مكتبة
بحث
بيت / Werewolf / Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother / 004: the wrong mate

مشاركة

004: the wrong mate

مؤلف: Chithority.
last update تاريخ النشر: 2025-10-27 10:13:17

Selene’s POV

I slipped through the Inner corrIdor that connected Damon’s wing to the rest of the packhouse.

The polished stone floors gleamed under soft lighting, every surface perfect, every hallway whisperIng domInance and legacy. But today, It felt like a prison. Every step echoed wIth Luna Ivana’s voIce, with Damon’s betrayal, with Mira’s wide, careful eyes.

I needed aIr. Freedom. Anything that dIdn’t reek of lies.

I turned a corner too quIckly and stopped dead.

Aric.

He stood like a wall In the middle of the hall, broad shoulders blockIng the path as though the Moon herself had conspired to throw hIm In my way.

For a heartbeat, the world stilled.

He was older now. Broader. Stronger. HIs jacket hung open over a dark shIrt, collar slightly crooked, like he didn’t care for the pack’s suffocating polish. HIs Jaw was sharper than I remembered, hIs face harder, carved by years of silence and distance.

And those eyes—icy cerulean, his mother’s eyes. They caught mIne like they always had, and just like that, I was seventeen agaIn, heart hammering at a pack ceremony as I dared to look too long at a wolf I could never have.

“Lene,” he said, voIce smooth, calm, far too steady while mIne trembled Inside me.

The sound of my old nickname on his lips sent a ripple down my spine.

I pulled myself together, forced a smile that wasn’t shy or flirtatious. Just… familiar.

“I thought you left after the Council meeting.”

“I did. Came back this morning. Alpha’s request.” His gaze moved over me, calm, assessing, controlled.

I felt naked under it. Not physically. Worse. Emotionally.

“How have you been?” he asked.

“Fine.” Too quick. Too defensive.

One brow arched. He didn’t believe me. He never had. Aric had always noticed more than he should.

“I didn’t think you’d end up with Damon,” he said, voice flat. No judgment, no mockery. Just fact. “But the two of you were always close.”

I swallowed. What could I say? That Damon had noticed me first? That Aric had been my dream, but Damon had been the one who stayed?

“It made sense,” I said softly. “No one expected me to want anyone else.”

His gaze held mine, piercing. “You were young.”

“And you were dIstant.” The words slipped out before 1 could stop them.

A chuckle rumbled from hIs chest. Deep, warm, unguarded. It wrapped around me like a memory, pulling me back to moonlit hunts and quiet gatherings where I’d wIshed, just once, that he’d reach for me.

“I had no busIness getting Involved with a Montclaw she-wolf,” he said. “The Elders would’ve torn us apart.”

He wasn’t wrong. But the truth still stung.

“Are you angry about what happened at Council?” I asked, searching his face. “About my father?”

He shrugged. “Not at all. I was hoping the title would go to someone else. Sebastian didn’t want it either.”

That surprised me. “But it was your birthright.”

“Freedom is my birthright,” he said without hesitation. “Being Alpha is a gilded cage. I’ve climbed the peaks of Takar, run with the mountain rogues. You think I’d trade that for a throne and false smiles?”

The certainty in his voice left me breathless. He wasn’t lying. He would choose freedom over power. Always.

“I knew what was coming the moment they bound you to Damon,” he added, a faint, almost bitter smile on his lips.

“Luna Ivana’s always been ten steps ahead.”

“1 was Just another pawn,” I muttered.

His smile faded. For a flicker of a moment, something gentler crossed hIs eyes.

“You were never a pawn.”

The words lodged In my chest, heavIer than they should’ve been. I wanted to laugh them off, brush them aside, but I couldn’t.

Not with hIm lookIng at me like that.

Silence stretched, thick and dangerous.

Then, mercifully, he broke It. “You still terrible with horses?”

The question caught me off guard. “I’m not terrible.”

His lips twitched. “Still need help, then?”

Despite everything, a small laugh escaped me, fragile but real.

