Thrown Away by the Alpha, Claimed by His King

I was the Silver Moon Pack's weakest Omega, born without a wolf scent.

For three years, I secretly absorbed the agonizing backlash of the Alpha trials for Ryan, just so he could secure his heir position.

He promised I would be his Luna.

But on the eve of his ascension, he paraded Vanessa before the pack.

He ordered the guards to throw me past the border into the Rogue lands, calling me a pathetic stalker who imagined our love.

I barely survived the night, escaping into the cursed Black Forest.

Everyone knew nothing came out of those woods alive because it belonged to the mad High Alpha, Cassian.

When his massive, blood-soaked wolf pinned me to the snow, I closed my eyes, waiting for death.

Instead, a terrifyingly possessive growl vibrated against my throat.

"Mine."

***

"I proudly present Vanessa Hale, the woman who will stand beside me as Luna of Silver Moon."

Ryan's voice carried through the pack hall, clean and confident, as if the last five years had never happened.

I stood near the back wall with a tray of untouched champagne flutes beside me. The ache in my bones had been there since dawn. It always came after one of Ryan's Alpha trials. For three years, every test meant the same thing: he walked out stronger, and I spent the night shaking behind a locked bedroom door while his backlash burned through my joints.

No one knew.

Ryan least of all.

The hall erupted in applause.

Vanessa smiled from the dais in a white silk gown trimmed with silver. She looked exactly like the Luna the elders wanted: wealthy family, strong bloodline, polished manners, a wolf everyone could scent from across the room.

I had none of those things.

Five years ago, the temple basin had turned black during my awakening test. The priest had called me a scentless defect and dropped me into the Omega ranks before I had time to understand what had gone wrong. Ryan had promised the result did not matter.

Apparently, promises expired when a crown became possible.

Vanessa stepped down from the dais and crossed the room toward me.

"Still here?" she asked.

The people nearest us quieted.

"Ryan hasn't dismissed me," I said.

Her smile sharpened. "He shouldn't have to. A woman with any pride would know when she's been replaced."

I looked past her at Ryan. He did not move.

"Is that what this is?" I asked him. "A replacement?"

Ryan's mouth tightened. "Don't make a scene, Aria."

"You announced another woman as your future Luna in front of the entire pack. The scene already exists."

A few people shifted uncomfortably.

Vanessa laughed. "You really thought he would choose a scentless Omega?"

I met Ryan's eyes. "Tell them how you survived the winter trials."

His expression changed.

Only slightly, but I saw it.

"Tell them what happened every time the Alpha venom entered your blood," I continued. "Tell them why you woke up healed while I couldn't stand the next morning."

Ryan stepped off the dais.

"Enough."

"You knew I took something from you. You knew the pain disappeared when I touched you."

"I knew you liked making yourself useful," he said.

The words landed harder than I expected.

Vanessa turned to the crowd. "There. She carries his blankets, rubs his shoulders, then imagines she built the Alpha."

Laughter scattered through the hall.

I waited for Ryan to correct her.

He did not.

Instead, he held out his hand to Vanessa.

She took it.

"The temple test was clear," Ryan said. "You have no proper wolf signature. The elders will never accept you as Luna, and I won't endanger Silver Moon over a childhood attachment."

"A childhood attachment," I repeated.

Five years of sleeping beside him. Five years of helping him study border maps, patching his wounds, covering his mistakes before the council saw them. Three years of swallowing power that should have broken his bones.

He reduced all of it to a phrase that sounded temporary.

Vanessa leaned closer. "You should thank him. He's giving you a chance to leave quietly."

I looked at the gold ring on Ryan's right hand. I had sold my mother's last necklace to pay for the healer who saved that hand after his first trial.

"No," I said. "If he wants me gone, he can say it himself."

Ryan's jaw flexed.

Then the Alpha command rolled through the hall.

"Aria Vale, you are stripped of Silver Moon protection effective immediately."

The room went still.

My knees tried to bend under the force of his authority. I locked them.

Pain burst behind my ribs, but I stayed upright.

Ryan's eyes narrowed.

"You will surrender your pack token, leave the territory before midnight, and never return without my written permission."

A guard approached.

I removed the small silver disk from the chain at my throat and placed it in his palm.

"My room?" I asked.

Vanessa answered before Ryan could. "Mine now."

Of course it was.

The guard reached for my arm.

I stepped away before he could touch me.

"I can walk."

Ryan's gaze followed me as I crossed the hall. For one foolish second, I expected him to stop me.

He had stopped me a hundred times before. At the garden gate when I threatened to leave after his first betrayal. At the training field when I collapsed from carrying his backlash. At the winter banquet when I told him I was tired of being invisible.

Not tonight.

The main doors opened.

Freezing wind rushed in.

My coat was still upstairs. My boots had been moved from the entry rack. When I turned back, Vanessa lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug.

Ryan saw my bare feet.

He still said nothing.

I walked outside.

The stone steps were already silver with frost. By the time I reached the lower gate, my toes had gone numb.

Two border guards waited beside the iron bars.

One of them, Marcus, had once asked me to sit beside his feverish daughter because my touch quieted her wolf. He could not meet my eyes now.

"Open it," I said.

He hesitated. "Aria, the Black Forest isn't safe after dark."

"Then perhaps your Alpha should have considered that before midnight."

The other guard unlocked the gate.

Behind me, the pack hall doors opened again.

Ryan stood at the top of the steps with Vanessa beside him.

"If you cross that line," he called, "you are no longer my responsibility."

I turned.

"I stopped being your responsibility the first time you let me carry your pain and never asked what it cost."

Vanessa slipped her arm through his.

Ryan did not pull away.

I stepped across the boundary.

The gate slammed shut behind me.

The sound traveled through the trees.

For a few seconds, there was only wind.

Then a howl rose from the Black Forest.

Another answered it from much closer.

I stared into the dark pines and tightened my bleeding feet against the frozen ground.

Silver Moon had not simply thrown me away.

They had sent me into hunting territory with no scent, no coat, and no protection.

A branch snapped somewhere ahead.

I started running.