Page 23

Kylie

Instinct took over, and I started running.

My lycan sprang forward without hesitation.

My feet pounded the ground as my body mindlessly flew ahead.

I knew Maximus was going to reject me the second he summoned me into his office.

That was a truth I had to face. I realized he was shutting me out after a day of complete and utter silence, and that could only mean one thing.

I braced myself for the harsh reality that was coming and convinced myself to expect it.

I wanted to endure it with dignity. It drained me more than I cared to admit, but I made it out alive.

I weathered it alone and didn’t stumble, but no matter how prepared I was, I would still flinch when getting punched in the stomach.

My suspicion was correct. Maximus rejected me because I did not meet his standards for a mate. My greatest fear had become a reality. The Moon Goddess gave me a mate, just for him to throw me away.

Only it wasn’t his idea to reject me.

It was that bitch’s idea.

How could it be possible for another female to whisper in his ear enough for him to reject me?

If he trusted her opinion over the Moon Goddess’s, Nova meant more to him than I thought.

All this time, I focused my energy on becoming stronger when I should have been focusing on keeping him away from her.

My paws squished against the wet ground, and my claws scraped against the pavement before I made it to the edge of the forest. I pulled myself out of my thoughts of self-pity to focus on where I was going.

Where could I go? Returning to Ironhide wasn’t feasible.

My father would just kill me or not even let me onto the property.

Either way, I was already dead in his eyes.

No love lost there.

Other packs would alert Maximus to my location if he cared enough to look. I was a familiar face throughout the kingdom. Former queen, I had to remind myself.

Rogue territory. That is what we are now.

My lycan’s instincts never lied. Without my connection to Maximus and with the entire kingdom knowing I was once their queen, no pack would dare give me shelter, not without fearing the consequences.

Being a rogue, especially one bearing the shame I did, granted me permanent persona non grata status.

Maximus would unravel at the thought of my departure.

Even if he had already rejected me, his beast would never truly accept it.

If I sought refuge in another pack, especially among other males, before the severed bond had time to fade, his mind wouldn’t hold.

It would drive him to the brink, to madness.

Do you know the way?

I can get us there.

She whimpered as we fled. She didn’t like the weight of starting over with nothing pressing down on us.

The thought of Maximus even considering another female’s counsel was unbearable.

The path ahead wasn’t an easy one, but it had to be taken because there was no way we could go back after she recommended my rejection and exile.

My lycan lashed out at the mere suggestion, and it took every ounce of restraint to keep her from tearing Nova apart.

We arrive tomorrow at the earliest. We will need to hunker down in the woods when I become too tired.

That made sense. The rogue territory was on the outskirts and in between another kingdom. Our pack was in the kingdom’s heart, making it easy for Maximus to travel to the others when needed. With it being in the center, it also meant a fair bit of travel for me to get where I needed.

The rogue territory would be my safest bet. All the stories depicted rogues as ruthless individuals who would stop at nothing to dismantle packs for their necessary resources, yet it was the only place I could consider seeking refuge in my state. Without a pack, I was a rogue.

Mate didn’t want us. We need to do what’s best for us.

I could hear the heartbreak in her voice as my lycan talked to me.

It angered her to know Maximus listened to Nova, and it gave her the strength to get us out of there.

It didn’t stop her from feeling the pain of the severed bond, though.

He shouldn’t have listened to that female.

No, he shouldn’t have. Max wants his people to trust and respect him. Nova knows that and used it to her advantage.

We should go back and kill her. Rip open her neck and taste her blood.

I laughed. I felt it was weird to laugh; my heart felt ripped apart. Inside my chest still hurt from the rejection. This conversation didn’t help it stop throbbing.

Do you think she is worth it?

Anyone is worth killing if they come between you and your mate.

She won.

She shouldn’t have, Kylie. Something was wrong with our bond. You couldn’t feel it?

If there was a flaw in my bond with Maximus, I never noticed.

The sheer bliss of being mated to him drowned out any doubts, eclipsing everything else.

It had been wonderful—maybe not the perfect union I once imagined, but still something I cherished.

