shift. You came to our pack begging for protection. Do you really think I would mate with you?”

“Serena…” His voice cracked, raw and pained. “We’ve been so good together. Since the moment we found out we were mates, you’ve treated me well. You even said you wanted to take me to your parents tonight and tell them about us. Please, stop. If this is a joke, it’s going too far.”

A memory flashed before my eyes, so sharp, so warm, it cut deeper than the rejection itself.

I remembered the first day Jayden saw me. How his eyes widened, how he froze as if the moon itself had landed in front of him.

He looked shocked, but happy, a quiet kind of happy. I could never forget that day

Another memory followed, soft and painful.

Jayden stood outside the training grounds, sweat dripping down his neck, breathing hard from intense drills he forced himself through even though he couldn’t shift.

In his hands was a small crumpled paper bag.

Inside it, moon cakes. My favorite. He had saved up for them. He always saved up for them.

“Thought you might be hungry,”

he had said, smiling shyly, like he was offering me the entire world wrapped in that tiny paper bag.

There was the time we almost kissed.

When our faces were inches apart, breath mingling, everything around us silent except our pounding hearts.

But we pulled back before our lips touched, laughing awkwardly, pretending the moment wasn’t real.

Those moments were the happiest parts of my life, small, gentle, and real.

I should have realized then how deeply he loved me.

How completely.

But I shoved the memories away before they softened my resolve. Before they made me crumble.

I pushed them down, deep, until they burned against my chest.

Because even despite knowing we could never be together. I still gave him hope.

Hope I should have never offered.

Hope I knew, could never lead anywhere.

“Oh, you mean that relationship?” I forced a cold laugh. “It was nothing serious. I was just curious how mate bonds felt. Everyone praises how wonderful it is to be with your destined one. Now I’ve felt it, and I’m done. It’s over.”

Artemis whimpered loudly in my mind. “Stop, Serena, please. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to him. You are hurting us”

Pain spread through my chest, sharp and suffocating. My hands curled into fists, nails biting into my palms as my body reacted before my mind could stop it.

This wasn’t just emotional. Rejecting a mate tore through both sides of me, human heartbreak and wolf agony colliding violently.

I ignored her. If I didn’t, I would break.

“Look at yourself,” I said harshly. “You’re a nobody. No rank. No name. No house, no title, no position in the werewolf kingdom. You mean nothing.” I said cruelly despite loving him. God, I loved him so much.”

“And you expect me, the first daughter of an Alpha, future Alpha of this pack to mate with you? That’s impossible. I need someone worthy. Someone who can stand beside me. Someone powerful.”

“Serena, stop! It's enough” Artemis roared, her claws scraping at the edges of my consciousness as she tried to push through.

My knees trembled. A sharp, burning pain cut through my chest as if my ribs were being forced open. Artemis was fighting me, for control, fighting for him.

“We need him,” she growled. “He’s ours.”

“No,” I whispered fiercely. “He’s not enough.”

She whimpered, curling back, but the ache she left behind almost brought me to my knees.

“Serena, please don’t do this. I’m willing to do anything to make our bond work.” Jayden’s voice trembled. He wasn’t even hiding the desperation anymore.

Jayden straightened slowly. His expression hardened, something shifting behind his eyes, something sharp and unfamiliar.

“Fine,” he said quietly. “I won’t beg you.” His voice turned cold, a tone I had never heard from him before. “I didn’t expect you to be this kind of person, Serena. I truly didn’t.”

His gaze locked into mine, and for a moment, something powerful pulsed from him, like a dormant storm awakening.

“I, Jayden Silvermoon, accept your rejection.”

Something shifted instantly. The bond didn’t scream or explode, it collapsed inward, sudden and devastating.

Artemis cried out, her grief slamming into me so hard my vision blurred. Acceptance made it real. Final. There was no going back from this.

The moment the words were spoken, the air around us shifted. His entire presence changed, stronger, firmer, colder. Power rolled off him in a wave, and I stumbled back, startled.

