The Secret Princess: Her Revenge On The Alpha

For the ninety-ninth time, I stood alone at the altar in a polyester dress I bought from a clearance rack, waiting for a Mating Ceremony that would never happen.

Alpha Damian didn't show up. Instead, a photo popped up in the pack group chat showing him feeding strawberries to Hadley, the woman claiming to be his savior.

He called my scars repulsive, never knowing that the mangled flesh on my back was the price I paid to pull his paralyzed body from a fire.

I drained my White Wolf blood for five years to heal his crushed spine, losing my ability to shift, only for him to treat me like a slave in his own house.

But the final straw wasn't the humiliation. It was when my adoptive father had a heart attack in the driveway.

I begged Damian for help. Instead of calling a doctor, he tossed my car keys into a sewer filled with sludge and laughed, watching my father take his last breath because I "needed to learn a lesson in obedience."

Staring at my father's lifeless body, the love I held for five years turned into cold ash.

I looked at the Alpha who thought he was a King, and I picked up the phone to dial a number I hadn't used since I was a Princess.

"Come get me, brother," I told the Lycan King on the other end. "I'm done playing the maid. We are burning this pack to the ground tonight."

Chapter 1

Ariana POV:

'The marble floor of the Pack House ceremony hall radiated a chill that bit through the paper-thin soles of my discount heels.'

I stood alone in the center of the vast, empty room. The crystal chandeliers above 'glared down with an abrasive brilliance', illuminating nothing but my solitude.

I was wearing a white dress. 'It was a polyester nightmare I'd snagged from a clearance rack, simply because the Crawford Pack budget for their future Luna had been slashed to zero.'

"It doesn't fit right," I whispered to the silence.

The fabric bunched at the waist, and the shoes-a careless gift from Damian three years ago-were a size too small. They pinched my toes until they went numb, a dull, throbbing pain that grounded me in reality.

This was the ninety-ninth time.

Ninety-nine times I had stood here, waiting for the Mating Ceremony that would officially make me the Luna of the Crawford Pack.

Ninety-nine times, Alpha Damian Crawford had found a reason not to show up.

I checked the time on my cracked phone screen. Midnight. The ceremony was supposed to start at eight.

Suddenly, a sharp static noise pierced my mind. It was the Pack Mind-Link.

'Attention, Crawford Pack,' Damian's voice echoed in my head. It was deep, commanding. 'The Mating Ceremony is postponed. Urgent border security matters. Go to bed.'

Just like that. No apology. No explanation for the woman standing at the altar.

I didn't tremble. I didn't cry. My tear ducts had dried up somewhere around the fiftieth cancellation.

Then, a picture popped up in the communal group chat. Posted by Hadley Stewart.

The photo showed a candlelit dinner. Damian's hand was feeding a strawberry to Hadley. The caption read: '"My Alpha is so worried about the 'rogues' tonight. Helping him relax. Blessed FutureLuna?"'

The timestamp was two minutes ago.

So, "border security" had blonde hair and 'reeked of designer vanilla-scented pheromone spray.'

'Ariana?'

A different voice entered my mind. 'Dark, velvety, carrying the weight of a mountain range.'

'I saw the announcement,' the voice said. 'Did he leave you standing there again?'

It was Anderson.

"I'm fine, brother," I whispered aloud, though I replied through the link. 'I'm used to it.'

'You shouldn't have to be used to it,' Anderson growled. 'The link vibrated with his suppressed rage.' 'Five years, Lia. You've paid your debt.'

Five years.

My hand instinctively went to my lower back. Through the thin fabric, I could feel the ridge of the scar tissue. 'Ugly, jagged, radiating a phantom heat.'

Five years ago, a rogue wolf attack had set the Crawford estate on fire. Damian had been trapped inside, his spine crushed.

I was the one who ran into the inferno. I was the one who dragged his heavy Alpha body out.

'And when the doctors said his wolf was paralyzed, I made the deal.'

I am a White Wolf. 'We are walking miracles, possessing 'Vitality'-the pure essence of life.'

To save him, I drained my essence. I fed him my blood, drop by drop, month by month.

The cost was everything. My hair lost its silver sheen and turned a dull gray. My scent, once the aroma of winter frost and moonflowers, faded until I smelled like nothing-like a weak, power-less Omega.

I lost the ability to Shift. My wolf went into a deep coma to preserve my life.

I became a cripple to make him a King.

And now that he was healed... I was just an embarrassment.

I looked down at the Mating Contract in my hand. 'Knuckles white, I crumpled it.'

