My Sister's Betrayal, My Alpha's Love

My sister, Molly, and I stood on the choosing day, a second chance after our parents died and we were thrown into a strange Appalachian community.

I' d lived this before; Molly, consumed by envy, had murdered my ten Beta children and then pushed me off a cliff.

But now, I was back, the phantom pain a cruel reminder, only to see her clinging to the arm of Ryan Fowler-the man who had made me a matriarch in my first life.

Molly' s eyes gleamed with triumphant recognition; she remembered too, thinking she' d stolen my destiny.

Her twisted game escalated when, before I could even make my choice, she orchestrated a public accusation against me.

She framed me for adultery, twisting a secret from her own past into a brutal lie that ended with my fur torn from my skin.

Disgraced and denounced as a "slut," I was banished to the unforgiving wilderness, sent to what everyone believed would be my death.

The wolf-kin, once a powerful choice, turned his back, leaving me to face a world filled with feral, exiled kin far more dangerous than any political rival.

How could my own sister, reborn with me, be so intent on my utter destruction?

Why did she not learn from her own miserable fate in our last life?

Did she truly believe her wicked schemes would bring her power, even at the cost of my very life?

Cast out, alone, and heartbroken, I still carried the chilling secret of Ryan' s true nature and the curse Molly had unwittingly invited into her life.

But this time, I wouldn' t just survive; I would make sure she regretted every single move she' d ever made against me.

My sister, Molly, and I were taken in by a remote Appalachian "Totem-Kin" community after our parents died. It was a strange place, built on a strict hierarchy. A man's worth was his "Clarity," his connection to his totem animal spirit. Alpha was a myth, Beta was elite, Gamma was average, and Delta was the lowest.

A woman's value was simpler, and crueler. It was judged by the rank of the children she could bear.

The community council presented all the single men for us to choose from. It was our only chance to secure a future.

In my first life, my sister chose the community's most prized bachelor, a powerful Beta-ranked wolf-kin. She was so proud. But her pride turned to ash when she gave him five children, and every single one was only a Gamma. The wolf-kin, his status threatened, was enraged. He cast her and her children out into the unforgiving wilderness. No other man would take her.

I, on the other hand, had listened to Molly's "kind" advice. "Choose Ryan Fowler," she'd said. "He's a Beta, but his rattlesnake totem makes him less demanding."

She was wrong. He was demanding in ways I could never have imagined. But our children... I gave birth to ten children, and every one of them was a powerful Beta. The community started to call me a blessed woman. Ryan was named the council's successor, all because of me.

Molly' s envy became a poison. A literal poison. She fed it to my ten children, one by one. As they lay dying, she dragged me to the edge of the highest cliff in our territory and pushed me. The feeling of falling, the sharp rocks below, the sight of my sister's smiling face shrinking above me-it was the last thing I knew.

Until I woke up.

I was standing in the great hall again, on the day of the choosing. The air was thick with the smell of pine and nervous sweat.

My head was still spinning, the phantom pain of my broken body a ghost on my skin. Before I could even process what was happening, I saw her.

Molly.

She was clinging to Ryan Fowler's arm, her fox ears twitching with excitement. She looked at me, and her eyes held a triumphant, knowing gleam.

She remembered. She was reborn, too.

She thought she was stealing my destiny. She had chosen the man who, in our last life, made me a matriarch. She believed she had just secured her own rise to power.

But I knew the truth about Ryan. And I knew something she didn't. The future wasn't set in stone.

This time, when she gave birth to his children, they wouldn't be Beta. They would be "unreadable." Worse than the lowest Delta. A curse upon their bloodline.

My turn would come. And this time, I would not be the trusting, gentle Gabby. This time, I would survive.

The memory of the fall was still so fresh, a cold dread that lived in my bones. I remembered everything with perfect, horrifying clarity. Molly' s failure with the wolf-kin. Her desperation. She had tried to seduce Ryan after my children made him powerful, but he was fiercely protective of his new status. He publicly shamed her, calling her a barren woman with a weak spirit.

Abandoned and disgraced, her own children had perished from the harshness of the wild, one by one, from sickness and neglect. I, stupid with pity, had taken her in. I gave her food and shelter.

And she repaid me by murdering my children and then me.

"Gabrielle Jones."

The council leader's voice snapped me back to the present. "Your sister has made her choice. Now, it is your turn."

Molly gave me a smug look from Ryan's side. She thought she had already won. She believed her advice to me last time was a masterstroke of manipulation-she knew Ryan' s snake totem made childbirth less physically taxing, a small mercy she thought would keep me content in a mediocre life. She never imagined our union would produce ten Betas. She had underestimated my spirit.

I forced myself to be calm, to push down the rage that threatened to choke me. I scanned the remaining men. My eyes landed on the community's top wolf-kin, the very man who had cast Molly out in our last life. He was strong, respected. A safe choice. A powerful choice.

Before I could even open my mouth to speak, a hand cracked across my face. The slap was so hard my head whipped to the side, my cheek stinging.

"You slut! How dare you try to steal my man!"

A woman I barely knew, the partner of a Gamma-ranked bear-kin named Duncan, was screaming at me. Her face was twisted with rage. She threw a clump of white fur onto the ground at my feet. My fur. Snowshoe hare fur.

"I found this in my bed this morning!" she shrieked. "She' s been sleeping with my Duncan!"

I was stunned, completely blindsided. Then, Molly' s voice, dripping with false sympathy, cut through the noise.

"Oh, Gabby! I saw you... I saw you sneaking off with Duncan the other night. I didn' t want to believe it. I can't believe you'd do something so shameful!"

Her words were the final nail in my coffin. It was a lie, a perfectly crafted trap. I remembered it now, a forgotten detail from my past life: Molly had a secret, sordid affair with this very bear-kin. She was using her own sin to frame me.

The men who had been looking at me with interest moments before now stared with open disgust. The wolf-kin turned away, his expression cold. In this community, loyalty was everything. Adultery was the deepest stain.

"Show us!" someone yelled. "Transform and show us!"

My heart pounded. I knew what they would find, but I had no choice. I closed my eyes and let my totem spirit take over. My bones shifted, my skin prickled, and in a moment, I was a snowshoe hare, small and trembling in the center of the great hall. I turned, trying to show them I was whole, but it was useless. There, on my right thigh, was a raw, bald patch of skin where the fur had been torn out.

The evidence was irrefutable.

The council leader didn't hesitate. "Gabrielle Jones, you have broken our most sacred law. You are exiled. Leave this community now and never return."

As I was forced toward the gate, Molly, nestled smugly against Ryan's side, whispered to me, her voice a venomous caress.

"Don't worry, Gabby. Maybe you'll find some strong rogue out in the wilderness to take you in."

She was sending me to my death. The lands outside our territory were filled with violent, feral Totem-Kin who had been cast out for their crimes.

I stopped and looked her dead in the eye, my voice as cold as the winter to come. "You'd better worry about yourself, Molly. Ryan has needs. A lot of them. I hope you can keep up."

Ryan was notoriously insatiable, his appetites as aggressive and venomous as his totem. It was a dark secret I had kept and managed for years in our last life. He was also deeply insecure, paranoid about his status. Molly thought she' d stolen a treasure, but she' d chained herself to a monster.

"You're just jealous, Gabby!" she sneered.

Their crude laughter echoed behind me as I was shoved out of the gate, the heavy wooden bars slamming shut, sealing my fate. I was alone.