The Rejected Mate (Elaine and Michael) novel Chapter 117

Michael’s jaw tightened, shadows deepening along his cheekbones as the lantern light flickered across his face. The courtyard had grown quieter around them—wolves were beginning to notice the shift in energy, the crackle of something dangerous in the air. Music still played in the distance, but it sounded muted, almost drowned beneath the rising storm between the two Alphas.

“We will let the Council decide, Elaine,” Michael said, each word strained, brittle. “I just want my son to know me. The real me. Not… whatever version you will surely tell him.”

Elaine’s breath left her in one cold exhale. It wasn’t shock she felt—it was fury, sharp and clean like a blade unsheathed.

Michael wasn’t finished.

“I lost you as my mate,” he said, voice breaking in the middle. “That is my sin. I carry that guilt every day. I did what I did because we were never given a choice. But my son, Elaine—I never chose to abandon him.”

A heavy silence settled between them, thick and stinging like a wound reopened.

Elaine stepped forward, the silver embroidery on her Luna gown catching the lantern’s glow and shimmering with every movement. Her voice dropped low, measured and sharp, each word landing with the weight of a blow.

“And what would you have done if you’d known about Nathan?” she demanded. “Tell me, Alpha. You found me as your fated mate but chose my sister as your Luna. Your partner. Your chosen. Would you have brought my son into her arms? Into that home? Into that bond?”

Michael flinched visibly, unable to meet her gaze.

Elaine held his eyes, refusing to let him look away.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten, Alpha,” she continued frostily, “but I begged you to choose our bond. I begged you to choose me. I told you I would accept the pup Kathy carried—I told you that because she was with you before the Goddess revealed we were fated.”

Her eyes gleamed—not with tears, but with the reflection of every cut he had inflicted on her heart.

“But you still chose her.”

A muscle twitched in Michael’s jaw. Kathy stood rigid beside him, pale and trembling.

Elaine’s voice hardened further. “Before your mating ceremony, you even told me you wouldn’t mark her—because you didn’t want to hurt me.” Her breath trembled, not from sorrow but from the memory of pain. “But you did it anyway. And your mark… your choice… cost me my pup.”

Michael shut his eyes tightly, his face a portrait of hollow regret. But Elaine was beyond being comforted by his remorse.

“And now,” she whispered, “you have the audacity to stand here and claim you had no choice because your father ordered you to abandon your fated mate for the pack?”

Her lips curled in a humorless smile. “Don’t make me laugh.”

Michael’s eyes snapped open, startled.

“You had a choice,” she said, voice steady and cutting. “You simply took the easy path. The path that cost me my child. The path that destroyed everything we might have had.”

Her words vibrated with raw truth, not weakness.

Darius stepped forward silently, a towering presence radiating heat and fury beside Elaine. But she raised a hand, halting him. This was her moment—her voice alone needed to be heard.

“You want Nathan to know the real you?” she asked softly, her tone laced with bitter resolve. “Consider your wish granted, Alpha.”

Michael drew in a sharp breath.

“At the Council meeting in three days, I will reveal to him exactly what kind of Alpha you are. Exactly what kind of man.”

Michael’s expression twisted, a mix of horror and rage swirling across his features, but Elaine didn’t waver.

“And then,” she lowered her voice to a deadly whisper, “I will step aside and let my mate tear your throat out.”

His presence alone darkened the air, his shadow stretching long across the courtyard, swallowed by a pulse of alpha dominance.

“You heard my Luna, Alpha,” Darius said, his voice low and commanding. “Betrayal is not tolerated in this pack.”

Michael swallowed hard.

Darius kept his gaze locked on his rival. “Roselyn and Calvin may stay as long as they wish. Roselyn is my sister by blood, and Calvin is her mate. But you…” He leaned in, his breath brushing Michael’s cheek. “You must leave.”

The weight of his authority rippled outward like a shockwave. Wolves nearby instinctively dropped their eyes.

“Before I lose the last of my restraint,” Darius murmured, “and issue a challenge to the death. Here. Now.”

The earth seemed to tremble beneath their feet, as if even the land recognized the fire burning in Darius’s soul.

“And you know,” he added, voice thick with protective power, “exactly who would win.”

Michael’s breath caught in his throat.

“I do not doubt your strength,” Darius said, eyes blazing with the fierce devotion of a mate, “but you underestimate mine. I will fight for my family. And I will always win.”

The air between them crackled, electric and alive, vibrating with the tension between violence and control—until finally, Michael tore his gaze away, unable to withstand the overwhelming force of Crescent Moon’s Alpha and Luna united.

Something he and Kathy did not possess.