Alpha Xander's Undoing Chasing my Unknown Mate Back novel Chapter 2

Chapter 2

*Rory*

I admit, I despised my sister.

But I didn’t kill the bitch.

Since I was little, she always tortured me—pulling my hair, calling me names, and generally making my life miserable.

It got worse as we grew older, when our womanly features started to come in. When my breasts grew and hers didn’t, when my body filled out and hers did only slightly, when my cheeks rounded enough to match the wild volume of my curly brown hair while hers stayed flat and lifeless unless she added extensions—it was as if my existence became a personal insult to her. What made it worse was that she was older.

She called me fat and ugly, her sharp words cutting deeper than I ever let on, even when I went on a starvation diet to prove her wrong. I collapsed one day in the Alpha House kitchen, my body screaming for food. When no one but my maid batted an eye in my direction, that was the day I decided I didn’t care what Eden thought anymore.

That was also the day I turned sixteen and got my wolf. Or, rather, found out that I had a wolf I would never meet. My father made sure of that with his first dose of my daily medicine that he gave me to keep me alive, and Eden drank up his every word.

“Poor Aurora,” she’d say with a sneer. “What’s it like being a wolfless freak? Does it hurt, knowing you’re an embarrassment to the pack?”

Her ridicule knew no limits, and soon the rest of the pack followed suit. A wolfless wolf was an abomination anyway. Plus, if the alpha’s favored daughter deemed me worthless, who were they to argue?

Eden was a terror.

But I didn’t lay a finger on her.

Her ex-boyfriend—my now-husband—thought differently.

Even now, as we rode in silence in the back of a limo, Xander sat as far away from me as possible. He stared out the window, his jaw clenched, refusing to acknowledge me.

I was anxious. Xander was an alpha wolf, destined to take over his pack in just a few months when he turned twenty-one. He was strong, powerful, and dangerously attractive—everything I wasn’t. And though it was rare for shifters to be virgins passed sixteen, I still was at age eighteen.

But no one wanted the “diseased,” rumored wolfless girl. Not that I wanted any of them either. I’d held out hope for my mate, but now that was gone, stolen by this arrangement.

I wrung my hands as I thought about what my maid told me when she was doing my hair—about what happens on a wedding night. It was as good as a “prep talk” could get, since I had no mother figure.

Would Xander…mate me?

“Would you stop staring at me?” Xander snapped, his voice sharp. His piercing blue eyes flicked to me briefly before returning to the window. “It’s fucking annoying and creepy.”

“I’m sorry,” I said quickly, my voice soft. “I was just…just…”

“Just what?” he demanded, his tone laced with irritation as he finally turned to face me.

My breath caught as I met his gaze. His eyes were like ice, cutting through me.

“I wasn’t sure how the rest of the night would go,” I admitted, staring down at my hands. “I’ve never done this before.”

I swiped away a tear before he could see it fall before glancing out the window.

I nodded, deeming the conversation over.

“I understand,” I said quietly, ending the conversation.

Xander said nothing more. He didn’t even look at me as we pulled up to his house.

The house was secluded, far from the packhouse and the alpha’s estate. I’d heard Eden gush about how much she loved it—quiet, private, the perfect retreat.

Xander didn’t wait for me. He marched inside without a word, leaving me alone with my bags. The driver gave me a sympathetic look and offered to help, but I waved him off.

“It’s fine,” I said softly, my voice hollow.

I dragged my bags inside, taking in the cold, empty silence of the house. Xander was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t bothered to tell me where I’d be sleeping, but it didn’t matter. I found a couch in the living room, sinking into its plush cushions.

As I sat there, exhaustion and despair settling over me, I clung to the one thought that gave me hope:

In a week, I would start at Azure Crest Academy. I would be far away from my cruel husband, far away from this cold, empty house, and far away from my father’s controlling grasp.

And maybe, just maybe, I could find a piece of myself again.