Chapter 1: Betrayed on my birthday

Chapter 1: Betrayed on my birthday 

“Fucking hell, Corwin! Just like that...fuck, yes!”

I stood frozen in the doorway of my boyfriend’s bedroom, my stomach lurching, heart imploding in my chest. We'd been together for years… and I sure as hell wasn’t the girl on her knees with her ass in the air.

The horror bleeding through me now was a gut punch compared to how I felt just this morning.

I’d woken up with a buzz of hope in my veins. It was my birthday, my 20th, and even if no one else gave a damn, I told myself I’d enjoy it. It was supposed to be a big deal...coming of age, stepping into my power, maybe even discovering the wolf buried inside me.

My boss at the perfume shop had let me off early, called it a birthday gift. And with my heart full and dumbly beating for Corwin, I made my way to his place.

He was the only one who ever gave a shit about me. The only one who made me feel seen. I’d trusted him. I was going to give him everything.

And now this.

They were both naked...bodies slick with sweat. The girl moaned like she was getting wrecked in the best possible way, hands fisting the bedsheets while Corwin rammed into her from behind like a goddamn animal.

“You like that? Say it,” he growled.

“God, yes! Harder...fuck me harder!”

Corwin grabbed her waist, slamming his hips into her faster. The girl’s voice cracked into a high-pitched cry, her body jerking in rhythm with every rough thrust. “Shit...you feel so fucking good!”

Then he lunged forward, one hand tangling in her hair, shoving her face into the pillow while he kept pounding her like he was trying to break the bed.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come,” he grunted, deep and raw, while she screamed beneath him...her muffled moans riding the edge between pain and pleasure.

The whole damn bed was shaking like a boat in a fucking storm.

I don’t know what finally broke me out of my trance, but as they both collapsed in their post-orgasmic bliss, I found my voice...and screamed.

“How could you, Corwin?!”

His head snapped toward me, face covered in sweat and guilt, eyes wide. But I wasn’t staying to hear his pathetic excuses.

I ran.

Didn’t stop to see the girl’s face. Didn’t care. Couldn’t.

My life had always sucked, but this… this was a new low.

I’m Selene Caelum. A disgrace. That’s all I’ve ever been.

My father, Alaric Caelum, is Alpha of Duskwatch Pack. Not the biggest, but brutal and respected. Like most Alphas, he wanted a son. Not just any son, a legacy. A beast to carry on his name.

But his wife only gave him a daughter. So, he turned to a surrogate.

And the surrogate...lucky me...was my mom. An ordinary omega with no status.

When I was born a girl, he didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. And when my mother died soon after, he had no choice but to take me in. But he never saw me as his daughter.

He hated me from day one. Hated me for being female. Hated that I turned out to be an omega. And it didn’t help that I never manifested a wolf.

Most shifters awaken their wolves around 15.

I was 20. Still nothing. No wolf. No powers. No scent. Just weak. Weaker than humans, even.

Alaric despised weakness. So he despised me.

His wife wasn’t any better. Cassara hated my mom, and every time she looked at me, she saw the woman who shared her husband’s bed. Her disgust was constant. I was treated like a maid in their perfect little house of lies.

Honestly, I would’ve killed myself years ago if it weren’t for one person: Rhiannon.

My stepsister. Two years older. Confident. Beautiful. She never picked on me, never played the cruel games her parents did. She was the only thread holding me together.

Well, her and Corwin.

Corwin freaking Thornevale.

One of the strongest wolves in the pack. Smart, sharp, hot as hell. Everyone thought he’d be Alaric’s successor. He had his pick of all the girls, and yet somehow, he chose me.

He was the only one who ever looked at me like I mattered. 

Corwin had been my light. My escape. My reason to survive.

I was going to give him my virginity tonight. Wrap it up in a bow and hand it over with my whole damn heart.

But that dream just got burned alive.

I didn’t make it far. My legs gave out somewhere in a back alley downtown, and I crumpled to the pavement, sobbing until my voice was raw.

“Selene?”

Rhiannon’s voice broke through the dark.

I didn’t know how she found me. Didn’t care. I was too broken to think. Too shattered to move.

She knelt beside me. I told her everything between hiccups and tears. She listened...calm, quiet, warm.

A car passed by, its headlights slicing through the dark just long enough to catch a glimpse of her wrist.

Her bracelet.

The same damn bracelet I’d seen on the girl in Corwin’s bed.

My stomach flipped. “She even had a bracelet just like yours.”

“She did?” Rhiannon blinked. Her voice caught for a moment as she looked down at her wrist. “Oh… probably just a popular model or something.”

She looked shaken. For a split second, I thought I saw fear flicker in her eyes.

But it vanished. She smiled like always and unfastened the bracelet. “You know what? Screw it. Let’s toss the damn thing.”

She threw it into the dark. Gone.

“No need to keep reminders of tonight,” she said lightly. “We’re rewriting the ending.”

I sniffed. “Rewriting?”

“Duh. You think I’m letting your eighteenth birthday end like this?” She pulled me to my feet. “We’re going out. You’re gonna drink. You’re gonna forget his name. And you’re gonna look so hot tonight, every guy’s gonna want a piece of you.”

“I don’t know if I can…”

“You don’t have to know. You just have to trust me.”

I didn’t trust much anymore.

I wasn’t ready. I was still aching, bleeding inside.

But gods help me, I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. So I let her lead me away.