MINE TO PROTECT

d a weird way of showing love.

Now, finding out that my mate was in this hellhole, I was sure he would turn out like my father. I had no choice but to run.

My sanctuary in the forest wasn't as private as I thought. I heard giggling coming my way. With nowhere to run, I tried hiding, knowing full well they would smell me. Shit! Just then, Jaden and Florence, the school queen bee, emerged, practically devouring each other.

"Flo...? Wait... wait," Jaden said. "Come out," he shouted.

I nearly peed myself. This was not how I imagined meeting my mate!

"I ld berries from the forest, and my mom, desperate to fit in, volunteered to get them, leaving me alone. Not knowing she was leaving me to the worst night of my life.

As I mopped the floor, following the Luna's orders, I noticed people surrounding me. The Luna's voice cut through the chatter. "Bark like a dog since you can never become a wolf," she commanded, her words laced with cruelty.

The Luna's cruelty was a brutal ritual I had grown accustomed to over the years. The pack had gathered, their faces a blend of curiosity and malicious delight as I was made to endure their taunts and harsh treatment. The Luna's laughter echoed around the room as she ordered me to perform degrading tasks, each command more humiliating than the last. My body was bruised, and my spirit was crushed under the weight of their scorn.

As the night dragged on, my mother finally arrived. Her face was pale, eyes wide with horror as she took in the scene. Her heart-wrenching sobs filled the room as she frantically tried to intervene.

"Please, stop this!" she pleaded with the Luna, her voice breaking. "This isn't right. She's just a child!"

by a heavy silence that seemed to mock my grief. The Luna's birthday celebration continued, but I was no longer a participant in their merriment. My heart felt hollow, a void where once there had been hope. My mother's death was a brutal reminder that in this cruel world, even the smallest glimmers of hope were destined to be extinguished.

As I knelt there, surrounded by the pack's jeering faces, the weight of my loss and the depth of my despair became all-consuming. My mother had come to rescue me, but in the end, she had paid the ultimate price. Her sacrifice was the final, devastating blow in a series of cruelties that had shaped my life. In that moment, I understood that nothing would ever change, and my world had become a place of unending darkness and pain.

The days following my mother's death were shrouded in a heavy, suffocating silence. My father's grief was palpable, a deep, unrelenting shadow that consumed him entirely. His mourning was not just for her loss but for the unspoken guilt that gnawed at his soul. In his eyes, I had become the embodiment of that guilt-the living reminder of his failure and the price paid for his negligence. In the early days of our loss, my father's sorrow had taken on a bitter edge. He could barely look at me without a flicker of resentment darkening his gaze. His voice, once filled with warmth, was now curt and laced with barely concealed anger. He blamed me for my mother's death, a conviction that had settled deep into his bones. To him, I was not just a daughter but the cause of his deepest pain.

Every glance, every harsh word, seemed to accuse me of her demise. "If only you weren't such a burden," he would mutter, his words a jagged knife to my already wounded heart. "If you had been more obedient, she would still be here." The blame was a weight he carried, an anchor that dragged him down into a sea of regret and sorrow. He never saw her as she truly was-a loving mother who had tried to protect me against the world's cruelty. Instead, he saw her loss as a direct consequence of my existence.

so knew my father's heart. He loathed me, and his hatred ran deep. I still couldn't understand how a father could despise his own child so thoroughly.

As I lay on the cold stone floor of the dungeon, every breath a painful reminder of my recent beating, I wondered how much longer I could endure this. The physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment. My own father's indifference cut deeper than any blow the Alpha could deliver. How had my life come to this-a hated daughter, a scapegoat, a prisoner in my own pack?

It was in the middle of the night when I heard a soft whimpering echoing through the damp dungeon. Curiosity piqued, I looked through the iron bars and saw a large brown wolf approaching. Even in the dim light, I recognized him instantly. It was Jaden's wolf, Jake. He looked sorrowful, his eyes reflecting a deep sadness as he laid down on the cold stone floor outside my cell.

Jake had always been somewhat kind to me during the rare instances when I encountered Jaden in his wolf form. Despite everything, I knew it hurt him too. The mate bond inflicted pain on both of us, binding our fates together in a cruel twist. How I loathed this bond. Even after the betrayal and torture I had endured just a few hours ago, I couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for him.