Claimed By The One Who Rejected Her

"Amelia, you do not have anything better to do than to just sit there all day doing nothing? What is wrong with you? You can't just sit there and act like you were born to burden my brother." Amelia's aunt's voice thundered as she walked into her room.

Till now, she still wonders why on earth her father still wanted her in this palace because she was the worst. She brought no good to him, and yet she blamed Amelia all the time for having a calm and peaceful life that she appreciated more than anything in the house. Amelia stood on her own and never disturbed anyone. People barely knew she existed.

"I am busy with my dress, your majesty..." Amelia said sarcastically, and her aunt rolled her eyes before walking out of her room. Amelia just rolled her eyes and dropped the clothes she was stitching before walking over to the window to see some carriages arriving with some packages for her father and the coming festival.

Everyone knows she is the Alpha's daughter, but she rarely leaves home, not because she was not allowed to, but because she enjoys her own privacy. She walked down to the throne room where her father was attending to the packages with her aunt standing next to him, going through it with his Beta.

"Father, what is that?" Amelia asked him as she lifted her gown, walking up to him. He looked at his daughter with a smile before handing over a fine silky material to her. "Oh my goodness father, did you get this for me?"

"Of course. I know how much you love sewing, so I decided to add one to the coming goods for the ritual festival." Her father said as he placed a kiss on her forehead and she hugged him back gently. She loved life with her father even though he was always busy, he still loved her no matter what.

"Thank you very much father." She thanked him, and could clearly see her aunt rolling her eyes from the corner of her eye. "I'll make my dress myself so no need to get me one, okay?" Amelia said to him and he nodded.

"Why don't we go and find out who we will be sacrificing this year first, brother." Amelia's aunt said to her brother, the Alpha king, nodding as he continued to deal with what he was doing. Amelia's father is known to be someone who does things one at a time and never rushes things, no matter how much he was being rushed.

The yearly ritual was done among all the pack as a sacrifice of one wolf to the moon goddess every first full moon of the year. The festival comes after the sacrifice, and it was a shock to Amelia's father when it landed on his pack this year as the pack hosting the festival and the ritual.

Amelia's father didn't believe in all this stuff, but he had no choice but to host it since he graced every past occasion. "We haven't hosted the ritual festival in years. I wonder who would be sacrificed." A maid whispered as she walked past Amelia with another maid.

They both bowed their heads in respect to her as the princess and Amelia nodded gently before walking back to her room to start preparing the dress she would be wearing for the festival. She looked around her room, and it was all messy from clothes pieces and sewing materials. Although she was proud of herself.

She started making the dress with so much happiness, knowing that she would look beautiful at the festival, and maybe she would even meet her destined mate whom she hadn't met for the past two years, because she had never even left the palace whenever her father traveled for the festivals. It was going to be her first time seeing the festival.

An hour later, she walked out of the room to dispose of some waste since she always did everything by herself, and she saw some maids whispering as she walked past them. Normally, they did not notice her unnecessarily or talk about her, and she wondered what was going on before she walked past the throne room and overheard her father's angry voice.

"You cannot keep telling me this nonsense. Check whatever it is you've checked again and make sure it is the right person for the rituals you chose, or we are canceling this year's festival and that is final." He said angrily before storming out of the throne room. Although he didn't see Amelia, she wondered what exactly made him this angry.

She looked into the throne room to see the priest talking to her aunt, who looked pitiful, but as soon as he turned away from her, she smiled proudly. She knew it was either she had done something or she was proud of what happened.

Amelia returned to her room and tried thinking about what might have happened. Yes, she didn't know most things happening around her, but she still knew things that would make her father look that angry just by peeking at him once in a while whenever he was working. It had to do with the pack and, from what she heard, it had to do with the festival too.

Nighttime came, and the maids came in to call her out for dinner as usual and as she walked down the hallway, the guards and the maids stared at her weirdly. She wanted to ask what was going on, but she decided to just ask her father at the dining table.

He was sitting there looking extra furious as he stabbed his food with no mercy. "Father, is something wrong?" Amelia asked him, and he looked at her with a soft gaze. "You seem upset since this afternoon. Does it have something to do with the festival? Can I help in any way?"

Before her father could speak up, her aunt did. "You were chosen to be sacrificed to the moon goddess this year."

As soon as she said that, the spoon in Amelia's hands fell to the ground instantly.

