Unshifted and Unwanted

Jessamine's P.O.V.

The heavy scent of cheap liquor, roasted meats on the spit, and the sharp, dominating musk of shifting wolves blasted me in the face the second I stepped through the main doors of the pack house. The overwhelming sensory overload crashed over me, instantly accompanied by a barrage of hostile glares. Snickers and mocking whispers erupted from the shadows near the entrance. I kept my gaze fixed straight ahead, refusing to give them the satisfaction of seeing my fear. My ribs and both of my arms still throbbed with a dull, persistent agony. Dark purple bruises with yellowing edges decorated my pale skin, a brutal reminder of the beating a group of female wolves had handed me just two days ago. I forced myself to push the physical ache down, burying it deep in my chest. Tonight was not about my pain. Tonight was about finding Max.

Max was the future Alpha of the Onyx Moon pack. He was also my devoted boyfriend of four miserable years, the only light in my dark reality. Ever since we were young, he had been the sole barrier standing between me and the relentless cruelty of our peers. I was nineteen years old and treated worse than dirt. To the rest of the pack, I was a worthless human runt. I had failed to shift when I turned sixteen, and my wolf never presented itself. In their eyes, I was a broken liability, a weak link that needed to be culled. But Max never treated me that way. He promised me that none of it mattered, holding me through the darkest nights and swearing we would rule together. Today was his nineteenth birthday. It was the pivotal milestone when his wolf would reach full maturity, granting him the instinctual ability to recognize his fated mate.

For four years, we talked about this exact night. We endured the insults, the pack members trying to tear us apart, and the endless challenges from other females who believed they were far more suited to be Luna. We pushed through all of it for this precise moment. Tonight, his wolf would awaken and officially claim me.

I clutched a small, square box wrapped in glossy blue paper against my chest. The silver ribbon dug into my palms as I scanned the crowded, pulsating dance floor. My heart raced with a mixture of anxiety and desperate hope. The neon lights swept across the sea of grinding bodies, but I could not spot his familiar broad shoulders or his dirty blonde hair.

Before I could take another step into the fray, the thumping bass of the music cut out with a deafening screech.

The abrupt silence left a ringing in my ears. The strobe lights continued to flash over the motionless crowd as everyone turned their attention toward the makeshift stage. Kendra stood there, gripping a microphone. She was my sister Sloane’s best friend and my chief tormentor, the orchestrator of nearly every beating I had suffered over the past three years. A wicked, satisfied smirk twisted her painted lips.

“Poor little human. You have a lot of guts to show up here right now.”

Kendra’s voice boomed through the speakers, dripping with venom and false pity. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, creating a clear, terrifying path between me and the stage. The silence shattered as harsh, cruel laughter bubbled up from the pack members surrounding me. Uncomfortable heat prickled the back of my neck. I squeezed the glossy blue present tighter against my chest, feeling my bruised ribs protest the movement.

“Do you have any audacity at all? Showing your wolfless face at a pack-only celebration. But even the birthday boy doesn’t want your pathetic existence around to ruin the mood.”

A cold, heavy knot of dread coiled tight in the pit of my stomach. My instincts screamed that something was terribly wrong, warning me of an orchestrated trap tightening around my throat. I stood my ground, digging my fingernails into the gift box. I refused to let her break me in front of the entire pack. I just needed to find Max.

Kendra pointed a long, dagger-like acrylic nail toward the grand staircase curving up toward the second floor. “Are you looking for him? He already retreated upstairs to his private bedroom. Why don’t you go fetch your Alpha and see what he has to say to you now?”

The mocking jeers escalated into a roar of amusement. Men and women nudged each other, their eyes glittering with predatory anticipation. My sneakers felt like they were filled with lead, but I forced my chin up. Ignoring the mocking catcalls and the laughter echoing off the high ceilings, I walked toward the wooden steps with my head held high.

With every step I took up the grand staircase, the physical ache in my bones flared. I could hear the rustle of clothing and the heavy footsteps of an amused flock of onlookers following closely behind me. They were trailing me like vultures waiting for a carcass to drop. The cold dread spread from my stomach into my veins, freezing my blood. The air grew thicker the closer I got to the end of the long, carpeted hallway.

I stopped in front of the heavy oak double doors leading into Max’s private quarters. My hands shook so bad the silver ribbon on my present vibrated. I forced my trembling fingers to reach out and grip the brass handles. I pushed the double doors open.

The scene unfolding before me shattered my entire existence into a thousand jagged pieces.

The massive king-sized bed was a wreck of tangled silk sheets. Max was on his knees, stripped buck naked. His broad, muscular back shone with a layer of slick sweat. He was pinning a naked woman to the mattress, grabbing her hips with a bruising grip as he drove his hard cock deep into her pussy. The wet, slapping sound of flesh striking flesh echoed through the massive room. Max threw his head back, letting out loud, guttural groans of raw sexual pleasure with every savage thrust he delivered.

