Beatrice pov 

No. The word hit me like a punch to the gut, though Eamon hadn't spoken it aloud yet. I could see it in his eyes, in the way his face twisted with disgust and panic.

The mate bond snapped into place between us like a chain made of moonlight and pain. Every nerve in my body sang with awareness of him, every breath carried his scent. This was supposed to be the most beautiful moment of my life.

Instead, it felt like dying.

All my life, I'd imagined this moment differently. My mate would step forward with wonder in his eyes, not revulsion. He'd pull me close and whisper that he'd been searching for me, that I was everything he'd hoped for. 

The pack would celebrate instead of mock. My mate would defend me, claim me proudly regardless of my rank. I'd finally have someone who chose me, who saw value in the girl everyone else overlooked. 

Those fantasies felt so foolish now, childish dreams shattering against the rocks of reality. I should have known better than to hope for anything more than what I'd always been given-nothing."

"This can't be happening." Eamon's voice cracked as he stared at me. The pack heard his words and began murmuring among themselves. "Not her. Anyone but her."

Change back, Luna urged me. We need to face this as human.

The shift back to human form was easier this time, though no less painful. I knelt naked in the ceremonial circle, someone quickly throwing a blanket around my shoulders. The mate bond pulsed between Eamon and me, making my skin feel too tight.

Alpha Riven looked between his son and me, his expression unreadable. "Is it true?" he asked quietly.

Eamon's jaw worked like he was choking on the words. Finally, he nodded once, sharp and bitter. "She's mine. The moon goddess paired me with a servant."

Cruel laughter echoed from the crowd. I caught sight of Selene's face, twisted with vicious glee. This was better than she could have hoped for-not only was I still the pack's lowest member, but now I'd humiliated the alpha heir by being his fated mate.

"Then you know what you have to do," Alpha Riven said, his voice carrying across the clearing.

My blood turned to ice. Rejection ceremonies were rare, but not unheard of. When a mate bond formed between wolves of vastly different ranks, the higher-ranked wolf could formally sever the connection. It was considered shameful but sometimes necessary for pack politics.

"No," I whispered, scrambling to my feet. The blanket slipped, and I clutched it tighter. "Please, Eamon. We're mates. The moon goddess chose us for each other."

He looked at me like I was something disgusting he'd stepped in. "The moon goddess made a mistake."

The words hit harder than any punch could. Around us, pack members watched with fascination and horror. This would be talked about for years-the night the alpha heir rejected his servant mate.

"Eamon," his mother said softly, "perhaps you should think about this."

"I have thought about it." He stepped forward, and the mate bond pulled tight between us. Even angry and disgusted, he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Dark hair, strong jaw. Everything I'd dreamed of and nothing I could ever deserve. "I, Eamon Riven, future Alpha of Silvermist Pack, reject you, Beatrice, as my mate and future Luna."

The words were formal, binding. They carried the weight of moon magic and alpha authority. I felt them settle deep into my bones.

"You have to accept," he said when I just stood there, shaking. "Say the words, or the bond will remain partially intact."

I looked around the circle of faces watching me. Some showed pity, others amusement. Most just looked uncomfortable, like they were witnessing something private and shameful.

The auburn-haired man from Ashthorn Pack was still staring at me, his face twisted with sympathy and something else I couldn't identify. But even he was a stranger. No one would speak up for me. No one would defend me.

"I..." my voice broke on the first word. "I, Beatrice, accept your rejection."

Pain exploded through my chest as the mate bond shattered. It felt like someone had reached into my ribcage and ripped out my heart. I dropped to my knees again, gasping for breath that wouldn't come.

The crowd began to disperse, the ceremony officially over. Families gathered their children, couples walked away hand in hand. The night that should have been my triumph had become my greatest humiliation.

Selene appeared at my side, crouching down with false concern. "Oh, Bea," she said, loud enough for others to hear. "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

Then she leaned closer and whispered in my ear. "But you had to know this would happen eventually. What alpha wants damaged goods?"

She straightened up and walked away, leaving me kneeling in the dirt with tears streaming down my face.

Get up, Luna said weakly. The wolf sounded as broken as I felt. We need to go home.

But where was home? The servant's quarters where I'd spent twenty years as an unwanted charity case? The kitchen where I'd work tomorrow like nothing had changed?

I pulled the blanket tighter and stumbled toward the pack house. Behind me, I could hear voices discussing what had happened, dissecting my humiliation like it was entertainment.

