Broken by the Beta, Loved by the Alpha

Just a week before our wedding, Beta Ashton, my stern and naturally cold mate, got a name inscribed on his forearm.

'My Bella'

'Bella', a name given to me by him. My loving efforts had paid off and to know that I could have a place in my mate's heart whom I loved for so long made me tear up. I could see him opening his heart to me in the future and maybe loving me as much as I did.

But before I could live the false dream any longer, I got a call from the packhouse from our gamma who asked me to hurry up for my mate, and among all the chaos, I saw Ashton standing before a beautiful woman, holding onto her tightly with loving eyes as he chanted her name.

"Bella, please come back to me."

His words was filled with anticipation and I couldn’t take another step forward.

Since I was not the one he wants to spend his life with, I might as well let them have this wedding!

But after I ran away, he searching the world for me!

***

“For you... Even if I hate tattoos, I can do anything for you, Bella.”

I looked at the scene in front of me in horror as my mate gently took the woman's finger and placed it against his arm.

“Isabella, don’t mind Ashton. Ugh, well, he is a fool when he drinks a lot. He cannot recognize one face from another." Even his friend that tried to ease the atmosphere shut his mouth when he saw the kind of gaze Ashton directed at the woman beside him.

“Hey, Ashton. Your fiancée is here.”

Ashton did not even seem to notice my presence at all and just looked around with hazy disinterested irises. A low growl vibrated across the packhouse as he warned others who came to separate him from the woman.

How ironic it was that the times when he was sober were all lies, and this time, when he was so drunk, only then he spoke the truth.

The girl he called Bella so affectionately had golden locks flowing down to her waist with an oval face that glowed like moon. She was wearing an exquisite blue dress and had her own unique charm. I recognized her face from Ashton’s yearbook that he had preserved till now.

My lips trembled as I barely held in the sobs.

That tattoo wasn’t for me, that ‘Bella’ was never me and Ashton never once loved me.

I was a substitute bride.

Seeing me frozen on spot, Arabella came forward and slowly took off a golden pendant dangling from her neck, making me widen my eyes.

It was a necklace that Ashton’s mother gave me when she accepted me as her daughter-in-law. It was a relic passed down generations and given to the new bride.

“Isabella, right? Don’t mind Ashton, he really likes to spoil me with gifts. He accidently gave this to me. Well, you can keep it though.”

Her tone was sarcastic almost as if she was giving me charity. I didn’t speak a word and took the necklace clutching it tightly.

At this moment, Ashton looked at me as if watching me here for the first time and I had a small glimmer of hope. The man I loved, my mate would never hurt me like this, to make me suffer this kind of humiliation as a substitute bride.

“How dare you try to take Bella’s necklace?!”

As if someone had poured cold water over me, my mate held my arm in a painful grasp as he cruelly tried to snatch the pendant from my hand glaring fiercely.

“Ashton, you are hurting her.” A mutual friend tried to stop him but was pushed away.

“How dare you accept the necklace? Give it back to Arabella!”

“No.” I mumbled incoherently. It took me a lot to make my mother-in-law to like me.

At first, she didn’t like me, and to make her happy, I had to get up early to take care of the entire household’s cleaning and cooking, sometimes even going as far as to drop my studies to take out time for their family.

After all that suffering, I was finally accepted and given the pendant.

Ashton's pupils turned dark as his claws pried my fist open making scratches and cuts cover my palm as he caught hold of the necklace and took it furiously.

His feet without any fail moved towards Arabella and he held both her shoulders gently.

“Bella, I have been waiting for you all this time, not once I have ever loved anyone else. Please be my mate, marry me, Bella.”

The people looked at the duo momentarily stunned while tears dribbled down my eyes.

This scene made me deeply heartbroken and even angry. I have been in love with him for so many years, but I never expected that just when we were about to hold our wedding, the truth would be revealed to me--I was just a substitute and he definitely didn't love me.

I gritted my teeth and turned around, wishing to leave the place right this instance but before I could do so my so-called mate lost his senses and fell.

People waited for me to go and get him up, but I stood and watched him lying on the ground without moving an inch.

Arabella called out to me, “He is your fiancé, are you going to make him suffer for something he did when he wasn’t in his senses?”

She looked at me with a smir. “Ashton did give me an invitation to your ‘dream’ wedding. I will be sure to come.”

Other friends hurriedly took Ashton outside settling in my car, whereas, I stood where I was looking at this woman who seemed to be sweet and innocent on the surface but had a mocking smile full of malice.

She continued to mock me, “Your marriage is nothing but a joke. His heart has always been mine, but I won’t blame you, you did a good job being my replacement and that’s all you can be.”