Chapter One: Pain and Anguish

  Serena’s POV

  “I, Alpha Michael Greyson hereby reject you as my mate and the Luna of the Black Moon Pack.”

  The words resonate in my head over and over again. “I reject you, reject you, reject you, reject you, reject, reject, reject…”

  Rejection, something that I should be familiar with. Something that I AM familiar with. After all, my parents abandoned me when I was born. Me, an omega, the one caste in our world that is the rarest and supposed to be treasured, loved, cherished.

  But then, I should have known that no freaking good thing ever came to me. Not one. The one thing, the one thing that was supposed to give me comfort, give me joy and grant me an escape from all the pain I’ve been going through, my mate,- I gasp out, doubling over from the pain- doesn’t even want me.

 When I woke up today on my eighteenth birthday, I thought today was going to be a great day, the day I found mate and finally became complete. However, I didn’t expect this.

  I feel numb. Everything is muffled around me. I can’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears before then I feel it.

The pain. The excruciatingly horrible, terrible, pain that makes me feel like my insides are melting. Tears run down my cheeks and I fall down, clutching my knees in a fetal position as I manage to gasp out.

  “Why?”

  Michael walks towards me and I look up at him through blurry eyes, the pain in them questioning him, searching for an answer, a reason for this cruelty.

  He smirks and gives me an answer. An answer I already knew but was not ready to accept.

  “Because you’re a disgrace, a mistake. What werewolf can’t turn into their wolf. You’re more of a monster because you’re an omega. What a waste. You’re a disgrace to the moon goddess. You disgust me.” He spits out.

  As he speaks, each word is like a spear, piercing through my heart and making it bleed.

 It hurts because although he has rejected me, the connection is still there.

With each strand that represents my union already starting to fray, the link is still there, barely hanging on because I refuse to let it. Because I refuse to acknowledge his rejection of me.

  I crawl closer towards him, my knees scraping against the rough ground as I hold his leg and whimper. “Please, please don’t. Please, I’ll do anything. Please don’t reject me. You’re my mate.” I cry out.

  He kicks off my hand on his leg and crushes it beneath his boot as I cry out in pain.

  “Ahhhh! “Please, please, Michael, it hurts.”

  “Shut up, don’t call me your mate. Now say the words. Say it.” He screams in my face.

  I shake my head furiously. “I won’t do it. Please. You’re my fated mate.”

  He kicks me in the stomach, the pain causing a grunt from my lips. “That’s what you think.”

  As I clutch my hand to my aching belly, I wonder what he could have meant by that. We couldn’t be anything but fated mates.

  I look up at him with anguish in my eyes. “You may have rejected me but I won’t. You can’t make me.”

  Michael stands up from his crouched position in from of me and turns to his Beta, Dom.

  “We’ll see about that. Dom, hit her until she she’s ready to reject the mate bond.”

  Dom answers Michael, astonishment evident in his tone.

  “Now Alpha, maybe we shouldn’t. She already looks like she’s in more pain than what an average rejection would cause. Maybe we should-”

  Michael’s fury is evident when he uses his Alpha tone, leaving no room for Dom to question him.

  “Are you questioning your Alpha?”

  Waves of dominance are released and I see everyone through my blurred vision exposing their necks in submission as whimpers ring out into the night air.

  “No Alpha!” Everyone responds, although the question was directed at Beta Dom.

  “You two, hold her and make sure she doesn’t move. Don’t stop until my mate-” He spits out the word with so much contempt like it’s a disease.

  “is ready to reject the bond. In fact, anybody is free to take a swing at her until she’s ready to give up. I insist.”

  I feel the slight command behind that word. He is making sure anybody who has doubts know it’s not a mere suggestion.

  I feel the presence of the two people behind me though I can’t tell who it is. I am lifted off the ground and make to stand upright. I see Dom come in front of me, his expression regretful as he mouths the words “I’m sorry” to me.

 His eyes are pleading for me to understand.

  I look away and look at Michael instead. Begging, pleading with my eyes to make him stop, to make him end this nightmare. Instead, he sneers and tells Dom.

  “Make sure you don’t pull back your punches.”

  Dom grits his teeth and punches my stomach and I bend over from the impact and cough out blood, the metallic tang filling my mouth and it suddenly hurts to breathe.

 Dom probably broke a rib but I don’t fall because of the hands holding me up, leaving me open and defenseless for anyone to take I hit at me.

  One by one each of my pack mates come up and deliver a blow. I hear laughter in the background. Are they enjoying this?

  Then I begin to feel a different kind of pain from the literal soul crushing agony I’m experiencing.

Rather than run away from it, I embrace it but it still pales against the pain the fraying mate bond is making me feel.

  I feel someone yank my hair back while another punches me. I kick to the gut. I slap on my face. Another kick to the kidneys. My face is so battered that I barely see.

  “Enough!”