Kieran straightened up, and I could see the political calculations happening behind his golden eyes. The Crown Prince was handsome in that annoying way where you wanted to punch him but also maybe stare at him for a while. Sharp cheekbones, perfect hair, it was the type of confidence that came from being told you were special since birth. "I agree with Alpha Shadowmere," he announced. "I cannot take a mate who would weaken the royal bloodline. I also reject this bond."

Two down.

The crowd was in an uproar now. This had never happened before. Nobody rejected a mate chosen by the Blood Moon itself.

Theron shrugged his massive shoulders. "She'd be a liability in battle. Can't have that. I reject the bond too."

Three.

Cassian tilted his head, still studying me like I was a particularly interesting bug. "You're all being hasty," he said, but then he looked at the other Alphas and seemed to realize he was outnumbered. His silver eyes went cold. "But I won't be bound to someone who can't even channel basic magic. I reject this bond as well."

Four for four.

Everyone looked at Darius, who sighed like we were all inconveniencing him terribly. "Well, I'm not going to be the only one stuck with her," he said, examining his nails again. "I reject the bond. No offense, sweetheart, but you're just not memorable enough for me."

And there it was.

All five of my supposed fated mates had rejected me in front of the entire kingdom.

The High Priestess looked like she was about to have a stroke. "This is... this is unprecedented. The prophecy..."

"The prophecy can go to hell," Kieran said coldly. He turned to address the crowd. "The Moon Goddess has made an error. These things happen. We'll petition for a new ceremony next year with a more... suitable candidate."

A more suitable candidate. Right.

I should have felt something. Heartbreak, maybe. Devastation. The mate bond rejection was supposed to be agonizing.

Instead, I just felt... tired.

And maybe a little bit amused, which was probably a sign that something was wrong with me.

Because the thing was, these five Alphas had no idea who they'd just rejected. None of them knew that the "wolfless orphan" standing in front of them had more power in her little finger than they had in their entire bodies. They didn't know that I'd been training since I was eight years old. They didn't know about the scars hidden under this ridiculous dress, or the blood on my hands, or the secrets I carried.

But sure. I was just a forgettable a wolfless orphan.

"Well," I said, and my voice came out steady even though I was screaming internally. "I guess that settles that."

Kieran blinked, apparently surprised I could speak. "You're taking this rather well."

I smiled at him. It wasn't a nice smile. "Oh, I'm devastated. Truly. However will I cope with being rejected by five Alphas who can't even be bothered to look at me before deciding I'm not good enough?"

His eyes narrowed. "Watch your tone."

"Or what?" I asked sweetly. "You'll reject me again? Too late."

Theron made a sound that might have been a laugh or a growl. It was hard to tell with him.

The High Priestess cleared her throat. "The prophecy remains, regardless of your rejections. The Void is growing stronger. The Demon King will rise. And according to the sacred texts, only the woman chosen by the Blood Moon can stop him."

"Then find another woman," Zane said flatly.

"The Blood Moon chose her," the High Priestess insisted, gesturing at me. "Lysandra Vane is the one."

"Lysandra Vane is a nobody," Darius said dismissively.

And wasn't that the truth? At least, the truth as far as they knew.

Lysandra Vane, orphan. Taken in by the Blackwater family out of the "goodness of their hearts." Living in their basement. Doing their dirty work. Just invisible, forgettable and worthless.

That was the story, anyway.

"If we're done here," I said, already turning toward the door. "I'd like to go home."

"You will remain in the palace," Kieran said sharply. "Until we figure out what to do about this situation."

I turned back to look at him. "You rejected the bond. You don't get to give me orders."

His jaw clenched. "I'm the Crown Prince."

"And I'm the woman your Goddess chose, so I guess we're both having a bad night." I gave him my best curtsy, which was terrible because nobody had ever taught me how to do it properly. "Your Highness."

I walked out of the Grand Hall with my head held high, even though my hands were shaking. The crowd parted for me like I had the plague. I could feel their eyes on my back, could hear the whispers starting up again.

"Can you believe..."

"...humiliation..."

"...poor thing..."

"...what was the Goddess thinking..."

I made it to the corridor outside before I let myself lean against the wall and take a deep breath.

Okay. That had been a disaster.

But also, kind of hilarious when you thought about it.

Five Alphas had just rejected their fated mate because they thought she was weak. Meanwhile, I could probably kill all of them in their sleep if I wanted to. Which I didn't, because I wasn't a monster, but the option was there.

"Miss Vane?"

I jumped about a foot in the air and spun around to find a young woman in palace servant clothes standing there with a worried expression. She had kind eyes and dark hair pulled back in a bun.

"Sorry!" she said quickly. "I didn't mean to startle you. I'm Mira. I've been assigned to... well, they told me to show you to your quarters."

"My quarters?"

"The Prince insisted you stay in the palace tonight. There's a room prepared for you in the east wing."

Of course there was. Because Kieran couldn't just let me leave. That would be too easy.

"Lead the way," I said with a sigh.

Mira seemed nice enough as she guided me through the palace corridors. She kept giving me these sympathetic looks that made me want to crawl out of my skin.

"That was really horrible, what they did to you," she said softly as we climbed a staircase. "In front of everyone like that."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. They're supposed to be our leaders and they acted like... like..."

