The forest swallows me whole, branches catching at my dress, tears finally streaming hot and fast down my face. I ran until my lungs burned, until my feet bleed.
At last I collapse beside the creek, my knees sinking into cold mud that seeps through what's left of my dress and finally let the sobs tear free from my chest. They come in waves that match the agony radiating through my body.
What did I do wrong?
The question loops through my mind like a prayer with no answer.
I tried so hard. I always followed every piece of advice Connor gave me. Wore my hair the way he preferred, learned to cook the meals he liked, kept my voice soft and agreeable.
Made myself smaller and quieter and less until there was almost nothing left of me to reject. But he rejected me anyway.
My fingers find the delicate silver necklace at my throat, the only thing I have left of my mother. I was five when the rogue wolf tore through our territory and left me an orphan.
I remember her smile that morning. Remember her singing while she braided my hair.
I don't remember her screams.
Someone said that's a mercy, that my mind protected me from the worst of it. But sometimes, in nightmares, I hear the wet sounds of tearing flesh, smell the copper-sweet scent of blood.
She'd died protecting me. The weak, powerless child.
After that, I was all alone and mocked. The girl with the ugly birthmark on her left cheek that looked like the Moon Goddess had marked me for tragedy.
No family. No power. No worth.
But once, just once, there was kindness. I close my eyes and let myself remember.
I was seven when I found the injured kittenβorange and white, one eye swollen shut. Xander had found me crying behind the training shed.
He was twelve then, already strong and destined to be Alpha. But instead of mocking me, he'd knelt beside me with gentle hands and serious sky blue eyes.
For three weeks, he helped me care for it. Showed me how to splint its tiny leg, what to feed it, where to hide it. And for years, I'd harbored a desperate crush on the future Alpha who'd been kind when no one else was.
Then one morning, I found only blood on the storage shed floor.
Connor found me sobbing by this very creek. He'd been nine, with a gentle face and kind eyes, delivering the horrible truth when I cried for the disappearance of two good things that had left in my life.
"Xander killed it," he'd said softly. "I saw him do it. Donβt cry for him, Daphne. He doesnβt deserve this. He talks bad behind your back, calls you the 'pathetic orphanβ and turns others against you. The kitten was just another way to mess with youβhe wanted you to bond with it so it would hurt more."
My understanding of kindness had shattered. "But why?"
"Because you're weak, and Xander can't stand weakness. He thinks you're a stain on the pack." Connor had bumped my shoulder gently. "But I don't think that. I could help you improve yourself if you tried."
So I'd clung to that offer like a drowning person clings to driftwood.
From that day forward, I'd avoided Xander completely. When he cornered me once, demanding to know why, I'd told him I knew what he really thought of me.
The confusion on his face seemed genuine, but Connor had warned meβXander was good at lying. And after that, Xander changed.
The gentle patience vanished, replaced by cold indifference. His words turned harsh, his eyes filled with disdain. Sometimes worse than the othersβhis insults more cutting, his dismissals more brutal.
It confirmed everything Connor had said.
My eighteenth birthday came and went in silence. No party. No celebration. And worst of allβno wolf.
I'd waited in the forest all night, praying to the Moon Goddess, begging for the transformation that would finally make me worthy. But dawn had come, and I'd remained stubbornly, devastatingly human.
Even my own body confirmed what everyone already knew: I was worthless.
Then came my first heat at nineteen. I press my palm against my chest, feeling the phantom pain of that night mixing with tonight's fresh agony.
The burning need that had consumed me, the desperate ache I couldn't understand. Connor had found me then, delirious and crying. I'd been so grateful he'd come, so relieved I wasn't alone with the terrifying hunger in my body.
He'd taken my virginity, and it was painfulβmore than I'd expected, more than the romance stories had prepared me for. But it's supposed to hurt the first time, isnβt it?
Alpha Hector had insisted on the mating the next day, talking about responsibility and honor. Connor had looked trapped during the ceremony, his jaw tight, but I'd told myself he'd grow to love me.
That I just needed to try harder, be better, love him more than ever.
Two years of trying. Two years of failing.
"Look at the rejected bitch crying like the pathetic waste she is."
I jolt, scrambling to my feet as Talia emerges from the trees. Three of her friends flank her, their eyes gleaming with predatory intent.
"Did you really think you deserved an Alpha's son?" Talia continues, advancing slowly. "You were just a hole to use until he found his real mate. Did you know? How he used to describe fucking you?β
Her friends laugh, the sound sharp as breaking glass. βSaid it was like screwing a corpse that occasionally moaned."
"Pleaseβ¦" I whisper, backing toward the creek. "Just leave me alone."
"Leave you alone?" Kara grins viciously. "After you've humiliated our future Alpha? I don't think so."
They advance, and pure animal panic floods my system. I turn and run, my bare feet slipping on wet stones, branches tearing at my already ruined dress.
Their laughter chases me through the forest, punctuated by cruel taunts that drive me forward like whips. "Run, little bitch! Run!"
"No wolf to save you now!"
"Connor should've rejected you years ago!"
I burst from the tree line into the main courtyard, my lungs burning, vision blurred with tears and exhaustion. Alpha Hector stands near the main house, his broad frame silhouetted against the windows.
Relief crashes through me so violently that my knees almost buckle.
When Talia and her friends exploded from the forest behind me, I saw understanding flash across the Alpha's face. He takes in my tear-stained cheeks, my torn dress, the blood on my feet.
His expression hardens into something that makes my breath catch. "Stop."
The single word carries enough Alpha power to freeze everyone in place. The command presses against my skin like physical weight, but it's not directed at me.
Talia and her friends stop mid-stride, their faces going pale.
"She's under my protection," Alpha Hector continues, his voice dropping to something dangerous. "Anyone who touches her answers to me directly. Is that clear?"
"Alpha," Talia protests, her voice losing its vicious edge. "She doesn't deserveβ"
"I decide who deserves my protection." His eyes flash gold, wolf rising to the surface. "Do you want to challenge that decision?"
Talia's mouth snaps shut. Her friends have already started backing away, their earlier bravado evaporating under the weight of Hector's authority.
Movement catches my eyeβa window on the second floor. Xander stands there, his face half-shadowed, his gaze locked on mine with an intensity that steals my breath.
His jaw clenches, tendons standing out in his neck, and something in his expression makes my heart stutter. Something that looks almost like...
No. I'm imagining it. I know what Xander really thinks of me.
Alpha Hector's hand settles on my back, warm and possessive, guiding me toward the house. "Come, Daphne. You're safe now."
I let him lead me inside, away from Talia's poisonous glare, away from the she-wolves who smell blood in the water.
Behind us, I hear their bitter whisper: "The Alpha's whore. How cute."
