After My Gamma Rejected Me The Alpha Claimed Me

# The General Abandoned Me, But I’m The Real Princess

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I begged the Lycan King, my father, for three years to approve the official mate pairing between Zamir Anderson and I. Three years of lobbying, three years of hiding my royal blood to grease his climb through the Silverpine Pack ranks. Three years of holding my breath, waiting for the day our bond would be formalized before the whole pack.

The day the royal proclamation finally arrived, though, the Gamma the pack was celebrating the mate pairing for wasn’t me. It was Amaris Nelson, only daughter of Josiah Nelson, Beta of the Lycan royal court.

Zamir sent Reya, my attendant, back to my temporary apartment with a gift: ten fine designer textiles imported from the southern pack territories, two cases of rare glow-in-the-dark pearl jewelry sourced from the coastal fisheries. “He says it’s compensation for the years you spent by his side,” Reya told me, her voice tight with barely suppressed rage.

I didn’t wait for an invitation. I walked straight to the pack’s administrative building, where Zamir was already hosting pre-mark ceremony drinks with the Nelsons, and confronted him in front of half the pack’s leadership.

The air in the room grew thick as stone the second I stepped in. Zamir stood by the bar, broad-shouldered, his uniform still streaked with the dust from this morning’s pack training. He’d worked so hard to get that Gamma insignia pinned to his chest—work I’d given everything to help him earn.

“Zamir,” I said, my voice steady even as my wolf whimpered low in the back of my mind, this can’t be right. “Explain this.”

He didn’t even soften his jaw. He just waved a hand at the two Deltas lingering by the door, his Alpha tone sharp enough to make my bones ache with the weight of his dominance. “Escort Princess Katalina out,” he ordered.

I stood my ground, wouldn’t let the Deltas manhandle me. “You’re not even going to say it to my face?” I asked.

He stepped toward me then, close enough that I could catch the scent of Amaris’s jasmine clinging to his collar. It burned, the way the faint pull of our old unmarked bond screamed in my veins at the scent of another female on him.

“Katalina,” he said, and my name in his mouth sounded like a curse. “You were a rogue orphan when I found you. Do you really think you’re fit to stand at my side as Gamma’s mate? The only person who can match my ambition, who can help me climb higher, is Amaris. The Moon Goddess must have made a mistake when she brushed our paths. From this day forward, I, Zamir Anderson, Gamma of the Silverpine Pack, reject you, Katalina Rice, as my mate.”

The soul-deep pain of the rejection sliced through me before the last word even left his mouth. My wolf whined and curled in on herself, and for a second I had to bite my tongue hard enough to taste blood to keep from collapsing.

He watched me stumble, no pity in his cold dark eyes, and added, softer, crueler, “The gifts are on your porch. We’re square now. Don’t come here again.”

The Deltas stepped forward again, and this time, they led me out. The whispers of the pack leaders followed me all the way down the hall, sharp as shards of glass.