My Mate Rejected Me—Then My Lycan Brothers Arrived

Chapter 1

On my first day at Silvercrest Pack, the Alpha's girlfriend dumped my suitcase into the mud. She stomped on my brother's letter. She ground her heel into my hand until I screamed. The whole pack laughed. Nobody knew my father was the Lycan King. Nobody knew one phone call would bring four Lycan princes down on this place like a storm. And I hadn't made that call. Yet. "You. New girl. Step forward." Celeste Ward didn't even look at me when she said it. She was too busy admiring her reflection in the training hall windows, flicking her platinum hair over the silver captain's badge on her chest. I stepped forward. Thirty trainees stood behind me in the courtyard. Thirty wolves who had come to earn a place in the strongest pack in the North. I had come for something else. Him. Three nights ago, the Moon Goddess showed me his face in a dream. Dark hair. Storm-gray eyes. Alpha Rhys Blackwood of Silvercrest. My fated mate. I wanted him to love me for me, not for my crown. So I slipped on the moonstone ring my brothers had made for me, the one that masked my royal scent, and I came here as nobody. Celeste unzipped my suitcase and dumped everything onto the ground. My cashmere sweater. My vanilla lip gloss. The fuzzy socks Theo bought me because my feet were always cold. And Ronan's letter. "Oh, look." She picked up the lip gloss. "Dior. Who'd you sleep with for this, sweetheart?" Laughter rippled behind me. "My brother bought it." "Your brother." She snorted, dropped it, and crushed it under her boot. Pink glitter smeared across the stone. "Every little gold digger has a brother." Then she picked up the envelope. My heart stopped. "Please. That's mine." "Contraband." She waved it in the air. "Love letter?" "It's from my brother." "Sure it is." I reached for it. Her boot came down on my fingers. Pain exploded up my arm. I cried out and dropped to my knees. "Rule one, omega," she whispered, leaning close. Her breath smelled like mint gum. "Nobody touches what I hold. Not you. Not ever." I was the only girl born after four boys. My father wept when the healer said, "It's a daughter." My brothers fought over who got to hold me first. When I was six, Killian broke a duke's son's nose for pulling my braid. When I was sixteen, Jace drove nine hours through a blizzard because I texted that I missed his pancakes. Nobody had ever stepped on me. "Celeste." The voice was low and cold. Every wolf in the courtyard went still. I looked up. Him. Rhys Blackwood was taller than he had been in my dream. Broader. His gray eyes swept over the mess on the ground, then over me, kneeling in the dirt with my bleeding hand pressed to my chest. My wolf had been silent my whole life. A late bloomer. The royal healers called it a shame. Now she stirred. Mate. Rhys frowned. Just for a second. Like he had caught a scent he couldn't name. Then the ring did its job, and his face went blank. "What's going on?" "Just a spoiled stray who thinks she's at a spa." Celeste slid her arm through his. "I'm handling it, baby." Baby. The word went through me like a knife. "Alpha," I said. My voice shook. "Please—" He looked down at me the way you'd look at a stain on your boot. "Celeste runs the trials. If you can't handle her, leave." He turned away. "I'm riding out to the border. Don't bother me with trainees." And he walked away. My mate walked away. Celeste smiled down at me with every one of her teeth. "Hear that? He doesn't even see you." She tucked Ronan's letter inside her jacket. "Want it back? Earn it." A thin girl stepped out of line. Brown braid. Flour on her sleeve. A kitchen omega. "Captain, her hand is bleeding. She—" "Did I ask you, Maya?" Celeste didn't even turn around. "You like her so much? Join her." She pointed at the training ring in the center of the courtyard. It was covered in crushed gravel that glittered strangely in the noon light. Silver. There was silver dust mixed into the stones. To a wolf, silver burns like acid. "Kneel there. Both of you. Until sundown." "It's not her fault," I said. "Punish me alone." "How noble." Celeste laughed. "You think you're the heroine of some movie?" She leaned in. "One more word, and I burn your little letter in front of everyone." I swallowed every word I had. I walked into the ring and knelt. The silver bit through my leggings instantly. It was like kneeling on a hot stove. Maya knelt beside me with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." "Don't be," I whispered. "Thank you." I closed my eyes and heard Ronan's voice from the night before I left. Anyone so much as breathes wrong at you, Sera, you call me. I'll tear their pack apart stone by stone. I hadn't called. I wanted my mate to choose me. I didn't know that by tomorrow, I'd be begging just to stay alive.

