Unwanted By The Alpha, Chosen By Fate

I was a lowly Omega mated to Caleb, the Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack. I thought I had finally found my harbor.

But when our five-year-old daughter, Aria, plunged into a frozen lake and nearly drowned, he was nowhere to be found.

He had blocked our mental link to play house with my sister's daughters at the Gamma estate.

For three days, Aria lay dying in a coma.

The trauma forced her inner wolf into hibernation. To protect her mind, it erased every conscious memory of her father—but her wolf remembered the wound. His scent was not a memory anymore. It was a scar.

When she finally woke up, she shrank away from the heavy velvet curtains.

"Mama, it smells like cold ashes in a wet hearth. Make it go away."

She was screaming in terror just smelling his lingering scent. Her mind could not name him, but her body still remembered what it felt like to be abandoned in the snow.

He had given the healing moonstones and the winter pelt he promised our daughter to my sister's twins instead.

My sister even sneered at my desperate pleas, telling everyone I was just faking the accident to get his attention.

I had spent my entire life bending my neck to the Pack hierarchy, enduring my family's disdain and my mate's cruel neglect.

But looking at my fractured child, the heavy chain around my heart simply vanished, replaced by cold iron.

I didn't cry, and I didn't beg for his love anymore.

Instead, I packed my meager dowry, went straight to the Luna Queen for a Royal Decree of Rejection, and took my daughter away to build an empire of our own.

Chapter 1

Elara POV:

The winter wind, sharp as a shard of glass, found its way through every fissure in the stonework of the Silver Moon castle.

It was the harshest winter our dominion had weathered in a century, burying the pack lands under a merciless depth of snow.

I kept vigil beside the massive oak bed, my gaze fixed upon my five-year-old daughter, Aria.

Her small face held the same chalky pallor as the snow drifting past the Gothic windows.

For three days, she had been lost in a sleep from which none could rouse her, ever since the courtyard's frozen lake had claimed her.

My hands trembled as I wiped a cold sweat from her forehead.

She was dying, and her father, Alpha Caleb, was nowhere to be found.

A mere week ago, Caleb had come into possession of two rare Moonstones, artifacts said to hold the power to calm a young wolf's restless spirit. I had allowed myself a flicker of hope that one might be for Aria. Instead, he had gifted both to the twin daughters of my older sister, Serena, a high-ranking Beta to my lowly Omega.

Then came the winter hunt, and with it, a magnificent, single snow fox pelt brought back by Caleb. Aria had waited up half the night, her eyes shining with a desperate hope that her father had finally remembered her. The next morning, we saw Serena's twins parading in matching cloaks fashioned from that very fur.

The light in my daughter's eyes extinguished so suddenly it felt as if a nerve had been severed deep within my own chest.

She ran out into the blizzard, lost her footing, and plunged into the icy water.

Now, Aria's fingers twitched against the thick blankets.

"Aria?" I whispered, leaning closer.

Her heavy eyelids fluttered open, revealing her pale blue eyes.

"Mama," she croaked, her voice dry and weak.

"I am here, my sweet girl," I sobbed, kissing her cold hands.

Aria blinked, looking around the grand, dark room.

"Mama, it smells awful in here," she whimpered, wrinkling her nose and pulling the blankets up to her chin.

I froze.

The room smelled of Caleb.

His scent, usually a comforting mix of rain and pine, lingered on the heavy velvet curtains.

"It smells like... damp soil and something burnt," Aria rasped, a cough rattling in her small chest. "Like cold ashes in a wet hearth. Make it go away."

My heart pounded against my ribs.

For a young wolf to reject her own father's scent was an unheard-of rebellion of the blood. Her mind could not name him—but her wolf remembered the wound. The scent was not a memory. It was a scar.

Our old Omega wet nurse, Martha, gasped from the doorway.

"Child, hush!" Martha scolded gently, rushing over. "You must not speak of the Alpha that way. The Pack law demands unwavering respect."

"He's not my Alpha!" she cried out, pushing herself up with a burst of angry energy.

Martha turned pale, her hands shaking.

"I almost died in the cold water," Aria shouted, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I slept for three days, and he never came to see me!"

My breath hitched as a memory from the day of the accident flashed in my mind.

Caleb had promised to take Aria into the forest for her first hunting lesson.

She had waited by the carriage in the snow for two hours.

Then, Caleb marched out of the castle, ordering the driver to take him to the Gamma's estate.

Serena lived there, and her youngest twin had a slight fever.

"Papa, you promised!" Aria had begged, grabbing his coat.

Caleb had turned around, his eyes flashing with the golden light of his wolf.

He had used the Alpha's Command on her, a power so profound it could freeze the very marrow in a subordinate's bones.

"Cease this selfishness, Aria!" Caleb's voice had thundered, and the sheer weight of the command had locked her tiny feet to the snowy ground.

He left her standing there, shivering and crying, while his carriage rolled away.

I had run out to hold her, but she slipped away to the lake to be alone.

When she fell in, I had reached out to Caleb through the Mind-Link.

The Mind-Link was a mental channel that connected the minds of our Pack.

Caleb, Aria is in the water! She is drowning! Return to us! I had shrieked into the mental channel that bound our Pack.

But the only answer I got was from Serena's maid, who had access to the estate's link.

Stop playing tricks to get his attention, Omega, the maid had sneered in my head. The Alpha is busy.

Now, looking at my daughter's tear-stained face, a stillness settled in my veins, cold and sharp as frozen iron.

"Mama, please," Aria begged, clinging to my dress. "Take me away from here. Take me away from him."

I stroked her hair, feeling the fragile beat of her pulse.

I had spent a lifetime bending my neck to the hierarchies of the Pack. But gazing now upon my fractured child, I knew I would see this castle reduced to ash and embers before I allowed him to harm her again.

"We are leaving, Aria," I promised, my voice steady.

Martha dropped her water basin, the metal clattering loudly against the stone floor.

"Luna have mercy," Martha whispered, her eyes wide with terror. "Where will you go? He will hunt you down."

I rose to my feet. In the wardrobe, I bypassed his rows of expensive coats to retrieve the worn leather dowry box that held my entire past. I was not merely packing my meager belongings; I was preparing to excise this place, and its master, from my very being.

Deep within the castle, a draft snuffed out the hearth's last ember, plunging the stone walls into a darkness as absolute as my resolve. The Alpha would return to an empty house.