Chapter 1

Domestic violence has destroyed countless lives. If a relationship or friendship becomes toxic, don’t hesitate to walk away. Protect yourself, and remember domestic violence doesn’t just harm individuals; it shatters families and scars children for life.

Chapter 1••

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Diane’s POV.

Getting rejected was never part of my plan. Not after everything I’ve endured in this pack. But fate is cruel, and if I thought my suffering had reached its peak, I was wrong because it has only just begun.

In the Black Moon Pack, the mating ceremony happens once every four years. A month ago, when the last ceremony took place, I had no idea it would mark the beginning of my worst nightmare. If I hadn’t been chosen as the mate of Alpha Silas, my life though miserable would have remained bearable. I would have been alone in my parents’ house, lonely but at least at peace.

But peace was never meant for me.

I have suffered all my life, but after my parents’ deaths, it became unbearable. The entire pack blames me for their deaths. Their stares are filled with disgust, their whispers drip with venom, and no matter how much I deny it, their hatred only grows stronger.

Then, the Moon Goddess did the unthinkable. She paired me with Alpha Silas, the man everyone believed would be my sister Gabriella’s mate.

Silas and Gabriella had been inseparable since childhood. My father was the pack’s Beta and a close friend of Silas’ parents, and everyone assumed Gabriella would be the next Luna. Unlike me, Gabriella had everything:beauty, freedom, love. She wore the finest clothes, walked with confidence, and was adored by the entire pack. Meanwhile, I was left in the shadows, scrubbing floors, serving meals, keeping my head down because that’s all they believed I was good for.

I was the unwanted daughter. The mistake. The one who should have never been born.

But I never resented them. I accepted it as my fate.

So when the mating bond snapped into place, linking me to Silas instead of Gabriella, I expected him to reject me immediately.

And he tried.

His gaze burned with fury, his jaw clenched as he spat the words, “No. Never.”

I had braced myself for it. Prepared for the sting of rejection. But fate had other plans.

Before he could utter the final words to sever our bond, his wolf took over. His eyes darkened, his body tensed, and in one swift, uncontrollable motion, he marked me.

Pain seared through my skin, a sharp, unbearable sting that burned down my spine. Gasps echoed through the crowd. Gabriella’s scream rang in my ears. My vision blurred, and my knees nearly buckled beneath me.

And just like that, I was his.

That moment should have changed everything.

Instead, it made everything worse.

An Alpha bound to a woman the pack despises. A mate accused of killing her own parents. I understand why Silas wants nothing to do with me.

But there’s one thing I don’t understand.

I know I didn’t kill my parents.

Yes, they were violent toward each other. I had witnessed their fights, their bruises, the cold silence that followed. I was the only one home that day when it happened.

But I didn’t kill them.

So why does everyone believe I did?

Why did no one listen when I told them I found my mother’s body in the kitchen, blood pooling beneath her head? That my father was already gone before I stepped into the living room? That I had screamed and begged for help, only for the first warriors who arrived to look at me like I was the monster?

No trial. No investigation. Just silent, seething judgment.

I was forced to leave my father’s house and move into the Royal Pack Chambers, where the Luna should reside. But there is no honor in my position. Only suffering.

Every day is a fresh reminder that I don’t belong.

The pack omegas, who should be beneath me, treat me as if I’m lower than dirt. They sneer at me, push past me in the halls, speak to me like I’m worthless. No respect. No acknowledgment. Nothing.

Silas avoids me like the plague. Unless his wolf takes control.

When his wolf awakens, he seeks me out. His body craves me, claims me, owns me. Freya, my wolf, responds to him instinctively, submitting to him every single time.

We’ve shared intimacy more times than I can count.

But when Silas regains control…

He denies it ever happened.

He refuses to meet my eyes, walks past me as if I’m a ghost. As if the connection between us doesn’t exist.

And Gabriella?

The sister I once thought would stand by my side? She is far worse than any of them.

I should have known. I stole the life she was meant to have. The title she was born for. The man she loves.

But it wasn’t my fault.

I never asked for any of this.

We were simply bound by fate.

Yet fate has made me the villain in my own story.

And there’s no way out.

But is this how my life is meant to go? From one misery to another?

I need it to stop.

But how?

Who would help me?

I’m alone. Utterly alone.

Even the one person I thought would stand by my side, Aurora has abandoned me.

She used to be my closest friend. The only person who spoke to me without disdain. But that changed the moment she was mated to Leander, Silas’s Beta and best friend.

Am I blaming her? If you ask me, my answer is a firm No.

Since we were children, Aurora had her eyes on Leander. He was the most handsome wolf in the pack after Silas. And since Silas and Gabriella had always been seen as a pair, no woman ever dared to set her sights on him.

No one dared to compete with Gabriella the Beautiful.

So when fate paired Aurora with Leander, she chose him.

She chose his world.

And in that world, I don’t exist.

She stopped talking to me. Stopped acknowledging me. I became nothing more than a stain on the floor she walked on.

And I understand why.

Who would want to risk their future to stand beside a believed murderer?

Who would risk everything for someone the entire pack despises?

No one.

Because no one wants to be me.

But this is who I am.

My name is Diane Jackson, a 20-year-old wolf, and this is my story.