Rejected But Claimed By The Alpha King

Harper Alvarado POV:

The soft glow of scented candles flickered in Fletcher's chambers. I stood before the mirror, wearing a translucent silk nightgown, my heart pounding with nervous anticipation. Tonight, I was going to give myself to my husband, Alpha Fletcher Terrell, as a welcome-home gift after his year-long absence at the border.

Bang. The heavy oak door was violently pushed open.

"Harper, take off the ancestral silver ring of the Terrell Pack." Fletcher's freezing, ruthless voice shattered the romantic atmosphere I had spent hours meticulously preparing. Next to him stood Darla Hutchinson, a tall, voluptuous female warrior. Fletcher’s arm was wrapped tightly around her waist. His eyes, looking at her, burned with a raw, naked lust he had never, ever shown me.

"From today on, Darla is my True Mate and the Luna of this Pack," Fletcher declared, his gaze shifting to me with absolute zero warmth. "You are stripped of your title. You will step down and serve as my personal maid."

All the blood drained from my face. The romantic setup around me suddenly felt like a grotesque, mocking joke.

For a long moment, my brain simply went blank. My legs went weak, and I could only stare at him, desperately searching his cold eyes for any sign that this was just a cruel prank. But there was nothing. Only naked disgust.

"Fletcher... what are you saying?" I stumbled forward, my voice trembling so violently it barely sounded like my own. Hot tears welled up in my eyes as I reached out a shaking hand, just wanting to touch him, to wake him up from whatever spell he was under. "I waited for you for an entire year... I hollowed out my dowry and coughed up blood for this Pack! You swore under the witness of the Moon Goddess before you left... You swore I would be your only Luna..."

"Don't touch me!" Fletcher snarled, smacking my hand away like I was some kind of contagious disease before my fingertips could even graze his sleeve. He violently shoved my shoulder.

I stumbled backwards, crashing hard against the edge of the bed. Before I could even catch my breath, he closed the distance between us. His large, calloused hand gripped my jaw with bruising force, forcing me to look up into his eyes filled with pure, unadulterated repulsion.

He raked his gaze over my carefully chosen nightgown and let out a vicious sneer. "Did you really think dressing up like a cheap whore would make me want you? Let's be honest! The only reason I married you was because you used your family's wealth to force my hand! Look at yourself—pale, sickly, and utterly unappealing. You're like a lifeless board in bed! Hugging you is like hugging a rotting corpse!"

My fingernails dug so fiercely into my palms that warm blood began to drip onto the carpet.

"And don't look at me with that victim face!" Fletcher tightened his grip on my jaw, his voice dripping with venom, deliberately weaponizing my deepest trauma. "What are you now? The great House Alvarado is nothing but a graveyard! Your father and brothers were arrogant fools whose stupidity got your entire family butchered like pigs! Your bloodline is cursed! You are a jinx! Asking you to stay as my lowly maid is an act of profound charity!"

My vision went dark.

My father and brothers had died in battle years ago, and shortly after, my mother and the entire household of the old, the weak, the women, and the children were brutally slaughtered by enemy spies! Simply because my father and brothers posed such a massive threat to the enemy nation. Enemy forces infiltrated my home and annihilated my entire bloodline! Every single person was hacked with seventy-two sword strikes. Even my third brother's newborn son was butchered and dismembered so horribly his tiny body wasn't left intact.