"He's with her," I said to the empty room. "He's with Hadley."

Hadley, who had shown up the day Damian woke up, holding a fake locket and 'claiming her wolf was "too traumatized to shift" to explain why she couldn't heal him herself.'

He believed her. Because she was beautiful, and I was broken.

I looked at my feet. The blood from the tight shoes was starting to stain the white satin.

'Pain brings clarity.'

I realized I wasn't waiting for Damian. I was waiting for myself to die so I could stop caring.

'Lia?' Anderson's voice was urgent now. 'Your heart rate is spiking.'

"I'm done, Anderson," I said, my voice cracking. "I'm tired."

I looked around the hall one last time. 'This wasn't a home. It was a cage.'

I reached up and unclasped the thin silver chain around my neck-the only gift Damian had ever given me, a generic thing bought in bulk. I dropped it on the floor.

'Come get me,' I sent the thought across the miles. 'Take me and my father home.'

'The response was immediate, a sensation of immense power washing over me.'

'The Royal Guards are already en route,' Anderson replied. 'Pack your things, Princess. We are burning that bridge tonight.'

I severed the one-way emotional link I had held open for Damian for five years. 'It felt like snapping a tendon-sharp, agonizing, then... blessed silence.'

I kicked off the bloody shoes and walked out of the hall barefoot.

The walk back to the main villa was humiliating, but the cold pavement felt better than those shoes.

When I entered the Crawford living room, the scene 'was a tableau painted specifically to break me.'

Damian was there. Not at the border. Not even hiding it.

He sat on the plush velvet sofa, arm draped possessively over the back. Next to him sat Hadley, giggling as she held up her wrist.

Cecil, Damian's mother, was clasping a bracelet onto Hadley's arm.

I froze.

'The Moonlight Bracelet. The Crawford heirloom. It was supposed to be mine.'

"Oh, look who decided to show up," Cecil sneered, not looking up. "The maid finally finished cleaning the ceremony hall?"

Damian looked up. His amber eyes swept over my disheveled appearance. 'No guilt. Only annoyance.'

"You're late," he said, a low rumble. "I told you to wait at the hall until I sent for you."

"You canceled the ceremony," I said. 'My voice was dead.'

"Plans changed," he shrugged. "Hadley was frightened by a rogue sighting. A Luna's duty is to comfort the pack, but since you can't even shift to defend yourself, Hadley needed a real Alpha's protection."

Hadley looked at me, eyes feigning innocence. "I'm so sorry, Ariana. I just get such bad anxiety since... since I saved Damian from that fire. The trauma, you know?"

She waved her hand, the moonlight bracelet catching the light.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hadley cooed. "Cecil said it fits me perfectly. Better than it would fit someone with... rougher skin."

She meant me. My hands were calloused from chopping herbs for Damian's medicine and scrubbing floors.

I walked forward.

Cecil stood up, blocking my path. "Don't get any ideas, you little leech. This bracelet is for a wolf with noble blood. Not a defect who smells like dishwater."

I didn't look at Cecil. I looked at Damian.

"You gave her the bracelet," I stated.

Damian stood up, his Alpha aura flaring. 'He was trying to use the biological pressure of his rank to force me into submission.' Usually, my knees would buckle.

Tonight, I just felt a mild headache.

"She deserves it," Damian said. "Hadley is delicate. She is high-born. And she is my savior. What are you, Ariana? You're a charity case."

He stepped closer, looming over me.

"Look at you," he sneered. "You're a mess. You're weak. How can I have you stand beside me as Luna? The other Alphas would laugh."

"So you're rejecting the contract?" I asked.

"I'm postponing it," he corrected, 'arrogance dripping from every syllable.' "Until you learn how to behave. Until you learn your place. Maybe if you work harder, if you serve Hadley and learn from a 'real' high-ranking female, I'll reconsider."

'He wanted me to stay as a servant, a spare blood bag, while he played house with Hadley.'

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the crumpled Mating Contract.

"You don't have to reconsider," I said.

I ripped the paper in half.

'The sound was a gunshot in the quiet room.'

Damian's eyes widened. Cecil gasped.

I ripped it again. And again. Until the legal document was nothing but confetti.

I threw the pieces in his face.

"I'm done," I said.

'The air shifted. A low hum vibrated from my chest. Not a growl-I couldn't growl properly-but the sound of pressure building.'

The Alpha aura Damian was projecting hit a wall. 'My' wall.

Damian stumbled back, hand going to his chest. He looked at me, confusion warring with anger.

