He rejected me.

On the morning of my twenty-first birthday, I came awake slowly, feeling different, and I knew it was because my mark had appeared while I had been in an unnaturally deep sleep -- I had been warned that would happen. With my eyes closed, I put my left wrist in front of my face and then slowly, slowly, opened my eyes.

The mark wasn't there.

I shot up in bed, looking frantically at my right wrist, my arms, even my legs. Once, twice, three times I checked all of my limbs.

Nothing. I had no mark.

Since that left only one option -- impossible though it seemed -- my heart began pounding wildly as I raced to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

And there it was, curving along the outside of my left eye. My mate brand.

I sucked in a breath, disbelieving, my fingers gently following the slightly raised lines.

Somewhere between a brand and a tattoo, the mark was permanently etched into my skin. A few simple lines showed a wolf with its head thrown back, his neck dissolving into a few sharp swirls.

It was the Alpha's mark, and everyone knew that mark because the Alpha's mark was the symbol for our pack. The fact that my mark was on my face also pointed to me as the Howl.

I was the Alpha's Howl.

Only the Alpha and his Howl had the mate marks on their faces, leaving no room for anyone to doubt our places in the pack.

He was the Alpha.

I was his Howl.

He was eight years older than I was, and his mark had been there since he had turned twenty-one. His girlfriend's mark did not match his and hers was not on her face, so he knew -- everyone knew -- Lindsay Morgan was not his Destined One. She was not his Howl.

I was. He was mine.

A surge of possessiveness rose up in me, and I felt my wolf snarl, her jaws snapping at the thought of another female with my Destined One.

She was immediately territorial. Restless. Wanting to get to her mate so we could Take the Blood and mate.

After I threw on some shorts and a tank top, I ran barefoot to the Alpha's house, about a mile from my apartment complex. His house was a small log cabin set by the river's curve -- I had the idle thought we would have to build onto it to accommodate all of our children since Alphas were known to be prolific -- and I finally climbed up the steps and knocked on the front door. A minute later Lindsay Morgan opened the door, and I took a step toward her, baring my teeth, not liking the scent of the Alpha -- my Alpha -- all over her.

The color drained from Lindsay's face as she noticed my mark. I'm sure she'd been dreading this day for years, since the very moment they'd become lovers.

It took her a moment to find her voice, and when she did, it was shaky when she called for him, my mate, her as-of-this-moment former boyfriend she'd been with for the last three years. Every pack member thought Night had been foolish to have a girlfriend, especially so serious a one, when she was obviously not his Destined One. Yet he had backed everyone down when they had brought it up to him as an unwise move -- he had boldly declared the two of them to be in love. Again, I felt my lips pull back from my teeth, and Lindsay bared hers in return as the Alpha walked up to us.

Reeking of her.

That was going to end. Maybe an acid bath was in order to remove her nasty stink from my Destined One.

Night stilled when he saw me, saw my face, saw his Destined One in front of him after all these years.

"Night," Lindsay's voice was a soft cry, pleading for something, though I wasn't sure what. But I would.

Night's golden eyes met my green ones, and for a brief moment, energy arced between us, fierce and strong -- until he looked away, breaking the connection.

Brushing past me, he stepped onto his porch and howled, calling all of the pack adults to the Den, our community room, a place for all wolves in the pack to meet, have fun, be with one another.

He looked back at me without looking at my face, and took hold of my upper arm. With his other hand, he snagged Lindsay Morgan's hand -- my arm, her hand -- and walked us toward the Den.

Without saying a word.

Wolves from all over the pack lands were converging on the Den, some in human form, some in wolf form, all of them curious about this rare summons so early on a Saturday morning, no less. Night took both of us to stand by the fireplace.

For one brief, fleeting moment, when he first brought me to the gathering of our pack, I'd had hope. Even though Night had grabbed me painfully by the upper arm on the way over here and had held Lindsay Morgan's hand, I'd held onto a small bit of hope that he was about to announce me as his Howl. What other option was there for him, for us?

But the look on his face scared me. He was not a happy wolf.

Once everyone had gathered, looking at the three of us curiously, before he addressed our pack, his eyes had met mine again. Then I'd jolted with what was happening in that moment: our hearts began beating in sync, our breathing integrated, breath for breath, our mate brands pulsed, and those first furls of connection had just started to form when he snapped himself out of the mate daze as he'd, too, realized what was happening between us. Night had turned away, breaking off what had been our beginning. I started to crumple at the loss, my breathing starting to pick up in panic, knowing now this meeting was not going to end well for me -- but he gripped my arm tighter and forced me upright.

He turned to me and, in a low voice vibrating with hate, gave me two Alpha decrees I could not ignore. "Do not shift. Do not take your eyes off of me."

He must have been afraid I would shift and rip his girlfriend's throat out. And there was only one reason why I'd do that. No. Please, no. Please don't do this to me.

But as I was to learn, it was not fear of that happening as to why he gave me those decrees. It was to teach me a lesson I would never forget.

"Neera Karis appeared at my home this morning, on her twenty-first birthday, with my mate brand on her face."

All eyes turned to me, although they had already noticed that I bore the mark of the Alpha's Howl.

"I find no joy in this one." He pointed at me, his voice scathing and derogatory, and I was unable to look away. "There is nothing within me that feels the pull of the bond, that she is truly my Destined One."

He may as well have been slicing me open with his claws for all of the hurt he was inflicting. Rejecting your Destined One went against everything we were as wolves, and he was lying. I knew he had felt our connection.