How?

Without another word, he turned away and walked deeper into the forest. I watched him, confused and terrified when I felt him sever the pack link on his own. The bond snapped sharply, the final thread breaking.

He became rogue again.

I felt the absence immediately. Jayden’s presence, once familiar at the edge of my senses, vanished completely.

Artemis went still, stunned, as if she couldn’t understand how someone could disappear so thoroughly. The silence he left behind was unbearable.

Just like that.

No approval from the Alpha.

No ritual.

No ceremony.

How did he do that?

As soon as I felt him cross the boundary of our territory, my knees gave out. I collapsed onto the forest floor, gasping for air. The pain hit me like knives, slicing through my chest and ripping at my soul.

Artemis howled inside me, broken.

And so was I.

I loved him.

God, I loved him so much.

He was the most handsome man I had ever seen, those eyes that always held secrets, that aura that never matched a simple rogue. Every part of me wanted him. I needed him.

But I didn’t have a choice.

I had to let him go.

As I knelt there on the cold ground, the ache swallowed me whole.

Artemis tensed suddenly, her grief snapping into sharp alertness. My shoulders stiffened, skin prickling as instinct surged through me. Someone else was here. Close. Watching.

A slow clap echoed behind me.

And a voice followed.

One I dreaded more than anything.

SERENA POV

“Well done, my child.”

I recognized my mother’s voice immediately.

“I knew you would never disappoint me. I raised you well enough. You always know what we want, and you always know how to satisfy us. Good job, my daughter.”

Despite the pain crushing my chest, despite the agony burning inside me, I turned around and smiled. I made myself look calm, composed, as if nothing had happened. As if my heart hadn’t just been torn apart.

“Good evening, Mother,” I said softly. “What are you and Father doing here?”

“Nothing,” she replied lightly. “We only wanted to see what you and that little mate of yours were up to.” Her lips curved into a pleased smile. “But you did well. You made us very happy today. You proved to me that I raised you properly. You never forgot our teachings.”

My stomach twisted.

“What— you know about him?” I asked, forcing surprise into my tone. “Mother, Father, trust me. I want nothing to do with him. I just rejected him. I was only playing along to see how a mate bond feels.”

Every word hurt, but I had no choice.

“We know, Serena,” my father, Alpha Asher, said calmly. “We were watching. We saw everything that happened.”

My mother nodded in approval. “And you did well by rejecting him without us having to tell you or take action ourselves. That is how an Alpha’s daughter should behave. You need someone of status. Never forget, you are meant to be with the Alpha King. That boy was nothing but a rogue.”

“Yes, Father,” I said quietly. “I know my duty. I will never forget it.”

“That’s good,” my mother said, satisfied. “We’ll be leaving now.”

They turned and walked away.

Even after they were gone, their voices carried back to me. Werewolves had heightened hearing, and unfortunately, I heard everything.

“Didn’t I tell you to relax?” my mother said proudly. “She would never defy us. I know the daughter I raised. She will always obey.”

“I know,” my father replied. “I should have trusted you. Now stop talking. Enough bragging.”

Their footsteps faded.

I sank fully onto the damp forest floor, my body trembling as if I had run for miles. My hands shook, fingers scraping the soil as I tried to anchor myself. Every heartbeat felt like a hammer striking my chest. Breathing was heavy, ragged, shallow.

I tried to stand. I really did. But my legs buckled beneath me. The forest spun, leaves blurring into streaks of green and gold. My head throbbed, splitting with every thought of him, of what I’d done.

Artemis growled in frustration inside my mind. You’re weak, Serena! Stand! Fight! He’s out there, our mate!

I shook my head, tears streaming freely. My body felt like it belonged to someone else, so fragile, so breakable. I had been told all my life that I was destined for strength, for leadership. Yet here I was, crumpled on the cold earth like a child.