My lungs seized. The air vanished from the room. My vision tunneled with unspeakable horror as my brain struggled to process the vile reality playing out in front of my eyes.

Max’s body went rigid. The feral instincts of his newly matured wolf seized total control of his mind. He let out a deep, chest-rattling roar. His regular brown eyes burned a brilliant, feral gold. His mouth opened wide, his jaw shifting as his canines elongated into lethal, sharp fangs. Before I could even draw a breath to scream, Max lunged forward. He plunged those elongated fangs deep into the delicate curve of the woman’s neck. Blood welled up around his teeth as he officially sank the mating bite into her flesh, claiming her spirit and her body for all of eternity.

The woman threw her head back into the pillows. She let out a shrill, ecstatic moan of pure victory. Her dark hair fanned out across the white sheets, revealing a familiar, beautiful face twisted into a smug smile.

Sloane. My sister.

The air in my throat turned to razor blades. All the sensation bled out of my extremities, leaving my fingers numb. The glossy blue present slipped from my useless hands. It plummeted down and hit the hardwood floorboards with a hollow, pathetic thud.

The sudden noise snapped like a gunshot in the room. Max froze. The feral growl died in his throat, and the burning gold in his eyes faded away, replaced by his normal, human brown irises. He pulled his mouth away from Sloane’s neck, a smear of her blood painting his chin.

He climbed off the bed and stood up in the center of the room, standing buck naked right in front of me. His dick was still wet with my sister's juices, hanging heavy against his thighs. A violent clash of emotions warred across his face. He looked torn between the sudden guilt of being caught and the defensive, puffed-up arrogance of an Alpha who had just marked his territory.

Sloane did not bother to cover herself up. She remained reclining on the mattress, her bare breasts heaving as she let out a breathy laugh. She lazily smoothed her dark hair over her shoulder, tilting her head back to proudly display the fresh, bleeding bite mark sealing her fate. She was reveling in her ultimate victory. She had taken the love of my life directly from my hands, securing her untouchable place as the future Luna of the Onyx Moon pack.

“Would you mind closing the door, Jessie? I am trying to have some private intimacy with my mate.”

Sloane purred the words with fake innocence, her eyes gleaming with absolute malice.

Hot, humiliating tears choked my throat, spilling over my eyelashes and burning salt trails down my cheeks. Four years. Four years of late-night promises and fighting against the world, thrown away onto a mattress with my own sister.

“How could you do this? You spent years telling me how much you despised her! You told me she was vile!”

I hurled the words at him, my voice cracking into a pathetic sob. I stumbled backward, only to feel the hard wall of pack members pressing against my spine. The doorway was packed with onlookers eager for the bloodshed.

Max stepped forward, his shoulders rolling back as he adopted a defiant stance to protect his newly claimed female.

“She is my fated mate, Jessamine!”

Max yelled the declaration directly into my face.

A deafening roar of triumphant cheers erupted from the crowd gathered behind me. The pack howled and clapped, celebrating the brutal downfall of the human runt and the ascension of their true, powerful Luna. The sounds of their joy hammered against my skull like physical blows.

Max crossed his arms over his bare chest, his guilt evaporating under the praise of his pack.

“I did not ask for the Goddess to pair us, but I have a duty! I have to mark my mate before The Offering. The emissaries could arrive any day now, and I need a Luna bound to my side to protect this pack. I could never mate with a human like you anyway. You cannot even shift!”

The words sliced through my chest, gutting me, spilling four years of unconditional trust onto the floor. I opened my mouth to argue, to remind him of every single time he swore my lack of a wolf did not matter, but Sloane moved first.

She crawled to the edge of the mattress on her hands and knees. Pressing her naked body against Max’s back, she reached around his waist. She ran her sharp, manicured nails over his muscular chest, tracing the heavy lines of his stomach down to his groin. She wrapped her fingers around the base of his shaft. Under the claiming touch of his fated mate, Max let out a low groan, shifting on his feet as his dick hardened and sprang into a full erection right in front of my face. He made no effort to push her away. He simply stood there, stiffening at her touch, flaunting his betraying body for me and the entire pack to witness.

Heartbroken, sickened to my core, and drained of every ounce of fight I possessed, I stared at the man I thought I would marry. He was a stranger. A weak, pathetic stranger controlled by instinct and status.

“I feel sorry for you, Max.”

I whispered the words through my tears. They carried a heavy, hollow truth that silenced the immediate crowd.

Sloane answered my pity with a furious, feral snarl. She bared her own teeth at me, her eyes flashing with territorial rage. Then, masking her anger with a triumphant, mocking smirk, she pointed a finger toward the hallway.

“Shut the door on your way out, runt. We aren't finished in bed yet.”