Too Fat for the Alpha, Perfect for His Brother

Aurora's POV For the first time in my life, I had allowed myself to believe that I was beautiful. It was a ridiculous thought, perhaps, especially for someone like me. Someone who had spent most of her life learning how to make herself smaller in rooms where she already felt non-existent. Someone who knew exactly how long to hold her breath before stepping onto a scale, exactly how to angle her body when passing a group of laughing girls, and exactly how to pretend not to hear the whispers that followed her wherever she went. But lying there in the warmth of Alpha Roman's bed, my heart still jumping from what had just happened between us, I couldn't stop the foolish little smile tugging at my lips. Maybe I had been wrong about myself. Maybe I wasn't as undesirable as I had always believed. Because of all the wolves in Moonvale Pack, of all the men who had looked through me as though I were nothing more than another servant passing in the corridor, it was Alpha Roman who had seen me. The Alpha. The most desired, admired man in the pack. And somehow, tonight, he had wanted me. I pulled the sheet closer to my chest, trying to quiet the butterflies fluttering wildly inside me. My body was still warm, my mind hazy with emotions I couldn't place a name on, and for the first time in years, I felt as though perhaps the Moon Goddess had finally remembered that I existed. Perhaps this was the beginning of something. Perhaps— Roman suddenly sat up. The mattress shifted under me, snapping me out of my dreamy thoughts. He didn't look at me. Instead, he reached for his clothes with the detached calm of a man preparing to leave a meeting he had already forgotten. My smile slowly faded. "Alpha Roman?" He paused. For one foolish second, hope returned to my chest. Then he glanced over his shoulder. There was something strange in his eyes. Not tenderness. Not affection. Not even the awkwardness I had expected from two people who had just shared something so intimate. I saw something I couldn't quite place yet. He suddenly looked cold and merciless at the same time. "What?" he asked. I gulped. "Are you... leaving?" One corner of his mouth lifted. "Of course." The single word landed strangely. I pushed myself upright, clutching the sheet around me. "I thought..." "You thought what?" His tone made my cheeks burn. I brought my eyes down. "Nothing." "No." He turned fully toward me, fastening the buttons of his shirt slowly. "Say it." I wished I hadn't spoken. "I thought tonight meant something." For several seconds, there was silence. Then Roman laughed. It wasn't a warm laugh. It wasn't even surprising. It was the kind of laugh that made me feel as though I had just said something unbearably stupid. The most stupid thing he had ever heard. "Something? Oh, Aurora. You really are naive.” My stomach felt so heavy. He looked me over slowly, and the tenderness I had imagined in his eyes earlier was nowhere to be found. "Don't flatter yourself, Aurora." My heart seemed to stop. He continued dressing as though he hadn't just broken something inside me. "Tonight was nothing." I stared at him. "But you..." Before I could finish, he raised an eyebrow. "I what?" "You looked at me differently." He burst into laughter again. "Did I?" I nodded faintly. I hated how vulnerable I sounded. "I thought you wanted me." His expression changed. "Want you?" He repeated the words as though they were the most absurd thing he had heard all night. "Do you really look at yourself in the mirror, Aurora?" My breath seized at that point. Alpha Roman took a step closer, his eyes travelling over me with an intentional coldness. He meant every single look. "Look at you." I instinctively pulled the sheet tighter. Trying to cover the little shame I had left. "Alpha..." "Look at yourself." His voice was quiet, but there was enough authority in it to make me obey. So I lowered my eyes to my body. I knew what I saw. The curves I had spent years trying to hide. The stomach I had learned to cover underneath oversized dresses. The thick thighs that had been the subject of whispered jokes since I was a teenager. Roman gave a low, humorless laugh. "Exactly." I looked up. "You actually believed I would ever desire you?” He continued. "Do you honestly believe a man like me would look at a woman like you and think, there is the woman I want beside me?" I almost dropped dead with shame right there. "Alpha..." "Don't." His voice shook through the room with such authority that I immediately fell silent. "Do you know what it felt like?" I froze. I couldn't utter a single word. And I honestly didn't want to hear anymore. He gave a sarcastic little smile. "Being trapped between those thick thighs of yours? I could barely breathe." He laughed as though remembering something ridiculous. "For a moment, I felt like a marshmallow being squeezed between two enormous hands." The humiliation hit me immediately and was so unbearable. This was the worst humiliation I had ever experienced. I pulled the sheet higher. Then he stared at me. "You've spent so much time being pitied by this pack that you've mistaken pity for admiration. Perhaps you thought because I touched you, I suddenly couldn't see what everyone else sees." My eyes filled with tears almost immediately. He didn't stop. "You're a fat woman, Aurora. There is nothing appealing about you. Nothing that fits the beauty standards of this pack or every normal being. You're simply..." His gaze swept over me again. "Too much. I see no difference between you and a pig." I felt something inside me collapse. "I was curious," he continued. "That's all. I've had beautiful women in my bed. Elegant women. Women who actually fit every standard an Alpha admires, throw themselves at my feet." His eyes swept over me again. "I wanted to know what something outside my usual taste would be like." "So that's all I was?" "Yes. Nothing more.” The answer came so easily that it hurt more than if he had shouted. He moved toward the mirror and adjusted his collar. "An Alpha can indulge a curiosity whenever he wants. I wanted to taste something different. I can afford such curiosity." His mouth curled. "Now I have." I stared at him through my tears. "And now that curiosity is over." He turned toward me again. "I certainly won't be making that mistake twice." A tear slipped down my cheek. Roman's gaze dropped toward my legs. "You should be thanking the Moon Goddess that I was curious at all. Do you know how ridiculous you look lying there with that expression on your face? As though you've just been chosen or special?" He shook his head. "Who would want you, Aurora?" The question was quiet. Cruel precisely because of how casually he said it. But the most painful part was that he was right. "Look at yourself." I couldn't bring myself to do that again. "Don't ever mistake my curiosity for desire, Aurora. If I wanted a beautiful woman, I wouldn't have to look very far." My lips trembled. "Valentina..." "Exactly." The name fell between us like a shiny sword. Everyone knew Valentina was the Golden Girl of Moonvale. She was beautiful, elegant, and high-born. The woman everyone already treated like the future Luna. Roman's expression softened for the first time, but only when he mentioned her. "Valentina is what an Alpha's mate should look like. And you?" he continued, looking at me. "You should be grateful someone like me was curious enough to find out what you felt like." I couldn't stop the tears anymore. One slid down my cheek. Then another. Roman sighed impatiently. "Don't cry." I pressed my lips together. "You look ridiculous." I stared at the floor, but he continued, sounding even more cold. "Have you ever wondered why no one here looks at you?" I didn't answer. "Because they see what you refuse to see." He gestured toward me. "You're fat. You're not some hidden beauty waiting for the right man to discover you. You're not secretly a princess trapped inside the wrong body." He continued. "You're a fat-nosed animal who has somehow convinced herself that being noticed once means she's finally desirable." I felt as though he had struck me. "Even my guards wouldn't dare look twice at you. Perhaps you should be grateful you have a place as a maid. At least the pack has a use for you there." I couldn't speak. "You belong in the kitchens. The laundry. Cleaning the rooms. Serving people who actually matter." He gave me one last contemptuous look. "Not here." Then he gestured around his bedroom. "Not in my bed. And certainly not beside me."