"Poor thing," someone said. "Though really, what did she expect?"

"At least now she knows her place," came another voice.

I made it to my tiny room before the sobs started. They came from somewhere deep inside, tearing out of my throat like Luna's howl. Twenty years of hope and dreams shattered in a single moment.

The mate bond was gone, but I could still smell Eamon's scent on my skin. Still feel the ghost of that connection that had lasted less than five minutes. It would fade eventually, they said. Rejected mates usually found second chances if they were lucky.

But lying on my thin mattress, staring at the ceiling through swollen eyes, I knew the truth.

I wasn't lucky. I never had been.

And after tonight, no wolf would ever want the servant girl who'd been publicly rejected by an alpha heir.

I was truly alone.

Beatrice POV 

The next morning came too soon and not soon enough. I'd barely slept, my chest aching like someone had carved out my heart with a dull knife. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Eamon's disgusted face, heard his words echoing in my head.

The moon goddess made a mistake.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I was the mistake.

"Get up." Cook's voice was gentler than usual, but still firm. "We have the inter-pack gathering today. Three packs are visiting, and they'll expect proper service."

I dragged myself from bed, every movement feeling like I was walking through mud. My face was puffy from crying, my eyes red-rimmed. I looked exactly like what I was-a broken, rejected wolf with nowhere to go.

The visiting packs had arrived early that morning. Ashthorn, Moonhaven, and Ironwood delegations filled the great hall with conversation and laughter. I recognized the Ashthorn wolves immediately-the auburn-haired man from last night stood with their group, talking quietly to an older woman who must be their Luna.

"Beatrice." Alpha Riven's voice stopped me as I carried a tray of drinks toward the tables. "A word."

He led me to a quiet corner, his expression unreadable. Up close, I could see where Eamon got his looks-the same strong jaw, the same cold blue eyes.

"What happened last night," he began slowly, "was unfortunate."

Unfortunate. Like it was bad weather, not the destruction of my entire world.

"Yes, Alpha," I said, keeping my voice steady.

"Eamon made the right choice for the pack," he continued. "You understand that, don't you? An alpha heir can't mate with a servant, regardless of what the moon goddess intended."

Each word was another nail in my coffin. "I understand."

"Good. Then we won't speak of it again." He straightened his shoulders. "Continue your duties. Our guests expect excellent service."

I nodded and walked away, my legs shaking. The message was clear-pretend it never happened. Go back to being invisible. Accept my place at the bottom of the pack hierarchy.

The great hall buzzed with conversation as I served drinks and cleared plates. Most of the visiting wolves ignored me completely, which was a blessing. The last thing I needed was questions about last night's ceremony.

I was refilling water glasses when a gentle voice said, "Excuse me."

I looked up to find the auburn-haired man standing beside me. Up close, his eyes were the most beautiful green I'd ever seen, like sunlight through forest leaves. He was tall but not imposing, with broad shoulders and calloused hands that suggested he worked with them.

"Yes?" I managed, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I was wondering if you could tell me where to find the washroom," he said, though something in his tone suggested that wasn't really what he wanted to ask.

I pointed toward the hallway. "Down that corridor, second door on the left."

"Thank you." He paused, then added quietly, "I'm Darius, by the way. Darius Veylor."

The name meant nothing to me, but I nodded anyway. "Beatrice."

"I know." His voice was so gentle it made my throat tight. "I wanted to say... I'm sorry about last night."

My cheeks burned with shame. Of course he'd witnessed my humiliation. Everyone had. "Please don't," I whispered.

"What happened wasn't right," he said, and there was anger in his voice now. Not at me, but for me. "You deserve better."

I stared at him in shock. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. No one had ever suggested I deserved anything at all.

"I should get back to work," I said, because I didn't know how to respond to kindness.

He nodded, but his eyes lingered on my face like he was memorizing it. "Of course. Thank you for the directions."

I watched him walk away, something fluttering in my chest that had nothing to do with mate bonds or rejection. It was such a small thing-a moment of kindness from a stranger-but it felt like sunlight after weeks of rain.

He smells so good, Luna said weakly. She'd been quiet since last night, retreating deep inside my mind to lick her wounds. And something else. Something that makes me restless.

I didn't have time to think about what that meant. The afternoon stretched on with endless tasks serving food, cleaning tables, listening to conversations I wasn't part of. The visiting packs discussed politics and trade agreements while I refilled their cups and pretended to be invisible.