Amelia walked up to the hill, her hands bound with rope and her mouth covered with a piece of white cloth. She was scared to the bones, but at the same time, she did not know how to feel, knowing fully well that her aunt had talked her father into sacrificing her no matter what, because of the consequences.

The priests looked concerned, but they had to go on with the sacrifice anyway. Amelia wondered why on earth it would be her that would be chosen for this kind of thing. What can anyone offer to the pack other than chaos once her father decides to leave his seat of power and crown the next Alpha, which should be hers.

She was laid on the stone, and they started to chant some words she didn't know. She closed her eyes, waiting for the worst to happen, but what she heard instead was her father's angry voice. "Take my daughter away from that sacrifice stone this instant." He thundered, and she opened her eyes to look at him.

"But your highness, the tradition."

"What tradition?" He asked, pulling Amelia away to stand behind him. "I will not give my only child out for a sacrifice and end up having no one to continue my family legacy. Get this nonsense out of here now." He pulled her to the carriage and Amelia was still in shock as they rode off.

"But father, won't it cause any problems between the packs?" She asked him. He looked raging mad and she could tell why.

"You do not have to worry about anything, sweetheart. I will deal with everything even if it means that I have to protect you from them." He said, brushing the strands of her hair behind her ears. "You just trust me, okay dear?"

"Okay father." She nodded gently.

People were already arriving for the festival, and she stayed in her room as ordered by her father. He was furious, and she could hear them exchanging words downstairs. "She is my daughter and I never once believed in this nonsense killing of pack members to sacrifice to the moon goddess. She didn't ask for it."

"You cannot bend whatever it is that has been written, Alpha. All of us will have to pay for this selfish act of yours. Do you know what is at stake if we do not go on with this sacrifice? It can still be done, just give her out already."

"None of you has ever been in the position of sacrificing your child, have you? If you have, then you would never stand before me now and tell me to sacrifice my child for all of you who will end up forgetting about her weeks later when she is gone, just for prosperity in your land. You can pick any maiden and sacrifice her, but not my child, and that is final." The Alpha King thundered and Amelia could pick it from her room due to her sense of enhanced hearing.

She did not want to know what the consequences were, but then she could sense it wasn't a good one at all.

"Brother, we have to sacrifice her, or we will all be at risk. If blood isn't taken."

"Enough, Mira. You do not have a child to sacrifice, so you won't know how it feels. This conversation is over. You close all the borders. No visitors allowed till I say so." The Alpha said angrily.

Amelia sat in a corner in her room, sobbing. What if something really happened to everyone because of me? What if something really did happen just like everyone has said it would? She thought out loud but asked no one in particular.

That night, the whole house and the whole pack was quiet. Amelia was used to silence, but this silence was suffocating her, and she felt like she would die any moment from the silence.

Morning came and the first thing she heard was screams coming from downstairs, and she rushed out of the room to see Aunt Mira being rushed out of her room too, covered in blood that flowed all out of her mouth. She was stunned and hid behind the wall, not wanting to see the dreadful scene.

"She just died. She had not poisoned or eaten anything harmful." The pack healer confirmed and Amelia could see her father looking troubled already. She could see he was not happy with what had just happened, but he did not say anything. He just dismissed the healer and looked straight at Amelia with a small smile. "Go to your room sweetheart. When it is time to come out, I will ask you to." He said, and she nodded before rushing back to her room, trying hard to catch her breath.

Could this seriously have happened because I was not sacrificed last night? She curled up in bed as she picked up the information her father's Beta was giving to her father. "It was like a killing spree. People are dying in the pack. I received news that the same thing is happening in a few other packs too." He reported to the king. "You can't think it is because of the sacrifice, my Alpha?"

"That is nonsense. Find a way we can deal with this if it is connected to the sacrifice without anyone going near my daughter." He said and Amelia shivered gently, trying to cut off her hearing ability.

"What is going to happen now?" Her wolf asked as she shivered in the place that she was curled up in.

"I do not know. I do not want to cause father any problems. He has gone through losing my mother, and I am sure he does not want to lose me either, but it seems people are dying because of this sacrifice that was not made." She said to her wolf as she sat up in bed. "They could just sacrifice me. Besides, no one would be affected if I was."

"The pack will be after your father steps down from his position as the Alpha. Even your aunt can't take over, maybe she still."

"YOUR MAJESTY." A loud shriek came from outside and Amelia rushed out of the room to see her father on the floor in his throne room, lying in his pool of blood.

