Chapter 1

AURORA.

"Aurora!" I heard my older sister, Quincy, call my name. I was inside my bedroom, preparing to sleep after I had returned from the restaurant where I worked as a waitress.

"Yes, sister," I rushed out of my room to meet her. My sister stood there, towering above me. I wasn't even up to her shoulder. I was like the rejected daughter in my family.

All my siblings were Beta Wolves, and I had been born as an Omega. Because of this, my entire family looked down on me.

"Where is the jade earring I kept in my locker in my room? Did you steal it?" Quincy asked, her eyes glaring daggers at me.

Quincy was more favored by our parents. They believed she would become Alpha Xander's mate. After all, she was twenty years old, and I was seventeen.

"I didn't take your jade earrings. What could I possibly use them for?" I asked her, subtly annoyed because she always blamed me first.

"We have two maids in this house. Why not ask them first?" I replied to Quincy bluntly, but she smacked me so hard across my left cheek that I felt my head spin as I almost collapsed on the ground.

I staggered backward, looking at her in shock.

"Quincy, you slapped me?" I asked her, holding my left cheek as tears brimmed in my eyes.

"I will slap you again if you do not tell me where you kept my jade earrings. You know how much I love those earrings because Alpha Xander gave them to me last year on my nineteenth birthday. Did you steal them to wear to Alpha Xander's birthday party tonight?" Quincy asked me, her tone sharp and anger boiling in her veins.

The rest of my family came downstairs into the living room and rushed up to meet us. They obviously treasured Quincy, whom they believed was going to become the future Luna of the Autumn Pack and bring so much blessing to them. While I was the unwanted child.

"Quincy, what's going on?" my mother, Sarah Stanley, asked as she walked into the corridor first to meet us. My father and my older brother trailed behind her.

"Mom," Quincy broke out in tears like I had slapped her. "Mom, Aurora stole my jade earrings," she cried in our mother's arms and pointed at me.

Our mother had been an Omega by birth, but she looked down on Omegas after she had married my father, the Beta of this pack.

"Is that true, Aurora?" Mom asked me, her eyes shooting daggers at me. "Hand over your sister's earrings!" She stretched out her hands for me to provide the earrings that I hadn't seen or taken.

"Mom, I didn't take Quincy's earrings. You all are accusing me wrongly. I just came back from work, and now Quincy called me out for her earrings. When could I have possibly stolen them?" I asked my mother, who scowled.

"Shut up, you thief!" My mother smacked me across my right cheek, and I staggered backward again, tears falling from my eyes like pearls.

"Do you think I do not see how you admire those jade earrings on Quincy's ears? Like you want to steal them because you know Alpha Xander gave them to Quincy. Are you trying to steal Alpha Xander's attention by taking what belongs to your sister?" Mom demanded, her words slicing my heart and cutting deeply.

I looked at her, speechless, and my older brother, Kaleb—a tall, twenty-five-year-old man—walked up to me. His eyes shot daggers at me too.

"Where are the jade earrings, Aurora? An Omega like you shouldn't wear anything pricey. You are meant to work as a maid. That's what lowborns like you are born to be!" he said furiously.

Dad stepped forward too and looked down on me. "Aurora, not only do you not have a wolf, you are also useless to this family. How dare you steal your sister's earrings? Guards!" My father summoned his warriors, and two guards came in.

"Search Aurora's room for the beautiful jade earrings," Dad said, and the two guards swung into action as they went to search my room.

I was not allowed to use the rooms on the top floor. I had to live as a servant in my own father's house.

I stood in the passage and watched the scene before me. The guards swung into action, searching my room and throwing all my things scattered around.

"Dad, we will be late for Alpha Xander's twenty-seventh birthday. This is all Aurora's doing—to make us go late," Quincy said, crying as my mother hugged her closely.

"Don't worry, Quincy. We will find those jade earrings before we leave here," my mother said, her tone soft whenever she spoke with my sister.

"Found it!" the guards announced, and I felt dread wash down my spine as the two guards walked out of my room. One of them handed the jade earrings to my father.

"How dare you do this, Aurora?" Kaleb yelled, and he rushed to smack me to the ground.

"Kaleb, it's enough. You shouldn't raise your hand to Aurora. Do not forget that she is still your sister," my father said, despite his anger.

"Dad, I reject Aurora as my sister. I cannot have a thief for a sister. Why would she steal from Quincy when she knew how special these gifts are to Quincy?" Kaleb said, his voice filled with anger, and our father tried to calm him down.

"Kaleb, as a man, it's not proper to raise your hand to a woman. Leave me to handle this," Dad dismissed my brother before he looked at me with disappointment.

"Tell me, Aurora. Why did you steal the jade earrings from Quincy's room?" Dad asked me as I stood looking at my family with tears in my eyes.

"Dad, why would I steal from Quincy? I do not know how these earrings got into my room. This house has surveillance cameras. Let's see who stole these earrings and tried to frame me," I said, and my father frowned, like he had almost forgotten that the house had CCTV.

"That's right, Dad. Let's see the recording. That will be enough evidence to send Aurora to jail. She keeps bringing disgrace to us," Kaleb spat, and my dad frowned as he didn't want me to go to jail.

"I didn't steal the earrings. I deserve to see the footage," I said, and Quincy panicked.

"Dad, we are going to be late to Alpha Xander's twenty-seventh birthday party. Let's go, and when we get back, we will deal with Aurora accordingly," Quincy spoke in her sweet, soft voice, and I looked at her face.

Wasn't she my older sister? Why was it a crime if I had truly touched any of her things? However, I knew that I hadn't taken the jade earrings. Quincy was only trying to frame me for them to have me punished. But why?

I sobbed, watching them agree like a happy family.

"You're right. Let's go," my mother agreed as they were all dressed up and heading out. The time was 8 p.m., and the birthday celebration would have already started. Since Alpha Xander wanted a late-night birthday celebration.

I wasn't invited, and it wasn't like I wanted to be around them or to attend Alpha Xander's birthday.

Before my mother could walk out of the corridor, she glanced back at me and said, "Let me warn you, Aurora. You shouldn't dare to leave this house or to show yourself at the Alpha's mansion. Got it!"

"Yes, Mom," I replied despite my brokenness, and they left the house. The sound of their cars starting in the compound echoed as I went to my bed to sit on it and cry my heart out to the Moon Goddess.

"Why, Moon Goddess? Why did you give me to a family that doesn't want me?" I cried aloud, howling in pain until a voice startled me.

"It's okay, Aurora. I am here now," the lovely voice said, and I panicked as I saw a white spirit wolf in my room.