"What did you just do?" he demanded, reaching for my arm.

"Don't touch me," I said.

I didn't shout. 'I spoke with the absolute authority of a bloodline he couldn't comprehend.'

He froze. His hand hovered inches from my skin, his wolf instinctively recoiling.

"You're acting like a child," Damian scoffed, recovering his composure. "Where will you go? You have no money. No pack. You're an Omega without a wolf. You'll die within a day."

"I'd rather die free than live as your slave," I replied.

I turned to Hadley.

"Enjoy the bracelet, Hadley," I said, a cold smile touching my lips. "It's a fake, anyway. Just like you."

"You b'tch!" Cecil screeched, raising her hand.

I caught her wrist mid-air. 'My grip was iron.'

"I wouldn't do that," I whispered. "I'm not the girl who begs for scraps anymore."

I shoved Cecil back onto the sofa.

"Go comfort your fake mate, Damian," I said, turning my back. "She looks like she's about to faint from the lack of attention."

I walked out, leaving the Alpha of the Crawford Pack staring at my back, wondering why his command hadn't made me kneel.

My room wasn't in the main hallway. It was down a narrow flight of stairs, near the kitchen-the servants' quarters.

I opened the door, expecting my few belongings.

The room was empty.

'Closet open. Drawers hollow.'

"No."

I ran back out and collided with a maid carrying laundry.

"Where are my things?" I demanded.

"Madam Cecil..." the maid whispered, looking around fearfully. "She ordered them cleared out. She said... trash belongs in the dumpster."

'My mother's photo. The only thing I had left.'

I sprinted toward the back exit, to the industrial dumpsters.

There, spilling out of the green metal bin, were my clothes. Covered in coffee grounds and slime.

And there, lying in a puddle of grease, was the silver frame. 'Glass shattered. Photo soaked, my mother's smile distorted by oil.'

I fell to my knees, snatching the photo up, trying to wipe it clean, but the grease just smeared.

"Mom," I choked out. A sob ripped through my throat.

"Pathetic."

I froze.

Damian stood on the patio steps. Cecil stood beside him, smirking.

"I told you," Cecil said. "I'm redecorating. We need the room for Hadley's shoes. We can't have clutter."

"Clutter?" I stood up, clutching the ruined photo. "This was my life!"

"Your life is what we say it is!" Cecil snapped. "We fed you! We clothed you!"

"I saved his life!" I screamed, pointing at Damian.

"Enough of that lie!" Damian roared. 'His Alpha Voice hit me like a physical blow.'

I stumbled back. My heel caught on a crack.

I fell hard.

The back of my cheap dress snagged on the sharp metal edge of the dumpster.

'RRRIIIP.'

'Fabric tore. My back was exposed to the night air.'

For a second, silence.

Then, Hadley screamed. "Oh my god! What is that?"

I scrambled to cover myself, but it was too late.

The moonlight shone directly on my back.

'It wasn't a normal burn scar. It was a roadmap of agony. The claws of the rogue had been dipped in dark magic poison. The flesh was twisted, purple and black, a raised, grotesque web covering my spine.'

It pulsed with a faint, necrotic energy. The mark of my sacrifice.

Cecil recoiled. "It's hideous! You're a monster!"

"A cursed mark," Hadley whimpered, burying her face in Damian's chest. "Damian, don't look! It's bad luck!"

I looked at Damian. I waited for him to defend me. To recognize the wound I took for him.

Damian stared at my back. His expression twisted.

'He looked nauseated.'

"Cover yourself," he muttered, turning away. "It's repulsive."

The words hit harder than the poison.

'Repulsive.'

"It's... it's a mark of honor!"

The voice came from the shadows. Keith, a perimeter guard, stepped forward.

"Alpha, please," Keith said, shaking. "She got that scar pulling you from the West Wing. I saw the medical report-"

"Silence!" Damian barked. "Are you questioning your Alpha? Or are you sleeping with this... thing?"

Keith went pale. "No, Alpha. But-"

"Get out of my sight, Ariana," Damian spat. "You're polluting the air. And take your trash with you."

I pulled the torn fabric together.

'The shame was a cold fire. But beneath it, the White Wolf stirred.'

"I'm leaving," I said hollowly. "But I'm taking Rodriguez."

Rodriguez. The old gardener. My adoptive father. The only person who loved me.

"Fine," Damian waved his hand. "Take the old cripple. One less mouth to feed."

I walked away. I didn't look back. 'I couldn't let them see the tears. Or the hatred.'