His Rejected Curve

Chapter 5 The Sister

Giselle never called. Ever.

In eighteen years of being sisters, she called me exactly twice: once when she needed my math homework, and once when she needed me to cover for her sneaking out.

So when my mother said "Giselle is on the phone," I thought it was a joke.

It wasn't.

Theo put the old cabin phone on speaker. Static. Heavy breathing. Running.

"Alina?" Giselle's voice, cracking. No perfect princess voice. Just... scared. "Alina, are you there? Is this Stoneclaw? Mama Sage gave me this number."

"Giselle?" I stepped closer. "Where are you?"

"On the highway! I ran! I packed a bag and ran! Father knows I drugged Jaxon and he - he locked me in my room and said I'm going to be married to the Alpha of Red Fang as punishment for embarrassing him! He's sixty, Alina! He has three dead Lunas!"

My blood went cold.

Red Fang. Everyone knew Red Fang. They treated she-wolves like property.

"Giselle, slow down. Where's Father now?" Theo asked, instantly in Alpha mode.

"He's searching for me with the guards! I hid in the woods behind the Academy! Alina, I know I was horrible to you! I know I spiked Jaxon's drink! I was jealous! You were always smarter, you could read the old runes, Mama Sage liked you more, and when I found out you were his fated mate I -"

She sobbed hard.

"I thought if I got rid of you, I could finally be enough!"

The cabin was silent. My mother closed her eyes. She knew what it felt like to be a girl desperate to be enough for a cruel Alpha King.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Giselle whispered. "I'm asking you... can I come to Stoneclaw? Just for a night? I have nowhere else."

I looked at Theo. At my mother.

Three days ago, Giselle stood beside me while the whole school laughed at me and ran to comfort the boy who hurt me.

Three days ago, I would have said no.

But Mama River's voice was in my head: Your size is your engine. Your power.

Power isn't about making people kneel. Power is about deciding who gets to stand.

"Send me your location," I said. "Stay hidden. Theo will come get you."

Theo was already grabbing his keys.

"Alina -" Giselle choked.

"One night," I said, my voice hard. "And you will apologize to every Omega girl you ever let be mocked while you stood there. You will work in the kitchen. And you will tell me everything you know about what Darius Bello did to me."

"Yes! Yes, I will!"

The call cut.

My mother touched my shoulder. "Are you sure? After what she did?"

"She's my sister," I said. "And if Darius is selling her to Red Fang, she's not the villain today. He is."

---

Theo found Giselle at midnight on the edge of Highway 12, shivering in a thin jacket, her designer suitcase broken open, makeup smeared.

When he brought her into the cabin, I barely recognized her.

Perfect Giselle Hart, the golden girl of Silverpine, was muddy, eyes swollen, hair tangled.

She saw me and collapsed to her knees. Not the pretty, practiced kneel Jaxon did. A real, broken fall.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed into the floor. "I'm so sorry, Alina. I called you chubby. I laughed when they hid your food. I told Jaxon's Beta where you ate lunch so they could move your table. I was so scared that if people saw you were smarter and kinder, they'd see I was nothing."

I knelt down. The silver mark on my wrist glowed faintly.

"Get up," I said.

She didn't.

"Giselle, get UP. Alphas don't apologize on the floor. They apologize by fixing it."

She looked up, shocked.

I pulled her up and - before I could think - hugged her. She was thin and shaking. I was warm and solid. For once, my size felt like it could hold someone else up.

"I forgive you for being jealous," I whispered. "I don't forgive you for drugging Jaxon yet. That you will earn."

She nodded into my shoulder.

From the doorway, a low voice said: "Well. Family reunion."

We both turned.

Jaxon stood at the door. Soaked again. He had actually gone back to Silverpine and come back. His hands were raw and bleeding - from scrubbing.

"I cleaned the attic," he said to me, holding up his red hands. "Three floors. With a toothbrush like you asked. The Omegas watched. Then I told the whole dining hall what my father did. What Giselle did. What I did."

He looked at Giselle. "You drugged me."

Giselle wiped her nose. "I did. I'm sorry."

"You will be punished by Alpha Alina, not me," he said, and then looked back at me. "Darius is furious. He's coming here. Tomorrow. With guards. He says Stoneclaw is harboring a fugitive White Alpha who belongs to Silverpine by birth law."

My mother stepped forward, her own white wolf flashing in her eyes.

"He dares come here after he tried to starve my daughter?"

Jaxon nodded. "He brings the Council. He says if Alina doesn't return and accept me as mate by full moon in two days, he will declare war on Stoneclaw."

The cabin went dead silent.

The full moon. In two days. The deadline for the Rite of Three.

If I didn't choose a path by then, the mark would fade and Darius could claim I was an unclaimed Omega under Silverpine law and force me back.

Theo stepped beside me. Giselle grabbed my hand, surprising me.

And my two wolves, Luna and Liora, finally spoke in one voice inside me, loud and clear for the first time:

Let him come.

I looked at my sister, my brother, my mother, and the boy who rejected me kneeling in my doorway, bleeding from cleaning my old prison.

"Good," I said, and the silver mark on my wrist flared so bright it lit up the whole cabin. "Let him come. I want him to see what the plus-size wolf he tried to crush looks like when she stands up."