Cast into the Wild
Chapter Two – Cast into the Wild
The night after the mating ceremony stretched endlessly, a torment Alicia thought might kill her before dawn.
She lay on the cold earth outside the palace gates, her wrists still raw from where the guards had gripped her. Her body burned in heat, her veins on fire with the cruel twist of the Goddess’s design. The bond to Max had awakened her body to its most primal longing—yet he had severed it before she could even breathe.
Her wolf Flo whimpered endlessly inside her. Mate rejected us… but he is still ours. The bond aches. The bond bleeds.
Alicia curled into herself, biting her lip to keep from sobbing out loud. “No,” she whispered to the night. “He’s not ours. He never will be.”
But the ache would not listen. It clawed at her womb, her skin, her very soul. The need for Max’s touch rose like poison, choking her.
When the sun broke over the horizon, Diana herself appeared at the gates with two guards. She was dressed in silken robes, her golden hair crowned with jewels. Triumph radiated from her every movement.
“The Alpha King has decreed,” she said, her voice dripping with false pity. “You are to leave the Moon Pack territory by sundown—or you will be hunted and torn apart like the rogue filth you are.”
Alicia lifted her chin, though her throat burned with unshed tears. “And if I leave?”
Diana smiled sweetly. “Then you will still die. Just slower. Alone. Forgotten.”
The guards shoved a small satchel into Alicia’s arms—a mockery of mercy. Inside, she found a flask of water, a strip of bread, and a tattered cloak. Barely enough to last a day.
The gates creaked open, the world beyond wild and endless. Alicia’s heart lurched. She had never been beyond the palace walls, never known life without chains.
Flo’s voice was soft but fierce. We may be cast out, but we are not broken. We will live, Alicia. We will survive.
With trembling steps, Alicia walked through the gates. Behind her, the palace loomed like a shadow of cruelty. Ahead, the forest stretched, its towering pines whispering secrets she had never been meant to hear.
The gates slammed shut behind her.
And she was alone.
The first days blurred together. Alicia wandered through the forest, hunger gnawing at her belly, thirst clawing at her throat. The heat still raged inside her, tormenting her with memories of Max’s eyes, his scent, his nearness. At night, she curled beneath tree roots, shivering as the cold seeped into her bones.
Her body weakened, but her resolve hardened. Every time Flo whimpered for their mate, Alicia answered with fire. “He rejected us. He doesn’t deserve us.”
Still, in the darkest hours, when the ache in her chest was unbearable, she would clutch the cloak tighter and whisper, “Why me, Goddess? Why him?”
No answer came. Only silence.
On the seventh day, Alicia collapsed by a riverbank, her body trembling with exhaustion. She dipped her hands into the icy water, drinking greedily, then let herself fall onto the damp moss.
Her vision blurred. Her body ached in a strange, persistent way—different from hunger, different from the lingering rejection burn.
Flo stirred uneasily. Something is changing.
Alicia pressed a hand to her belly, frowning. “Changing? How?”
Inside us, Flo whispered. Something small. Something alive.
Alicia froze. Her heart stumbled in her chest. “No… it can’t be.”
But even as she said it, she knew. The heat. The bond. The night of the rejection, when her body had burned with need she hadn’t understood—when Max’s scent alone had nearly undone her—something had been planted.
A life.
His life.
Her breath caught. She curled onto her side, clutching her stomach as if to shield it from the cruel world. Tears streamed down her face, but for the first time in days, they were not only tears of pain.
“I’m not alone,” she whispered. Her voice trembled, but it carried a spark of wonder. “Flo… we’re not alone anymore.”
Her wolf’s voice softened, trembling with awe. A pup. Our pup. His pup.
Alicia closed her eyes, the weight of it settling over her like a blanket. She hated Max. She loathed him with every fiber of her being. But this child—this tiny spark of life—was innocent. A part of her, a part of Flo.
Her tears turned to quiet laughter, shaky but real. “We’ll protect him. No matter what. No one will ever hurt him the way they hurt us.”
Flo growled low in agreement. He will never be a slave. He will never be despised.
Alicia sat up slowly, her hand still pressed protectively over her stomach. The forest no longer seemed as suffocating. The shadows were still there, the dangers still real—but now she had something to fight for.
She was not merely surviving. She was carrying a future.
Weeks passed. The forest taught Alicia how to endure. She learned which berries would not poison her, how to set traps for rabbits, how to listen for the rustle of wolves who might hunt her. The pup inside her gave her strength when hunger threatened to drag her down.
Her belly swelled slowly, a quiet promise growing with each day. Flo hummed to him in the silence, her wolfish lullabies echoing in Alicia’s mind.
And though the nights were still cold, though loneliness still gnawed at her, Alicia’s heart no longer felt like shattered glass. It felt like iron.
One evening, as the moon rose high and silver over the treetops, Alicia stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the valley below. The wind tugged at her hair, carrying the scent of pine and earth. She placed both hands over her stomach and whispered into the night:
“They thought they cast me away to die. But I will live. I will raise him. And one day, the Moon Pack will see the child they tried to erase.”
Flo’s voice was fierce, steady. And when they do, the Alpha who rejected us will regret the day he ever spoke those words.
Alicia’s gaze hardened, her tears replaced with resolve.
She was no longer just the omega slave, the despised girl who had been broken. She was a mother now. A mother with a promise burning in her heart.
And nothing—not exile, not hunger, not even the Alpha King himself—would take that from her.
The Moon Goddess had cursed her with rejection. But Alicia would turn that curse into her weapon.
And when her son was born, she would name him Max.
Not as a tribute.
As a reminder.
Because one day, when the Alpha who had rejected her came crawling back, he would have to look into the eyes of his heir, the heir he had thrown away, and face the death wish he had brought upon himself.