Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By The Lycan King

Elara POV

The ceramic shattered against the hardwood floor, the sound unnervingly loud in the sprawling, sterile perfection of Rhys's penthouse. I stared down at the pieces. Cadence's painted smile mocked me from a jagged shard.

Before I could even gasp, a heavy hand struck my cheek.

The force of the slap sent me stumbling backward. My ear rang, and the metallic taste of blood bloomed instantly on my tongue. I looked up, my vision blurring, to see Rhys towering over me. His chest heaved, and the suffocating weight of his Alpha aura filled the room, pressing down on my weak, wolfless body.

"You clumsy, jealous bitch," Rhys snarled, his eyes dark with a violent fury that had nothing to do with a broken mug. "You just couldn't stand looking at her, could you? Trying to erase her from my home?"

"It slipped," I whispered, pressing a trembling hand to my burning cheek. "I was just trying to make space for our things-"

"Don't lie to me!" he roared. "You drove Cadence away because you couldn't handle that she was everything you're not. A perfect Beta. A true wolf. And even after her noble sacrifice to leave this pack, you're still using your pathetic little tricks to wipe away her memory."

My heart shattered into pieces smaller than the mug on the floor. A noble sacrifice? Cadence hadn't left to protect anyone. She had stolen my private diary-the one where I foolishly confessed my teenage crush on Rhys-and exposed it to the entire pack just to humiliate me. She left to play the martyr, leaving me to drown in the pack's disgust.

But looking into Rhys's hateful eyes, I realized the bitter truth. To an Alpha, the word of a wolfless Omega meant absolutely nothing.

"Clean. It. Up."

The *Alpha's Command* hit me like a physical blow. My knees buckled instinctively, my body screaming to submit to the future Alpha of the Morrison Pack. But as I stared at the shards of my sister's face, a spark of pure, unadulterated dignity flared in my chest. I gritted my teeth, fighting the agonizing pressure in my bones, and forced myself to stand straight.

"No."

Rhys's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "If you dare defy me, Elara, we are-"

"-over," I finished for him, my voice trembling but crystal clear.

His shock morphed into absolute rage. He lunged forward, his fingers digging bruisingly into my arm as he tried to force me down. "You belong to me, you wolfless freak!"

Instinct took over. I twisted my body and swung my free hand with every ounce of strength I possessed.

*Smack.*

The sound echoed through the luxurious penthouse. Rhys stumbled back, releasing my arm. He touched his cheek, his face a portrait of absolute, horrified shock. An Omega had just struck a future Alpha. It was a blatant defiance of the pack hierarchy, a death wish in any other circumstance.

"We're even," I said coldly.

I didn't wait for his inner wolf to snap. I turned on my heel and walked out the door, leaving my broken engagement behind.

The walk back to the edge of the pack territory was a blur. By the time I reached the dim, concrete hallway of the Omega Quarters, my adrenaline had faded, leaving only a hollow, aching exhaustion.

Just as I reached for my keys, my cheap cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Since I had no inner wolf, I couldn't use the Mind-Link. I was entirely cut off from the pack's silent network.

I pulled it out. *Mother.*

I answered, hoping for a shred of comfort. "Mom-"

"I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses," Caroline Sanford's voice sliced through the line, colder than the winter wind. "Rhys just called me. What you did is a disgrace to the Sanford name."

"He hit me, Mom! He slapped me over a mug with Cadence's face on it!" I cried out, my voice cracking.

"And you provoked him!" she snapped back, not a single ounce of maternal warmth in her tone. "Cadence is a gem, and you are a constant disappointment. You will go back to his penthouse right now, and you will beg for his forgiveness. If you lose this alliance, Elara, I will personally strip you of our name and throw you out as a Rogue. Do you understand me?"

She hung up before I could reply.

The dial tone hummed in my ear. I stared at the peeling paint on my apartment door. My mother didn't care that I was bleeding. She only cared about the power Rhys could bring them.

I unlocked the door, stepped into the dark, cramped room, and let the phone drop to the floor. I slid down the rough wood of the door, pulling my knees to my chest as the crushing weight of my isolation finally swallowed me whole.