Chapter 2

By the second hour, I couldn't feel my knees anymore. Only fire. The sun hammered down on the courtyard. Sweat ran into my eyes. Beside me, Maya was shaking, her lips pressed white. Celeste lounged in the shade of the porch with a glass of iced lemonade, her boots up on the railing. "Look at her, everyone," she called. "This is what happens when Daddy's little princess meets the real world." A few trainees laughed. Most just looked away. "Captain." My voice cracked. "May I have some water? Please." Celeste tilted her head. "Water?" She stood, picked up a metal bucket by the door, and strolled over. "Of course, sweetheart." She dumped the whole thing over my head. Ice-cold. It soaked my hair, ran down my spine, and pooled under my knees. Then it started to burn. Not like silver. Deeper. Like something crawling under my skin. My stomach turned, and a bitter purple smell rose off my wet clothes. "Feel cooler, princess?" Celeste dropped the bucket at my feet with a clang and turned to the others. "Listen up! Because of this one's attitude, every trainee runs fifty extra laps tonight." The groans hit me like stones. "Are you serious?" "Thanks a lot, princess." "Why are we paying for her?" I dug my nails into my palms until they bled. Celeste crouched in front of me and lowered her voice. "Hurts, doesn't it? Being hated?" She smiled. "Let me teach you something. Men don't save girls like you. They use you and throw you out. Your precious Alpha already did. Did you see his face? He looked at you like garbage." "My brothers," I whispered, "would never let anyone do this to me." "Your brothers?" She laughed. "Bring them. I'll send them home crying to Mommy." At sundown, she let us stand. I couldn't. Maya hauled me up by the arm, and we limped into the forest with the others for the laps. Celeste followed in a black truck with the windows down and music blasting. "Move it, Your Highness! Faster!" Black spots swam in front of my eyes. My heart beat wrong. Fast, then slow, then fast again. Then the ground rose up and hit me. Gravel tore open my cheek. "Captain!" Maya screamed. "She collapsed! She's not breathing right!" Brakes shrieked. A door slammed. Boots crunched toward me. Then something slammed into my ribs. Celeste's boot. "Get up. I've trained warriors for ten years. I know a faker when I see one." I curled into a ball, shaking so hard my teeth knocked together. "Stop it!" Maya threw herself over me, arms spread wide, tears streaming down her face. "Stop kicking her!" "Move, omega, or you're next." Maya didn't move. I loved her for it. I would remember it for the rest of my life. Celeste grabbed my collar and dragged my face up to hers. "Help me," I breathed. "Please. Something's wrong. Please help me." For one second, something flickered in her eyes. Then she let go. My head hit the gravel. "Drag her under a tree," she said, brushing off her hands. "Don't let her die out here. The paperwork's a nightmare." Two girls pulled me into the shade. I lay in the dead leaves, staring up at the darkening sky. When I was little and had a nightmare, all four of my brothers would pile into my bed. Theo told stories. Jace stole snacks from the kitchen. Killian guarded the door with a wooden sword. Ronan held my hand until I fell asleep. I wanted to go home. I wanted my brothers. "Oh, look. She's awake." Celeste stood over me with Ronan's letter in her hand. She opened it and read aloud in a mocking singsong. "Chin up, little moon. We're so proud of you. If it ever gets too hard, call me. I'll come get you. — R." She went very still. "R?" Her face twisted. "Rhys? You little liar. You forged a letter from my man?" "It's my brother's," I sobbed. "Please. Please, don't—" Rip. She tore it in half. Then again. And again. She walked to the rusted burn barrel at the edge of the trail and dropped the pieces into the flames. "No!" I don't know where the strength came from. I crawled. I staggered. I shoved my hand straight into the fire and pulled out the scraps, burning my fingers, blackened bits of paper crumbling in my fist. Chin up, little moon. Only three words had survived. "Pick out every piece," Celeste said, crossing her arms. "Nobody eats until you're done." Thirty pairs of eyes glared at me. Everyone hated me. That night, alone on my cot, the burning under my skin got worse. My veins turned dark at my wrists. And I finally understood what had been in that water. Wolfsbane. Celeste hadn't been trying to break me. She'd been trying to kill me.

