Rejected By My Mate But The Moon Bleeds To Crown Me

Helen's POV

My body shakes so violently I cannot lift my head. I try to beg for a second chance, but the words die in my throat, my wolf howls inside me, and my heart splinters into pieces I know I will never find again.

Derek stands before me, soon-to-be Alpha of the Red Velvet Pack, the man I thought loved me. Or chose me, at least, until we discovered we were mates and he rejected me on the spot.

His grey eyes are cold. The chandeliers catch in his blond hair, and his handsome face twists with disgust. He looks at me like I have always been nothing.

"I, Derek of Red Velvet Pack, reject you, Helen of Red Velvet Pack, as my mate."

His voice rings through the great hall. The nobles hear it, and the warriors, and the slaves, and they all watch me fall. The bond snaps like a body torn in half. My wolf screams, my soul bleeds, and I cannot breathe.

"I would never pick a lowlife slave like you," he says, loud and cruel and final. "Did you really think I could ever want you? Did you really think I cared?"

I lift my head, hazel eyes wet, red hair falling across my face, and for the first time I see him clearly. He never cared. Not about me, not about the slaves his pack holds, not about anyone but himself. Only I believed his smiles and trusted his kindness.

I was a fool.

"I accept your rejection."

My voice is steady, and I have no idea how. He flinches, slightly, but enough. The bond does not care about rank or power. It knows only truth, and the truth is that he just destroyed something sacred.

I do not wait for his answer. I turn and walk, because I will not run and give him that. I walk past the laughing nobles, past the sneering warriors, past the slaves watching me with pity, out through the gates and into the dark, cold forest, the one place no one follows.

There my legs give out, and I collapse beside a still forest pool.

The tears fall like rain, like blood, like everything I have ever lost. I cry for my mother, my father, my brother, the life I should have had, the girl I used to be. I even cry for the mate who rejected me. I cry until I am hollow.

Then I lie on the cold ground and look up at the full moon, bright and watching.

"You chose him for me," I whisper. "You chose a monster."

The moon does not answer. But inside me, my wolf stirs, the wolf who has never once answered my call to shift, weak and wounded and alive.

So am I.

I close my eyes and let the memories come. My mother kneeling before me, her hazel eyes the same as mine, her hands tight on my shoulders. Helen, you need to run. No matter what you hear, no matter what you see. Run and don't look back. My father's gentle voice, Protect her, Samantha. She is all we have left. Then smoke and firelight, and the Red Velvet wolves closing around us in the dark.

I open my eyes. The pool is still.

I am eighteen years old. I am a slave, rejected and alone.

How cruel can my life get?

I stand on shaking legs and brush the dirt from my torn clothes. They still smell of the Red Keep. I walk back barefoot through the forest, stones cutting my feet, and I feel none of it.

The slave quarters are dim, the door creaking under my hand. Everyone is awake, huddled on their mats, whispering. They see me and fall silent. Then it starts again.

"Look who finally came back."

"The rejected one. She thought she was special."

"Quiet," an older voice murmurs from the corner.

"The Alpha has ears everywhere. Do not make yourself his next target."

I walk past them with my head high and my eyes forward, and I hear every word.

I reach my mat, pull my knees to my chest, and stare at the wall. I try to block them out. I try to disappear.

A hand lands on my shoulder. Julia sits beside me and pulls me into her arm. "Don't listen to them," she says, soft and angry. "They're jealous. They're cruel. They know nothing."

Samantha appears, older and weathered, and kneels to take my hands, her eyes wet. "My child. My poor child."

"I'm fine," I say, hollow. My eyes are dry. I have no tears left.

"You're not." Samantha squeezes my hands. "You don't have to be, not with us."

Behind us the whispers creep back. *She got what she deserved. She should have known her place.*

Julia whirls on them, eyes blazing. "Shut up! All of you!" Her pointing hand shakes. "At least she got a mate! At least she felt the bond! What do the rest of us have? Nothing!"

The slaves look away, with no answer.

Julia turns back to me and takes my other hand. "Don't let them win. Not Derek, not the whispers, not this place. You are stronger than all of them."

***

A hand shakes my shoulder, gentle but urgent. "Helen. Wake up."

Julia leans over me, her face tight with worry. Behind her, Samantha is awake too, and pale.

"There's a slave here from the main house," Julia says. "Derek wants to see you. Now."

His name hits like a slap. The man who rejected me, humiliated me, broke me.

"Why?"

"The slave didn't say."

I sit up, and the cold air bites my skin. Samantha touches my arm. "You can refuse."

"And if I do," I say, "what happens?"

She does not answer. She does not need to.

I stand. "I'll go."

"Helen, no." Julia grabs my hand. "He hurt you. He rejected you. He..."

"I know." I pull free. "But he is the Alpha now, and I am a slave. I don't have a choice. Stay here. I'll be back."

The night air is cold, the moon high, the stars watching as I walk toward the main house.

The Red Keep is beautiful, and I hate that it is. Red stone walls glow in the moonlight, tall arched windows catch the light, gardens bloom with flowers that smell too sweet, and fountains trickle like laughter. Perfect and cruel. I remember the first time I saw it, at ten years old, covered in ash, my hands bloody, my parents dead, as the Red Velvet wolves dragged me through those gates.

I have been here ever since.

The guards do not stop me on the steps. They know who I am: the rejected slave, the one who thought she could be Luna. In the main hall the candles burn, the portraits watch, and the marble is cold beneath my bare feet.

Footsteps. I turn.

Derek walks toward me in fine clothes, his blond hair perfect, his grey eyes cold, his handsome face smug. He stops a few feet away and looks me over, slowly, like something to be examined. Something to be owned.

"Helen. Thank you for coming."

I say nothing.

He gestures to a chair. "Sit."

"No."

His eyes narrow, but he lets it go and sits himself, crossing his legs, studying me like a puzzle. "You are angry. I understand. The rejection was harsh, but I am the Alpha now. I cannot have a slave as my mate. It would weaken my position. It would make me a joke." He leans forward, eyes bright. "But I am not a cruel man, Helen. I am willing to be generous."

My stomach turns. I know what is coming before he says it.

"You can still be mine. Not as my mate, not as my Luna, but as my concubine. You will warm my bed and bear my children, and you will be taken care of." His smile is beautiful, and it is a lie. "Isn't that generous? I could have thrown you out. I could have sold you. I could have had you killed. Instead I am offering you a place, a purpose, a life."

Something cold and hard stirs inside me, something that has been building for years.

"No."

His smile falters. "What?"

"No." My voice is calm, my hands steady. "I will not be your concubine. I will not warm your bed or bear your children. I will not be your anything."

His face twists, and his eyes go dark.

"You don't have a choice."