Rejected By Him Claimed By Another

Corinna Walker POV:

"I really don't understand how the Alpha can stomach sleeping with a woman like Corinna. Just looking at her cheap, tasteless country style kills any mood." Trey Knight's voice dripped with absolute disdain, his harsh words carrying clearly through the heavy, ornate oak doors of the grand ballroom.

I froze instantly, my hand hovering just an inch over the cold brass handle. The icy night air of the corridor stung my lungs with every breath I took, but it was absolutely nothing compared to the freezing chill that was rapidly spreading through my veins and settling deep into my bones.

Inside the brightly lit hall, through the slight crack between the doors, I saw them. Jerrod Preston, my Fated Mate and the powerful Alpha of the Blackstone Pack, was sitting intimately close to my adoptive sister, Geri Smith. They were laughing softly, their arms elegantly crossed as they drank from each other's crystal champagne glasses, a deeply intimate gesture usually reserved for devoted lovers, not a man and his sister-in-law.

"Exactly," another high-ranking Pack warrior chimed in, chuckling darkly as he clinked his glass with Trey's. "So what if she is the biological daughter, switched at birth? Blood means nothing when you have no class. She can't even compare to a single strand of Geri's hair. Geri has no blood relation to the Smiths, yet she enjoyed twenty years of absolute luxury because she simply deserves it. Corinna? She's just a lowly, uncultured country girl who smells like cheap dirt and stray animals."

"She was so restless and greedy the moment she was brought back to the estate," a female voice added mockingly, her tone laced with venom. "Stealing the prestigious marriage contract, forcing our precious Geri away in tears, and even using underhanded, despicable drugs to climb into the Alpha's bed. The Alpha is giving her way too much face by letting her stay. Since Geri is finally back where she belongs, he should just kick Corinna to the curb and marry his true Luna."

My heart hammered painfully against my ribs. Through the narrow gap in the door, I watched Jerrod. He heard every single word of their vicious mockery. As my Alpha and my husband, he should have silenced them, defended my honor, or at least demanded respect for his Mate. But he didn't.

Instead, after finishing his wine, he slowly, deliberately reached out toward Geri. With a dark, aggressive intensity that made my breath catch, he used his rough thumb to gently wipe a stray drop of crimson wine from the corner of Geri's soft lips. His eyes, dark and smoldering, locked onto hers as he brought his thumb to his own mouth, slowly and suggestively licking the sweet liquid off his skin.

The sheer, unfiltered sexual tension in that simple, possessive act made my stomach clench in pure agony. The crowd around them erupted into low whistles and knowing chuckles, completely ignoring the fact that Jerrod was a married man.

Geri playfully glared at him, her cheeks flushed a pretty, delicate pink. Then, she let out a soft, theatrical sigh, seamlessly playing the perfect, innocent victim. "Don't say that, guys," she murmured, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Sister had a hard time living in the impoverished countryside for so many years. It's amazing she has any manners at all. Besides, I'm not Mom and Dad's biological daughter, it's only right they compensate her with this marriage." She looked incredibly aggrieved, her large eyes welling up with unshed tears, as if she were the one being brutally bullied and cast aside.

A bitter, scorching fire of anger and extreme humiliation rose up my spine. Outsiders thought I was a despicable schemer who drugged him to secure this powerful marriage. But only I knew the devastating truth. I had done absolutely nothing. The mating five years ago was an orchestrated accident that ruined my life, a trap set by someone else, yet I was the one forced to bear the eternal stigma.

For five agonizing years, I had been his Luna in name only, my status hidden like a dirty secret, never officially announced to the public. Jerrod had always been lukewarm, commanding, and distant to me, turning a blind eye to the constant mockery I endured from his friends and my own family. No matter what major decisions he made, I was always the last to know. He had never, not once, smiled at me with such tender, consuming warmth as he just did with Geri.

To the outside world, he and Geri were the tragic star-crossed lovers, a match made in heaven torn apart by my existence. If I hadn't coincidentally walked by this administrative building after finishing my shift at the clinic, I wouldn't have even known about this grand annual Pack gala.

I pushed the door open slightly wider, unable to look away from the trainwreck of my life. A few people near the entrance noticed me standing in the shadows. But instead of looking guilty, they didn't bother to lower their voices. Instead, they deliberately raised their glasses, praising how perfectly Jerrod and Geri looked together right to my face, completely ignoring how deathly pale and shattered I was becoming.

My hand tightened instinctively around the beautifully wrapped velvet box I was holding against my chest. Inside was a soothing herbal balm I had spent an entire month meticulously preparing, using the rarest, most expensive herbs I could find to calm his frequently restless wolf. It was a desperate, pathetic attempt to mend the fraying, agonizing bond between us.

I looked down at the gift in my trembling hands. It felt like a humiliating, hilarious joke now.

The Mate-bond. A sacred gift from the Moon Goddess, meant to be a werewolf's most precious treasure, a source of infinite strength and love. For me, it had become a toxic curse. A suffocating, rusted chain dragging me into an abyss of self-doubt and misery.

Jerrod didn't want me. This Pack didn't accept me. Even my biological parents, the Smiths, saw me as a disgusting disgrace, vastly preferring the fake, manipulative daughter they had raised over their own flesh and blood.

Slowly, the tension drained from my fingers. I let my hand go limp.

The velvet box fell to the hard marble floor with a dull, final thud that perfectly echoed the sound of my heart finally, irrevocably breaking into a million pieces.

I stared at it for a long moment, and a crystal-clear decision formed in my mind. It was a choice I had struggled with every single day for five miserable years, but never had the courage to actually make.

Enough.

This pathetic, degrading one-woman show was officially over.

I straightened up, rolling my shoulders back. All the lingering weakness, the desperate longing, and the sorrow drained from my face, instantly replaced by a cold, diamond-hard resolve. I was Corinna Walker. I survived the slums, I built a sanctuary from nothing, and I would survive this.

I was going to formally request "The Rejection."

I was going to sever this damned, suffocating bond myself, even if it tore my soul apart.