Abandoned By My Alpha And Pup Now Their Rival’s Luna Chapter 16
THE REJECTIONÂ
To see Maeve one last time, Grayson plays his final card.
He sends word through the Council that he is ready to formally execute the Rejection Ritual.
She finally appears.
Outside the Council Hall, Maeve stands in a long black coat. Her eyes are as still and cold as a frozen lake.
Leo hides behind his father’s leg, timidly whispering, “Mom.”
Maeve glances at him, but doesn’t acknowledge him.
Grayson steps forward, his voice desperate, his eyes pleading. “Maeve, please. We don’t need to do this. I can still feel it… the bond is still there, I know it is.”
Maeve lets out a cold, mocking laugh. “The bond is already dead, Grayson. I signed the pact, and we’ve been separated for three years. It withered away naturally a long time ago.”
“Then why come here?” Grayson steps closer, a pathetic glimmer of hope in his eyes. “If it’s dead, why do the ritual? You still care, don’t you?”
“I want it done,” she says, her voice leaving no room for his delusions. “I want it clean and on pack record.”
“For Julian?” Grayson’s breath hitches. “Leo and I have been waiting for you. How could you just throw us away?”
“You arranged those three setups just to get this exact result, didn’t you?” Maeve cuts him off, her tone dripping with absolute disdain.
Grayson’s eyes widen. “What?”
“That first male. The one who stumbled into my room. That was Julian.” Maeve stares dead into his eyes. “You didn’t arrange it, but you allowed Serena to frame me.”
Grayson stops breathing.
“Three times, Grayson. Three times. And you never once bothered to investigate?” She steps closer, pronouncing every word with lethal precision. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t have happened three times.”
His throat feels like it’s been crushed.
After a long, agonizing silence, his voice is barely a whimper:
“About the setups… and about Lyra… I’m so sorry.”
At the mention of her mother, Maeve’s eyes flash red for a fraction of a second.
“Save your breath,” Maeve says, her voice echoing with the authority of a true Luna.
She doesn’t wait for him. She takes the lead, her eyes locking onto his broken ones.
“I, Maeve of the Shadowfall Pack, reject you, Grayson of the Obsidian Pack, as my mate and my Alpha.”
The words strike Grayson like physical blows. He shakes his head frantically, tears finally spilling over his cheeks. “No… Maeve, please, no…”
“Accept it,” she commands, her voice laced with an icy, undeniable power.
Grayson’s throat bobs. He knows if he refuses a formal rejection from a chosen mate, the Council will strip him of his rank anyway. He has no choice.
“I… I, Grayson of the Obsidian Pack…” he chokes on a sob, “…accept your rejection.”
The moment the words leave his lips, Grayson drops to his knees. A phantom agony rips through his chest, a suffocating, tearing pain mourning the final, absolute death of a bond he took for granted. He gasps for air, clutching his heart, curling into the dirt.
But Maeve? She feels absolutely nothing. Just sweet, liberating emptiness.
She turns and walks out.
Leo finally breaks, wailing at the top of his lungs. “Mom-Mom, don’t go! I’ll be good! I won’t say bad words anymore! I’ll listen to you-“
Maeve doesn’t stop.
Stepping out of the Council Hall, the bright sunlight makes her squint.
She pulls out her phone and makes a call. “The ritual is done. Leak the financial documents.”
“And release the video of Grayson and Serena. I want them ruined.”Â
The fallout was instantaneous and brutal.
The leaked financial ledgers exposed the Obsidian Pack’s deep-rooted corruption to the Werewolf Council. But it was the video-the disgusting, undeniable footage of Grayson and Serena mating in the Alpha’s bedroom while his innocent mate was locked inside the closet-that truly destroyed him.
The neighboring packs were disgusted by his dishonor. No Alpha would ally with an Alpha who treated his Luna and his bond with such sickening cruelty.
Within a month, the Obsidian Pack’s territories were entirely absorbed by the Shadowfall Pack.
Grayson was stripped of his Alpha command by the Council. Shamed and broken, he was reduced to a wandering rogue. Leo was dragged into exile with him, growing up in the dirt, forever blaming his father for losing the only mother who ever truly loved him. Every time Grayson looked at his pup’s resentful eyes, he was forced to relive the agonizing phantom pain of his rejected bond.
As for Serena, the Council threw her into the silver-lined dungeons for treason, embezzlement, and the endangerment of a pack elder. She would rot in the dark, screaming at the stone walls, just like she had forced Maeve to do.
Far away from the ruins of her past, Maeve steps out of a sleek black SUV.
Alpha Julian is waiting on the porch of the Shadowfall pack house, holding their giggling pup in his strong arms. Seeing her, his eyes light up with pure adoration.
He walks down the steps, wrapping his free arm securely around her waist, and presses a soft, lingering kiss to the crook of her neck.
“Is it finally over, little wolf?” he murmurs, his scent of pine and rain wrapping around her like a protective shield.
“Yes,” Maeve smiles, leaning into the warmth of her true mate. The shadows of the past are completely gone from her eyes. “I’m finally home.”
