Garcia's POV
Before my eyes even open, I can already feel the weight of impending disaster pressing down on my chest like a lead blanket. My life has been nothing but a series of cruel jokes lately, and I'm reaching my breaking point.
One more betrayal, one more disappointment, and I swear I'll disappear from this pack forever.
"Did it happen? Did the bond actually form?" I whisper to Nancy, my Lycan, hoping against hope that maybe something in my life might finally go right.
"Yes, it formed," she responds, but there's something cold and distant in her tone that makes my stomach clench with dread.
Recently, I turned eighteen and felt that electric pull toward Thane, our future Alpha. The same Thane who's spent years making my existence miserable in ways that cut deeper than any physical wound ever could.
Let me paint you the picture of how my life became this twisted mess.
When I was young, I was at the lake with my father, who serves as our pack's Beta, along with the Alpha and Gamma families. Bored with their games, I wandered into the dense forest that makes up most of our territory. I was careful to stay within our borders, collecting wildflowers as I explored.
That's when I heard it. A soft, pitiful whimper that tugged at my young heart. Being the curious Beta child I was, I followed the sound deeper into the woods.
If I could go back and warn that little girl to run in the opposite direction, I would.
I found her there, curled up against a tree like a broken doll. Julia. She was slightly older than me, dirty and scared, with no memory of how she'd arrived in our territory or where she came from.
The only thing she remembered was that her birthday had been recent, and that small detail became the first crack in what would eventually shatter my entire world.
"You have so many dolls, why don't you give one to Julia?" my father suggested when we brought her back to the pack house.
I was already mentally selecting which doll I could part with when my father's hand shot out and grabbed my most treasured possession from our picnic blanket. My favorite doll, the one I'd slept with every night for years.
"No, not that one," I protested, but he'd already pressed it into Julia's eager hands.
When I tried to explain why that doll was special to me, my father's face hardened with disappointment. "Kain't be selfish. Julia has nothing."
Soon after, Julia had somehow convinced my father to move her from the Omega quarters to our family floor. She claimed the Omegas made her uncomfortable, and suddenly she was living just down the hall from me.
Every birthday after that became Julia's celebration too. My father would guilt me into sharing my party, my cake, my presents. "She doesn't have parents to celebrate with her," he'd say, as if that made it acceptable to steal my special day.
But the worst part was Thane. Even as children, he'd make cruel comparisons, telling me how much prettier Julia was, how much more graceful, how much more deserving of attention.
So you can understand why discovering we're mates feels like the universe's cruelest joke yet.
I've trained every single day since I could hold a weapon because being the future Beta demanded nothing less than perfection. Now, apparently, I'm destined to be Luna instead.
Thane seemed shocked when we felt the mate pull, but he insisted we should honor the River Goddess's choice and form our bond. Even Julia couldn't hide her fury when she realized her extended campaign to seduce him had failed spectacularly.
She made it very clear she'd never accept me as Luna, which only made me laugh. The River Goddess doesn't care about Julia's opinions.
I finish my solitary breakfast in my room, avoiding the main dining hall as usual since I prefer to train during morning meal times. The master bedroom door stands wide open, confirming my father is already in meetings with the pack leadership.
"Why are you being so quiet?" I ask Nancy. This should be one of the happiest days of our lives.
Instead of answering, she begins pacing restlessly in my mind, then suddenly forces me toward the stairs leading to the Alpha floor. I punch in the access code I received when I came of age, entering a space that feels eerily silent.
My instincts were right about those early meetings. While the adults handle pack business, Thane is probably still in bed, taking advantage of his parents' absence like he always does.
We never made specific plans for today, even though we both knew this would likely be when our mate bond reached completion. Nancy doesn't understand our lack of preparation, and honestly, neither do I.
My feet slow to a stop outside Thane's bedroom door, and I send up a silent prayer of gratitude that our bond hadn't fully formed earlier. Because what I'm hearing from behind that door would have sent me into agonizing physical pain if we were already completely bonded.
The unmistakable sounds of sex filter through the wood, and my world tilts on its axis.
"Is this why he wanted to keep our connection secret?" Nancy asks, voicing the realization that's making my blood turn to ice.
"Oh God, Julia. Just like that," Thane's voice groans through the door, and hearing him say her name while she's beneath him ignites a fury in me that threatens to consume everything in its path.
My hands shake with the effort of not kicking down that door and destroying them both. But rage is making me think clearly for the first time in years.
I back away from the Alpha floor silently, returning to my room without shedding a single tear. Those two have no idea what's coming for them.
Our mate bond ends today, but not before everyone in this pack learns exactly what their precious future Alpha and his little pet really are.