The Alpha Who Couldn't Love Me

Ayla's POV. I stared at the bathroom mirror, toothbrush hanging from my mouth, foam bubbling on my lips like a bad joke. ‘Try to think positive,’ my wolf whispered inside me, her voice was soft and annoyingly hopeful. I groaned. Positive? In this house? In this life? I spat into the sink and rinsed. “There’s nothing to be positive about,” I mumbled, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. The bathroom was cold. The water barely warmed up before turning icy again, like the damn heater knew I didn’t have time to wait around. I took the fastest shower of my life, shivering through half of it and drying off with a towel that smelled like it hadn’t seen detergent in weeks. My clothes were the usual...hoodie, jeans, worn-out sneakers. Nothing anyone would look twice at. I tugged the sleeves down over my hands and shoved my damp hair into a messy ponytail. My stomach growled as I walked down the hallway. It shut up the second I reached the bottom step and saw the man in the kitchen. Another one. He was tall, muscular, probably older than my mom by at least a decade. Shirtless. His jeans hung low, boxers showing, like he belonged in a beer commercial. He had tattoos, too...some kind of tribal crap inked across his chest...and he was drinking orange juice straight from the bottle, standing in front of the open fridge like it was his damn house. “Morning,” he said when he saw me, voice rough like gravel. I didn’t answer. Just kept walking. This wasn’t new. It wasn’t even shocking. It was routine. Every other morning, it was a different man. Some were quiet. Some were loud. Some tried to talk to me. Some tried to touch me. I’d learned how to make myself invisible before I even turned fourteen. He scratched his jaw and turned back to the fridge. I headed for the kitchen, nearly bumping into her. My mom. She wore one of those flimsy, see-through nightgowns that left nothing to the imagination. Her makeup was smudged under her eyes, and her hair looked like she’d just rolled off someone’s lap. Probably had. “Oh, you’re up,” she said flatly, like my presence annoyed her more than surprised her. “You could’ve let me sleep in. You stomped down the stairs.” “I didn’t stomp,” I muttered, brushing past her. “You did. And maybe if you weren’t always sulking around this house like it’s a funeral, you’d...” she paused to yawn “...make life easier for both of us.” I opened the fridge. Empty. Aside from that same damn orange juice. The bottle the stranger was just drinking from. I slammed it shut again. “No hello? No thank you? This is the kind of daughter I get after I sacrificed everything for you?” she said suddenly, voice sharp. I turned slowly to face her. “Sacrificed?” I said under my breath. She narrowed her eyes. “I was mated to an Alpha, Ayla. Do you know what that meant for me? For my future? I was set. I was respected. Until I got drunk, had a fling with a man that I didn't even know his name. Then I frigging got pregnant. With you.” I swallowed the lump rising in my throat. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “But I didn’t ask to be born.” Her eyes flashed, like I’d hit a nerve, but she looked away quickly. Like always. She didn’t want a fight. She wanted guilt. But I didn’t have any left to give. Right then, he stepped into the kitchen. The same guy. Now standing behind her, and before I could turn away, he leaned in and kissed her neck. Right there. In front of me. I nearly gagged. My appetite vanished instantly. Not like it was strong to begin with. I grabbed the protein bar on the counter, tore it open with my teeth, and walked toward the door. “I’m going to school,” I said, chewing. “Try not to ruin anyone else’s life while you’re at it,” she called after me, her tone sarcastic. I froze at the door but didn’t turn around. My chest tightened, just for a second...but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing that. I yanked the door open and walked out, slamming it shut behind me. The cold morning air hit me like a slap as soon as I stepped outside. I pulled my hoodie tighter around me and started walking. No bus. No ride. Just my two feet and a fifteen-minute trek through the pack’s residential zone...where every perfect lawn, every new car, and every smiling family felt like a reminder that I didn’t belong here. I kept my head down, watching the cracks in the pavement, the uneven patches of dirt, the scuffed toes of my sneakers. ‘She called us a mistake again,’my wolf muttered, sounding groggy and pissed off. ‘You’d think she’d get bored of that line by now.’ “She won’t,” I mumbled, stuffing the rest of the protein bar in my mouth. “It’s her favorite.” ‘You should’ve said something.’ “What? ‘Sorry for ruining your life, Mom, next time I’ll ask the Moon Goddess to let me pick better parents’?” My wolf growled lowly. ‘I hate this place.’ “Same.” We went quiet after that. She always disappeared when I needed her the most. Lazy thing. Half the time I wasn’t even sure she was awake. I walked faster when I saw the school gates up ahead. Briar Ridge High. Pack-run, like everything else around here. Students clustered in small groups outside, laughing, talking, showing off expensive bags and shiny new phones. No one looked at me. Not yet. But they would. They always did. I lowered my head even more and slipped through the gate. The second I stepped into the hallway, the atmosphere shifted. Like the air changed. I felt it. Eyes. And then...bam. Someone slammed into my shoulder, hard enough to jolt my bag off balance. “Watch it,” the guy snapped. I staggered back a step. “S-sorry.” He didn’t even glance at me as he walked off, disappearing into the crowd. His friends laughed like it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen. I swallowed the lump in my throat and adjusted my bag. Don’t cry. Just keep walking. Don’t look up. Keep your head down. Whispers started before I even reached my locker. “Why is she still here?” “I’d transfer if I had to share a class with her.” The words weren’t loud. They didn’t have to be. They hissed through the air like poison. I felt them more than I heard them. Like sharp little needles sliding under my skin. I opened my locker slowly, hands trembling, pretending like I didn’t hear any of it. Like it didn’t matter. But it did. Every word. Every glance. Every laugh behind a hand. I was an omega in a school full of ranked wolves. The bottom of the bottom. But I wasn’t just that. I was her...the cursed girl, the one everyone hated. The girl the most important person of the pack refused to acknowledge. Not as a classmate. Not as a packmate. Not even as a living, breathing person. I’d been here for four years, and not a single person had ever sat next to me willingly. I stood there, staring blankly at my textbooks. Not moving. Not thinking. ‘You okay?’ my wolf asked, suddenly sounding a little more awake. I didn’t answer. ‘We should skip today,’ she said. ‘Screw this place. Let’s go lie in the woods. Sleep. Breathe. Hide. Please?’ “We can’t,” I whispered. ‘Why not?’ “Because if I leave, they win.” Silence. Even she didn’t have a comeback for that. So I slammed my locker shut and immediately froze because I wasn't prepared for what next I saw. It was Rowan. The second my eyes landed on him, all the air vanished from my lungs.