After My Alpha Abandoned Me for My Sister

The morning light streamed through the kitchen windows as I carefully placed the last strawberry on top of the chocolate cake. Three years. Three whole years since I'd been bound to Austin as his chosen mate, and today I wanted everything to be perfect.

I stepped back to admire my work. The cake looked beautiful—Austin's favorite dark chocolate with fresh strawberries and a drizzle of honey. My hands trembled slightly as I adjusted the single candle in the center.

"Is that for Alpha Austin?" Elena, one of the pack's cooks, asked as she passed by. Her eyes held that familiar mixture of pity and curiosity that I'd grown accustomed to over the years.

"Yes," I replied softly, unable to suppress the small smile that formed on my lips. "Today marks three years since our bonding ceremony."

Elena's eyebrows rose. "Three years already? Time flies." She glanced around before leaning closer. "You know, I've never seen an Alpha treat an Omega so... attentively before."

I nodded, my heart warming at her words. It was true. Despite my wolfless status—a defect that earned me constant whispers and sidelong glances—Austin had been nothing but tender toward me. His Alpha aura, once volatile and dangerous, had stabilized remarkably since our union. The pack whispered it was because of me.

"I sometimes wonder if maybe I'm not so defective after all," I confessed quietly. "Maybe I'm just... late in blooming."

Elena smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Perhaps." She turned away, busying herself with the morning bread. "Though I've never heard of an Omega's wolf awakening after twenty."

I swallowed the familiar lump in my throat and carefully covered the cake. Twenty-three now, and still wolfless. Still an Omega. Still the object of pity and scorn.

But Austin made me feel like none of that mattered.

I carried the cake carefully through the pack house corridors, my heart fluttering with anticipation. Three years ago, when Whitney fled her arranged mating with Austin, I'd been thrust into her place as a political substitute. I'd expected cruelty, indifference—the treatment I'd received all my life from my adoptive family in the Blood Moon Pack.

Instead, Austin had surprised everyone. His possessive attention, his protective Alpha aura constantly surrounding me, his tender words in private moments... they made me believe that perhaps the Moon Goddess had a different plan for me after all.

His office door stood slightly ajar when I reached it. I balanced the cake in one hand and reached for the door with the other, pausing when I heard his voice inside.

"—has worked perfectly, Marcus." Austin's voice was low, controlled. "Three years of playing the devoted mate, and now Whitney's finally returned."

I froze, my fingers an inch from the door.

"Are you certain she'll fall for it?" Marcus asked, his Beta tone respectful but questioning.

Austin's laugh was cold, nothing like the warm sound I'd grown to love. "She's always been jealous of attention given to others. Three years of watching me fawn over Kya—an Omega no less—was exactly the push she needed."

My breath caught in my throat.

"And Kya never suspected?" Marcus asked.

"Why would she? She's nothing but a convenient pawn. A wolfless Omega with no real value beyond political alliance." Austin's voice dripped with disdain. "The perfect tool to make Whitney jealous enough to return from that pathetic Midnight Pack."

The cake slipped from my suddenly numb fingers, landing with a soft thud on the carpet outside his door. I barely noticed.

"The plan worked better than expected," Austin continued. "My pack's territory has nearly doubled in size during these three years. And now that Whitney's back, I can finally have what I've always wanted."

"And Kya?" Marcus asked.

"She'll understand her place soon enough. An Omega is an Omega—useful for some things, but never meant to stand beside an Alpha permanently."

I pressed my hand against my mouth to stifle the sob building in my chest. Three years. Three years of tender touches, of whispered promises, of making me believe I mattered.

A lie. All of it.

Before I could retreat, a piercing wail cut through the air—the pack's alert system. Footsteps thundered down the corridor behind me.

"Alpha!" A young Delta burst around the corner. "The Midnight Pack delegation has arrived at the gates!"

Austin's office door swung open fully, and his eyes—those eyes I'd gazed into countless times—widened slightly at the sight of me standing there, the cake at my feet.

"Kya," he started, his expression shifting to the mask of tenderness I now recognized as false.

But I didn't stay to hear more. I turned and fled toward the pack square where everyone was gathering.

In the center stood Whitney—my adoptive sister, the beautiful ranked she-wolf who had always had everything I didn't. Her perfect blonde hair gleamed in the sunlight as she smiled triumphantly at Austin.

"Austin," she purred, her scent—deliberately enhanced with something floral and alluring—wafting across the square.

Austin's entire demeanor changed. The cold calculation I'd heard in his voice moments ago vanished, replaced by something warm and genuine as he strode forward.

"Whitney," he breathed, his Alpha aura flaring protectively around her. "You've finally come home."

I stood frozen at the edge of the square, watching as he embraced her—the same embrace he'd given me just this morning.

"Kya." His voice cut through the crowd like ice when he finally acknowledged me. The warmth vanished, replaced by the commanding Alpha tone that no wolf could disobey. "Return to your duties in the Omega quarters. Whitney will be taking your place in the Alpha suite."

The pack watched in silence as I lowered my eyes, submitting to his command even as my heart shattered into a thousand pieces.