Chapter 3

By midnight, my fever hit a hundred and four. I couldn't stop shaking. The thin blanket stuck to my wet skin, and every breath felt like swallowing broken glass. "Sera. Sera, look at me." Maya pressed a damp cloth to my forehead. Her hands trembled. "Your veins are black. You need a healer." "No healer," I rasped. "Celeste controls them." I reached under the mattress with my burned fingers and pulled out the emergency phone I'd hidden there. One call. Just one. "I need my brother," I whispered. "I need to call my—" The door banged open. The phone was ripped out of my hand. Celeste stood at the foot of my cot in silk pajamas, her face cold with disgust. "Phones are banned. What part of that is so hard for you?" "Please." I could barely hear my own voice. "I'm sick. Something was in the water. I just want to call my brother. Please." She looked down at my blackened wrists. For one heartbeat, I thought she'd help me. Then she dropped the phone on the floor and crushed it under her heel. "Sleep it off," she said. "Training starts at dawn. If you're late, I'll drag you out by your hair." The door slammed. I lay in the dark, talking to no one. "My brothers promised I'd never have to hurt." "They promised." "They'll come. They'll come for me." Then I couldn't talk anymore. Through the haze, I heard a small click. Maya was huddled under her blanket with an old, cracked flip phone. She'd smuggled it in from the kitchens. Her thumb shook as she dialed the number I'd mumbled in my fever. One ring. Two. Three. Click. "Who is this?" The voice on the other end was deep, low, and cold enough to frost the glass. Maya swallowed a sob. "Are you... are you Sera's brother?" Silence. Then something on the other end of the line broke. Glass, maybe. Wood. Something big. "Where is my sister?" "Silvercrest Pack. They poisoned her. Wolfsbane. She's—" Maya's voice cracked in half. "I think she's dying." "Keep her breathing," the voice said. "We're coming." The line went dead. At dawn, the horn screamed across the pack grounds. I couldn't walk. Maya half-carried me into the courtyard, my arm thrown over her thin shoulders. The whole pack was gathered. Trainees. Warriors. Elders. Even Rhys's mother, Luna Vivian, stood on the steps in a cream-colored coat. And Rhys. He was back from the border. Dust on his boots. Shadows under his eyes. He stood beside Celeste with his arms folded. Celeste held up a small glass vial filled with purple liquid. "Last night, I searched the new trainee's bag," she announced. "And I found this. Wolfsbane. Enough to kill an Alpha." Gasps spread through the crowd. "She's not a trainee. She's a rogue spy. She came here to poison our Alpha." "That's a lie," I said. My voice barely carried. "She planted it. She poured it on me. Look at my arms—" "She's sick because she's been handling her own poison," Celeste cut in smoothly. "Look how desperate she is." Everyone stared at me like I was a monster. I looked at Rhys. Only Rhys. "You know," I whispered. "You felt it yesterday. You know what I am to you." Something cracked in his face. His jaw clenched. His hand moved slightly toward me, like his body was fighting his mind. Celeste touched his arm. "Baby. She's a spy. She'll say anything." The crack in his face closed. Rhys lifted his chin. "I, Rhys Blackwood, Alpha of Silvercrest—" No. No, no, no. He was rejecting me. In front of everyone. While I was dying. "—hereby—" BOOM. The iron gates of Silvercrest exploded inward. Steel shrieked. Stone shattered. Dust swallowed the courtyard. And then came the howl. Not one howl. Four. So loud and so deep that the windows of the training hall burst, and every wolf in the courtyard dropped to their knees.