Eamon appeared around midday, looking perfectly composed. He laughed with the other young alphas, flirted with unmated females from the visiting packs, and acted like nothing had changed. Like he hadn't destroyed my entire world less than twenty-four hours ago.

"He's already moved on," Selene said, appearing at my elbow with a cruel smile. "Look how happy he seems. I bet he's relieved he doesn't have to pretend to want you anymore."

I kept my eyes down and continued clearing plates. Anything I said would only make it worse.

"The Moonhaven alpha has a daughter," she continued conversationally. "Beautiful, well-trained, perfect breeding. I heard Eamon's parents are already discussing a match."

The words hit their target perfectly. I fumbled a glass, nearly dropping it on the floor.

"Careful, Bea," Selene said sweetly. "We wouldn't want you to embarrass the pack in front of our guests."

She walked away, leaving me standing there with my heart in pieces all over again. Of course Eamon would find someone better. Someone worthy of an alpha heir. Someone who wasn't me.

I was carrying a tray of empty dishes toward the kitchen when it happened. The scent hit me like a wall as my step faltered, and I looked up to see Darius watching me from across the room.

Our eyes met, and something electric passed between us. Not the mate bond-that was impossible so soon after a rejection. But something else, something that made Luna pace restlessly in my mind.

There, she said urgently. That one. He's important.

Before I could process what she meant, Selene's voice cut through the air. "Beatrice! Stop staring at our guests and get back to work!"

Heat flooded my cheeks as every head in the room turned toward me. Darius's expression darkened, and I saw his hands clench into fists at his sides.

I ducked my head and hurried toward the kitchen, my face burning with humiliation. But I could feel his eyes following me, and for reasons I couldn't explain, that mattered more than all of Selene's cruelty.

Maybe I was still broken. Maybe I'd never be worthy of love or kindness.

But for one moment, a stranger had looked at me like I was worth something.

And somehow, that was enough to keep me breathing.

Beatrice pov 

Three weeks passed after the inter-pack gathering. Three weeks of pretending my world hadn't ended, of serving meals and cleaning floors while my chest felt hollow and broken.

The servant's quarters had always been cold, but now they felt like a tomb. I shared the space with five other unmated wolves-outcasts and orphans who had nowhere else to go. They tried to be kind after my rejection, but pity was almost worse than cruelty.

"You could come with us to the market today," offered Nessa, a quiet girl whose parents had died in a rogue attack. "Get out of the pack house for a while."

I shook my head, folding another load of laundry. "Too much work to do."

The truth was, I couldn't bear the stares. Word of my rejection had spread to neighboring packs. Everywhere I went, wolves looked at me with curiosity or disgust, whispering about the servant girl who'd dared to dream above her station.

My daily routine had become a prison. Wake before dawn, start the fires in the kitchen hearths, prepare breakfast for sixty pack members. Serve the alpha family first, then the betas and gammas, then everyone else. Clear the tables, wash the dishes, scrub the floors.

Afternoons meant laundry, mending clothes, tending the vegetable garden, whatever other tasks needed doing. Evenings brought dinner service, more cleaning, and finally collapse into my thin bed as the sun set.

I'd been doing this work for years, but now it felt different. Heavier. Like chains around my wrists that grew tighter every day.

"Bea!" Selene's voice carried across the kitchen. "The alpha wants fresh linens in his study. Now."

I gathered clean sheets from the supply closet and climbed the stairs to the second floor. Alpha Riven's study was his private domain-dark wood, leather chairs, walls lined with books about pack law and territory management.

He was sitting behind his massive desk when I knocked. "Come in."

I changed the linens on the small couch where he sometimes napped, hyperaware of his eyes on me. Since the rejection, he'd been watching me differently. Not with kindness, but like I was a problem he needed to solve.

"How are you adjusting?" he asked as I folded the old sheets.

"Fine, Alpha," I lied.

"Good. I was concerned you might have... unrealistic expectations after the ceremony."

My hands stilled on the fabric. "No, Alpha."

"Excellent." He leaned back in his chair. "Because I've been thinking about your future here. A rejected wolf needs purpose, direction. I've decided to arrange a match for you."

The blood drained from my face. "A match?"

"Gerald Ashworth from Ironwood Pack. He's thirty-five, widowed, needs a wife to help raise his children. He's agreed to overlook your... circumstances... in exchange for a modest dowry."

