003. Mated and rejected...

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came. My throat felt tight, and my brain scrambled to make sense of the chaos spinning inside me. The dull pounding in my head grew louder, syncing with the frantic beat of my heart.

How did this happen? The last thing I remembered clearly was his lips on mine, and then—my gaze drifted down to where the sheets barely covered Roman's body.

Oh God. What had we done?

"What the hell are you doing in my bed?" Roman repeated sharply as he pushed himself up. His emerald eyes were no longer hazy with alcohol but hardened with confusion—and maybe regret.

"I—I don't know," I stammered, instinctively pulling the sheets up to cover myself. 

Heat flooded my cheeks as flashes of last night hit me like a freight train. The kiss, the roughness of his touch, the hardness of his member in me, the feverish way we collided into each other, desperately seeking something neither of us could define. 

And now this—the cold, harsh reality of daylight exposing everything.

Roman's frown deepened, and he dragged a hand through his tousled hair, his fingers catching on the strands as he tried to piece things together. "You don't know?" He snorted, throwing off the covers and swinging his legs off the bed. "Unbelievable." 

His tone was biting, filled with disbelief and something that sounded a lot like frustration.

I bit my lip, feeling the weight of guilt crush me, even though I wasn’t sure why I felt guilty. It wasn’t like either of us had planned this. We were both drunk—so, so drunk. The marriage, the rejection, and the suffocating pressure of the night had all driven us to this point. 

But none of that mattered now. 

Not to him.

"Look," I began softly, unsure of how to approach this, "whatever happened last night... it was a mistake. We were both—"

"A mistake," he repeated in a low voice edged with steel. He didn’t turn around. "Yeah. That about sums it up."

I flinched at his words, feeling the sting of his disapproval all over again. My chest tightened, and I could feel the tears pricking the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. 

Why did it hurt so much? Roman had made it clear from the moment we met that I was nothing more than a pawn in this political marriage. Last night had been nothing but an accident—a fleeting moment of weakness.

Still, something about the way he looked at me now felt different, sharper. Like he was fighting against something. 

As I gathered the courage to get out of bed, I suddenly felt it—a pull, a deep, magnetic force that thrummed through my entire being. It was more than just the physical closeness we’d shared; it was something primal, ancient.

I froze, my heart pounding in my chest. No… it couldn’t be.

Roman’s head snapped towards me, his eyes widening slightly. He felt it too—the mate bond. He must have felt it before me because he didn’t seem too shocked. The connection between us was unmistakable, demanding acknowledgment.

And then I heard it—two voices in my head, his wolf and mine echoing the same words, “Mate.”

My heart skipped a beat as I waited for a reaction from Alpha Roman. But instead of softening, his expression hardened even more, his jaw clenching in defiance.

"No," he muttered under his breath, as if trying to deny what we both knew. He walked towards the centre of the room angrily, yanking his clothes off the floor and pulling them on. "This changes nothing."

I blinked, my chest tightening. "Roman—"

Before I could finish, he was already beside me, gripping my arm firmly and pulling me up from the bed. The force of his grip sent a shock through my body, and I stumbled forward, barely keeping the sheet wrapped around me.

"Get dressed," he ordered in a cold voice, devoid of any emotion. "Now."

His tone left no room for argument. I scrambled to gather my clothes, feeling the mate bond settle over us like a suffocating fog. It felt wrong—unnatural—to be so close to him, to feel this connection, and yet to be treated like nothing.

Roman barely waited for me to finish dressing before yanking the door open and dragging me out of the room. 

His hand on my arm tightened painfully as he led me down the hallway, past several curious pack members. Their confused and curious gazes followed us but none dared to speak.

What was he doing?

I barely had time to catch my breath as we entered the common room—a large, open space where many of the pack members gathered. All eyes turned towards us as we stepped in. 

Whispers began to rise as they took in the scene—Roman’s harsh grip on me, the flush on my cheeks, and the tension between us.

Roman stopped abruptly in the center of the room, yanking me forward as if I were some prisoner being presented to the pack. I could see some familiar faces in the crowd, members who had attended our wedding just last night.

He turned toward the pack and began with a low voice. "This woman… This woman will no longer remain here. She is not welcome in this pack."

A collective gasp rippled through the room. I felt the weight of every gaze, the burn of every judgmental glance. My heart pounded painfully in my chest, disbelief surging through me. 

Was he sending me away?

I tried to wrench my arm from his grasp, desperate to say something, anything, to make him stop. "Roman, what are you—?"

But his grip only tightened as he shot me a an angry glance. His eyes—so cold, so hard—shut me down before I could utter another word. The bond between us was thrumming, alive and pulsing beneath the surface, but he was pushing it away, pushing me away.

"You are no Luna of mine," he announced, his voice cutting through the room like a knife. "And you are not my mate."

The last words sent a shockwave through me, like ice water thrown across my skin. The mate bond, that undeniable connection that’s supposed to bind us together, now felt like a noose tightening around my throat.

My breath hitched in my chest, and the room spun. This was it—the final blow. He wasn’t just rejecting me as his wife or the token Luna thrust into this marriage by circumstance. He was rejecting me as his mate.

The pack members began to murmur, their eyes widening in shock. A few looked at me with pity, but most seemed relieved, even satisfied. To them, I was an outsider—a woman forced into their world. Roman’s rejection was a return to order.

"Roman," I gasped, my voice barely a whisper. My throat felt raw as I fought to keep the tears from spilling over. "You can’t…"

He finally released my arm, and I stumbled back, his words ringing in my ears like the sound of a gavel striking the final judgment. "I, Alpha Roman D’Angelo  reject you, Ruby Blackwood, as my Luna and as my mate. You have no place here."

The pain was blinding, like my very soul was being torn apart. I could feel the mate bond weakening, fraying at the edges as his rejection took hold. 

The connection that had surged between us this morning—the one thing that had tied me to this new, terrifying life—was disintegrating, leaving me hollow.

"You’ll leave the pack immediately," Roman added as he turned away. "You have no right to remain here."

I stared at him, my entire world crumbling around me. The man who was supposed to be my mate, the one destined to stand by my side, was rejecting everything—me, our bond, our future—without a second thought.

Tears blurred my vision, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not in front of him. Not in front of all these people who were watching my humiliation unfold.

A figure stepped forward from the crowd—Roman’s Beta I suppose. His expression was unreadable, but I could see the hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "Alpha," he said quietly, "are you sure about this?"

Roman didn’t even hesitate. "I’m sure."