He stepped away from me with an ease that didn’t align with what I had always been told about mate bonds, but no two pairs were the same.

Amara and Eli’s connection had its own distinct shape, proving that bonds varied.

Some mates could handle time apart without the pull driving them to madness, but separation was unbearable for others.

It all depended on circumstance, history, and something deeper that cannot be put into words.

Max is an extremely dominant alpha. He shouldn’t have even considered rejecting us because another female told him to.

Another round of the bond throbbed at the mention of his name. I had to learn to disregard it; its eventual fading was inevitable, though the timeframe was uncertain.

She was right, though. Dominant males were overprotective of their mates and wouldn’t want them out of their sight after they became bonded. I understood most stayed put for about a week. Yet Maximus seemed content to leave the suite the next day. He was only close during my illness.

It’s for the best. Maybe… maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake.

My lycan growled at me. The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes, little one.

Then why was the rejection ritual created? I retorted.

Because what you see as right or moral in your mind is based on mankind’s limited experiences and worldview. The Moon Goddess, however, sees all—a grand panopticon overseeing everything since creation.

So, you are saying humans created the ritual, but the Moon Goddess doesn’t actually agree with us rejecting our mates?

She hummed inside me, agreeing with my statement. There’s free will for a reason. If the Moon Goddess stepped in any time she felt people were getting off track, she wouldn’t have time for anything else.

Well, that made sense. It didn’t make the pain of being rejected go away, though. It hurt more knowing he made this choice against the Moon Goddess’s wishes. If our creator believed we were stronger together, why throw it away?

That was something I doubted I’d ever get an answer to.

Staying off the main road so no one would catch us running toward the rogue territory meant going through the rough terrain of the outskirts where the packs wouldn’t dare run.

Roots jutted through every path, and bushes obscured everything, making it difficult to navigate.

It slowed me down but still allowed me to put a fair amount of distance between myself and Maximus.

Distance would help the bond settle faster than it would have if I stayed.

Doing this was for my own good. Being around in the kingdom would only sink me into a depression I wouldn’t be able to dig myself out of.

What if Maximus took another mate? That would tear me apart to watch the person I loved create a life and family with another.

If he chose Nova, we would commit a serious crime of killing the queen and luna. My lycan growled.

If I could believe I wouldn’t want to kill her for stealing my mate, I would oppose what my beast said. Picturing them together on matching thrones that I didn’t even get a chance to sit in yet caused my anger to boil.

I hate to admit it, but if he chose anyone, I hope it wouldn’t be her.

If he had any self-respect, he won’t.

The conversation made it easy to ignore the pain of the rejection.

My muscles felt sore already, and we weren’t in rogue territory yet.

Off-road trekking offered superior rogue tracking, avoiding areas frequented by packs.

All the lycan scents I was picking up on meant I was on the right track.

If I could make it to at least the halfway point, I could finish the rest tomorrow.

The dull ache in my chest called out to Maximus. The bond throbbed to be completed again, making the tugging return to my chest from when I first met my mate. It urged my return to him, to re-establish our connection.

No. That’s my past. I needed to leave my past behind if I wanted a better future, and I needed to keep moving forward if I wanted a better life for my pup.

My pup. I was pregnant… without my mate. This would be a challenge, one I did not know how to overcome. How in the world would I manage to do this without money, a pack, or any other resources?

Do you think our mate would have thought twice about rejecting us if he learned of the pup?

Good question. I don’t know.

It was a question I refused to face, one I already knew the answer to.

Maximus didn’t want me, and I had to accept that.

Even if his desire to stay stemmed from wanting a pup instead of a mate bond, the truth remained: he wanted an heir from me, not me.

And that wasn’t enough. That wasn’t what I deserved.

No.

I deserve someone who wants me for who I am, not what I can provide them. I need to learn to love myself if I want to be happy, and if I want my pup to understand their self-worth, then I cannot be a whiny little weakling.

Before my body gave up entirely, I found a small cave that would provide me cover from the weather if it rained. I went far enough in to keep myself from being seen and curled into a ball, exhaustion taking over as soon as I got comfortable. Tomorrow marked a new beginning.

And I planned to make the most of it.