Murmurs ran throughout the room as everyone began to realize they were about to witness something so rare, not one person here had witnessed it, although most of them had heard faint rumors of it happening in other packs throughout history. The growing tension was becoming unbearable, and I heard many growls and yips of the wolves as they became uncomfortable with something so unnatural that they had to express their unease.

"So I state here and now, with all of our pack as witnesses, that I reject Neera Karis. I reject her as my Destined One. I reject her as my Howl. I declare my loyalty to Lindsay Morgan, and it is to her that I declare my allegiance and my devotion."

He may as well have reached his hand into my chest and pulled out my heart. My wolf howled, desperately trying to break free but unable to ignore the Alpha decrees.

"Please," I pleaded with him, my voice a mere whisper that I knew he could hear because I was his Howl, no matter what he declared. "Please, I'm begging you, don't do this."

He stroked her face in front of me, while with his other hand, he undid his pants, and pushed them down, his cock huge and hard.

"Please, don't do this." My lips were barely moving, and even if I wasn't being held back by the Alpha's decrees, I don't know if I could have moved.

Lindsay Morgan smiled at me and slowly bent over a chair she had pulled over so she was facing me, and he pushed up her dress, and without warning, he pushed his cock into her and began fucking her, his eyes on me the whole time. And try as I might to fight it, because of his decree, I could not take my eyes off of him as he pounded into her, groaning in pleasure as he fucked her, hard.

We were wolves. Nudity and public sex, rough and raw and wild, were nothing to us. It happened all the time, and no one thought anything of it.

But never, ever had anyone seen sex used to reject a Destined One. And not just any Destined One -- this was the Alpha rejecting his Howl.

Night must have been deadly sure that he had enough strength not to need me. When an Alpha and his Howl mated, when the bond was secured by Taking the Blood, the two would shift to form one wolf, the Bonded Wolf, the size and ferocity of which could be challenged only by another Alpha and Howl Bonded wolf.

He kept his eyes on me the entire time he was fucking her, and even as he came, he would not close his eyes or take them from mine. His eyes burned as he pulled out of her, then turned her around, pressed a violent kiss to her mouth -- still with his eyes on me -- then pushed her down on her knees to clean him off as he watched me watch him. Watch them.

He saw the agony in my eyes. He saw the pain -- he may even have felt it. And he rejoiced in my pain.

Not only was he giving up our Bonded wolf, he was giving up having children. A male wolf could have sex with another female who was not his Destined One, he could even have the sensation of an orgasm, but he had not even one drop of ejaculate. A male wolf only had ejaculate with his Destined One, could only have children with her.

I could have given him everything a wolf wanted, especially an Alpha wolf such as Night. Yet he had just rejected me. My wolf was now howling her agony. And the human part of me? It had crumbled into dust at being rejected publicly. Humiliated publicly.

Forced to watch Night fuck the woman he chose over his Destined One, his Howl.

When he had zipped up his pants, all pack members uncomfortably eyeing Night with wide eyes, he spoke to them again.

"She," again with the derogatory tone as he pointed at me, not even calling me by name, "is now to be the lowest member of the pack and treated as such. She is Zeta."

I was already down, but still he kept kicking. So it wasn't enough what he had done to me. The rejection, the humiliation, the pain of watching my Destined One fuck another -- he was now changing my pack status to lower than the epsilons. Instead of being comfortably in the middle as a gamma, I was now the lowest of all; I was a Zeta. In case I had missed the lesson, he was reinforcing it.

I was now the lowest of the low. I was rejected. I was nothing.

He turned to me, and with a cold look, told me to leave without a word. It was issued as a decree so I couldn't stay and go after Lindsay Morgan as I wanted to. Curled into Night's side with his arm hugging her close, she smiled at me and wiggled her fingers in a mocking goodbye.

I stumbled out of the silent room, all eyes on me, looking down to see if I was actually leaving a trail of blood behind me on the floor or if it just felt that way. No one laughed, no one whispered, no one catcalled, no one howled. They were all stunned, most likely. It was bad enough to hear of someone rejecting his mate, but for the Alpha to do so? Unprecedented. I left in complete silence, my shoulders back, my chin up, needing to retain my dignity despite the way the Alpha had demolished me.

On autopilot, I ran back to my apartment, my wolf refusing to come out. She was beaten, agonized, laying on her side and panting with the pain. I wanted to do the same, but I couldn't. I couldn't lay down and die for my pack members to find me.

I needed to find the Raevyn. The legendary Raevyn Guérir. There were rumors about her, many whispers, and one of them was that, in those rare cases of mate rejection, she could help with the pain of the rejection. She could not sever the connection -- that was impossible -- but she could help with the pain so thinking and functioning was possible. It was gossip, rumors, nothing more. But she was the only chance I had because living with this pain? Unbearable. Living as a Zeta? Unthinkable. Living with having to see my Destined One with Lindsay Morgan? Not possible.

Night would either have to issue a permanent decree that I could not touch Lindsay Morgan or he'd run the risk of me attacking her...and then he would rip my throat out the first time my wolf went after her. By not issuing a permanent decree, he was essentially sentencing me to death. Even without the Taking of the Blood, no wolf could stand to watch her Destined One with another. It went against our most basic nature.

So on this, my twenty-first birthday, my Destined One, the Alpha of the Aibek Pack, had rejected me, his Howl.

He rejected me.