Unwanted Mate

My parents spent eighteen years grooming me for one singular purpose: to be the mate of Jax Little, the future Alpha.

We grew up together, promising a hundred times that we would rule the Silver Moon Pack side by side.

But on the night of the Recognition Ritual, because my inner wolf was silent and I hadn't shifted yet, everything shattered.

Jax stood before the entire pack, looked at Catalina—a stranger in red silk—and then looked at me with cold, steel-gray eyes.

"I, Jax Little, reject you, Eliana Carter."

He didn't just break our bond; he let his new Luna destroy me.

When Catalina shoved me into a pool, he saved her instead of me.

When she framed me for an attack, causing me to fall onto deadly silver that seared my flesh like acid, he stepped over my convulsing body to comfort her fake tears.

He left me dying on the floor to soothe the woman who had tried to kill me.

I realized then that the boy who promised to protect me was dead. He prioritized ambition over love, treating me like a broken defect to be discarded.

I survived the silver, but I killed the girl who loved him.

I packed my bags and ran to New York City, believing I was wolfless and alone.

I didn't know that I wasn't a defect—I was a rare White Wolf waiting to wake up.

And I certainly didn't expect the most powerful Alpha on the East Coast to be waiting in the shadows, ready to burn the world down for me.

Chapter 1

Eliana POV:

The scent of the ballroom was suffocating. It was a heavy, cloying mix of expensive perfume, the acrid tang of nervous sweat, and the underlying, earthy musk of hundreds of wolves waiting for the clock to strike midnight.

I smoothed the fabric of my simple cream dress. My hands were trembling. Tonight was the graduation prom, but more importantly, it was the night of the Recognition Ritual. The night I would finally know if the whispers of my heart were true.

"Stop fidgeting, Eliana," my mother hissed in my ear, her grip on my arm tight enough to bruise. "You are an Omega. Do not draw attention to yourself unless it is... favorable."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. My parents had spent my entire life grooming me for a singular purpose: to be the mate of Jax Little, the future Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack.

We had grown up together. He had held my hand when I scraped my knees. He had promised, ninety-eight times by my count, that we would rule together.

But I hadn't Shifted yet. I was eighteen, and my inner wolf was silent. I was a defect.

Across the room, the crowd parted. Catalina Manning walked through. She was a high-ranking female from a neighboring pack, clad in crimson silk that poured over her curves like a second skin. Her dark eyes swept over the room, landing on me for a fraction of a second.

She smirked. It was a small, cruel thing.

"Midnight," someone whispered.

The grandfather clock in the corner began to toll. The deep vibrations reverberated through the floorboards.

My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. The air suddenly shifted. A scent hit me—like rain on hot asphalt and fresh pine. It was the most intoxicating thing I had ever smelled.

Jax.