"Father." She screamed as she rushed over to him. She thought to herself that this should not be happening, as she could not afford to lose him now. He can not just leave her in the midst of these wolves.

Amelia stood in front of her father's grave weeping as she clutched at her chest. She could not shake off the feeling that she was the reason why her father was dead. Immediately after his death, the other deaths which happened in the span of a day ceased, and she knew it was because he stopped the ritual. That is why he was killed.

She walked back into the pack house and sat gently on the stairs, elevating her father's throne. She remembered loving to sit there as she hid behind her father's leg whenever he was at a meeting, and she needed to be there when she was younger, but as she grew older, he stopped trying so hard to put her into the politics stuff.

"Your highness, it has been four days now and other packs are not caring if we are still mourning our dead Alpha. They are making plans to attack us." Her father's beta, Jasper, said, and she looked at him with a questioning raised brow.

"We have to do something about it, your majesty. We have to at least get you married to an Alpha who would guarantee protection for our pack, since you are not anywhere near ready to take over your father's throne. You can get back the pack later on once you learn everything that is there for you to learn." He said.

"What do you take me for? A dumb person?" She asked him, and he looked at her with a stunned expression on her face. "You are trying to take my father's pack from me?"

"Actually, your highness, you are the reason we do not have an Alpha right now. I have sent out offers to other Alphas and every one of them rejected you immediately because you not being sacrificed impacted the whole wolf pack negatively. Only Alpha Zoran is interested in you." He said, and she stared at him like she would hit him at any moment, but he didn't flinch.

"I would most likely not like to insult you, Beta Jasper, but how can I get married to a man that is three times my age? I am twenty, he is in his sixties. Do I look like a commodity to be passed around as an unwanted auction jewel"? She pointed out and he swallowed hard. "No, tell me. If you do not have a better solution, I will be the Alpha here, and I will learn all I need to learn as I rule. Just because I do not step out of my room does not mean I lack knowledge about the pack."

She angrily walked up to her room. She could not even imagine what kind of sick man would want to marry a young wolf just because of his lust.

She walked over to the balcony to look out at the quiet pack. It was always ever so lively, but now, it was nothing but utter silence of mourning and cries. She knew people feared what might happen now that there was no Alpha, and she could not lie that she was not scared. All she has been is in her father's shadows, being protected by him, but now she has to come out of her hiding place and sacrifice something for the pack.

If it can not be her life, then it will be her happiness.

"What?" She heard Jasper's panicked voice from a distance. "Push all the men forward and protect the attacked border immediately. They must not get access to the pack's premises at all."

She was surprised they had not even waited one bit and they were already attacking her pack. Shivers went down her spine as she watched some of the guards protecting the pack house ride off with Beta Jasper.

"Should we do something about this, Amelia?" Her wolf asked, and she actually did not know what to do, but she took a deep breath. "If something else happens, what will we all do then?" She asked, and without thinking she jumped out of the balcony and switched to her wolf form, she ran as fast as she could after those who just left the pack house and followed them to the border, hiding behind a large rock.

Some fierce-looking wolves were attacking the pack, and they were trying hard to fight back, even though her pack had the numbers advantage, because a pack without an Alpha to control them is a weak pack. Amelia rushed in between them and, although she was not strong, she fought her best and as soon as they realized an Alpha was in their midst, they quickly backed off and retreated like cowards.

The men switched back to their human form, and she did the same as well. Some of them started to whisper and look at Amelia with a disgusted expression. She could tell it was because of her not being sacrificed. Beta Jasper walked up to her and led her to the horse.

"We are starting to get attacked, your highness. You can see for yourself." Jasper said.

"But they all backed off when they knew I was an Alpha, and I was in your midst. No one knows if I am weak or strong, so I have the advantage." She pointed out, and he sighed, pinching the area between his eyebrows.

"The luck we had this time can not always continue, your majesty. We need an Alpha to lead us properly and that is someone with Alpha experience. People would go against you if you took over now, your majesty, because they still blame you for Alpha's death." He said, and she looked at him narrowly and just looked away.

"You have to either get married to a man or find your mate who must be a powerful man. And we cannot wait any longer than this to have an Alpha. We need to have an Alpha to take over sooner than later." He said, and a sigh escaped Amelia's lips.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Amelia?" Her wolf asked and she nodded gently.

"I'll get married to Alpha Zoran to protect my pack." She finally said what Jasper was waiting to hear.