Pregnant And Rejected By My Alpha Mate By Caroline Above Chapter 1
Chapter 1 My Wolf Leaves
Selene’s POV
You never get used to being poisoned, no matter how frequently it happens. The pain never lessens;
the fear never fades. Understanding what’s happening might save you some confusion, but nothing can
ease the anguish of betrayal.
I’ve been poisoned every day for eight years, held prisoner by the person meant to love and protect me
most. I wish I could tell you why, I wish I knew why myself, but I can only guess. The reality is my
childhood ended the day my mother died; the day my father, Garrick, finally showed his terrible true
nature.
Sometimes I think the grief stole his sanity. It seems impossible that the kind, caring man who raised
me couldmit such brutality. I was only ten, and I have not always been a good prisoner, but I
always thought I was a good daughter.
I cannot figure out what I did wrong. After all, what crime can a ten-year-oldmit to deserve such
punishment? Perhaps I’ve forgotten, blocked out the memory to protect myself from the knowledge of
my own guilt. I wish I could do the same with thest 8 years. I would give anything to forget, to be
whole again.
My world used to be wide and wondrous, full of fresh air and moonlit adventures in the forest. My
ancestors, the very first members of the Nova Pack, built our city into the mountains themselves. The
buildings were carved into the hard granite in intricate and elegant tiers, woven around trees and
waterfalls in a beautiful contradiction of wilderness and modernity.
Outside the walls of my prison a sprawling city waits, glittering with light and opportunity. We call it
Elysium; paradise. In my memories it lives up to the name, but it has been out of reach for so long I
cannot be sure anymore. Now I live only in darkness, a small windowless room in the ce I once
called home.
I sleep more often than anything else, not that I need it. There simply isn’t anything else to do. Though
even if there was something to upy my time, I’m not sure I’d have the energy.
N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.
Garrick took no chances with my captivity. Locking me away wasn’t enough. I was too strong for him,
bearing more power than he could fathom. As a child my mother’s bloodline hadn’t mattered so much,
wolves onlye into their full power when they reach physical maturity.
Our wolves are with us from the day we’re born, but the magicester. For most people the first
shift happens around age 13, before that our power only really presents itself in our pack roles.
Garrick started giving me the Wolfsbane long before I actually needed it, before there was any chance
of me shifting anding into my birthright. So I reached physical maturity, but I’ve never felt the
extraordinary power my mother’s bloodline guarantees.
There’s no doubt I inherited the gene; the evidence is written in my skin. One blue eye, one violet – that
is the mark of a Vna wolf.
Special. That’s what everyone says. The Vna wolves are special; blessed by the goddess with
unrivaled senses, iparable speed and strength, and a profound connection with nature. Well I feel
special alright; so special that even years of poisoning cannot put an end to my suffering.
I used to beg Garrick why. Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t I go outside? Why do I have to
take the Wolfsbane? What did I do?
When begging failed I turned to apologies, I’m so sorry, whatever I did, please forgive me. I swear I’ll
never do it again.
Begging earned me silence. Apologies earned me derision. Anger on the other hand, anger taught me
there is no use fighting. The pack is going to notice I’m gone! You can’t keep this up much longer,
sooner orter someone is going toe looking for me!
I still remember the way he cornered me, kneeling down and leaning so close I could smell the whisky
on his breath. No one ising for you, Selene. Not ever. You are not worth it. You are nothing, and
nobody cares that you’re gone.
He was right. No one ever came.
The only thing that keeps me sane is my wolf, Luna. She lives in my weak and broken body, keeping
mepany through the worst of my suffering.
Lately I feel her less and less. She’s like a fading, flickering light, more and more distant with every day
that passes.
I’ve begun to wonder if a wolf can die while a person lives on. The Wolfsbane can’t kill me, but what
about Luna?
She promises me it isn’t possible, we are one in the same. After all, what is a person without their wolf,
without their soul?
I’m not sure I believe her.
I try not to think about it, but I can’t help feeling like I’m losing her; my one ray of light in this darkness.
He’ll being soon. Luna’s voice sounded in my head, warning me. She can feel theing night,
and Garrick alwayses after dark. It’s as if he knows the pull of the moon – no matter how distant –
gives us somefort.
“I know.” murmur weakly.
Just breathe. She reminds me, It will be over fast.
“It will never be over.” I answer, despondent.
Everything in life ends eventually, one way or another. Luna says patiently, sounding farther away than
a moment before.
“We both know how this story ends.’I sigh, “And it’s not with a ‘happily ever after.”
You shouldn’t her weak voice trails off, leaving only silence.
A pang of panic vibrates through me when she does not continue. “Luna?” My voice breaks, “Luna?
Can you hear me?”
A shaft of blinding amber light shatters the ck as the words fall from my tongue. He’s there: a hulking
form framed in the too bright doorway, leering down at me though I cannot see his face. He holds the
wolfsbane in one hand, a thick green solution that tastes like bile and burns like acid.
He extends the ss to me, and I take it with trembling fingers.
You may think me crazy to drink it on my own – but I’m not. Resisting Garrick means one thing and one
thing only: pain. I refused in the beginning, but fighting only earned me bruises, and the poison was still
poured down my throat in the end.
As I got older the physical retribution changed. As a child there was only violence, as a young woman it
became clear Garrick would stop at nothing to exert his power over me. He enjoys my pain, the torture
in my eyes when he gropes and caresses me, touching me in ways a father never should.
So I obey, no matter how much I hate it.
I begin to drink, as I always do, trying not to taste the vile liquid. It starts as a slow burn, a searing pain
that never fails to be all-consuming agony.
It works its way down my throat, into my stomach as I finish the ss. The familiar wave of torment
swells in my chest, but this time it rises too high, surpassing anything I’ve experienced before.
Something is terribly, terribly wrong. It sounds strange to say my torture should feel different, but I don’t
know how else to describe it. I know exactly what Wolfsbane feels like, I know what to expect. I know
that my memory neverpares to the reality but..
Then I realize: Luna isn’t howling.
Not once in 2860 days has Luna ever been able to bear the poison without howling, no matter how far
away she’s felt in the moments before I reach out for her, grasping desperately for the tether linking us,
but finding nothing.
A fuzzy whisper floats toward me through the abyss, a shadow of Luna’s voice. Goodbye, Selene.
My chest cracks open, releasing a torrent of despair so overwhelming my lungs stop pumping in my
chest. I feel myself hit the floor, and then a strange keening fills the air as the door to my prison ms
shut. Btedly I realize that the sound ising from me, creating a heartrending symphony with
Garrick’s savageughter.
She’s gone.
For the first time in my life I am truly, truly alone.
I curl my arms around my knees, rocking myself on the granite floor as sobs wrench from my chest.
I shouldn’t be able to survive this.
I don’t want to survive this.
As Iy there, gasping for breath, I decide… I’m not going to survive this.
It doesn’t take much to make Garricksh out with violence, and I know exactly which buttons to push.
He might want to keer alive, but I’m not going to let him.