Eight years ago, he’d steadied me in the stables, his hand firm at my waist, his voice calm in my ear. I had never forgotten.

“No,” I said quickly. Firmer.

“Come on,” he said, already turning toward the exit. “You look like you need it.”

He didn’t know. He couldn’t. That my bond had been reduced to ash. That Damon had paraded his mistress and pups in front of me. That Luna Ivana had demanded my silence like it was my duty.

He didn’t ask about any of it.

And maybe that was the only reason I followed him.

Because sometImes kindness was more dangerous than cruelty.

The stables were quIet, lanterns castIng long shadows across stone. The aIr smelled of hay and leather, the faInt snort of restless steeds echoing through the rafters.

Aric moved with the confIdence of a wolf who had never been denIed. Even the stablehands watched hIm with respect as he ordered two mounts to be saddled.

He didn’t look at me as he mounted.

“Ready?”

I wasn’t. Not for him. Not for this. But I nodded anyway.

استمر في قراءة هذا الكتاب مجانا
امسح الكود لتنزيل التطبيق
الفصل السابق الفصل التالي

أحدث فصل

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    105

    CHAPTER 27 the gym is gone Liana’s POVThe USB drive had given me answers.But answers without context were just more questions wearing different clothes.I knew what Matteo had done. I knew the shape of it now the debt, the transfer, the correspondence that referred to me as the subject like I was a line item in a budget. I knew my marriage had been a transaction completing itself and that I had walked into it believing it was a choice.What I didn’t know was what Maxwell had intended to do with any of it.And that gap that specific gap between what I knew and what I didn’t was where everything lived. Where the anger lived. Where the something-that-wasn’t-quite-hope-but-wasn’t-quite-dead-yet lived.I needed more.I started small.Careful. Methodical. The way you move when you’re searching inside a house that watches you.I had a name the holding company that had purchased the gym. The attendant had been tight lipped but the sale of a business left records. Public records. The kind

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    104 The Burden of Blood and Duty — Part 2

    Damon’s POVI stepped slightly aside, away from the prying curiosity in my mother’s eyes and the suffocating tension that clung to the hospital walls like dust. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, the scent of antiseptic sharp in the air, the weight of fear heavier than any crown.I lifted the phone to my ear.“Father.”His response was brisk, clipped, already strained by the unravelling chaos of a kingdom at breaking point.“Damon, where are you? You need to get back to the palace immediately. We’re preparing a press release. The people are panicking. The riots are escalating ”I closed my eyes briefly, inhaling through the tightness in my chest. Of course. One crisis was never enough. Eldenwald had a talent for bleeding in every direction at once.I paced a few slow steps down the hall. “Is the food reserve being released? What am I supposed to tell them if there’s nothing tangible to offer?”“Not yet,” he answered, irritation hardening into frustration. “I’m still assembling a

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    23; The Burden of Blood and Duty

    Damon’s POVThe doctor’s footsteps echoed down the corridor long before he reached us slow, steady, unforgiving. In the suffocating quiet of the hospital wing, each soft tap against the polished floor struck my nerves like a hammer. Nothing in this place moved quickly except fear, and fear had already wrapped itself around all of us like a noose.When the doctor finally appeared, his shoulders were squared with practised calm. But there was a heaviness behind his eyes that made my stomach clench. He bowed lightly.“Your Highness. Your Majesty.”My mother straightened instantly, slipping into her queenly posture as naturally as breathing. Regal. Composed. Unreadable. I could barely manage a nod. My spine felt rigid, my lungs tight — as if one wrong inhale would shatter the fragile thing holding me together.“How is he?” I asked, though the words scraped out of me like broken glass. “My son.”The doctor didn’t answer immediately. He clasped the clipboard to his chest, fingers tightenin

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    102: What It Costs to Face Myself — Part 2