"Like I was beneath them?" I supplied. "Because according to everyone in this kingdom, I am."

Mira shook her head firmly. "The Blood Moon chose you. That means something."

"Yeah," I said. "It means the Moon Goddess has a twisted sense of humor."

That got a small laugh out of her, which made me feel a bit better.

The room she took me to was bigger than the entire basement I'd been living in for the past fifteen years. There was an actual bed, not a cot. Windows with real curtains and a real bathroom attached. It was almost obscene.

"I'll bring you something to eat," Mira said. "And some clothes for tomorrow. That dress looks uncomfortable."

"You have no idea," I muttered.

After she left, I stood in the middle of the room and tried to process what had just happened.

I'd been chosen by an ancient prophecy. Check.

Five powerful Alphas had rejected me publicly. Check.

I was now stuck in a palace full of people who thought I was worthless. Check.

And I still had to somehow save the kingdom from the Demon King without revealing that I was actually the most dangerous wolf in Everspire.

Great. Just great.

I went to the window and looked out at the Blood Moon. It was still hanging there, red and ominous, like it was mocking me.

"You picked a great time to choose me," I told it. "Really excellent timing."

The moon, unsurprisingly, didn't answer.

I was pulling the pins out of my hair, which someone had tortured into an updo, when I heard voices in the corridor outside. Male voices. Arguing.

Oh no.

"...can't just leave her here unsupervised," someone was saying. It sounded like Theron.

"She's not a prisoner," another voice argued. Kieran.

"Then what is she?" That was Cassian, I thought.

"A problem," Darius said flatly.

"A problem we rejected," Zane added. "Therefore, it's not our problem anymore."

"The prophecy says..."

"I don't care what the prophecy says!"

I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

All five Alphas were standing in the hallway, apparently having followed me to continue their argument about what to do with me. They all froze when they saw me.

"Hi," I said. "Having fun?"

Kieran recovered first. "We were just discussing..."

"How I'm a problem?" I supplied helpfully. "Yeah, I heard. These walls are thinner than you'd think."

Theron had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. Slightly.

"Look," I said, leaning against the doorframe. "You all rejected me. Fine. I get it. I'm not exactly Alpha mate material. But can you please take your existential crisis somewhere else? I've had a really long day and I'd like to wallow in my humiliation in private."

"You don't seem particularly humiliated," Cassian observed.

"I'm an excellent actress."

His silver eyes gleamed with something that might have been interest. "Are you?"

"The best," I said flatly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can figure out how to work the bathtub in there because it has more knobs than any bathtub should reasonably have and I'm afraid I'm going to flood the palace."

Darius's lips twitched. It might have been a smile. It was hard to tell because his resting face was "bored aristocrat."

"We'll discuss this further in the morning," Kieran said, like he was dismissing a council meeting.

"Can't wait," I said, and shut the door in their faces.

I waited until I heard their footsteps retreating before I let out a long breath.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

I'd been planning to lay low, avoid attention, and work on stopping the Demon King from the shadows like I always did. But apparently, the Moon Goddess had other plans.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. The dress was ridiculous. My hair was a mess from pulling out the pins. I had dark circles under my eyes because I'd been up until three in the morning last night dealing with a nest of rogue vampires in the eastern territories.

"What were you thinking?" I asked my reflection. Or maybe I was asking the Moon Goddess. "Why me?"

My reflection, also unsurprisingly, didn't answer.

I finally managed to get the dress off after contorting myself into several uncomfortable positions to reach the buttons. Whoever invented dresses like this hated women. That was the only explanation.

The bath was amazing, though. I'll give the palace that. The tub was huge and the water was hot and there were about fifteen different bottles of things that smelled nice. I used all of them. If I was going to be stuck here, I might as well enjoy the amenities.

When I finally climbed into the massive bed, wrapped in a robe that was softer than anything I'd ever touched, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to think.

The prophecy was real. I'd known it was coming, had known that the Blood Moon would choose someone this year. I just hadn't expected it to choose me.

The Void was growing stronger. That part was true too. I'd been fighting Void beasts for months now, watching them get bigger and more frequent. The barrier between our world and the demon realm was weakening.

And the Demon King was definitely trying to break through. I had sources. Information networks. I knew things that would make these Alphas lose sleep at night.

But I'd been planning to handle it myself. Quietly and efficiently. The way I handled everything.

Now I was in the middle of a prophecy, rejected by five Alphas who were supposed to help me save the kingdom, and stuck in a palace where everyone thought I was worthless.

I started laughing.

I couldn't help it. It was just so absurd.

The Moon Goddess chose the one woman in the kingdom who didn't need five Alpha mates to save everyone. The one woman who'd been doing it alone for years. The one woman who was powerful enough to handle this herself.

And those five idiots had rejected me without even knowing what they were giving up.

"Your loss," I told the empty room.

Tomorrow, I'd figure out a plan. Tonight, I was going to sleep in this incredibly comfortable bed and enjoy the fact that for once in my life, I wasn't sleeping in a basement with a leaky ceiling.

The Blood Moon shone through the window, painting everything red.

And somewhere in the darkness, I could feel the Void stirring, hungry and patient.

Let it wait.

I had bigger problems to deal with.

Like five Alphas who were going to be very, very sorry they rejected me.

Eventually.