Chapter 1

ERICA

“I, Alpha Carl, reject you, Erica Briggs as my mate.”

Hearing those words from my mate was a devastating, not to mention, humiliating blow I’d ever received. Nothing hurt more than what I’d just heard in that moment, not even when I’d been pushed into the pack river by bullies when I was nine.

Tears fell, my chest constricted. “Wh-wh-wha.” I sniffled, then swallowed, hoping I’d be able to form words completely this time. “W-what? Why?”

“And I, also Alpha Carl, choose Beatrice, the daughter of Alpha Logan of Bluemoon pack as my mate.” My supposed mate declared.

There was a hush that enveloped the ball room, even the drop of a pin would be heard in that moment of deafening silence. Beatrice? Why her? Why my bully?

With heavy steps, I tried to approach my mate to have a rethink. All my life I’d always wanted to experience love and acceptance. No one had agreed to give me that, even my own mother had abandoned me, denying me of the love my heart yearned for. “Bu-b-but I-I’m your m-mate.” I was choking on my sobs, trying to meet his gaze so he’d see and realize.

“Don’t come close to my man.” Beatrice warned, a victorious smirk on her face.

My eyes swept back to my mate, my heart broke into a million pieces. Where did I get it wrong again? Why was I always the rejected one? The unloved one? The bullied one?

“Don’t do this, I’m y-your ma-mate.” I pleaded, I could not lose my mate just like that. There was probably some mistake somewhere. I was ready to rectify it.

“Don’t come any more close, Erica.” My mate warned, the steel in his tone matching the one in his eyes.

“What did I do? Why would you reject me without even knowing me?” I questioned, fresh tears pouring as I bled inside.

“I know you enough to know that I don’t want you.” He retorted, sneering derisively.

“But why?” I wiped my eyes, sniffling. “Why?”

“What do you, a feeble Omega, have to offer an Alpha like myself?” He mocked. “You’re not worthy of being an Alpha’s Luna. Go find your werewolves of your status.”

I heard laughter, it was coming from every corner of the ball room. They were laughing at me, making fun of me. Again. Just like old times.

“Beatrice, why would you…”

“Shut up, you lowlife.” She cut me off, giving me a dirty look. “You’re so pathetic, maybe that’s why your mother abandoned you. She freed herself from this living embarrassment parading as a daughter.”

I staggered back in hurt and shock as her words were like blow that upset my balance. I held my chest and tried to muffle a sob.

“Save your pity cry for another day or you can leave. Go outside and cry all you want.” Alpha Carl spat.

“I agree with you, my love.” Beatrice stretched herself to place a kiss on the Alpha Carl’s cheek. Then she faced Erica with a taunting smile. “Don’t spoil the fun for us, Erica. You can go out and cry buckets of tears.”

Another laughter erupted from the small sea of crowd in the ball room.

“So you have both made your choice?” I asked, sniffling.

“What are you going to do about it?” Beatrice inquired, a brow raised. Apparently, she was taunting me.

She once hated me. Hated the fact that her father, the Alpha, took me in and adopted me as his child. But I thought she changed when she began to slowly accept me, but she reverted to her old self when we became teenagers, precisely at the age of fifteen; she joined the others to taunt me.

Purposely rubbing it in further, they both locked lips before me, eating their face off while I stood there dying slowly. This humiliation was too much. I had to do something, to retain even a torn piece of the shredded pieces of my pride and dignity.

My voice breaking, I blinked back tears. “I, Erica Briggs, accept your rejection, hereby rejecting you also Alpha Carl as my mate.”

It took all of my will not to stutter and choke on my sobs, but amidst another round of mocking laughter for what I’d just said, I could not control the pain that shot through me, piercing my heart, making me lose my balance and finding myself being uncontrollably pulled into the dark realm of unconsciousness.

When I woke hours later, it was in my room. But there was no one there and I had no idea who had carried me from that ball room to this place. The door opened to reveal Beatrice, and she looked furious. Sighing, I braced myself another taunting and bullying.

“You!” She wagged an angry finger as she came closer and what she did next shocked me.

A hit across my face stung so bad that I had to swallow tears, also, I was stunned. “What did I do, Beatrice? Why would you hit me?”

“And I’ll hit you again and again.” She threatened. “How dare you embarrass me and my husband like that? How dare you ruin my special moment for me? How dare you?!”

“But how? I did not ruin anything.” I tried to defend, my voice trembling as I rubbed a hand against my face. That slap had hurt so bad.

She growled in anger and instinctively I moved back, not wanting a repeat of what she’d just done. “It’s a good thing you’ll soon be out of here.”

Dread set in. “What do you mean?”

“It means you’ll leave this pack to your new home, slave.” Maybe she found what she’d just said to be funny or she wanted to mock me, I wasn’t sure but she laughed.

“W-what new h-home?” Nevers knotted tight, painfully so.

“You have been bought by Alpha Logan.” She sneered.

“B-bought?” Tears blurred my vision.

“Soon, you’ll be on your way to Moonstone pack.”

I gulped, fear crippled me. Thankfully I was sitting else I’d have fallen flat on my face.

Alpha Logan was a very ruthless Alpha. Why would Alpha Arnold, the man I’d thought regarded me as his own daughter, betray me this way?