Reborn, I Rejected My Alpha First Chapter 02

didn’t answer Corvin Thorne that night. I let him wait.

In my last life, I learned his name from a guard who liked to talk. A cheerful little story about the generous Alpha who donated the silver for the new cells in the Pit. Money is patient.

So was I.

At dawn, Ines Marlowe arrived at my kitchen table with two clerks and a trunk full of pack records. Law–Keeper of Silverpine for thirty years. My father’s oldest friend. Zero patience for men who smile too much.

“The Elders meet at noon,” she said. “With Damon rejected, charged, and held at Greyhollow, the Blood Clause runs backward. Every claim he made through you returns to you.”

“So I hold everything.”

“You hold everything.” Ines slid a ledger across the table. “Now. Thorne. If he closes the southern border, we lose the trade road, the salt, the medicine shipments. Half the Elders will beg you to free his daughter.”

“Let them beg.”

“Seraphina.” She took off her spectacles. “As your Law–Keeper, I have to ask. You ordered a camera installed

in one alcove, on one specific day. You had Rook watching Celeste for three weeks. You have six years of

Damon’s private ledgers, copied in spring.” She tapped the page. “It’s as if you were preparing for a war before

anyone declared one.”

I held her gaze. “She–wolves are always at war, Ines. Some of us just admit it.”

She studied me, then put her spectacles back on. “Fine. Keep your secrets. Noon. Wear red. Old wolves respect

red.”

At a quarter past eleven, Ravenna Blackwood arrived uninvited, resurrected from her fainting bench and

dressed for battle.

“I’ve come to talk sense into you,” she announced. “My son made a mistake. Males make mistakes. That stray seduced him. You saw her. All tears and helplessness-”

“She testified the plan was his. Before the King’s Hand.”

“She’s lying to save herself!”

“Ravenna.” I folded my hands. “Your son ordered the camera left broken. He chose the alcove. He arranged

Morwen’s ambush. He wrote a script for a girl to poison herself so his mate, the mother of his child, would rot in silver for a murder that never happened. So he could take my lands and my daughter.”

Her mouth worked soundlessly.

“Do you know what silver does to a wolf after a year?” I asked quietly. “I do.”

“How could you possibly-”

“Get out of my kitchen.”

Her composure cracked, and the real Ravenna came out. “You bound yourself to my son with nothing but your father’s old name and a crumbling house! Everything you have, the Blackwood line gave you! Destroy my son and I’ll see you leave this pack with nothing!”

I stood, took a rolled document from the drawer, and laid it before her gently, the way you set a plate in front of

a guest.

“My father’s blood founded this pack. His hands built this house. His land charter names the Vale line as Silverpine’s only heirs. Read it.” I smiled. “The Blackwood banner hangs in the Great Hall because I hung it there as a mating gift. It comes down Thursday.”

Ravenna snatched up her shawl and swept to the door. There she turned, trembling, for the last word.

“You’ll regret this. Pack is all a she–wolf has in the end.”

“Funny,” I said. “That’s exactly what I told myself while your son’s mistress was raising my daughter.”

She stared at me, utterly lost.

I checked the clock. “Eleven forty. I have Elders to conquer. See yourself out.”

At 11:58, walking toward the council doors in red, my phone buzzed one last time.

Corvin Thorne: The new moon, Luna Blackwood. Or I bury you.

I typed three words and hit send as the doors swung open.

It’s Alpha Vale.

Inside, twelve Elders rose from their seats.

And at the far end of the chamber, leaning against the wall like he’d been waiting for me, stood Kael Draven.