The Beta's Rejected Daughter (Fiona) novel Chapter 24

apter 24

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But why do I feel the need to meet her? And why am I not angry that she rejected my proposal?

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dinner

Even my wolf wasn’t raging or urging me to order her captured and brought to me. Instead, I found myself planning how to meet her again with no intention of harming her.

As I sat there, it hit me that I wasn’t fuming or restless as usual. The calmness inside me since I met her was something I couldn’t explain.

“Could she be the one?” I muttered, then frowned as the words tasted bitter on my tongue.

Just then, the door opened again and Vance hesitated before stepping closer.

“Any problem?” I asked, noticing his furrowed brow.

“You’ve forgotten it’s time for your training. It’s twenty minutes past already.”

“Really?” I gasped and glanced at the clock. He was right.

How did I forget? My routine had never slipped my mind before.

“What could possibly trouble His Majesty enough to forget something like that?” he asked carefully, watching me as if deciding whether to speak his thoughts aloud.

“Nothing,” I sighed, though I feared it was Fiona. I had been thinking about her constantly. What secret might she be hiding?

“It has been a decade, my king,” he said at last, his gaze flicking toward the empty Luna throne. “Ten

years since the last blood moon when your mate should have appeared, and still no one.”

I exhaled slowly. “Yes. Ten years.”

Ten

years since I came of age to have a mate, but it seemed the Moon Goddess had chosen to bind me to someone I could not find. Ten years since my wolf began to fall silent and the world whispered that the goddess had cursed her own Lycan king.

Every woman I accepted as a chosen mate enraged my wolf, and I killed them myself. The prophecy says only my true mate can heal the curse and tame me, but she seemed nonexistent.

“She will come,” Vance said, though his voice lacked conviction.

I turned my head slightly. “Or she may never come. Perhaps the goddess made a mistake. Or perhaps she simply decided to keep me this way forever.”

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Chapter 24

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His jaw tightened. He hated when I spoke like that because he knew how much it hurt me that I couldn’t have a family or feel what love was like even though I don’t show it in public.

He wasn’t just a guard—he was like a brother, the closest thing I had to family since childhood and he knew me more than anyone.

My parents were dead, which was why I needed a mate to bear my heir. Sadly, that seemed impossible. My lineage may end with me.

“The women are here,” Vance said, and I frowned.

“Which women? Who-” I didn’t finish before the doors creaked open and two guards entered, escorting a line of women in silver dresses.

Their steps were careful and small, their eyes wide.

Vance looked at me, silently asking if he should send them away. “They are here for the test.”

I hissed under my breath. The council should give up already. My mate didn’t exist. This test would fail like every other one before it.

The council refused to accept that fate had broken what they hoped to fix by parading more women before me.

The women bowed deeply, their perfumes reaching me even from the throne. Lavender, honey, musk, strawberry. Everything was too sweet, too wrong. Even their wolves carried nothing my wolf yearned for.

“My king,” one of them murmured with a trembling voice. “We come from the Crescent River Pack. The Council of Elders sent us to-”

“To see if any of you can awaken my wolf?” I finished. My tone was unusually calm, surprising even myself.

Her lips parted but she only nodded. The others shifted nervously.

“Fine,” I said quietly and rose from the throne.

The moment I stood, several of them flinched. My presence inspired fear–not because I wished it, but because I was the most powerful being alive, and my temper could bring ruin.

As I descended the steps, my boots echoed against the black stone. I passed each woman and they lowered their eyes.

I paused beside a tall, graceful one whose hands trembled as she held her skirt. Her scent carried rosemary and rain. I sharpened my senses and searched deeper for the mate pull–any spark at all–but there was nothing.

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8:52 Tue, Apr 14

Chapter 24

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No bond. No spark. Not even the strange flicker I felt with Fiona.

I moved to the next. And the next. Each woman young, beautiful, eager to be chosen, desperate for the Luna crown. Yet none of them stirred even a growl from the beast within me.

At the last woman, she lifted her gaze. Her pale blue eyes had the hollow shine of desperation.

“Your Majesty,” she whispered, “maybe fate hides the scent. If you allow me to be your mistress and serve you closely, perhaps I can-”

I lifted a hand.

“Enough.”

The word cracked through the hall like thunder. She gasped and covered her mouth.

Silence fell.

I looked at each face, seeing the same hunger behind every pair of eyes. Hunger for power. Protection. Authority. Hope that the goddess might choose them for me.

Fiona had none of this. She didn’t even want me. She rejected my dinner proposal without a thought.

“None of you is worthy,” I said, shaking off the thought of Fiona. “You cannot serve when my soul does not choose. Go home.”

Their disappointment was sharp, but they didn’t argue. They turned and filed out, shoulders stiff, steps quick.

When the last of them left, Vance remained by the steps with folded arms.

“You’re going to frustrate the council if you keep rejecting every candidate they send,” he said with a dry chuckle.

“Then they should stop wasting their time,” I replied. “I don’t think I have a mate. Ten confirmation enough. I’m learning to accept it.”

He studied me. “What you feel for that girl… what is her name… Fi-”

“Fiona?” I asked.

“Yes. Do you think-”

years

is

“I felt nothing for her related to being my mate, so don’t even start.” I snapped and leaned back in my seat.

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8:52 Tue, Apr 14

The Beta’s Rejected Daughter