Rejected, Then He Begged. I Chose His Brother

"Here." I pressed the heavy, silver-wrought box into Kai’s chest. "Just like you asked."

The music of the Full Moon Campus Gala thumped through the academy courtyard, but I only heard the steady rhythm of Kai’s heartbeat. Above us, the massive crystal boards projected our faces to the entire school.

Kai took the box. His fingers brushed mine, cold and quick. He popped the latch. The Lunar Amulet—my family’s only ancient wolf relic—glowed against the velvet lining.

"The Mercer family heirloom," Kai murmured. He didn't look at me. His eyes stayed locked on the glowing stone.

"My father didn't want to hand it over," I said, stepping closer, seeking the warmth he had freely given me for the last six months. The late-night study sessions, the jacket draped over my shoulders, the whispered promises. "But I told him we are fated. I told him you needed it for the Alpha trials."

Kai snapped the box shut. The sharp crack echoed over the courtyard, somehow cutting through the bass of the music.

He finally looked at me. The gentle, adoring gaze I had memorized over the past half-year was gone. A flat, empty stare replaced it.

"Thank you, Brielle," he said. His voice amplified across the courtyard. He was using his Alpha tone, projecting it so the crystal boards picked up every syllable.

"Kai?" I reached out, my fingers grazing his sleeve. "What are you doing?"

He stepped back, dodging my touch.

"I'm doing what I should have done the moment the Moon Goddess made a mistake," he announced.

The courtyard went dead silent. The music cut out. Every student, every elder, every camera turned toward us.

"I, Kai Thorne, future Alpha of the Crescent Ridge, reject you, Brielle Mercer, as my fated mate."

The words didn't just hang in the air. They slammed into my chest like a physical blow.

"No," I gasped.

The mate bond—a golden thread connecting my soul to his—snapped.

Fire ripped through my veins. My knees hit the cobblestone hard. I gripped my shirt, clawing at the fabric over my heart. The pain was blinding. It felt like someone had shoved a rusted blade between my ribs and twisted.

"Kai!" I choked out, a cold sweat breaking across my forehead. "Please. The bond..."

"Stop making a scene," he sneered, towering over me.

He didn't offer a hand. He didn't flinch at my agony.

A pair of silver stilettos stepped into my blurry line of sight.

"You heard him, Brielle," a sweet, melodic voice chimed.

I forced my head up. Sloane. The academy's golden girl. The she-wolf Kai used to stare at before he found out I was his mate.

Kai reached out and laced his fingers through Sloane’s. He lifted her hand, kissing her knuckles right in front of the cameras.

"Sloane is my chosen mate," Kai declared, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "She is the only one fit to rule by my side."

"You used me," I whispered, the realization tasting like ash in my mouth. "Six months. The dates. The promises. All of it... just to get the Amulet for her?"

"You were an easy mark," Kai replied, his tone bored. "You wanted a fairy tale. I needed the relic to secure my rank. Now we both have reality."

Laughter erupted from the crowd. It started as a low rumble and swelled into a deafening roar.

"Look at her crying!" a voice shouted from the back.

"Pathetic. She actually thought Kai Thorne wanted a weak Beta-line freak."

"Talk about delusional. She basically handed over her family's only treasure just to get dumped on live TV!"

I stared at the crystal boards. My own face stared back—pale, sweating, twisted in agony, kneeling at the feet of the boy I loved and his new queen. The chat scrolling across the bottom of the screen was a blur of mocking emojis and cruel jokes.

*Clingy.*

*Desperate.*

*Laughingstock.*

My vision darkened at the edges. The rejection sickness was setting in. Without the bond, my wolf was tearing herself apart from the inside. I slumped forward, my palms scraping against the rough stone.

"Get up, Brielle," Sloane said, a fake pout on her lips. "You're embarrassing yourself. And you're ruining our celebration."

"Someone call the janitor," Kai joked, turning his back on me. "We have trash on the dance floor."

More laughter. More jeers.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the darkness to take me. I couldn't fight it. My body was giving out.

Then, the laughter abruptly stopped.

A heavy silence fell over the courtyard. The kind of silence that only happens when a predator enters the room.

"Move."

The voice was low, rough, and carried a dangerous edge that made the hair on my arms stand up.

I pried my eyes open.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea. Students shoved each other out of the way, lowering their heads in submission.

Elias Thorne.

Kai’s older brother. The outcast. The ruthless enforcer of the pack who had been banished to the borderlands for three years, only returning this semester. Kai hated him. Everyone feared him.

He walked straight toward the center of the courtyard. He wore a dark leather jacket, his jaw set in a hard, unforgiving line. His piercing gray eyes didn't look at the crowd, at the cameras, or at his brother.

They locked onto me.

"Elias," Kai barked, dropping Sloane’s hand. "What are you doing here? You're not welcome at the Gala."

Elias ignored him. He stopped right in front of me.

He crouched down, his large frame blocking out the glaring lights of the crystal boards. Up close, he smelled like pine needles and impending rain.

"You look like hell, Mercer," Elias said, his voice a low rumble meant only for me.

"I'm dying," I wheezed, blood rushing to my ears.

"Not today."

Without another word, Elias slid one massive arm under my knees and the other around my back. He stood up smoothly, lifting me against his chest as if I weighed nothing.

The heat radiating from his body was intense. It didn't cure the agonizing pain in my chest, but it anchored me. It kept me from floating away into the dark.

"Put her down, Elias!" Kai shouted, stepping into his brother's path. His face flushed red with anger. "She is a rejected wolf. She belongs in the gutter."

Elias didn't raise his voice. He didn't even shift his stance. He just tilted his head, glaring down at Kai.

"If you don't step aside, little brother," Elias said, the threat vibrating through his chest and into mine, "I will snap your neck on live television."

Kai froze. The Alpha command in Elias’s tone was absolute.

Sloane shrank back, pulling Kai by the sleeve.

Elias stepped around them, carrying me straight through the center of the courtyard. The cameras tracked our every move. The entire academy watched in stunned silence as the terrifying older brother walked away with the discarded mate.

My head rolled against his shoulder. The pain was still tearing me apart, but a strange numbness started to creep in.

"Why?" I managed to whisper, gripping the lapel of his jacket.

Elias looked down at me, his gray eyes flashing with an emotion I couldn't read.

"Because my brother is an idiot," Elias muttered, tightening his grip on me. "And because you and I need to have a talk about that Amulet."

My eyes fluttered shut as we left the courtyard, the sounds of the academy fading into the night.

But Elias’s next words yanked me right back from the edge of unconsciousness.

"You're not dying, Brielle," he whispered against my ear. "You're just mutating."