The Rejected Luna Novel – The Silver Moon Pack had an unspoken tradition: whenever the Alpha took a new chosen mate, the old Luna had to place the Moon Ring on the new woman’s finger herself. Wayne Anderson arrived at the annual Silver Moon Ball with Kaven Hayes on his arm. Everyone in the pack knew I’d bvrn the packhouse to the ground before I let another woman take my place. Wayne and I had been mates for seven years. I’d prayed under the bl00d moon for three nights at the Silver Moon Altar to earn that ring. I’d thrown myself in front of an assassin’s silver blade for him.
But Kaven, draped in a mi11ion-d011ar gown, held out her hand with practiced grace. I slipped the glowing Moon Ring off my finger without a word and slid it onto hers. Wayne lifted his champagne glass, smug satisfaction written all over his face. “So you finally learned your place, didn’t you, Elise?” I stared down at my bare ring finger and said nothing. Wayne had no idea that a month ago, my memories had come flooding back. I wasn’t some stray Omega he’d rescued.
I was the princess of the Northern Pack. In three days, my brother Victor Voss, the Alpha King of the North, would land his private jet in Silver Moon City and take me home. … The ballroom glittered with designer gowns and champagne flutes. Kaven kept lifting her hand, making sure every pack elite in the room got a good look at the Moon Ring. From where I stood in the corner, I could feel every mocking stare in the room land on me.
Wayne lounged in the Alpha’s chair, his gaze flicking back to me every few minutes. After she’d soaked up enough attention, Kaven drifted over to me with a glass of champagne in hand. Her gaze settled on the rare moonstone necklace at my throat. Wayne had bought it for my birthday three years earlier. It had cost eighty mi11ion at an exclusive Lycan Auction. Kaven laughed softly and leaned in close. “You know, Elise, now that you’ve given up the Moon Ring, don’t you think a necklace like that is a little much for someone of your status?” She reached for the necklace, and I stepped back.
She tilted her champagne glass, and its contents spilled down the front of my silk gown. The glass hit the floor and shattered. Kaven grabbed her hand, crocodile tears instantly springing to her eyes. “I only wanted to take a look, Elise. If you didn’t want me touching it, you could’ve just said so. Why did you have to shove me so hard?” The music died, and every eye in the ballroom turned toward us.
For seven years, I’d driven off every she-wolf who got too close to Wayne. I’d once shoved some social-climbing tramp’s face into a cake after catching her in his bedroom, then raked my claws across her pretty face. Wayne strode over and pulled Kaven behind him. He looked at the scratch on her hand, already fading, and his face darkened. “What the he11 is wrong with you, Elise? Kaven just got back, and you’re already going after her?” The blatant protectiveness in his voice was impossible to miss.
Lydia snarled in the back of my mind, but I forced her down and reached up to unclasp the moonstone necklace. The whole room fell silent as I held the necklace out to Kaven. “Take it. My hand slipped. My apologies.”