Chapter Two:The crippled Alpha
1036 Words
"No!" The word tore out of me loud enough to shatter the stillness of the dining room. "I won't marry him!"
My father's teacup froze halfway to his mouth. My stepmother gasped like I'd just struck her across the face.
I had never once talked back to either of them. Not since my mother died.
"I won't marry a cripple!" I shouted, hating the words the second they left me, but I couldn't stop. "I refuse to be paraded around like some pitiful act of charity. I'd rather spend my life alone than be chained to a man who can't even walk!"
My breath came fast and jagged. My heart was pounding, but not from fear.
I was furious.
"You ungrateful little brat," my stepmother spat, rounding the table so fast her apron snapped behind her. "The Alpha King is offering you a way out, and you're spitting in his face?"
"I don't need a way out!" I shot back, shaking. "I need my freedom! I want to bring my mother's company back to life. I've read her notes, I know her contacts, I can rebuild everything she left behind—"
"You're delusional," my father said, setting his cup down with a smile so calm it turned my stomach. "Do you honestly believe anyone would take you seriously? You have no power. No mark. You're nothing."
I stared at him, hatred coiling tight in my chest.
"Why me," I asked coldly, holding his gaze. "If this proposal is such a gift from the Goddess herself, why not send Priya instead?"
That wiped the smugness right off my stepsister's face.
"She's beautiful. Perfect. Everything I'm not, isn't she?" I kept going, letting every bit of anger I'd swallowed for years finally spill out. "Why not attach your precious family name to her, instead of shipping off the cursed w***e to marry a crippled king?"
The slap landed before I even saw it coming.
My head snapped sideways from the force of it. The room tilted for a second.
"You insolent little b***h," my father snarled. "You will marry him, or I will make certain you rot in the lowest omega district for the rest of your miserable life."
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I bit my lip and turned away, one hand pressed to my back where yesterday's lashes were still raw.
"Mira," my father called after me.
I froze, hand already resting on the doorknob. His next words made my fingers tremble against the wood.
"If you refuse this marriage, I'll strip away every claim you have to your mother's company."
The air caught somewhere in my throat.
He knew. He knew exactly what that company meant to me. He knew it was the only thing keeping me sane inside this house that had never once felt like home.
And now he was threatening to burn it to nothing.
I didn't turn around. I only spoke.
"You can erase my name from every document you own," I said quietly. "But you will never erase what she built in me. I am her legacy."
I opened the door and walked out.
There was only one place left for me to go. One person I still believed would understand. My boyfriend, Derek.
I let myself into his apartment with the spare key he'd given me months ago. Silence greeted me, along with the faint citrus smell that always clung to his skin.
The bed was a tangle of sheets, and I could hear water running faintly behind the bathroom door.
I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled my knees to my chest.
I just need him. One second of peace.
That's when his phone lit up on the dresser with an incoming call.
I blinked at the screen.
The contact name read: My True Love.
My stomach dropped.
Wait. That wasn't me.
I stared at it a long moment before I finally picked it up.
"Hello?" I said carefully.
A pause. Then a voice, sweet as syrup and twice as sickening, slid through the speaker and sent a chill straight down my spine.
"Hey, babe," Priya purred. "Miss me already?"
My heart plummeted straight through the floor.
I stared at the phone like it had turned into something venomous in my hand.
Before I could form a single thought, it was yanked out of my grip.
"What the hell are you doing?" Derek barked, none of the warmth I'd come here chasing anywhere in his voice. He hung up without a second's hesitation and threw the phone onto the bed.
I got to my feet slowly, my whole body starting to shake. "Was that... Priya?"
He rubbed the back of his neck, stepping back, refusing to meet my eyes.
"Answer me," I said, louder now. "Have you been cheating on me?"
His jaw tightened. Then, with a shrug so careless it made me sick, he muttered, "Yeah."
I blinked, certain I'd misheard him. "What?"
He finally looked at me, and the worst part wasn't the confession. It was how empty his eyes were. "Yes, Mira. I slept with Priya last night."
My knees nearly buckled beneath me.
He crossed his arms, jaw set hard. "What did you think was going to happen, Mira? You're just a worthless omega."
I stared at him, searching for any trace of the man I'd thought I loved. There was nothing left in his face. No guilt. No shame.
He stepped closer, voice dropping into something venomous. "Priya is everything you're not. Marked. Powerful. Wanted. You? You were just the girl I felt sorry for."
"Did you ever actually love me?" I whispered.
He didn't answer. He didn't need to.
I nodded slowly, tears gathering at the edges of my eyes, refusing to let them fall.
"You're right," I said, stepping back toward the door. "I am nothing. But not for much longer."
He scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I lifted my chin, taking one final look at the man I'd once believed would go to war for me.
"It means," I said, the decision already settling cold and final in my chest, "I'm going to marry the crippled Alpha King."
- Writer
