MATED TO THE BROKEN ALPHA

LYRA

“Get out.”

I froze, completely shocked as my father’s voice cut through the carriage.

I blinked. My body trembled as I stared into his cold eyes which were devoid of any warmth. No matter how long or how hard I searched, I could not find anything in his gaze that showed me he didn’t mean his words.

“Father?” I called out, my tone cautious, “I-”

“Get out.” Beside him, my stepmother repeated, “Are your ears deaf, child?” she hissed, “Your father told you to get out, so, get the hell out of our carriage. Or do you feel like you can challenge us now?”

My eyes softened as my fingers began to tighten around my white mating dress.

Normally, I would never dare to talk back. Past me would have kept my head down and walked out of the carriage with a patronizing smile on my face.

But this was not a normal time. It was my mating ceremony for the goddess’s sake. I had been feeling a little bit relieved earlier, believing that I was going to finally be treated right, I was beginning to see that it was all wishful thinking.

“But we’re at the gate.” For a final time, I tried to plead, “And the snow is so thick.”

As I whispered, my gaze darted outside the carriage. We had just gotten to the massive gates of the Dark Thorne pack, and that meant there were hundreds of wolves already at the entrance, all of them waiting for me.

My father kept silent, so a tiny bit of hope began to rise within me.

“Please father,” I whispered, “Just-”

This time, he didn’t speak. Instead, he just tapped on the side of the carriage, and the next instant, the door opened.

“I am done with you, Lyra,” he hissed, his tone filled with rage, “Now, leave. As of today, you are no longer our responsibility. And from this moment hence forth, you are no longer a daughter of mine. You have served your purpose. Now, go and be useful.”

My eyes filled with tears, and I stared at my father with pain in my eyes. “So, is that why all of this is happening?” I asked, “Are you giving me away to the Beast just so I can be useful?”

My father’s face hardened, and to my shock, he nodded, “We are, and you should be grateful.”

My voice cracked. “I should be grateful to have my entire life upended and scattered at a moment’s notice to marry that Beast?” This time, my voice was loud enough that my father’s expression had become dark.

There were lots of wolves around us, and he certainly didn’t want this mating alliance to fall through.

My stepmother immediately noticed his expression, and just like she always did when she noticed my father getting angry, she snapped at me.

“Don't flatter yourself, you bitch,” my stepmother’s eyes were filled with so much rage as she spat out those words, and I just knew that if I wasn’t going to get mated in an hour, she would have left another mark on my body. “You're being used to secure an alliance. That's all.”

The whispers around us grew louder, and even through the thick wadded walls of the carriage, I could hear them.

“Poor girl.”

“Why are they abandoning her?”

“I heard they call her a curse because her mother died giving birth to her?”

“Look at her.” Another whispered, “She looks as pale as a ghost.”

The more the whispers drifted into my ears, the more I felt myself crack.

It didn’t take long before I could no longer stop the tears from slipping down my cheeks.

My father grew even more annoyed when he noticed I was crying.

“For once in your life, Lyra,” he leaned down, and looked me in his eyes, “Don’t embarrass me,”

Then, before I could answer, he pushed me out of the carriage.

I had to quickly scramble to get my bearings, or else I would have slipped and fell on the snow.

My father nodded at the cold guard who was stationed outside the door, and he coldly closed the door, but just before the doors closed shut, my stepmother leaned forward and whispered, “Don’t come crawling back when the Beast is done with you,”

Then, bang.

I blinked, shocked as the door was firmly locked.

Now that I was outside the carriage, the snow was so thick, and the weather was so cold that my tears were beginning to crystallize before they fell down my cheeks.

The moment my feet touched the snow, and pain shot right through my soles. I gasped in pain, but I pushed down my tears.

I always knew this day was going to come, but I never realized it was going to be so soon.

Even with all the abuse that I had suffered at the hands of my stepmother and step sister, I had always thought that my father had my best interest in mind. Now I knew just how wrong I was.

It didn’t take long for me to stop crying completely and focus on the future. My family had abandoned me, yes, but I would make sure this would be the last time they would ever hurt me.

With my resolve strengthened, I took a step forward, towards the large gate that led towards the Beast himself. My mating dress dragged behind me, already collecting white flakes along its long train.

The moment I had been pushed out of the carriage, the entire world had frozen. The crowd and the warrior wolves stationed at the gates had all fallen silent.

And they kept silent till I walked right through the open gates.

The moment my bare, bloodied feet landed on the paved snow, several of the guards turned to face me, and two of them walked towards me.

“Please follow us,” One of them said with a tone so harsh and gritty that I almost jumped, “You're expected at the castle.”

I swallowed and nodded as they escorted me through the massive space of the second-largest pack in the entire world.

Of course, I had heard about just how enormous the Dark Thorne pack was, but it was only when I began to walk right through it that I realized that the rumors had not given it justice.

My dad’s pack wouldn’t even make up ten percent of the land area for the Dark Thorne pack, and that was just the area I could see.

The streets were packed, and I must have spotted thousands of wolves around. Merchants hurried past and warriors stood on every corner.

Even though most wolves outside the Dark Thorne pack felt disdain towards the Beast, no one could deny the fact that he was one of the most powerful creatures alive.

Their eyes followed me, and so did their whispers.

“That's the bride, right?”

“Why is she barefoot?”

“Does she even know that her feet are bleeding?”

“I heard her family abandoned her at the gate.”

“Oh my god, poor thing.”

I wanted to disappear, but the burn from my feet was enough to snap me to attention.

Eventually, we reached the castle, and the moment I walked into the largest building I had ever seen in my life, I froze. Because right across from me, in a black ceremonial robe that was somehow too small for his massive size, was my new mate.

He was the cursed wolf I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and also the wolf to the entire world by a name that sent chills down the spines of his enemies – The Beast.