CLAIMED BY THE BANISHED ALPHA

My Fate

ELODIE’S POV

To be honest, I never even wanted to be here tonight, but Sloan is the one who convinced me to come. She was an omega and was ordered to serve tonight, she was my friend and I wanted to help her also because I didn’t have anything better to do. I never came here with any expectation but to help Sloan and then go home with her so that we can go for our favourite walk. I didn’t expect to find a mate or even be chosen as one….but little did I know what fate had in store for me.

I felt it like a bruise blooming beneath my ribs. At first, I thought it was panic. The Great Hall was crowded, loud, heavy with the scent of Alphas and celebration. I kept my head down as I always did, fingers steady around the tray I carried, my steps careful not to draw attention.

Then my chest tightened. Not fear Not nerves. Recognition. I lifted my head before I could stop myself.

He stood near the dais dark-haired, broad-shouldered, unmistakable even from across the hall. Alpha presence rolled off him in commanding waves, but that wasn’t what drew my gaze. It was the way something inside me surged forward the instant our eyes met. The world tilted.

The bond snapped into place sudden and absolute like a door slamming shut behind me, like my fate had been decided and there was no turning back. My breath caught painfully, my fingers numbing around the tray as heat spread through my chest and down my spine.

Mate.

The word echoed through me, instinctive and undeniable. My wolf stirred for the first time in my life with certainty, stretching toward him with a trust so pure it hurt. I had heard stories. Of bonds that burned. Of recognition that felt like coming home. None of them had prepared me for this.

Hope rose before I could stop it bright, foolish, terrifying. My body moved without permission, taking a small step forward, already aligning itself toward him, toward where I thought I belonged. Then he looked away. The rejection wasn’t spoken, but it landed all the same cold, precise, final. I stood frozen as he raised his hand, the hall quieting at his command. My heart pounded so loudly I barely noticed the music fade. I watched him turn not toward me, but toward her.

Nyra, I knew her all too well. We were not well acquainted but I had heard a lot about her. The female wolf that commanded respect in any room she walked in. The one that every other alpha would kill to have by her side. She was very beautiful, I looked at myself. The dress that I was wearing, of course he would choose her over me. I didn’t stand a chance against her and she would probably kill me if she knew that I was secretly hoping…hoping that I would be picked instead of her. A hope that was crushed way too quickly.

She stepped into his space as if she had always been meant to stand there.

“I choose Nyra,” he said, his voice carrying effortlessly through the hall.

The words struck like a physical blow. The bond recoiled inside me sharp, wounded, confused—but it did not break. My vision blurred as disbelief collapsed into something hollow and aching. He hadn’t rejected me. He had erased me…if front of everyone. He hadn't even given us a chance, he hadn't even given me a chance.

I forced myself to breathe. Forced my feet to step backward, away from the light, away from the watching eyes. I would not cry here. I would not beg. Whatever this bond meant, it clearly did not matter enough. I turned to leave. I barely made it past the archway before a hand closed around my wrist.

I gasped as the force pulled me back, my tray clattering to the floor. I turned to face him, my heart splintering at the nearness at how violently my body reacted despite everything.

“I won’t stay,” I said, my voice trembling despite my effort to steady it. “I understand.”

The bond strained between us, aching and unresolved, begging for something he had already denied.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said.

There was no anger in his voice. No apology either. Only certainty and command. He led me through corridors I knew by heart yet had never been permitted to walk so deep into. Wolves bowed as we passed. No one questioned him. No one looked at me.

When he pushed open the door to his chambers, I hesitated only a second before stepping inside. The space was large and dark, unmistakably his stone walls, heavy furnishings, his scent everywhere. Pine and smoke and something sharp that made my wolf press painfully against my chest. The door closed behind me.

“You’ll stay here,” he said. “We’ll talk after the celebration ends.”

I turned to face him, my hands shaking now that the adrenaline was fading. “You chose her.”

“I know what I chose,” he replied.

The bond flared again, angry and wounded.

“And what am I?” I asked quietly.

His jaw tightened. He didn’t answer. Then he left. The lock slid into place with a soft, final sound. I stood there long after his footsteps faded, staring at the door. My chest felt too tight, my skin too thin, as if everything inside me had been exposed and left unguarded. The room seemed to shrink with every breath.

This wasn’t a cage, but it felt like one. A very fancy and padded one.

The bond pulsed restlessly, reaching for him, for answers, for something to make sense of what had just happened. I pressed my palm to my chest, trying to steady it, trying not to break under the weight of being chosen by fate and refused by the one who mattered. He had promised a discussion. I didn’t know whether to fear it, or hope it might still save me. And that terrified me most of all.