A shiver ran down my spine, not from the cold but from the raw, unrelenting ache in my chest. My mind was screaming, my heart bleeding. Every instinct, every fiber of my being screamed to reach him, to call him back. But my body refused.

When I finally reopened the mental barrier I had placed between Artemis and me, her anguish poured into me like a tidal wave.

I had blocked her when my parents were there. She had wanted to take control, to fight them, to claw at them for making me have no choice but to reject our mate.

And she was right.

I rejected him because of them.

As soon as the connection reopened, Artemis surged forward, her pain crashing into mine. She howled inside me, furious and broken.

Why is my life like this?

Why are my parents like this?

Every other parent wishes for their child’s happiness. They protect them. They listen. They care.

But mine never did.

All they ever cared about was power. Position. Pack alliances. What could make the Crescent Moon Pack stronger.

To them, I am nothing but a tool. A bargaining piece. A daughter born only to be traded to the Alpha King of the Werewolf Kingdom to secure protection, favor and provide a male heir of royal blood.

Because in their eyes, I am weak.

A woman.

Someone unfit to rule or protect the pack on her own.

My dreams mean nothing to them. My feelings mean nothing. My happiness is meaningless compared to their ambition.

Is it so wrong to crave their affection? Is it wrong to want them to love me as their daughter, not as a future queen or political shield?

“You are nothing but a coward, Serena,” Artemis snapped inside me, her voice sharp with fury. “I told you to let us confront them. To challenge them. But you said no because they are our parents.”

“Yes,” I whispered brokenly. “I am a coward.”

My chest tightened, and tears streamed freely now, soaking into the earth beneath me.

“I had no choice,” I cried. “I let our mate go to protect him. I had to.”

Artemis softened, her anger turning into pain. “I know,” she said quietly. “And I didn’t mean it like that. But we can’t keep obeying them forever. Our mate was supposed to be our refuge. Our strength. The one who would complete us and make us whole.”

Her voice cracked.

“But because of them, we were forced to reject him. And it hurts. It hurts so much.”

I clutched my chest, feeling the ache pulse with every heartbeat.

“We can’t keep suffering just to be a good daughter,” Artemis continued. “To them, we aren’t really their child. We’re someone meant to follow orders. Someone who must never complain. Never resist.”

I knew she was right.

But knowing didn’t change anything.

“They’re my parents,” I whispered weakly. “What am I supposed to do?”

But the truth was already there.

They were hurting me. Breaking me. Slowly, deliberately.

The pain Artemis and I were going through was unbearable. It wrapped around my heart, crushing it, until even breathing felt difficult.

I had never known pain like this before.

Nothing hurts more than emotional pain. It seeps into every part of you. Even my body ached as if I had been beaten, even though no physical blow had been struck.

And it all started the moment I met Jayden.

The moment I laid eyes on him one week ago, I knew.

He was my mate.

I fell for him instantly. Completely. He carried an oppressive, restrained aura around him that didn’t match an ordinary rogue at all. Even without his ability to shift, his presence was powerful. Commanding. Dangerous.

He felt like someone with a past. Someone with secrets. Someone far more than what he appeared to be.

And yet, he was gentle with me.

He did everything he could to make me smile. To make me feel seen. Safe. Wanted.

That one week we spent together was the happiest time of my life.

For the first time, I forgot about my parents’ expectations. Forgot about duty. Forgot about being an Alpha’s daughter.

Artemis and Zion got along easily, like they had known each other forever. Even though Jayden couldn’t shift, his wolf was still there. Strong. Present. Connected.

Even now, I could still feel the mate bond.

It hadn’t shattered. It hadn’t disappeared.

It felt… hidden. Buried. Waiting.

I had promised to take him to my parents today.

I had been so happy. So hopeful.

Until I accidentally overheard my parents’ conversation last night.

That was when everything changed.

That was when I realized I could never choose myself.

And that was when I knew.

Loving Jayden meant losing him.

