Page 28 of The Alpha's Reclaimed Mate

I had no job. No purpose. No friends or family. Everyone hated me.

From now on, I was to be the loner of the Grey Creek Pack, lower than an Omega, forbidden to be spoken to or even looked at. I was worth less than garbage.

My life was over.

Chapter 12: Aria

I couldn’t even remember what happened after I left Oswald’s office. My soul was destroyed, and my hopes and dreams burned into nonexistence. I wandered the courtyard like a ghost, wishing that I really had died instead of the punishment Oswald condemned me to.

The next time I went into the Omegas’ living quarters, I found what few precious belongings I had were thrown off my bed, scattered, or stolen. Even the bed I was sleeping in had been claimed by someone else. I picked up the pieces of clothing still intact, shoved them in my bag, and left that building. Even once my punishment was over, I was never going back.

My days became empty, hollow echoes of what they used to be. I woke up every morning before sunrise, except instead of waking up in my room in my family’s suite, I woke up in a dirt-filled hole under a tree. Instead of eating breakfast at the café, I spent the morning hunting. Sometimes I didn’t catch anything, but I was getting better, good enough to catch a rabbit or squirrel and stow it away in my cache. Then I trained my body, but instead of training with Mr. Ross, I ran through the obstacle course of the forest, leaping over fallen logs and swerving around rocks and bushes, trying to keep myself fit. Or I ran a patrol around the territory, keeping to the furthest borders so I didn’t risk running into anyone. In the evenings, I would hunt again. It was all I was allowed to do. There was no point in me returning to the villa if everyone was going to treat me like I was cursed or infected with some deadly virus. I was better off being on my own. That didn’t make it any easier to handle, though.

Every night, I ended the day by curling up by myself and crying. My heart was so raw and wounded I could no longer see the light at the end of all this. I couldn’t feel any relief, thinking about going back to the pack when this month was over because I knew it wouldn’t change how they felt about me. They would all still hate me. I couldn’t feel any satisfaction from a successful hunt, nor could I even remember what happiness felt like. All there was within me was grey numbness. After a few days, I stopped crying, too. I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything at all.

Late one night, I returned from a failed hunt to find the scents of my packmates crossing over my hideaway, including my sisters Emma and Cassie. They had kicked dirt and clumps of grass and mud into my little burrow. I stood outside of it with sickening despair and rejection, imagining that my own packmates had come here to send a message, to insult me. With a pang of worry, I padded to the nearby tree where I stored my food and found that they had destroyed that, too. They’d dug up my cache, where I had two rabbits that were supposed to feed me tonight and tomorrow morning if my hunts had gone south. Instead, my cache was a mess of dirt, and the carcasses were torn apart and strewn through the trees and not even eaten—just wasted.

My packmates wanted me to know that they hated me. They didn’t want me here. Emma and Cassie went out of their way to sabotage my attempts at survival.

How could I go on living like this? Knowing that everyone in my life thought that I was worthless? I was so utterly alone, and it felt pointless to be alive. Why would I keep fighting to survive in a pack that treated me like this? And yet… what was the alternative? I couldn’t leave. This was the only home I had. There were dangers in the wilderness that a female wolf shifter like me wouldn’t survive, and even though they rejected me, I still loved my family.

I just wished they loved me back.

Hunger and desolation tormented me throughout the night. The fear of my packmates coming back kept me awake. What if they decided to take their anger out on me directly? I didn’t want to be a sitting duck, especially now that they knew where I was staying.

With the moon hanging high above in a cloudless sky, I wandered the forest, doing the only thing I was able to do anymore. I searched the wind for a promising scent, but my determination had already whittled away into nothing. Hopelessness made me slow and unfocused. I dragged my paws through the night, shivering in the cold breeze, barely even caring when a warm smell tickled my nose.

Until I realized it wasn’t the scent of prey but wolves.

Oh no.Had my packmates tracked me down as I feared?

I raised my head, searching. Dark shadows moved through the trees. In the distance, I heard them rumbling, communicating to each other in visceral growls and grunts. The fur on my shoulders bristled as I turned around, trying to get a better idea of how many there were. It had to be at least five, but they didn’t smell like the Grey Creek Pack.

They were Rogues.

All too quickly, they closed in on me. The air suddenly ignited with the sounds of their violent snarls. I lifted my tail and bared my teeth in warning, but that didn’t stop them. Just like last time, it seemed the only thing they were interested in was causing as much damage as possible; even if I wanted to reason with them, they wouldn’t have given me time to speak. As soon as they were within reach, they lunged at me, attacking me from all sides.

It was a nightmare coming to life. Their teeth raked through my fur, ripping away chunks of me and spilling my blood into the ground. My legs and ears were torn as I tried to run, but I couldn’t make it far enough away. They grabbed everything they could get a hold of, throwing me to the ground and pulling at me like I was a piece of prey.

“Stop! Please stop!”I cried in pain.

They didn’t hear me through their thrashing. The only thing they cared about was tearing me apart. I was completely helpless underneath them. They outnumbered me so heavily that I knew there was no chance I could escape.

Did I even want to…? The sweet embrace of death was calling to me. There was no point in living anymore if my pack hated me.

The five Rogues took turns slashing through my flanks, biting hard on my paws to ensure I wouldn’t be able to run away. Flashes of pain blinded me, terrifying me, and even though I was surrounded, I felt more alone now than I did when Oswald sentenced me to be touch-starved because, at that moment, I knew that nobody was going to help me. There would be no recovery from this final blow. My life was done, and nobody would come looking for me, mourn for me, or even care what had happened. They would probably be relieved. They wanted this to happen. The heartache was even worse than the agony of my fresh wounds.

I was ready to give up and let them kill me.

Only a miracle could have saved me, and it arrived in the form of silver fur, enraged amber eyes, and an intimidating snarl. A newcomer to the fight leaped out of the darkness and into the fray, crashing into one of the rogues and knocking them off of me.

The other four Rogues pulled back, startled by the sight of the massive wolf fighting one of their own. Laying on the ground, I watched in shock before he looked over his shoulder at me.“Run!”he shouted.

This must have been a hallucination. I was seconds from death, and the only way my mind could accept what was happening was to imagine the relief. I didn’t think it was real, but all the same, I stumbled to my feet while the other rogues were distracted and ran.

Pain throbbed through my body. I tried not to whimper as I fled, but the anguish was so overwhelming that it choked me. Without even knowing what direction I was running, I soared as fast as my paws could take me. The sounds of the fight faded into the forest, and seconds later, the realization hit me about what had happened. My savior had taken all the attention off of me and onto himself. I’d left him to face the five Rogues alone.

My heart slammed in my chest as I skidded to a halt. Against all my instincts screaming to run, I stopped and turned, ready to go back and help him—I had no reason to live, but I couldn’t let him die for me! —only for the wolf pursuing me to nearly crash into me.

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