Rejected Fated Mate, I Choose the Vampire

Synopsis

At the coming-of-age mate ball, Ryan Frostridge, Alpha of the Northland Pack, revealed the oath to Luna that I'd painstakingly written over three months. I stood by the Sacred Spring. Silver ink still clung to my fingertips. I'd personally smoothed the edges of the parchment scroll. Every line of the congratulations was carefully rewritten, tracing over Ryan's cracked lunar mark during his full moon frenzy, one stroke at a time. I thought he was finally going to make our mate bond official. But then he reached for Vera Greyson's hand. The whole pack went wild with cheers. Vera wore a white gown, and the Moonlight Necklace, symbol of the future Luna, was glinting at her neck. Her smile was soft, like snow that had been waiting for its moment to fall. Suddenly, the mate mark on my wrist cracked open. The pain stabbed through me, like someone prying a burning silver needle out from between my bones. I clung to the Sacred Spring's stone platform, but my knees gave way, and I sank to the ground. Ryan stood atop the raised steps. The lights caught in his gray-blue eyes, cold as the deepest frozen lake in Northland. He glanced down at me. Just once. Then, right in front of the Pack Council, he recited the oath. "I, Ryan Frostridge, Alpha of the Northland Pack, reject Evelyn Lorne as my fated mate." In that moment, the entire hall fell silent. My inner wolf stayed silent. Because even though I'd been an adult for three years, I'd never once shifted. I was the most famous no-wolf Omega in Northland. Vera glided over to me, the hem of her white gown skimming the edge of the Sacred Spring. She leaned in, her words a whisper meant only for me. "Evelyn Lorne, for a no-wolf Omega like you, even being allowed to kneel here and offer your congratulations to the Luna is more mercy than you deserve." I looked up at Ryan. He didn't defend me. He just slipped the oath to Luna I'd written into Vera's hand. "Evelyn," he said, his voice low. "Don't make a scene." It hit me then that he knew exactly what he was doing. He'd known all along I was his fated mate, and he'd already chosen to reject me.