Bella's POV
My name is Bella Montagu, the adopted daughter of Alpha Grey and Luna Cora. As an adopted daughter, everyone would think that they adopted me out of love and treat me well. But in reality, Alpha Grey simply took me in and made it clear that I'd receive only food. He wouldn't bother to educate me or protect me.
I had thought he was simply joking, or just trying to make me laugh but after my stomach was barely filled, Alpha Grey pushed me to my knees beside Luna's bed, ordering me to act as a pet to cheer up his bedridden mate.
"Listen up, beggar. I feed you to make you useful. I didn’t bring you here to come and waste my time or just eat. This Pack won't waste resources on a worthless stray."
Ignoring the sting in my scraped knees, I forced myself up and smiled for Luna. She was the second eyes i was seeing after Alpha Grey. Fortunately, she was a kind, gentle woman. I liked her very much, and I enjoyed the meals I received as her health improved. But after I turned ten, the tasks started piling up. Maids dumped dirty laundry on me to wash, I was expected to help prepare food for the Pack, clean the bathrooms—my time was consumed by all the grunt work. Only by Luna's side did I find a moment's peace.
When Pack members asked me who I was or where I came from, I had no answers—I remembered nothing. My memory was a blank slate before I met them, and without a past, I felt rootless. Because of this, everyone saw me as defective, a misfit who'd been abandoned. I was the pitiful girl they all scorned and bullied, the Pack's punch bag.
"Your parents never wanted you, Bella. Maybe that's why they threw you away."
"Maybe they hoped you'd die."
"Maybe? I'm sure she's nothing but a burden. Look at her—she's so weak. Does she look useful to you?"
That was the first time I truly heard someone say my parents didn't want me. I had clung to fantasies during my loneliest moments—carrying heavy buckets that made me collapse, or scrubbing clothes with freezing, bleeding fingers in winter—telling myself that my parents might have loved me but had just lost me, or even abandoned me to protect me.
When that lie shattered, I could hardly control the tremor in my arm as I chopped potatoes, nor the tears that started to fall. I wanted to say something, but Alpha Grey strode over, seized me, and gripped my chin tightly.
"Bella, if you can't take a little criticism, how can you expect to one day lead Ambersy Pack like a Luna? If they tell you your parents didn't want you, it's because it's true. No one wants you, Bella."
He heard what they said but dismissed it as my own weakness. If I were strong enough, he believed I wouldn't even hear it.
"If you want to change, be the best. Act like the best until someone lets you prove it—and then, don't lose," Alpha Grey said before grabbing a slice of pizza and leaving the room.
The next morning, I woke up with a fire in my chest. A different resolve filled me. I began training, strengthening my body, studying everything I could to become someone better, someone different. I would prove my worth to my adoptive father, to the entire Pack. Luna was pleased by my change, supporting me however she could—with books, with money.
That same night, the Moon Goddess blessed me with my wolf, Nina. She was everything to me—strong, skilled, powerful. I wanted to show her off, to boast in the crowd, to let my father see I wasn't "worthless" anymore. But Nina told me that having a wolf had to remain a secret. She would find a way to hide her presence, so even my mate couldn't sense her. Trusting Nina, I agreed.
When Alpha Grey found out I had "failed" my transformation, he was furious. For the first time, he beat me in front of Luna, aware of how much I cared for her, intentionally tormenting us both. But I endured it—endurance was something I had mastered.
After that day, I redoubled my training and studies. I yearned to leave the Pack, to bring freedom to myself and to Luna. And my efforts soon paid off—I became a medical student at New York University. It was my escape, a reason to leave the Pack.
Alpha Grey despised anyone without value, but I could make the Pack stronger through my medical knowledge—something he desperately needed for his weak Pack.
When I prepared to leave for New York, Alpha Grey didn't give me a penny, expecting me to handle everything myself. Thankfully, after ten years in the Pack, I'd learned how to survive, how to save money unnoticed.
Five years passed in a flash.
Now, standing before the mirror in my student apartment, I adjusted the bachelor's gown over my med school scrubs. I'd grown better, stronger. The girl everyone once scorned or pitied no longer existed. "When you graduate, we'll return to your Pack for the Alpha-Luna bond ceremony," my boyfriend—my mate, also the Alpha of the Carteretmouth Pack—whispered to me sweetly on my last birthday.
Smiling, I grabbed my phone and bag. I was ready. Today, we'd leave for my Pack.
Oh, Max, my mate, my other half. The Moon Goddess hadn't abandoned me; I found him in my second year. I hadn't revealed Nina to anyone. Nina hesitated for a long time, but for our safety, I withstood the bond's pull, staying away. Yet Max, the future Alpha of the Pack ranked third, shyly confessed he'd fallen in love with me at first sight.
That was the first time I felt truly happy. I no longer wished to find my birth parents.
We started dating, and Nina and I decided we'd reveal the truth after our bonding ceremony.
"Thank you. Have a nice day," I smiled at the cab driver as I got out. Hurrying back to my apartment, I was eager to embrace and kiss my mate, to celebrate graduating with top honors.
"Oh… harder, Max…"
But the sounds I heard at my bedroom door shattered my heart into pieces. Moans, gasps, and the unmistakable scent of Max filled the room. My mate was in my bed with another woman.
Swallowing hard, I couldn't believe it. When had this betrayal started? How long had they been hiding it? Max, why?
Pain twisted my heart. I had dismissed the torment of the mate bond late at night as punishment for concealing my bond. Neither Nina nor I imagined our mate's betrayal.
"Max… when will you make me your Luna?" the woman's sickly-sweet voice made me want to retch. They were in my bed, so lost in each other they hadn't even sensed me outside the door.
"Oh baby… her pathetic Luna is dying, and she's a wolf-less waste. Aside from her adoptive title, she's worthless. Carteretmouth Pack will be mine soon enough, and then, I'll give you the grandest ceremony."
I chuckled, a painful, bitter sound escaping me as I stifled my sobs. I had thought there was something between us. He was my fated mate—my mate—and here he was, spewing words that tore at my pride. Tears fell as I laughed, and grief roared through my rage.
My mate had never once told me he loved me. He had saved those words for her.
I stood tall, nausea tightening my stomach, fury burning within. "We don't need this trash—reject him, Bella!" Nina urged in my mind.
I gritted my teeth, hands fisting. His laughter and words grated on me, and my gaze narrowed into daggers at his back.
"Say it, Bella. Speak the words."
With my heart pounding, I longed to make him suffer, to feel every shred of the agony he had dealt me. Let him feel the world crumbling around him, the life he knew splintering apart.
I took a deep breath, and a small, dark smile played on my lips as I looked at the green sweater I'd knitted him, lying like a dirty rag outside his bathroom door.
"I, Bella Montagu, reject you, Max Carteretmouth, as my mate," I whispered.
He choked, clutching his chest as he fell back on the bed, coughing in agony. My smile widened.
"Something's… wrong… my chest…" he gasped, confusion and terror filling his voice and eyes.
"What's wrong, Alex? Tell me," the woman shrieked.
I picked up my bag, unable to bear another glance at the woman who "fit" him. One last disdainful look, and I murmured, "Burn in hell, Max," before turning and walking away, both heartbroken and satisfied.
"Congratulations to us, Nina," I whispered to my wolf as I pressed the elevator button. Now, I had to return to Moonlight Pack and tell Alpha Grey the truth, to end this marriage that would ruin the Pack.