Gerald Ashworth. I remembered him from the gathering-a gruff man with cold eyes and rough hands. He'd looked at me like I was livestock being evaluated for purchase.

"I don't want to marry him," I whispered.

Alpha Riven's expression hardened. "What you want is irrelevant. You're a servant with no family, no prospects, and now the stigma of rejection. Gerald is offering you security and a home. You should be grateful."

Grateful. For being sold off to a man who would treat me like property. For having my entire future decided without my input.

"When?" I asked, my voice barely audible.

"Next month. That gives you time to prepare and for the paperwork to be filed with the Council."

I nodded numbly and finished changing the linens. My hands moved automatically while my mind screamed. Four weeks. Four weeks until I was shipped off to Ironwood Pack to raise another woman's children and warm a stranger's bed.

This isn't right, Luna said weakly. She'd been getting stronger lately, but she was still recovering from the broken mate bond. We don't belong with that male. We belong somewhere else.

Where? I wanted to ask her. Where could a rejected servant possibly belong?

I escaped to the gardens after finishing the study, needing fresh air and silence. The vegetable plots were my responsibility, and I took pride in keeping them neat and productive. Out here, I could pretend I was something more than a burden.

I was pulling weeds when footsteps approached on the gravel path. Heavy boots, confident stride. My shoulders tensed, expecting more bad news.

"Miss Beatrice?"

I looked up to find a man I didn't recognize standing at the garden gate. He was tall and lean, dressed in traveling clothes that suggested money and status. His dark hair was streaked, and his brown eyes were kind but serious.

"Yes?" I stood slowly, wiping dirt from my hands.

"My name is Matthias Grey. I represent certain... interests... who have been looking for you for a very long time."

My heart started hammering. "I don't understand."

He stepped closer, and I caught his scent-something clean and expensive, with underneath notes that made Luna suddenly alert and interested.

"Tell me," he said quietly, "do you remember anything from before you came to Silvermist Pack? Anything at all?"

The question hit me. "I was a baby," I said slowly. "The alpha and luna found me at the border. My parents were killed by rogues."

"Were they?" His tone suggested he knew something I didn't. "Or is that simply what you were told?"

I stared at him, my mouth dry. "What are you saying?"

He glanced around the garden, making sure we were alone. Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small silver locket on a delicate chain.

"Do you recognize this?" he asked, holding it out to me.

The locket was beautiful, clearly expensive, with intricate engravings of wolves running beneath a full moon. But it was the scent that made me gasp. Luna went wild in my mind, pacing and whining like she'd found something precious that had been lost.

"I..." I reached for it with shaking fingers. "I don't know. Maybe. It smells like..."

"Like home," he finished for me. "Like family."

I looked up at him, hope and terror warring in my chest. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

Matthias Grey smiled, and for the first time in weeks, it wasn't a cruel expression. "I want to take you home, Beatrice. To the family that has been searching for you for twenty years."

Before I could respond, Luna's voice rang through my mind with desperate urgency.

Run.

That's when I heard them-footsteps approaching fast, multiple sets. Matthias's expression shifted to alarm as he grabbed my arm.

"We need to go. Now."

"Wait," I said, confusion overwhelming me. "I don't understand what's happening."

That's when Selene appeared at the garden entrance, flanked by three pack warriors. Her face was twisted with rage and something that looked like fear.

"Step away from her," she snarled at Matthias. "That servant belongs to Silvermist Pack."

Matthias positioned himself between Selene and me, his posture shifting to something dangerous. "Actually, she doesn't belong to anyone. Especially not to wolves who've spent twenty years abusing her."

How did he know about that? I stared at his back, my mind reeling with questions.

"You have no authority here," Selene said, but I caught the tremor in her voice. "This is pack territory."

"And I'm a neutral party acting under Council jurisdiction," Matthias replied smoothly. "I suggest you reconsider your next move very carefully."

The warriors looked uncertain, clearly outranked by whatever authority Matthias represented. But Selene's eyes were locked on mine, and what I saw there made my blood run cold.

Not just anger. Fear. Desperation.

Like her entire world depended on keeping me here.

"Beatrice," Matthias said without turning around, "trust me. Come with me now, and I'll explain everything. Stay here, and you'll never know the truth about who you really are."

The locket pulsed warm against my palm, and Luna's urgent voice echoed in my head.

Choose quickly, little sister. Our real family is waiting.

Real family? The words didn't make sense. But as I looked at Selene's terrified face, one thing became crystal clear.

She knew exactly who I was