My Alpha Mate Chose My Sister

The laundry basket was heavy, digging into my hip as I navigated the second-floor landing. I counted the steps in my head—one, two, three—keeping close to the wall. Stormi was humming a little tune behind me, the sound of her small sneakers squeaking against the polished hardwood floor providing a comforting rhythm to my darkness.

"Well, if it isn't the blind mouse and her pup," a voice sneered, dripping with false sweetness. The air instantly thickened with the scent of synthetic vanilla and malice. Selah.

I stopped, my grip tightening on the wicker handle. "We're just passing through, Selah. We don't want any trouble."

"Trouble follows you, Ava. Like a bad smell," she whispered, stepping closer. I could hear the rustle of her expensive silk robe. "Caleb is talking about the nursery today. For *our* pups. He says he wants strong sons. Not... whatever that is."

She didn't need to point. I knew she was looking at Stormi. I felt my daughter shrink against my leg.

"Let's go, Stormi," I murmured, reaching for her hand.

"Oh, no you don't!" Selah hissed. Then, her voice changed, pitching up into a theatrical scream. "No! Ava, don't!"

I froze, confused. Before I could ask what she was doing, I heard a scuffle of feet, followed by the sickening, heavy thuds of a body tumbling down the stairs. One, two, three impacts, then a final crash at the bottom landing.

Silence hung for a heartbeat, shattered immediately by Selah’s wailing. "My baby! Oh goddess, my baby!"

Doors slammed open violently. Heavy boots thundered against the floorboards. The atmosphere in the hallway shifted instantly, the air pressure dropping as if a storm had materialized indoors. The scent of ozone and burning pine flooded my nose. Caleb.

"Selah!" His roar shook the walls. I heard him slide to his knees at the bottom of the stairs.

"She pushed me, Caleb!" Selah sobbed, her voice hitching perfectly. "I told her about the nursery... she got so angry... she said if she couldn't be Luna, no one could! She tried to kill our baby!"

My heart hammered against my ribs. "No," I whispered, though the word was swallowed by the chaos. "Caleb, I didn't—"

"You jealous, spiteful bitch!" Caleb’s voice was right in front of me suddenly. He had moved with Alpha speed up the stairs. His hand wrapped around my throat, lifting me off my feet. My cane clattered to the floor.

"Daddy, stop!" Stormi’s scream was high and terrified. "Mommy didn't touch her! The lady jumped!"

Caleb dropped me. I gasped for air, falling to my knees, but his rage didn't dissipate. It turned toward the only other sound in the hallway.

"Do not lie for her!" Caleb bellowed, turning on his own five-year-old daughter.

"She's not lying!" Stormi cried, her voice trembling but defiant. "You're being mean!"

"SILENCE!"

The command wasn't just a word. It was the Alpha Tone, a sonic weapon meant to subdue challengers and crush enemies. But he didn't aim it at a rogue warrior. He aimed it at a child.

The force of it hit me like a physical wave, but I was on the floor. Stormi wasn't. I heard a small gasp, the sound of feet leaving the floor, and then a sickening *crack* as a small body slammed into the wainscoting of the hallway wall.

"Stormi!" I screamed, scrambling forward on my hands and knees. My fingers brushed the wall, then the floor, until I found her. She was curled in a ball, whimpering. Her left shoulder felt wrong—too low, the joint swollen. She had stopped crying and was just making small, broken sounds of pain.

"Take Selah to the infirmary!" Caleb barked at the guards who had gathered below, completely ignoring the child he had just thrown across the hall.

Something inside my chest, something that had been pulled taut for five years of abuse and neglect, finally snapped. It wasn't a loud sound. It was quiet, like the last thread of a rope giving way.

He didn't care. He would never care. My love, my submission, my blood—it hadn't saved him. It had only fed a monster.

I carefully pulled Stormi into my lap, shielding her with my body. The fear that usually paralyzed me in Caleb’s presence evaporated, replaced by a cold, hollow clarity.

"Is she dead?" Caleb asked, his voice devoid of emotion as he loomed over us. "Did you kill my heir, Ava?"

I stood up. I didn't need my cane. I could feel his aura, a dark, rotting stain on the world. I turned my face directly toward the heat of his anger.

"No, Alpha," I said, my voice steady. It didn't sound like me. It sounded like iron. "You are the only killer here."

"Watch your tone, Omega," he growled, the vibration rattling my teeth.

I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the man the Moon Goddess had promised would cherish me. I exhaled the last of my hope.

"I, Ava Hart," I spoke clearly, letting the ancient magic of the words resonate through the hallway, drawing gasps from the maids and guards watching from the shadows.

Caleb went still. "What are you doing?"

"I reject you, Alpha Caleb Payne, of the Blood Moon Pack, as my mate."

The pain hit us both instantly. It was a searing agony, a spiritual tearing right behind the heart. I gasped, clutching my chest, but I refused to fall. Caleb staggered back, grunting as if he’d been punched.

"You..." He wheezed, clutching the banister. Then, a low, cruel chuckle bubbled up from his throat. The laugh grew louder, manic and edged with the madness I had tried so hard to cure.

"You think that hurts me?" he spat, though I could smell the sharp tang of his pain. "You think I want a blind, broken thing like you? You think you're rejecting *me*?"

He leaned in close, his breath hot on my face. "I should kill you for treason. But death is too easy."

"Get out," he hissed. "Take that cripple brat and get off my land. If you're still within my borders by moonrise, the patrol has orders to hunt you down like the rogues you are."

He turned his back on us, walking toward the stairs where Selah was waiting. "Go die in the woods, Ava. Do us all a favor."

I didn't answer. I knelt, picked up my sobbing daughter with a strength I didn't know I possessed, and walked toward the door. I didn't look back. There was nothing behind me but darkness.