SERENA POV

I didn’t mean to hear it.

If I had known that standing still for just a few seconds longer would shatter everything I loved, I would have run. I would have covered my ears. I would have shifted and disappeared into the forest until my lungs burned and my legs gave out.

But I stayed.

And as much as it destroyed me, I am also glad I did, because hearing their plans was the only reason Jayden was still alive.

I stood frozen in the corridor outside my parents’ room, my hand hovering inches from the door. Artemis flickered alert inside me. I could hear my parents’ steady heartbeats even through the walls, smell the faint trace of their cologne, and catch the suppressed tension in the air.

Every instinct screamed danger, every fur along my spine bristled. My heart pounded so loudly I was sure they would hear it. Every breath felt shallow, forced, like my chest was being slowly crushed.

Then my name slipped from my mother’s lips.

“Serena and that rogue,” Luna Lily, my mom said calmly, almost amused. “He truly believes he belongs here.”

My breath caught painfully in my throat.

I pressed myself closer to the wall, my pulse racing wildly.

“He’s Serena’s mate,” my father replied flatly. “I’ve already confirmed it.”

Artemis rumbled low in my mind, claws scratching the edges of my thoughts. Our territory, our mate, threatened, I felt a flare of possessiveness so strong it made my chest tighten. “Stay back" I said and she hissed, fierce and warning. “He’s ours. No one touches him.”

The world tilted.

Mate.

They knew.

My legs trembled, weakness flooding through me, but I forced myself to stay upright. Every instinct screamed at me to burst into the room, to confront them, to defend him, but fear rooted me to the spot.

My muscles twitched with the urge to leap, my heart pounding in time with Artemis’ desperate cries. I wanted to protect him, even if my legs wouldn’t obey.

“So it’s true,” my mother continued, her voice smooth and thoughtful. “I suspected as much. She’s been softer lately. Smiling. Distracted.”

My father scoffed. “She was planning to bring him to us tomorrow. To ask for our approval.”

Approval.

The word sliced straight through my chest.

I had imagined it so differently. I had imagined them angry, shouting, resistance but eventually, understanding and accepting him. I had imagined them seeing Jayden for who he truly was. Gentle. Loyal. Good.

I had hoped.

How foolish I had been.

My mother laughed softly. “A rogue who can’t even shift. Fate truly has a cruel sense of humor.”

“He’s useless,” my father said coldly. “And dangerous. If the Alpha King ever learns that our daughter’s mate is a nobody, our pack will be ruined. We will lose everything. Serena becoming Alpha would be the end of us.”

There was a pause.

Then my mother spoke again, her tone slow and deliberate.

“We can’t reject him openly,” she said. “Not yet.”

My heart skipped violently.

“What do you mean?” my father asked.

“We pretend to accept him,” she replied smoothly. “Let Serena believe we’ve softened. Let the rogue believe he’s safe.”

A chill crawled down my spine.

“And then?” my father asked.

“And then,” she said calmly, “we arrange an accident.”

My hands flew to my mouth as nausea surged through me.

“We caught him red-handed,” she continued, unbothered. “Accuse him of attempting to force himself on one of our pack girls. A crime no one will forgive.”

My stomach lurched violently, bile rising in my throat. Artemis snapped violently, raking claws against the inside of my mind, teeth bared, growling with a fury that made my head spin.

Rage, betrayal, protectiveness, it coursed through me as if my veins carried wildfire instead of blood. My wolf wanted to hunt, strike, tear apart anyone who dared threaten our mate.

“No one will question it,” my father said slowly, understanding dawning in his voice. “A rogue. No status. No protection.”

“Exactly,” my mother replied. “We execute him quietly. Cleanly. We look righteous. Serena will be heartbroken, yes, but she’ll recover. She always does.”

My vision blurred.

They were planning to kill him.

Jayden.

My mate.

Using lies. Using cruelty. Using my trust.

I staggered back, my knees threatening to give out.

