Unwelcome. Unappreciated. Unloved

Episode 1

Lyra was reeling.

No, not reeling, she was loosing consciousness. She was dying. She could vaguely feel her mouth open and closing. Was she speaking? Was someone else speaking? What was going on??

She was melting away into nothing.

Dying was a welcome idea at this point. Anything, anything was better than this.

This shame, this hurt, this... This... What was this?

"... Can you hear me Lyra? You need to say it back. It is important that you say you accept Wren as my concubine now before I tell everyone else in the pack. It shows a united front in our family and our pack in general"

That voice, Alpha Dorian's voice. Her mate.

He was standing in front of her, but protecting another woman, hiding her behind him, like she was the problem. Like she was not the one who had been hurt.

"I... I don't understand you..." Lyra managed to say.

Her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool, her head was ringing like she had just been hit.

On her birthday, he was announcing Wren as his new concubine, on her birthday. A party he had planned by himself. He couldn't even wait. He didn't even let her understand or get an opinion.

"A concubine? You picked this Omega, as a concubine?! Do you have any idea what you're saying to me? What you're asking me to do? I'm your mate, Dorian!!" Lyra snapped at the alpha.

It was the first time she had ever raised her voice around him.

There were in a one of the grand halls that belonged to the pack where they held many events. he had picked this one out for her birthday party himself and it was a few minutes till she would be called out for the celebration proper and yet he had slid into her dressing room with the  snake hiding behind him in tow and informed her that he would be announcing Wren as his concubine. At her birthday celebration.

No wonder he had gone all out with the celebrations. Alpha Dorian had never done anything if he did not stand to gain from it. She had watched him barking out orders at the event organizers to mix in pink colors on the ornaments, plates and towels as they decorated, even though he knew that wasn't her color and she knew it sure as hell wasn't his either.

"This decision... Do I not get a say in it?" Lyra whispered.

The omega who had kept her face to the ground the entire time, poked her head up and stared up at Lyra through her pitch black hair. If Lyra had blinked, she would have missed the sneer that crossed the omega's face.

It was very quick, but it was there.

Lyra's usually silent wolf, stirred to the surface.

Was this what she had to deal with from now on?

Because she had to be frank, there was really no changing his mind. The very fact that she opposed it, would only make him double down on it and make sure it happened. He was always like that, even with her.

In hind sight, this was her fault too. Lyra had seen the signs, she had noticed the way he came home late or barely came home at all. She had brushed it off as his usual alpha business and responsibilities, even though the sinking feeling had been there, brewing all along.

"Dorian, please, don't be like this. Don't hurt me like this" she whispered, hoping that no one walking past the room they currently were would hear her begging.

It hurt her pride to beg, especially in front of an Omega, but that was what she had been reduced to. All had princessly pride had been reduced to nothing.

"Do you even hear yourself, Lyra? Are you trying to go against me? " Alpha Dorian spat.

"You want me to sit still and watch you take a concubine, no questions asked? You're my mate, Dorian" Lyra  said, still having to tone down her voice, as it would be perceived as disrespectful to raise her voice on her alpha in front of someone as low in rank as an omega.

That was why it hurt. She would be sharing her mate with an omega, a low ranking woman he had been groveling around with in the mud.

"You're my mate, yes, and then what? Can't I at least have a woman in my life who could actually bear children? Because of your curse, because of my blind loyalty to you, I could die today without my alpha heir!" Alpha Dorian seethed, all the while still hiding Wren behind him.

Blood rushed to Lyra's head, she could not believe her ears.

"My curse? I can bear children, Dorian. You know I can" her heart beat slammed against her ribcage, like it wanted to jump right out of her.

"Have you stayed in the pack house for so long, it dulled your brain? Haven't you looked at your self?

I should have listened. I was warned, I was told to reject you as my mate and pick someone else that would not bring problems to me, but I was young and stupid and I didn't listen" he said and looked at her obvious white hair with disdain.

It was the only thing she received in terms of resemblance from her mother.

And right now, it was her curse.

"This. This is wrong! I am not my mother...I have been nothing but faithful to you and my oath as the luna of this pack." She tried very hard to blink back tears. She would not show him her tears, not now, not in front of the omega. "You cannot take a concubine to replace me because of some stupid folklore!"

Lyra had forgotten her voice could be that loud. It truly had been years since she stood up to him or anyone. Because of her heritage, made very clear and undeniable by the color of her hair, she had stayed silent, stayed humble and meek, not stirring any waters and just hoping everything stayed the way there were.

"I have done my duties to you and to this pack. I have taken everything you have dished out at me. I have been submissive, I have been the perfect Luna, so don't stand there and use something like that as an excuse for your obvious infidelity!!"

Smack!!

The force of Alpha Dorian's slap made her head tilt to the side, wringing her neck in the process.

The slap reverberated throughout Lyra's body. White noise filled her head, meanwhile, all her combat training came up right to the front of her mind, urging her, begging her to retaliate, but she held back, just like she had been doing for the past 5 years since she found out he was her mate.

Lyra squeezed her palm into a tight fist, her blood boiled from the humiliation. It wasn't the first time her mate was hitting her, he always struck her, but never in front of of an audience, in the presence of Wren no less.

Breathing in deeply to tame her wild thoughts, Lyra calmed the urge to take her hand and rub on her  cheek, that had to be turning a light shade of red at that point.

"Now look how you're embarrassing yourself and our family in front of dear Wren. I'm pretty sure she is shocked to see us like this. She used to admire you, you know... Didn't you, Wren?"  Alpha Dorian turned to ask Wren who still stood behind him, watching.

"Uhm, yes Alpha" the slithering, creature said.

"See? And now you've gone and ruined it! How would you teach her now?" Alpha Dorian said before grabbing his 'dear Wren' and walking out of her dressing room.

Immediately she was alone, Lyra let the emotions she had been keeping at bay and putting a tight leash on to wash over her, but she put her hands to her mouth to keep the sound of her crying from getting too loud and attracting people.

Other than the fact that he was her apha and mate, she knew she could take him. It wasn't a brag, she could take him on in a fight and win. She had been trained and readied on fornwarnamd all kinds of combat he whole life.

But she had always held back, always pushed her wild side away, accepting the role of Dorian's mate, of the doting, soft lily. She had to be the perfect Luna. She had to be soft, humble and teachable. She had to be...

Godot fifth h sutgidht sufur

He was all she had now, she was the Luna. Wren would not throw that away because she had been hit by her mate...

Keeping the peace, that was what a Luna was meant to do.

She could do it. She could do it. She could do it.

Could she do it?