Chapter 1 One
Danica's POV
“Did I mention how hot you look in that dress?” Bianca asked for like the fiftieth time and I glared at her like she suddenly grew horns on her head.
“Yeah, you did. A million times already?” I murmured with a roll of my eyes.
“Am I the only one this excited for the Mating night?” Bianca muttered, smoothing her hair in the mirror.
“Yes, you are,” I told her truthfully, smacking a light red lipstick over my lips.
“Why aren't you excited? It’s a welcome back celebration for the Alpha's return, and it could be a chance to find your ‘rightful’ mate!” she exclaimed, and my hands halted in midair.
“And then what? A third rejection?” I threw back and she pressed her lips into a thin line. “Every ‘rightful mate’ out there always ends up becoming unrightful the moment they realize they were mated to the pack’s pushover okay? That is nothing to be excited about,” I added, and she sat silently beside me.
“You’re not a pushover, Danica. You're the smartest woman I've ever associated with, you're talented, not everyone can pull off being a secret doctor, which is a part of you that I would never understand, but you're doing an excellent job. You're beautiful… so beautiful that it hurts. I would accept you as my mate a hundred times if the bitch up there had made me a man” she muttered, successfully crackling me up when she called the moon goddess a bitch.
“Gamma Thorn and Finn were just big jerks. Don't let them keep your heart locked away. Their rejection shouldn't define who you are, Danica. You don't have your wolf yet, but you're just as powerful as any woman out there with hers,” she continued, and I could only look down at my fingers.
She's saying all these things to lift my spirit and I felt guilty because no matter what she says, it won't change how I felt about the big mating night that would happen in just an hour. I don't care, and I definitely wouldn't be putting myself in one more embarrassing rejection tonight.
I get that she was only trying to relate to my pain, but I've been rejected twice, and she hasn't been rejected even once. She doesn't know what it feels like to face the ultimate pain of being rejected once and then a second time. She might not have found her fated mate yet, but she had a wolf, she was smart, she could have a man wrapped around her fingers so easily, and then end things just as easily.
“No one wants a two-time rejected wolfless omega, Bianca. That only happens in the movies. This is reality, and my life so far has been the biggest proof of what reality means,” I told her as calmly as I could while I detached her hands from mine.
Memories from my last rejection flooded my mind and I stood abruptly, trying not to let her see the change in my expression and the tears that welled up in my eyes.
“But…”
“You see, you shouldn't be here pushing advice when you don't know what it's like to be rejected twice in eight full moons. Mating night is starting in less than an hour, you should go find your sweet mate” I muttered harshly, watching her face fall at my response.
“Well, I'm sorry I don't know how it feels to be rejected, darling friend!” She threw back hurtfully before storming out of my room.
Great! No one wants me, and now I've pushed away the only friend who actually cares about me.
“You're not going to spend an entire day getting dressed for Mating night when you're only going to get rejected, would you?” My stepsister, Joey, yelled, and my hands fisted on my dress as I swallowed the hurtful lump in my throat; however, I took a deep breath, smoothed my dress, one of the two things my mom left me before she died, and then stepped out of my room.
“I'm ready” I mouthed with a forced smile as I came face to face with Joey. I watched her jaw drop for a few seconds then replaced by a hard glare of disdain before she snorted.
“What the hell are you wearing?” She demanded, but I kept the annoying, forceful smile plastered on my face. I didn't need another hit on my face if she suddenly claims I was glaring at her. I already feel terrible enough about letting Bianca leave angrily.
“Clothes? My mom made it,” I muttered, and she laughed mockingly.
“Oh really? Because it looks to me like you're wearing a complete work of stupidity,” she said, and my hands itched to decorate her face in the worst ways. She dared to call my mom's handmade dress a work of stupidity? I could drive a dagger through her heart right now and never regret it to my grave.
“You cannot be wearing this nonsense to the Mating night party, Danica. You should wear something that defines where you belong… way beneath me” she muttered, taking a step closer to me. “You don't actually think you'd find a mate who would want you after a whole gamma rejected you, do you?” She whispered and my eyes burned with unshed tears.
As if it wasn't enough that she stole my mate. She just had to rub salt on my wide-open wounds.
“You're one spiteful bitch, Joey” I gritted painfully, trying hard not to let the tears spill and she made to slap me but her heels failed her, leaving her tumbling and twisting her ankle.
“What is going on here?” My father demanded, strolling into the living room just in time to hear her wince painfully.
“I was only being nice, telling her the dress she's wearing was a little too flashy for an omega who was rejected only a month ago, Father. She suddenly took it too personally and pushed me,” she whimpered, sniffling back fake tears, and I scoffed in disbelief, my jaw hanging open at the blatant lie.
Father turned to face me with a disgusting look on his face and the moment I tried defending myself, I was cut off by a resounding slap in my face.
That was literally the first time my father ever raised his hand to hit me and it was all because of Joey, the lying, scheming, mate-snatching bitch.
“You got overworked because what? She called you rejected? Tell me, Danica. Was she wrong?” My own father, who'd just slapped me, inquired, and I could only stare down at my feet in hurt. “You've never done anything to be worthy of the Graysons, yet you get rejected by your mates not just once but twice. Taming your mate was the least you could have done to be considered half-worthily of my name next to yours, but fortunately yet unfortunately, Joey did the good job you couldn't pull off,” he added, and the tears I tried so hard to suppress came trickling down my face.
“Alpha Alexander is back, and he will be present at the party. You will not disgrace me at the party tonight, you had better lie very low while at it, Danica. You will not even breathe too comfortably because if you do and the Alpha as much as complains, you will live in the streets for the rest of your life, I can assure you that,” he said all at once, each word slicing what was left of my self-worth. There was nothing more painful than having your father speak down at you like you were worth less than a plate of decayed food. It fucking hurts.
“You shouldn't feel wronged when all your father wants is the best for you, Danica. If anyone should feel wronged, it should be Joey, and you should apologize for pushing your sister,” Freya, my stepmother, muttered gently, her eyes giving off stupid motherly concern that would seem genuine to anyone except me.
The best, my foot!
“I am not going to apologize because I didn't push her, Freya,” I said sternly, and another slap landed on the same cheek that got hit just five minutes ago… and by the same hand, to be fair.
“You would never apologize even if she'd lost her leg from that push, would you? You're going down the exact same path your mother took before she lost her insignificant life.” My father's cutting voice boomed in the air again, and I swallowed hard, shutting my eyes tightly and then opening them again. How could he mention Mom like that? She was a woman who gave everything she had to be a proper wife to him... That was until she found out about Freya.
“I… I'm sorry, Joey” I muttered, my voice barely over a whisper as a sob raked through my body.
“And you would change your clothes if Joey thinks it's too flashy for a two-time rejected weakling like you. She's a better judge at things like this than you are, obviously,” he added before walking out of the house, and I didn't miss the mocking smirk that curled up Joey's lips like she thinks she's won.