It shattered me.

Alpha Ollen Kingsmen...

I opened my eyes once I heard the door close, her footsteps falling further and further away from the office.

I felt something twist in my chest.

I was conflicted. I didn't know how to act properly after finding out that everything was a lie the previous night.

I could still hear Vice speaking as if he was still sitting in the office, Laura's loud gasp still trapped in the room just as I was.

"It's Jenny and Joyce. Not Joyce and Jenny." Vice had commented the previous night.

"What does that mean?" Laura had voiced the question ringing in my head.

My confusion was cleared shortly after.

"It means Jenny is the older sister, and Joyce, the younger." Vice had replied. "I specifically remember Laura saying that the spell she casted our had informed her that the elder daughter of Alpha Feather was your mate. It didn't make sense to me, so I looked around a little bit more. And..."

Vice had hesitated for a few seconds before he'd continued, clearly knowing that what he had said after that was going to upset his wife.

"I know you told me not to engage with anyone under any circumstance, but..." He'd continued, and I was certain Laura was glaring at him. Yet she did not inturrupt.

"I compelled one of the Omegas who was taking out the trash. I assure you that nobody saw us. I compelled her to tell me the recent truth about the two sisters. And she told me everything, said that when the letter Laura sent arrived in their pack, they forced Joyce to take the place instead. Jenny, the golden daughter, as the Omega called her, was too precious to die in the hands of the cursed Alpha. So they sent her younger sister instead, the one they never cared for, the one they never liked, to take her sisters place as your mate."

"How did they force her? What method did they use?" Laura had asked.

"A little bit of guilt, and a lot of Alpha aura until she no longer resisted. They said if she didn't go, Ollen would destroy their pack. That he would kill every single one of them, even the innocent children, because there was no way he was going to send his eldest daughter to her death." Vice answered.

"So... She was never my mate." Was the words that spilled from my lips after Vice was done.

I understood why I never felt that jump towards her, why I didn't have the natural reaction to sink my teeth into the side of her neck and mark her as my own.

I wanted to mark her after the times I'd spent with her, but it was never a driving need. That was because she was never mine to begin with.

"After that, I compelled the omega to forget I was ever there and left." Vice finished.

"How did we not know?" Laura whispered. "How did I not know?

"The Omega said the witch of their pack gave her something to conceal her true identity." Vice added what he had forgotten to tell us.

"No wonder she wanted to leave so badly." Laura commented.

"Was that all, Vice?" I'd asked.

"Yes."

"Alright. You can go now. Thank you for doing this."

Laura and Vice had left shortly after, and I'd spent the rest of the night in agony. Finding out that she was not my mate broke me more than I expected it to.

It shattered me.

I stayed up all night thinking about it, trying to convince myself that it didn't matter.

But it did matter.

Every hope I had to convince her to stay after the six months we agreed on was over shattered along with the bond I thought we shared.

She had no reason to stay.

She was merely tolerating me until the time was over, and she could leave.

I realized that I must have been forcing the bond on her, making her keep the mind link open for the entire day when she didn't want to.

I was forcing her to stay and care for the people she had no responsibility towards.

The entire situation was clear that I was rejected by my actual mate.

If my actual mate didn't want me, then who is to say that Joyce did?

I was holding here and prisoner. Guilt had made her come to this pack, and guilt was making her stay.

I was broken, but I didn't dare be mad at her for it.

She had saved her sister from me and had almost died in my hands, a man she had no business being mated to.

She has a mate out there somewhere, a man who would not attack her on the night of their mating ceremony, a man who would go on a run with her every full moon instead of hunting her down to kill her, a man she is destined to be with. The mere thought almost sent me on a spiral.

I'd previously tried to convince myself I thay deserved a mate, that I deserved Joyce and her affection. It was clear that I was wrong.

I don't deserve a mate, and I most definitely don't deserve a woman like Joyce.

While it tore me apart, the information Vice gave me made me realize that if I wanted to survive after sheaves and continue to be the Alpha my people need me to be, I need to stop the attachment I was forming to Joyce.

I need to stop looking for her every time. I need to stop feeling her in my head every day. I needed to stop dragging her around to the places I needed to go to.

I need to distance myself away before my feelings consumed me.

I need to stop forcing her to be the Pack Luna.

I knew I would forever be grateful to her for everything she had done for the pack, for being the Luna even when she didn't need to be, for breathing life back into our land.

But eventually, she's going to leave, and there is nothing else I could do but let her walk out of my life and let her find happiness where she belongs.