Reborn, I Rejected My Alpha First Chapter 13

One year, almost to the night, after Celeste collapsed at my altar, it happened again.

Different hall. Different girl. A new she–wolf named Nessa, recently taken into the pack, small and trempling, standing in front of my youngest trade steward, Dalia, with tears welling.

“…and I know it’s my fault, but if you tell Elder Fenwick I lost the Stormridge ledger, he’ll send me back and I can’t go back. My mother’s sick. So could you just say the rain ruined it? Please? You’re so trusted. Nobody would ever question you.”

I stopped ten feet away.

Old ghosts have excellent hearing.

Dalia, twenty–two, brilliant, kind in exactly the way I used to be, was already softening. “Oh, don’t cry, it’s okay,

can probably-”

“Dalia.”

They both turned. Nessa’s tears froze mid–fall at the sight of me. The Alpha. The she–wolf from the stories every new pack member hears on their first night.

“Say out loud what’s being asked of you,” I said pleasantly.

Dalia hesitated. “Nessa lost the ledger and she wants me to tell Fenwick the rain ruined it.”

“So. To lie to an Elder. With your name, your rank, and your future on the line. To cover a mistake that isn’t yours.” I turned to Nessa, gently. “Is that right?”

Her chin wobbled magnificently. “I just… my mother-”

“Your mother’s health,” I said, “is a reason to tell Fenwick the truth quickly, ask for help rebuilding the ledger, and learn the copying system by Friday. It is not currency you get to spend out of Dalia’s account.” I paused. “Do you understand the difference?”

The hall had gone silent. Nessa looked at me for a long moment, and I watched, with something almost like hope, to see which way she’d break.

The tears stopped. Her shoulders dropped. What remained was a frightened young wolf who had been taught,

somewhere along the way, that crying was a master key.

“I’ll tell him,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Dalia.“.

“The scribes keep copies of everything for thirty days,” I said. “Go. Now.”

She went. Practically ran.

Dalia let out a breath. “How did you know she was-”

“I didn’t know she was anything. She might be a perfectly decent girl who panicked. That’s the point.odded toward the door. “You don’t refuse because everyone is a liar. You refuse because your kindness belongs to you. It isn’t a public well. Anyone who demands it for free, with tears, with guilt, with you’re so trusted, is already telling you what they think you’re for.“.

Dalia was quiet. Then: “They say you learned that the hard way.”

“They have no idea,” I said, “how hard.”

That Saturday, on the north ridge, Kael was waiting at the top with something small in his hand.

“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly.

“You don’t know what I think.”

“You think it’s a mating stone, and your face just did the thing it does right before you build a wall.”

He opened his palm. A tiny silver key on a leather cord. Too small to open anything.

“Lily told me about the wolf,” he said. “The one you almost beat, the night we met. A year on, I figured the record should show it’s dead. And that you’re the one holding the keys now.”

I turned it over in my fingers, and to my absolute horror, my eyes went hot.

“Kael.”

“Mm.”

“Ask the question you’ve been not–asking for six months.”

He took his time. He always took his time, this male who walked on the cliff side so I never had to.

“Before I do,” he said, “you should know something. I didn’t come to Silverpine that night as the King’s Hand.”

The wind went still.

“The Hand was busy at the coast. When the Crown’s Right lit up the royal moonstone, ninety years after

anyone last used it, I didn’t send someone.” His grey eyes held mine, steady and unashamed. “I came myself.”

My breath caught.

“Seraphina Vale,” said the Lycan King. “I’m not asking because the Moon told me to. I’m asking because d choose you every time. Will you be my mate?”