My Alpha Mate Chose My Sister

The pain didn't come in waves. It came like a tsunami, crashing into my bones all at once.

I screamed, dropping the mug of tea I’d been holding. It shattered on the floor, but the sound was distant, muffled by the roaring of blood in my ears. Outside the clinic window, the Supermoon hung heavy and low, a giant silver eye staring directly into my soul.

"Ava!" Chase was there in a heartbeat, his large hands gripping my shoulders to keep me from collapsing onto the broken ceramic. "What is it? Is it the baby? Is it a vision?"

"My back..." I gasped, arching my spine as a searing heat ripped through my vertebrae. "It feels like... fire. Chase, it hurts!"

This wasn't normal pain. I had birthed a child in silence to avoid waking Caleb. I had walked on broken toes. But this? This was my very DNA rewriting itself.

"Get back," I choked out, pushing him away. "I'm... I'm shifting."

"Now?" Chase’s voice was laced with panic. "Ava, you're twenty-five. It's impossible—"

The rest of his sentence was lost in a guttural roar that tore from my throat. It wasn't a human sound. My body contorted, bones snapping and reforming with sickening speed. Usually, a first shift takes hours of agony. Mine took seconds.

A blinding white light exploded from my chest, brighter than the moon outside. I felt myself expanding, growing larger than I should be. The pain vanished, replaced by a surge of power so ancient and pure it felt like drinking starlight.

I stood on four paws, shaking out a coat of fur. I wasn't just a wolf. I towered over the exam table. I could feel the energy radiating off me, humming in the air like a live wire. Chase stood frozen against the wall, his eyes wide, his mouth agape.

*Beautiful,* his voice echoed in my mind, though his lips didn't move. *My Goddess, Ava. You’re a White Wolf.*

The legends. The healers of the gods. I wasn't wolfless. I was just... waiting.

The power was too much to contain. I howled, a sound that vibrated the glass of the windows, and then, just as quickly, the energy receded. I collapsed back into human form, shivering on the cool linoleum floor.

"Ava," Chase whispered, rushing forward with a blanket. He wrapped it around my trembling shoulders, pulling me into his lap.

I blinked.

Then I blinked again.

The world wasn't a void of shadows and sounds anymore. It was... color. It was light.

I gasped, my hands flying to my face. I looked down. I saw pale fingers. I saw the grey wool of the blanket. I saw the red blood from a small cut on my knee.

Slowly, terrified that it would vanish if I moved too fast, I lifted my head.

A man was holding me. He had messy dark hair that fell over his forehead and a jawline that looked carved from granite. But it was his eyes—stormy grey, rimmed with gold, filled with so much love it stole the breath from my lungs.

"Chase?" I whispered, reaching out. My hand trembled as I touched his cheek. The visual matched the texture I had memorized in the dark. The small scar above his lip. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners.

"You can see me?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"I can see you," I sobbed, tears blurring my new vision. "You're... you're so handsome."

Chase let out a wet laugh, burying his face in my neck. "And you are everything."

The scent of him—rain, cedar, and pure male—hit me then, harder than ever before. But this time, it wasn't just comforting. It was demanding. My inner wolf, fully awake and prowling beneath my skin, clawed at my chest. She wanted him. She claimed him.

"Chase," I panted, a fever taking hold of me. The heat of the shift hadn't left; it had turned into something else. "The bond. It's... it's pulling."

He pulled back, his pupils blown wide, swallowing the grey iris. "Ava, are you sure? Once I do this... there is no going back. You are mine."

"I chose you," I said fiercely, gripping his shirt. "I choose you every day. Mark me, Chase. Please."

He didn't hesitate. He growled, a low, possessive sound, and tilted my head back. His teeth grazed the sensitive junction of my neck, right over my pulse. Then, he bit down.

The pleasure was electric, sparking through every nerve ending. I felt his soul slam into mine, weaving our essences together. But as his mark settled into my skin, I felt something else—a violent snap.

The old, withered thread connecting me to Caleb, the one I had rejected but he had refused to release, was being severed by Chase’s claim.

In that split second, as the bond died, I was sucked into a terrifying vision.

*I wasn't in the clinic. I was in the Alpha’s office at the Blood Moon pack. The air smelled of rotting meat and sickness. Caleb was there, huddled in the corner. He looked like a corpse—skin grey, eyes sunken and wild with red madness. He was clawing at his own arms.*

*"It hurts!" he screamed at the empty room. "Make it stop!"*

*Selah tried to touch him, but he backhanded her, sending her crashing into the desk. "Useless! You smell like nothing!"*

*He grabbed a phone, his hands shaking violently. "Find her," he rasped into the receiver. "I don't care what it costs. Hire the Rogue Trackers. Bring the Healer back to me, or I will kill you all."*

*He looked up, and for a second, his red eyes seemed to lock onto mine across the miles. "Mine," he mouthed.*

*SNAP.*

The vision shattered. I gasped, jolting back into my body, back into the safety of Chase’s arms. The clinic was quiet. The pain was gone. The connection to Caleb was dead, leaving only silence where the rot used to be.

But I knew the truth now. The rejection hadn't killed him yet. It had only made him desperate.

"Ava?" Chase stroked my hair, his mark cooling on my neck. "What is it? You went rigid."

I looked into his beautiful, clear eyes, seeing the man who would die to protect me. I tightened my grip on him.

"He's coming," I whispered, my voice steady with a new, Alpha-level strength. "Caleb is coming. But he won't find a blind victim this time."

I looked at my hand, flexing my fingers. "He's going to find a White Wolf."