The True Alpha

Felicity POV:

I was supposed to become Donn Carlisle's bonded mate.

Instead, on the night of our ceremony, I found him with my stepsister on the table behind the altar.

I was Wolfless. Unwanted. The bride everyone expected to lower her head, swallow the shame, and disappear quietly so two powerful families could protect their precious reputations.

So I burned the bonding veil in front of the entire Silver Moon Pack.

If they wanted a scandal, I would give them one they could never bury.

But humiliation alone would not save me. The Tates would never take me back, and the Carlisles would only keep me as long as I was useful. So I made the only choice no one expected.

I pledged myself to Ansel Carlisle, the heroic Alpha everyone believed was dead.

I thought I was marrying a memory.

Then they brought him home alive.

------

The door to the small preparation room behind the altar was ajar, just a crack. Enough for me to see my intended with my stepsister.

Donn Carlisle had Brianda pressed against the ancient oak table, the very one where generations of vows had been signed. His hands were on her, possessive and sure, while her pale ceremonial gown was hiked up to her waist.

For one suspended second, my mind refused to understand what my eyes had already seen.

Donn Carlisle. My intended.

Brianda Tate. My stepsister.

The bridegroom I was supposed to bond with tonight, and the golden daughter my family had always wished I could become.

The scent hit me first. Donn's sharp, clean scent of cedarwood, tangled with the cloying sweetness of Brianda's gardenia perfume. It was the smell of betrayal.

Then Brianda's eyes, those innocent blue pools, flickered towards the door. They met mine.

A slow, triumphant smile spread across her lips.

Her hand moved, deliberately, to rest on her stomach. A stomach that was no longer flat, but held a gentle, unmistakable curve.

A gasp tore from my throat, silent and sharp.

Donn froze. He turned, his face a mask of panic that quickly hardened into arrogance when he saw it was only me. Only Felicity. The Wolfless girl nobody wanted.

He pulled away from Brianda, casually adjusting his trousers.

"It doesn't matter," he said, his voice laced with the casual cruelty I knew so well. "You're Wolfless. You can't complete a true bonding anyway. This is just a formality."

Brianda giggled again, pulling her dress down. "You should thank me, sister. I'm fulfilling the real duties for you."

The silk of the ceremonial gown suddenly felt like a cage, its seams digging into my ribs.

It had been made for Brianda. Perfect for her delicate frame, her blonde hair, her blue Tate eyes. On me, with my dark hair and green eyes, it had always felt like borrowed skin. A lie.

A reminder that I didn't belong.

Only minutes earlier, I had still been in the bridal chamber, trying to breathe through that lie.

All morning, they had dressed me in another woman's future and called it duty.