Chapter 2
1226 Words
Chapter 2
“He what?”
“He has a mate.”
“He took a chosen mate?!”
“No. She’s his second chance.”
“He was given a second chance?!”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Why would the Moon Goddess allow that?!”
“Uh, gee, probably because my brother actually deserves to be happy after the absolute s**t you put him through.”
“Hera!”
“What, Mom?! It’s true,” Hera snapped, throwing her hands up. “Are you honestly surprised that Percy told you and Raelynn to f**k off and die? Because I’m definitely not.”
“Hera, you shouldn’t speak to your mother that way,” her father admonished, his tone heavy with disapproval.
“Really? You expect me to respect the woman who chose a spoiled, rotten Alpha’s daughter over her own flesh and blood?” Hera turned on him, her words laced with venom. “And you backed her up. So no, Dad, you have absolutely no authority to tell me who to respect. As a man, you don't even know how to respect your own family.”
“Hera, why don’t you call him and see if he’ll—”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Hera screamed, cutting her mother off. “I am not calling him to try and convince him to take that c*nt back! Are you completely out of your mind? I want my brother to be happy, and it sounds like he finally is.”
She took a menacing step forward, her eyes flashing. “And the only other reason I’m not calling him is that I know for a f*cking fact that you two will use me to try and trace his whereabouts. So no, Mother. I will not do your bidding and betray my only brother the way you betrayed your only son.”
“Why, you little—” Raelynn snarled, her upper lip curling back.
“Do you really want to try and go toe-to-toe with me, Raelynn? I’ve kicked your ass once before, and I have absolutely no problem doing it again,” Hera countered. Her eyes flashed a sharp, secondary color—the early signs of her wolf pushing to the surface with her eighteenth birthday right around the corner.
Raelynn took a heavy step up to her, trying to use her rank to close the distance. “You'd better learn your place, Hera.”
“Or what? Are you going to run and tell your daddy that a seventeen-year-old is bullying you?” Hera mocked, not flinching an inch.
Before Raelynn could counter, the door flew open, and in stepped her husband—the Alpha mate she had chosen over Poseidon.
“Husband, you’re home early,” Raelynn said, her voice instantly dropping into a tight, strained smile that didn't reach her eyes.
“You didn’t tell me we were going to have company, Raelynn,” her husband said, his cold glare sweeping the room.
“Alpha,” Poseidon’s parents murmured quickly, bowing their heads in unison while Hera merely braced herself.
“Leave. Now.”
Poseidon’s parents nodded vigorously, practically scrambling over each other to run out the door. Hera just rolled her eyes, deliberately taking her time as she walked out behind them. She had absolutely no respect for Raelynn, and even less for this pack’s Alpha.
The moment the door clicked shut behind them, the Alpha turned on Raelynn. Without warning, his hand swung across her face.
The force of the blow sent her crashing to the floor, her temple cracking hard against the sharp corner of the coffee table. Raelynn lay still on the rug, staring blankly ahead. She wasn't even shocked. This was the mate she had chosen over a fated bond, and this had been her reality for the last five years.
For years, Raelynn had rationalized the ab*se, convincing herself that this brutal dominance was just how powerful Alphas were supposed to behave. But her worldview had fractured at the last regional Alpha assembly. There, she had observed some of the most formidable, high-ranking Alphas in the country, only to find them fiercely protective yet entirely gentle with their mates.
Hearing the other Lunas and Beta females openly praise how doting and tender their husbands were had struck a painful chord deep inside her. It was a sobering realization: her husband wasn't acting out of standard Alpha dominance. He was a cruel anomaly.
At first, she desperately tried to blame it based on the fact that they were chosen mates rather than fated ones, grasping at any excuse to justify her reality. But even that comfort was stripped away when she spoke to three other Lunas—all chosen mates—whose thriving, affectionate partnerships completely contradicted her theory.
That was the exact moment she realized her grave mistake. She never should have rejected Poseidon over something as fleeting and shallow as rank. Growing up, she had watched so many women in her pack make the same choice and go on to live happily—or at least, that was the glossy front they presented to the world. As an Alpha’s daughter, she had been raised to believe she deserved nothing less than an Alpha as a mate, a toxic standard even her father, the previous leader of their pack, had proudly supported.
But looking at her life now, the title felt entirely hollow. She was trapped, suffocating in a prison of her own design, living in utter regret.
Slowly, a desperate plan began to take root. She convinced herself there was only one way out of the hell she had created, and that was to find a way to take back her rejection and force Poseidon to accept her. But the moment the idea formed, reality crashed down on her with terrifying force. She was too late.
He had been blessed with a second chance. According to his mother, the tone he had used with his new mate over the phone was fiercely protective, gentle, and overflowing with love—the exact kind of warmth Raelynn had starved herself of for five years.
When she had explained to her father what was happening, her father only told her that it was her duty as a woman to appease her mate, to appeal to his softer side by being a soft woman. And that’s what she tried to do, but Raelynn learned later on that staying quiet and meek when her husband had one of his moments was the best way to stop his tyranny fast and easy. Whenever she tried to soothe him with her words or her touch, his wrath only got worse.
“You will never have guests over without my permission. Is that clear?” he snarled, fist curling into the hair at the back of her head, forcing her to look at him.
“Yes, husband,” Raelynn whispered, her voice trembling.
“Good.”
The moment he let go, he turned and stormed out of the house, slamming the front door behind him so hard the walls rattled. Only when the echo faded, and his heavy footsteps disappeared down the walkway, did she finally break. She collapsed against the floor, sobbing into the quiet room. This wasn’t the life she wanted, nor was it one that she deserved.
- Writer
