THE LAST REJECTION

Angela.

The plan was for tonight to be ideal. I could feel the heat rising in my chest as I looked around the packed clearing under the silvery night sky. Our graduation was celebrated by Mooncrest Pack members, and laughter could be heard everywhere. My family, friends, and pack were all there, along with everyone I loved and who had seen me develop. The one item I had been waiting for my whole life, however, was gone. My partner.

I extended my hand and felt the cold, smooth surface of the silver pendant that hung around my neck; it was a present from my mother to commemorate the event and a reminder to never give up. "You'll find him," she had assured him. As soon as you do, you'll know. There are no words to adequately express our relationship.

A pulse of electricity swept through me as if on cue. My wolf roused. My heart beat faster.

That was it. It pulled and guided me, and I could feel it.

I glanced upward, seeing the faces of the pack members gathered around the blaze in celebration. I saw him, a tall man with tangled hair and bright blue eyes that gleamed in the darkness, in the distance. Logan. The boyfriend of Dana, my closest friend.

I felt my heart skip a beat. *Not at all. He couldn't be the culprit. Since we were little, I had known Logan. He was like family. He was unable to be my partner. That moon wouldn't be that mean, would it?

However, my wolf, who had been silent for years, was now actively pushing and encouraging me to go ahead. The connection, the irresistible pull, was there. I knew for sure.

Over the distance, Logan's eyes met mine, and his expression lowered. So did he. I could see it in the way he stood still, his fingers balled into fists, his mouth clenched.

His head trembled slowly.

"No," he said, his voice scarcely audible. "This can't be happening."

As I walked toward him, disregarding everyone else, the music and laughing receding into the background, desperation gnawed at my throat. I was alone with him. It was a genuine relationship. I know he felt it, and I felt it too.

He retreated. "Angela... don't."

I staggered to a stop, a shiver running down my back. Dana moved next to him, her hand resting possessively on his arm, and I felt sick to my stomach. Sensing the tension, she narrowed her eyes and peered between us.

With mistrust in her voice, she questioned, "Logan?"

"Dana, hold on-" he began, but she had already given me a cold glance.

"Angela," Dana's voice was low and bitter. "You're doing what?"

My eyes fell to the floor as my cheeks burned. The attraction, however, remained strong and indisputable. "I... Unable to discover the proper words, I said, "I do not know the way to give an explanation for it." "However, Logan is my friend."

Dana's face became stern, and the incredulity in her gaze turned into unbridled rage. "You are telling lies." She took a stride toward me and pointed accusingly. "Don't you find it unbearable to see us happy?"

"Please, Dana." I muttered as the connection pulled at me, making me feel things I didn't feel. Logan is sorry. His sin. And underneath it all, his determination.

Logan's forceful voice broke the tension as he said, "No." "She's being honest, Dana."

Dana's lips quivered as her face became pale and she stepped back. "You're actually her mate?" She looked as devastated as I did for a minute, and her voice broke.

Logan turned toward me, however, his eyes cold and devoid of any love or sign of the connection that held us together. He said in a quiet, low whisper that swung like a dagger into me.

"You are rejected, Angela."

Like a glass heart shattering into a thousand pieces, the words broke something deep within of me. I let out a cry; the agony was immediate and intense, unlike anything I had ever experienced. I felt empty and numb as it blazed through me, hot and cold.

"Logan..." There was hardly a breath in my voice. I staggered back, gripping my chest as the link broke and something lovely and warm died inside of me. My knees gave way.

I could hardly hear the hushed voices, the critical looks, or the whispers surrounding me. The nothingness was the only sensation I had. Logan's rejection left a void.

Dana snarled, her words piercing me like a poisonous serpent, "Get out." We don't have you here, Angela. You ought to have avoided becoming involved.

I made myself gaze at her in order to see the rage and admiration in her eyes. Her desire was for me to go. They all wanted me gone, the pack.

"Please." I succeeded, my voice cracking. "Dana, we are pals."

With her arms crossed, she sneered. "We were pals. Friends don't attempt to snatch one other's partners, however.

I wanted to fight and clarify that I wasn't at blame and that I hadn't chosen this. However, the reality was that nothing I said could undo what I had lost. or how I had unintentionally betrayed her.

I took a step back and staggered away from them, from the pack, from the one home I had ever known, my eyes watering. They all looked on in quiet, with anyone contacting me or halting me.

Everyone took her word for it. Every one of them thought I was at fault.

As I raced, the forest closed in around me, and the moonlight filtered through the trees, leading me more into the darkness. With every stride, the rejection's searing ache tore at me. My wolf whined in grief at the rejection that had broken us, the loss, and the broken connection.

My breath was ragged, and I clutched my arms about myself, thinking, "This isn't how it was supposed to be." *Mates were thought to offer contentment and happiness. Not this.

When my heart ached so much that I was unable to go any more, I slumped at the foot of a tree and curled up. My inner wolf was wailing, lost, and shattered, and my chest felt like it was bursting open.

There was just one idea that ran through my head amid the quiet.

Here, I had nothing left.

After tonight, the Mooncrest Pack will never accept me. Additionally, I couldn't stand to see Logan with Dana again since I would always feel rejected when I looked into his eyes. I had no other option than to go. To begin again. Somewhere far from here, where nobody was aware of my humiliation or my suffering.

It was everything I could do to get up, but I did. I made myself keep going, step by step, going farther and further away from the spot I used to call home. Far from the pack, far from the life I had created, far from the connection that had promised joy and delivered nothing but destruction.

After giving the Mooncrest Pack's territory, where I'd always felt like I belonged, one more glance, I said to the darkness.

"Goodbye."

I turned my back on the only life I had ever known and ventured into the unknown with a sad heart but a strong resolve. I had a future ahead of me, somewhere, sometime. somewhere I might find wholeness once again.

The lingering emptiness, however, informed me that I would always bear this wound as I left the woodland. Logan's rejection would come back to torment me, reshaping me into something stronger. or just cooler.

In any case, there was no sign of the she-wolf who dreamt of her pack and mate, Angela Monroe. And I sensed a change in myself as I vanished into the night-a resolve that I would never experience such pain again.