Return of the Alpha's Rejected Mate
ay on the forest floor, her limbs trem
nside her fe
s it
est like a second heartbeat. Her wolf paced within her, rest
again-soft, ancient,
on, you have been b
h her spine. Her bones shifted, cracked, stretched-yet she wasn't
splitting open to make roo
lared behind her e
scre
en-dar
-
nd the forest around her shimmered faintly with silver mist. Arya
every whisper of wind, every heartb
pool of water nearby
ga
r the moonlight. Her skin held a radiant sheen, and stran
Like mo
. what
Moon." The words chilled her now, yet fil
ed up at the moon. Its glow no longer
snapped behin
scles tensing,
s glowing red, fur matted with blood. It
ove. She didn
ed her hand on instinct-
ally
he beast into a nearby tree with unnatural stren
at her hand,
did I
arrior. Yet she'd just stopped a full-gr
t. Something insi
ng had
e in her life... she
lt pow
lt dan
t hadn't
a had stumbled through mud and bramble, barefoot, bleeding, shivering. The rejection had torn more
now how long
Maybe
en hunger became normal and sleep cam
ame th
t that soaked her clothes and made the forest spin every time she moved
t tak
it
it d
d her eyes, she wasn
ker of flames. The scent of herbs filled the air. She
ead," a voice
her head
s beard was long and streaked with gray, his eyes sharp but kind. He wore
you?" she
en waiting for yo
ade no
her life made
consciousness, but this
-
sed. May
ot stew and made her drink teas that tasted like dirt but cleared her lungs. He spoke little, except w
o sit up and speak, she aske
stured to the markings drawn on the walls
st a broken girl," he
. "What doe
"You are touched by the old magic. The Moon gifted you strength and
"I don't feel gift
t there was s
always feel, befor
-
ning beg
sten to the water, to feel the pull of energy through the earth. Then came th
et it guide her instead of battling it. Her inner wolf had gone quiet since t
ee in me?" she
, moonlight pouring
," Thalen said. "I've seen that fire before. Long
ased. "You know
aid quietly. "Before they cast
at him wi
r stopped bel
ed road," Thalen said. "But I believe
truth settle i
d fully for the first time since her exile.
-
rs pa
than how to survive. He
shift in someone's heartbeat when they planned to
-physically, ment
th does no
. And one morning, she found him sitting still by
opened th
f the oldest tree in the forest-the one whe
't cry a
the trees and the fire refused to light, she
-
urn to the wor
on fire, a boy with storm-gray eyes, and a voic
a
wasn't as the shatte
r. A stranger. A g
he fire within her-Thalen's f
-
-
in th
his bed, a cold sweat clinging
Not the kind that came from wounds or nightmares, but som
mself. He had rejected her. The
.. did he f
the window, looking ou
ing wa
ething... wa