3: Giselle

Jasmine 

The following week arrived fast.

By morning the mansion was vibrating with preparation. Floors polished to glass. Chandeliers gleaming. The thick scent of roasting meat and expensive flowers saturating every corridor.

Giselle was coming home.

To the pack it wasn’t a return. It was a coronation. They moved like worshippers waiting for their princess. Meanwhile I was handed a fresh apron and a list of tasks designed to keep me exactly where I belonged, invisible.

When she stepped through the doors, the air itself seemed to change.

I stood near the back of the grand staircase, hands locked over my uniform. She was devastating. Time away had only refined her: flawless skin, a body that moved with the effortless, predatory grace of someone who had never once questioned her place at the center of every room. The tailored clothes clung to her long legs and narrow waist, drawing every eye like a magnet.

Luna Victoria crossed the floor immediately. The usual coldness melted from her face into a rare, genuine smile as she pulled Giselle into a warm, lingering embrace.

“Look at you,” she said, voice thick with the maternal pride she had never once offered me. “You are absolutely magnificent.”

“Thank you, dearest Luna,” Giselle replied, sweet and melodic, smoothing her hair as she pulled back.

Because her family home was under renovation, Luna Victoria had insisted she stay at the Alpha manor. She was given one of the grandest suites on the upper residential wing, the one closest to Garrett. The same wing I was forbidden from entering.

Giselle’s bright eyes scanned the room, passing over guards and elders, until they landed on me.

A radiant smile bloomed. She left the high-ranking wolves and walked straight toward me, heels clicking perfectly against the marble.

“Sister,” she purred, taking my hands as if we were the closest of confidantes. To anyone watching it was pure, angelic kindness. “It is so good to see you. You haven’t changed a bit.”

I stood rigid in my maid’s uniform, acutely aware of the stares behind her.

“Welcome back, Giselle,” I said, voice low and carefully submissive.

Before she could answer, the front doors opened again. A powerful, dominant aura flooded the hall.

Garrett walked in.

He looked completely composed, black shirt stretched across broad shoulders, the controlled presence of a man already carrying the weight of the title. My heart gave a painful, familiar flutter. For a fraction of a second our eyes met. A soft, hopeful smile touched my lips.

He barely looked at me. His gaze slid over me as if I were furniture and moved straight to Giselle.

“Giselle. Welcome home,” he said, smooth and polite, extending his hand.

She took it with a soft, practiced giggle.

Luna Victoria’s eyes cut to me instantly, sharp with irritation. “Jasmine, don’t just stand there gaping like an idiot. Go to the kitchen. You have errands.”

“Oh, please, can she stay?” Giselle interrupted, turning to the Luna with a pleading pout no one in this pack could refuse. “I haven’t seen my sister in years.”

Victoria frowned. “Jasmine has a heavy schedule today. She shouldn’t be distracted.”

Giselle smiled sweetly and squeezed my hand tighter—just a fraction too tight. “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I want my sister to wait on me while I’m here. It will give us so much time to catch up. Isn’t that right, sister?”

The weight under the words was clear. She wasn’t asking. She was claiming me as her personal servant while the entire room watched her perform saintliness.

I swallowed the dryness in my throat and kept my head bowed. “Yes, Giselle.”

“Perfect. Help me carry my smaller bags up to the suite.”

I bent to pick up the designer bags. As I turned toward the staircase I had to pass close to Garrett. He stood rigid among the elders, face a perfect mask of indifference. But as my shoulder brushed his arm, his hand shot out behind his back.

His fingers found my waist and squeezed hard, deliberate, possessive through the thin fabric of my uniform. The contact lasted only a second, but it burned. A jolt of heat shot straight through me, waking the dormant thing in my chest. A silent, brutal reminder of who I belonged to. 

I didn’t look back. I hurried up the stairs after Giselle.

The moment the heavy oak door of her suite clicked shut, the atmosphere changed completely.

The bright, angelic smile vanished. Giselle’s elegant posture relaxed as she threw her expensive coat onto the velvet armchair. When she turned, her eyes were cold and calculating.

“So,” she said, voice dropping into a low, mocking purr. “You still have that hopeless little crush on Garrett, don’t you?”

I stiffened. “What? No, I don’t—”

“Don’t be stupid.” She laughed, sharp and amused, walking closer until she towered over me. “I saw the way you looked at him downstairs. It’s pathetic. But don’t worry I understand. Half the women in this pack want him. I don’t really blame you for dreaming.”

She leaned in, perfect lips curling into a wicked smirk that made my stomach twist.

“But here’s the thing, Jasmine. You’re not like other women. Of all the women in this pack, you’re the lowest of the low. You’re basically dirt.”

I swallowed hard but forced my spine to stay straight.

“It’s just a friendly warning,” she continued, voice turning chillingly serious. “Garrett is mine.”

The words landed like ice.

“That’s right. I’ll be your Luna soon. Why exactly do you think I’m back?”

“What?” The syllable barely made it out of my throat.

“Garrett will be Alpha soon, and I will be his Luna.”

Inside, something violent and possessive tore through me. The bond in my chest pulsed hard, furious, almost painful. I had to choke everything down rage, heartbreak, the desperate need to scream the truth until my throat bled. I fisted my hands behind my back and forced my face into blank indifference.

“Congratulations,” I said, voice shockingly calm. “I wish the two of you a happy married life.”

Giselle’s sweet smile snapped back into place as if it had never left. She patted my cheek condescendingly.

“As long as you know your place, sister, I don’t believe we’ll have many issues.”

I turned and left before the mask could crack.

