"You You can't be my mate, I don't want you. Leave".
Words cut through her chest like a hot knife through butter.
Aurelia stood at the door of the packhouse, her bag packed and tears streaming down her face as she looked back at the man who was supposed to be her fated mate.
"I will go...", her voice but a mere whisper, she cleared her throat and started again.
"I will go, and I won't come back, if you're sure it is what you want. Because you won't see me again."
She hated it, but she meant it.
Today, she found her mate.
The soon to be Alpha of the Eclipse Pack of Valdera, Grant James. She never liked him, and avoided him at all costs. But the mate bond was strong and it was breaking her heart to leave.
Grant walked the length of the hallway in 3 long strides, cupped her small face in his big calloused hands and leaned close enough for Aurelia to smell his breakfast and coffee on his breath.
"Leave. You are a wolfless nobody and you will not be missed." He whispered. No emotion in his voice.
He let go of her face and walked back down the emterance hallway to the packhouse lounge.
Aurelia took a deep breath, fought the last of her tears and opened the door. She was left to the wilderness of Valdera.
Aurelia was 20, with no wolf. Supposed to have shifted at 13 but to no avail. With her sapphire hair, and the demise of her parents when she was a child, she stood out among the other she-wolves of the pack. Aurelia wanted nothing more than to blend into the woodwork and just let life go by.
Then the heat happened. Accidental physical contact with the Alpha's son when visitng her only friend Claudia at the packhouse sent her into a fever frenzy. To the Alphas chagrin, Aurelia spent a whole 12 hours in the pack hospital in full heat.
Dr. Hale couldn't figure out how she was in heat with no wolf. Aurelia was costing the pack valuable resources and Alpha Graeme wouldn't allow her to stay longer so he could run more tests. She merely needed to stay so Grant would not mate with and mark her, succumbing to his primal instincs of taking his mate.
After her release from the hospital, Aurelia was drawn to the packhouse to her mate. She packed her stuff from her quarters in the omega hut where she slept to join him.
Grant James.
3 more moons until he took over as Alpha of the Eclipse Pack and he made sure everyone knew it.
6 foot 2, short brown curly hair and piercing emerald eyes. To Aurelia, he was the epitome of slime. Until the mate bond kicked in.
The high born she-wolves fawned over him and it seemed only Aurelia and her best friend Claudia saw him for the cocky bastard he was.
And he hated low borns, so one can only imagine his distaste for Aurelia, without even a wolf for dignity. She wasn't worth the enamel on his teeth.
So here she was, she felt the bond between them, despite being wolfless and hoped when she saw him, like most other male wolves, he would welcome her with open arms and embrace her, leaving his horrid personality behind.
But no such thing happened.
He was disgusted with his wolf for being mated to this defect. He wanted her, sure. She was petite and pretty, with ocean eyes to die for. He never noticed until the bond but her sapphire hair was so enticing. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his hands up in it and...
No. She was a defect. He needed a strong, stunning luna who could stand as his side. Not some pathetic practically human orphan.
After being in his presence for 2 minutes, expecting him to decalre his undying love like all the other who had found thier fates mates and begging him to look at her he said the words that were colder than the harshest winters of Valdera.
"You can't be my mate, I don't want you. Leave".
Leaving the pack that merely homed her. Claudia couldn't leave with her, she was mated to Grants' future Beta, Alex. Luckily for Claudia, Alex was kind and they were in love.
Aurelia walked down the steps of the packhouse, down the long driveway to the path out of the Eclipse Pack lands. She reached the gates, and as if the universe was guiding her to her demise, the winds picked up blowing her sapphire hair into her face and sticking to her tears.
She was alone in the pack, and now she was alone in the Forest of Halen.