Artemis screamed inside me, her voice raw with terror and fury.

They’ll kill him, Serena. They’ll kill him.

My chest felt like it was caving in. Every breath burned. My hands shook uncontrollably as tears spilled down my face.

I couldn’t let that happen.

I wouldn’t.

There was only one way to save him.

Only one.

I had to make him leave.

I had to make him hate me.

I had to reject him so completely, so cruelly, that he would never stay. Never look back. Never come near this pack again.

Even if it destroyed him.

Especially if it destroyed me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the empty hallway, my voice breaking. “I’m so sorry.”

That was why I rejected him.

That was why I looked into Jayden’s eyes and forced those hateful words past my lips. Why I watched the light fade from his gaze. Why I felt the bond tear and bury itself deep inside my chest instead of breaking completely?

That was the moment I chose his life over my heart.

And I don’t regret it.

I never will.

Because loving him while keeping him here would have meant his death.

I pushed myself upright, wiping my tears as best as I could. Artemis trembled inside me, wounded but resolute.

We must stay strong, she said quietly. We can’t break now.

“Yes,” I whispered, my voice hollow. “I know.”

And with that, I turned away from everything I loved and faded into the darkness.

************************************************

JAYDEN POV

Pain.

That was all there was.

Pain and silence.

The forest swallowed me as I ran, my feet pounding against the earth, my chest burning, my thoughts spiraling out of control.

I didn’t understand.

One moment, she was warm. Gentle. Herself.

The next, she looked at me like I was nothing.

Like I meant nothing.

“I was just curious how mate bonds felt.”

The words echoed in my head like a blade, slicing deeper with every repetition.

I stumbled to a stop, gripping a tree trunk as my breathing turned ragged. My hands shook violently.

She lied.

She had to be lying.

Because the Serena I knew wouldn’t look at me that way. Wouldn’t say those things. Wouldn’t destroy me so completely.

Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe I don't know the real her.

Maybe I was just a fool.

A rogue who believed fate cared about him.

I laughed bitterly, the sound broken and hollow.

Pain slammed into my chest without warning. I gasped, dropping to one knee as something inside me twisted violently.

Zion roared inside my mind, his voice no longer weak, no longer restrained.

She broke the bond, he growled. And in doing so, she broke the seal.

“What seal?” I rasped, clutching my chest as fire spread through my veins.

My body convulsed. Bones cracked. Muscles tore and reformed. Power surged through me in a violent wave, raw and uncontrollable.

I screamed as the earth beneath me cracked.

The air shifted.

The world bowed.

Golden light exploded from my body, blinding and fierce, and for the first time in years, no, in my entire life, I felt whole.

Complete.

Free.

I threw my head back and shifted.

The moonlight kissed every leaf, every stone, and I smelled the tension of the forest, every predator and prey around me. Zion’s senses flared, brushing against Serena’s presence miles away, searching for her, needing her. My Lycan hummed in tandem, alive, aware, ready.

My Lycan emerged massive and powerful, silver-black fur glowing beneath the moonlight, eyes blazing with ancient authority.

Memories flooded back.

The ambush. The betrayal. The seal forced onto me. My exile.

The truth slammed into place.

I wasn’t weak.

I was never weak.

I was a Lycan prince.

And she rejected me.

My wolf snarled, rage and heartbreak colliding violently within me.

“She played us,” Zion growled. She chose power over us.

I stared up at the moon, my heart hardening, something dark and resolute settling deep in my chest.

“No,” I said quietly. “She chose pain.”

I rose to my feet, power still humming through my veins, my jaw tightening.

If she thought she had broken me.

She was wrong.

“I’ll become stronger,” I vowed to the night. “Stronger than anyone who ever looked down on me.”

My eyes burned with cold resolve.

“And when I return,” I whispered, “they’ll regret ever treating me like nothing.”

The moon watched silently as I disappeared into the shadows

A rejected mate no longer.

But a king in the making.