SYNOPSIS Emerie Stout was never weak—she was simply inconvenient. Rejected in front of the entire pack by Callahan Robbins, the Alpha King fate had bound her to, Emerie lost everything in a single breath: her place, her future, and the bond she was told defined her worth. Branded unfit and cast aside, she vanished from the world that broke her, rebuilding herself in silence, far from crowns, councils, and the mate who chose power over her. Years later, blood brings Callahan to her door. Hunted, wounded, and betrayed by his own council, the Alpha King has nowhere left to run—except to the woman he once destroyed. The mate bond he tried to erase never died. It waited. And Emerie is no longer the girl who stood trembling in a stone circle, hoping to be chosen. Forced back into the heart of a brutal shifter kingdom, Emerie discovers a truth the council buried for generations: her bloodline was never meant to kneel. She was created to balance kings—to end reigns built on fear. And her rejection didn’t save the crown… it delayed its reckoning. As desire reignites and old wounds reopen, Emerie must choose between walking away forever or rewriting the mate bond on her own terms—knowing her decision could collapse the Alpha system itself. Because some mates exist to strengthen thrones. And others are born to burn them down. The Alpha King’s Hated Mate is a dark, slow-burn rejected mate romance filled with political intrigue, devastating attraction, and a heroine who refuses to be claimed unless she is chosen—and chooses back.