    Damon’s POV“So tell me,” I continued, stepping closer close enough that the harsh fluorescent lights carved brutal honesty across both our faces “since when did spending time with a son become an obligation, Mum?”Her lips parted, ready to defend herself, ready to twist the entire situation into something convenient and clean.I didn’t give her the room. Not anymore.“You created this mess,” I said quietly.Too quietly. The kind of quiet that shook even me.“And I will stick to the terms we agreed on. Once the children are healthy, Rachel returns to Erinville. Permanently. My life is already in ruins from every way I let you meddle.”Rachel’s crying intensified at those words, her sobs ricocheting through the sterile hospital corridor like shards of broken glass, slicing through the tension, the guilt, the accumulated regret hanging thick in the air.But as her face crumpled and her shoulders shook, something terrifying dawned on me.I felt nothing.Or not nothing. Something closer

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    100

    Ch 66: Stop Right ThereANA.“What do you mean?” I crawled backwards, making a visible distance from him. “I’m not going anywhere, I need to go back to Saint Petersburg. My flight is already booked, so tell your so-called boss I have no fucking time.”Saying that, I got up from the floor and started to walk out when suddenly Alex grabbed my right wrist and dragged me inside. Tossing me on the floor, he casually shrugged off his shoulders and scratched his head with the tip of the gun.“I think you are misinterpreting my words, Miss Ana.”“What do you mean?” I knitted my eyebrows in seriousness, but I was tipsy and barely holding myself together. “Alex, you better take care of the mess you created,” I said, pointing at the dead bodies of John and his bodyguards.To which Alex laughed. Taking steps towards me, he kicked the bodies out of his way.“That’s not the problem here, but if you refuse to go with me then it could become a problem…”“I will call the cops and say you were the one

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    99

    CHAPTER 23Liana’s POVThe first thing I noticed was the cold.Not the room — the sheets. His side of them. I pressed my palm flat against the space beside me before I fully opened my eyes, the way you reach for something in the dark without thinking.Cold. Completely.I opened my eyes.Empty.I lay there for a moment looking at the ceiling. Listening. The house had a particular quality of silence at this hour — thick and undisturbed. No movement. No water running. No footsteps.I sat up.The note was on the pillow. Small. Folded once. My name on the outside in his handwriting — neat, controlled, exactly like him.I picked it up with the easy hands of someone who wasn’t worried yet. Maybe he had an early call. Maybe something with Alex. Maybe—Liana —Something came up. I had to leave.Take care of yourself.— MI read it once.Then I set it on the nightstand and got up to shower.Something came up. That was fine. Things came up. He was a busy man — calls, business, the investigation,

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    91

    89 The Things I Cannot TolerateArden's POVThe room still smelled like her.Cassandra's perfume lingered faintly, soft, floral, familiar, etched into the stale air of that abandoned chamber like a haunting. I stood there long after she slipped out with Diana, long after her footsteps faded into no

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    89 — The Things I Cannot Tolerate

    Aric’s POVThe room still smelled like her.Selene’s scent lingered faintly, soft, wild, familiar, etched into the stale air of the abandoned chamber like a ghost that refused to fade. I stood there long after she slipped out with Lyra, long after her footsteps disappeared into silence down the cor

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother    88 — Everything I Never Said 2

    Selene’s POV“You didn’t hold me. Not once. You never asked how I was doing. How I felt. What I wanted.”The words left me before I realised I had spoken them.They came out raw.Stripped of politeness.Stripped of diplomacy.Stripped of the careful softness I had been trained to wear like a second

  • Rejected by the alpha, claimed by his brother     87 — Everything I Never Said

    Selene’s POVFor a long moment, there was nothing.No sound.No movement.No breath.Only the two of us suspended inside a silence so heavy it felt capable of crushing bone.The air in the chamber was thick, still warm from the steam that had followed me out of the bathroom, yet cold along the edge

فصول أخرى

قد تعجبك أيضًا

استكشاف وقراءة روايات جيدة مجانية
الوصول المجاني إلى عدد كبير من الروايات الجيدة على تطبيق GoodNovel. تنزيل الكتب التي تحبها وقراءتها كلما وأينما أردت
اقرأ الكتب مجانا في التطبيق
امسح الكود للقراءة على التطبيق
DMCA.com Protection Status