In the corridor the walls felt too close. Tears burned at the edges of my vision. I barely saw where I was going until I crashed hard into a solid chest.

Strong hands steadied me, then gripped my arm and pulled me ruthlessly into a recessed corner behind a heavy tapestry.

The moment we were hidden, the dam broke.

“You’re getting married to her?” I demanded, voice ragged and raw. “Why does the whole pack believe she’s your future Luna?”

I stared up at him, desperate for the denial I needed.

“Because it’s what is expected,” Garrett said, voice flat, eyes completely unreadable.

“You’re not making any sense.”

“I have to choose a Luna, Jasmine.”

“I’m your mate!” The words tore out of me, unfiltered and breaking.

“Hush.” His grip tightened painfully on my arms as he pinned me with a fierce, predatory glare. “I warned you. No one can know. Have you forgotten where we are?”

I stared at him through the tears. The truth settled cold and heavy in my chest.

“You’re ashamed of me.”

Something dark and conflicted flickered across his face. His grip loosened. He stepped back into the shadows.

“Go back to your duties. We’ll speak tonight at the cottage.”

That evening the kitchen was short-staffed because of the feast celebrating Giselle’s return. Despite the usual rules, I was allowed into the grand dining room to help serve the high table.

Every second was pure torture.

I stood by the sideboard watching Garrett sit tightly beside my half-sister. Giselle glowed, laughing elegantly, leaning close to whisper in his ear. And Garrett played his part perfectly—attentive, composed, the dutiful future Alpha. He did not look at me once.

“Jasmine, bring the extra sauce platter to the main table,” the head maid whispered sharply.

I nodded and picked up the heavy silver boat of steaming pepper sauce. My hands were still unsteady. My mind felt distant, heavy with everything that had been said in the corridor.

Just as I reached Giselle’s chair, my foot caught.

The world tilted. The silver boat slipped. Hot sauce spilled across the sleeve of her designer dress and splattered onto her bare shoulder.

Giselle shrieked and jumped up.

“I’m so sorry—I’m so sorry—” I gasped, dropping to my knees, heart in my throat.

Voices rose at once.

“Look what she did!”

“Of course it was deliberate. She couldn’t stand seeing her sister in the spotlight.”

“She should be whipped.”

“The pack stain is showing her true colors.”

“You’re dismissed.”

Garrett voice cut through the noise like ice.

He was standing now, beside Giselle. His face was a mask of absolute, controlled fury. He did not look at the burn on her skin. He did not look to his mother. His dark eyes locked onto mine with pure, public coldness.

“Go to your quarters and remain there,” he ordered, Alpha aura pressing heavy in the air.

To everyone else it was the future Alpha punishing a clumsy, malicious maid.

To me it was the clear, unspoken command beneath the words: *Get out of sight. Now.*

I rose on shaking legs and walked away without another word, the weight of every eye in the room burning into my back.

**

Barely twenty minutes had passed before the cottage door burst open. Garrett stepped into the dim light, his chest heaving, his powerful aura vibrating with a restless, chaotic energy.

I didn't move from where I stood by the cold hearth. I didn't rush to  him. I just looked at him, the weight of the universe pressing down on my chest.

"Explain it," I whispered, the words small but cutting through the silence. "How, Garrett? I am your fated mate, and you are getting married to someone else?"

"I already told you," he said, running a frustrated hand through his dark hair as he paced the floor. "The pack needs a Luna."

"A Luna." I repeated. 

"Someone fitting." he said

My breath hitched and I blinked back tears. Someone that was not me. 

Garrett stopped pacing. His expression softened with that familiar, dark lust, and he took a heavy step toward me, his large hands reaching out to cup my face. But before his skin could meet mine, 

I took a sharp step backward. I avoided his touch entirely, leaving his hands hanging empty in the air.

He froze, his jaw tightening as he stared at me. 

"Jasmine." 

"So you'll marry her while I'm right here," I whispered, the reality of it carving a hollow space in my ribs. "You'll be with her."

"In name," Garrett urged, stepping closer again, his voice dropping into a desperate, intense purr. 

"She is only to be my Luna for the pack. But it’s you who I want, Jasmine. It's you I truly desire."

But he wouldn't claim me. He couldn't. Because to him, and to the rest of the world, I wasn't suitable. I was wolf-less, an omega. I was illegitimate. I was dirt.

Dirt he wanted badly to keep secretly. 

A horrifying clarity washed over me. Even while he was married to his wife—to my own half-sister—I would always continually be his dirty little secret. That was the life he wanted me to live. That was the exact role he had created for me.

Garrett.

The man who sneaks into my room, or whose room I sneak into, simply because he needs me to satiate his beast when the pressure gets too high. None of this was real. He never planned to claim me before the pack; he planned to keep me trapped by his side in the dark. He was going to do what was best for him.

While I had put him first and considered him in absolutely everything, he had never felt the same way about me. Nothing else mattered to him. Garrett... Garrett always came first.

This wasn't love. He never loved me.

And God, I loved him so much. Through his volatile temper flares, his demanding nature, and everything else, I had loved him through all of it. Now, looking at him, I just felt hurt. Like my soul was being crushed and I knew for a fact that this feeling would only get worse, seeing him married to Giselle. 

"I can't do this, Garrett," I whispered.

Garrett’s eyes flared with sudden alarm, his  patience snapping. 

"I really do not have the energy for your jealousy right now, Jasmine. I need you to understand the pressure  I'm under, don't you get it?"

"I do," I said quietly, staring at the stranger in front of me. "I understand completely. And that's why I won't hold you back anymore. Reject me, Garrett." my voice trembled and shook.