I Slept with my Twin Sister’s Alpha Mate

ARIA’S POV My phone buzzed with a notification in the nightstand and I reached for it without thinking, expecting it to be Mira checking in on me, but when I saw Gavin’s name on my screen, my heart stopped immediately, because I had not heard from him in three days, three days of silence and three days of telling my myself he was just busy and that everything would be okay. I was so good at lying to myself. I gingerly opened the message and the words hit me like a bullet. “Aria, I have been thinking a lot and I cannot do this anymore. I can not keep pretending. The truth is that, I have always compared you to your sister and I cannot stop. She is prettier, more outgoing and she is the one I alway think about when I am with you. I have been fighting it for so long, but I think I am in love with Aurora. I am sorry, but we are done. Please do not make this harder than it already is.” My hands began to shake so badly that I almost dropped my phone. I began to gasp for breath as the words hit me again and again. She is prettier, more outgoing and the one he thinks about. He is in love with Aurora. He is in love with my twin sister and we are done. I read the words over and over, hoping I was mistaken, but they remained the same no matter how many times I read them. I threw my phone across the room and it hit the wall with a loud c***k, and the screen began to show colored blurry lines, but I did not care. It was broken and useless, just like me. I fell to my knees and let out a sound that was a mixture of screaming and sobbing, which was so raw and ugly, and I covered my mouth with my hands to muffle it because I did not want anyone to hear me. But the walls felt like they were closing on and the tears became so hot and relentless, and I could not stop them. I had given everything to Gavin, my time and my patience and my heart, and I had told myself that he saw me for who I truly was. But I had been fooling myself. He had only ever seen my sister and now he was gone, just like everyone else. I crawled to my mirror and pulled myself up, to stare at my reflection and immediately hated what I saw. Dark hair, dark eyes, and sharp features that reminded me of my father. I was not soft and I was not golden. I was just Aria, the forgotten twin, the one nobody ever choose. Aurora was everything I was not. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a face that belonged to a magazine cover. She was outgoing, charming and effortlessly beautiful, amd everyone adored her. Everyone knew the truth, in the Sinclair household, there was only one daughter and that was Aurora. I was just the extra, the but one and get one free package, a shadow that existed only to make her shine brighter. I wiped my face with the back of my hand and stared at my reflection once more as the pain settled in my chest like it was physical. Then my door swung open and Mother walked in without knocking, because she never knocked, my room was not my room, I just occupied it. “What is all that noise?” She asked, sounding so cold and impatient. She looked at me from head to toe, taking in my tear streaked face and frowned in annoyance. I wanted to lie, but the words came out before I could stop them. “Gavin broke up with me.” She raised an eyebrow and barked impatiently, “And?” The coldness in her voice cut me deeper than a knife. I stared at her, waiting for something, like a kind word, or a moment of compassion, but she just stood there looking at me like I was wasting her time. “He told me he is in love with Aurora,” I said in a voice barely above a whisper. “He has always compared me to her. He says she is prettier and more outgoing. He says he cannot stop thinking about her.” Mother laughed dismissively, which sounded soft, but it was cruel, and it shattered whatever was left of my broken composure. Then she looked at me and said coldly, “Well, what do you expect? You are so dramatic, Aria. Aurora is beautiful and charming and everyone loves her. You can not compete with that, so stop crying over a man who had better taste.” I stared at her, unable to believe what I was hearing and cried out, “Better taste? You think he has better taste because he chose Aurora over me?” She smiled coldly at me. “Let us be honest with each other for once. Everyone knows the truth. On this household, there is only one daughter who matters and that is Aurora. You are just the extra.” The words hit me across the face like a slap and I felt the blood drain from my skin. She had always favored Aurora and I had always known that, but hearing her say it so openly and so coldly was something else entirely. Then I managed to ask brokenly, “So you would rather I just disappeared?” She sighed like I was being dramatic and hissed, “Stop being ridiculous. You are perfectly fine. You just need to be realistic about your place in this family.” When she turned to leave, something inside me snapped. “You are cruel,” I cried out. “You have always favored Aurora. You have always made me feel like I was nothing. And now you stand here mocking me, telling me that my pain does not matter. You are a terrible mother!” She stopped on her tracks and turned to face me, with an icy cold expression on her face. But instead of yelling back, she laughed mockingly. “Grow up, Aria. You are not a child anymore. Stop crying over men who are clearly out of your league, and stop pretending you deserve anything more than what you have.” And then she walked out, leaving me standing there broken and alone. I sank to the floor and allowed the tears to fall because I had nothing left, no hope, no dignity and no fight left in me. I reached for my phone, forgetting it was broken, but the screen still worked and I called Mira because she was the only person I had left. She answered on the second ring. “Aria? Is everything okay?” I could barely speak through the tears, but I managed to sob, “He broke up with me, Mira. He said he loves Aurora. And my mother just told me to get over it. I have nobody. I have nothing.” “Aria, listen to me,” Mira’s voice was sharp and urgent over the phone. “Where are you? I am coming over.” “No,” I said quickly. “I need to get out of here. I can not stay in this house.” “Where are you going?” “I do not know,” I shrugged. “Anywhere. I just need to escape.” “Aria—” she started with worry in her voice, but she did not argue because she knew me well enough to know that sometimes I needed space. “Promise you will call me if you need anything.” “I promise,” I lied. I grabbed my jacket and walked out of my room, past Mother’s room, past Aurora’s room and past the pictures of them laughing and smiling on the walls, and I walked out of the house and into the night. I walked through the pack territory until I reached the outskirts, and then I saw it, a small bar at the edge of the road, which was dangerous and rough for a young girl like me, but it was a perfect place for someone like me to disappear. I pushed open the door and stepped inside, soon, my nostrils was filled with smoke and the smell of cheap alcohol. I made my way to the bar and ordered a glass of whiskey, which I downed in one gulp. I was about to order another when I felt something, a presence and a pull, like something deep inside me was being tugged. I looked up and my breath siezed immediately because a man was standing at the end of the bar, watching me. He was tall and broad shouldered with dark hair and the most striking silver eyes I had ever seen, and they were fixed on me like I was the only woman in the room. He was dangerous, I could feel it, a predator in a room full of prey, but I could not look away because something about him pulled me in and held me there. He smiled slowly, with a knowing look in his eyes and started walking towards me.