Rejected Princess

The thick woodlands that encircled our pack's domain were illuminated by a silvery light created by the moon, which was high in the nighttime sky. Despite the refreshing wind caressing my skin as I stood on the edge of the trees, the fire inside me remained unquenchable. My chest thumped with an unrelenting heartbeat, and each breath I took seemed like I was breathing in a thousand uncontrollable emotions.

Standing a few steps away from me, with his steely gaze and powerful jaw tightly clenched, was Damen Phoenix, the Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack. He gave me a glance, but it didn't seem like he was seeing me. Between us, the quiet became heavier, the strain growing like a stretched-out thread ready to break.

"Asteria Griffin is not my mate, Damen Phoenix."

His words cut like shards of ice through me; his voice was distant and frigid. I briefly lost consciousness when the air abruptly departed my lungs. As my chest constricted, I fixed my gaze on him, tears gathering in my eyes and distorting my vision.

"However..." With a murmur of incredulity, I spoke the word. I felt as if something had moved under my feet and I was in a place I didn't know.

As soon as our eyes met two weeks earlier, I sensed the attraction, the indisputable connection between us. I knew it deep down when I first saw him. Damen was my partner. which the Moon Goddess had selected for me. the one for whom I had spent my whole life longing. And yet, there he was, dismissing me as if I were nothing.

Nothing at all.

I managed to mutter, "You can't be serious," at last, my voice trembling with pain. Why? What makes you want to act in this way?

There was a brief flash in his eyes that seemed to be sorrow. However, it vanished as swiftly as it appeared. He assumed the stance of a man resolute to maintain his dignity and show no signs of weakness, crossing his arms over his big chest. Damen was the most formidable Alpha in the area, a leader bred from decades of supremacy and strength. However, the guy I believed and anticipated he would be was not the one in front of me at that moment.

"I need a capable Luna to lead the pack. His voice was firm as he spoke, but there was a darker undertone to what he was saying. "Someone strong, someone who can lead beside me without hesitation." Asteria, you're not welcome here. You're just too... frail. I have to avoid getting sidetracked.

"Distracted?" Echoing, I felt the rage rising from the depths of my being. "Is power at issue here? For you, that's all this is?

"Try not to take it personally."

I laughed bitterly, my heart fracturing a little more each moment that goes by. Please don't be offended. Could I not take it personally that he was rejecting me and breaking the tie the Goddess herself had forged between us? His rejection lingered between us, raw and unsaid, and every part of my body hurt. Our relationship was already beginning to deteriorate.

How was I not going to take it personally? Herren, this is how it ends! This is fate, I thought to myself as I inhaled deeply and tried not to cry out. You are not allowed to ignore that.

"I've done it already." He ended any possibility of hope with a decisive tone.

I couldn't decide if to cry or scream. I had been waiting all my life for this, for him, for the connection that all wolves yearned to have. Furthermore, he was discarding it as if it had no value. As if my words had no meaning.

However, there was more to his refusal. To him, it was about more than simply my strength or lack thereof. No, a deeper issue existed. The way his hands clinched as if he was hiding something from me, and the way his gaze wavered with hesitation-I could feel it. Something he dared not even tell himself.

Subsequently, I realized.

Softly, more to my own benefit, I whispered, "You're scared."

His eyes met mine, and for the first instance, a fracture appeared in his armor. An nearly instantaneous burst of vulnerability that vanished.

He grumbled, but it was impossible to see beyond the blatant falsehood. "I'm not scared of anything."