My Mate Chose My Sister, But the Alpha Chose Me

The morning after my wedding, the whole pack came to watch me fail.

...

"Luna Fiona!" Winnie's voice carried across the training field. "Come join us! Surely the Alpha's wife knows how to spar?"

Thirty wolves turned to look at me. Some were in fur. Most were in sweat-soaked shirts, grinning.

I had only come down to the field because the maid said Jacob wanted me to see the pack. I hadn't expected my sister to be here first.

"I'm just watching," I said.

"Watching." Winnie strolled toward me, her ponytail swinging. Leo's shirt hung loose on her, the collar pulled wide so everyone could see his mark. "That's all you've ever done, isn't it, Fi? Watch other people have wolves."

A few people snickered.

"Is there a point to this?"

"The point," she said, loud enough for the back row, "is that a pack needs strength. The woman who stands beside a future Alpha should have a wolf worth fearing. Not a hollow little girl in a borrowed dress."

"You mean *your* borrowed dress. The one you were too scared to wear."

Her smile froze for half a second. Then she laughed and snapped her fingers.

Across the field, a boy with red hair was standing near the fence. Young. Sixteen, maybe. His hands were trembling, and his eyes had gone yellow at the edges.

"Toby just got his wolf last week," Winnie said sweetly. "He's still learning control. Toby, why don't you say hello to your Luna?"

"Winnie, don't—" someone called.

Too late.

Toby's spine bent with a crack like snapping branches. Fur ripped through his skin. A second later, a gangly brown wolf hit the dirt on all fours, snarling, his lips pulled back over wet teeth.

And he was running straight at me.

My legs locked. I had no wolf to call. No speed. No claws. Just my own two feet, and they wouldn't move.

"Fiona!"

Something black blurred in front of me.

Jacob.

He didn't shift. He *couldn't*, the stories said. He just swung his cane in one hard arc and cracked it across the young wolf's shoulder.

Toby yelped and tumbled sideways into the dust.

Jacob stood there, breathing hard. Then he started coughing. Deep, wet coughs that bent him nearly in half. His free hand gripped my arm, and I realized he wasn't holding me back.

He was holding himself up.

"Are you hurt?" he rasped.

"No. Are *you*?"

He ignored that. He straightened, one slow inch at a time, and turned to face my sister.

The field had gone silent.

"Winnie Grant," he said.

"It was an accident." She lifted her chin. "He's new. He lost control. Nobody could've—"

"You snapped your fingers." Jacob's voice was quiet. "Thirty witnesses saw it. Would you like me to ask them?"

Nobody spoke up for her. Not one person.

"You provoked an unstable wolf to attack the Luna of this pack," he went on. "In any other house, that's treason."

Winnie's face drained. "You wouldn't dare. My father—"

"Your father is not the Alpha. I am." He tapped his cane against the ground once. "You're banned from the Alpha House grounds for three months. And you'll serve kitchen duty at the healer's hall until Toby's shoulder heals. Every meal. Every dish."

"*Kitchen duty?*"

"Would you prefer the cells?"

Her mouth opened. Closed. She turned and stormed off the field, and for the first time in my life, I watched my sister run from something.

Jacob coughed again, quieter this time, and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. I caught a flash of red on the white cloth before he folded it away.

"Go inside," he told me. "Rest."

"You're the one bleeding."

He glanced at me, surprised. Then he walked away without answering.

...

Leo caught me behind the stables an hour later.

He leaned against the wall like he owned it, arms crossed, that easy smile I used to love sitting on his face.

"Quite a show," he said. "The cripple playing hero."

"Don't call him that."

"Why not? Everyone else does." He pushed off the wall and came closer. "Look at you, Fi. Yesterday you were a waste. Today you're a sick man's wife. Is that a step up or down? I honestly can't tell."

I didn't move back. I used to shrink when he got close. I used to *want* him to get close.

"Is that what you came to say?"

"I came to warn you." He tilted his head. "He's dying. Everybody knows it. A year, maybe two. And when he goes, the council will strip that Luna title off you so fast you'll get whiplash. Then where will you be?"

"Not with you. That's for sure."

His jaw ticked.

"I'm trying to help you," he said.

"No. You're trying to make me cry. Like I did every time you trained late." I tilted my head, the way Winnie had last night. "I'm done crying for you, Leo."

"Fiona—"

"He stood in front of a wolf for me today. A man who can barely stand. You know what that means?" I stepped past him. "At least he knows what respect is."

Behind me, something slammed into the stable wall. Hard. I heard wood splinter.

I didn't turn around.

...

The message came after dark. A folded note slipped under my door, in my father's handwriting.

*Come home. Alone. Now.*

...

He was waiting in his office, same chair, same papers. The only light was the lamp on his desk.

"Sit," he said.

"I'll stand."

He looked at me for a long moment. Then he shrugged.

"The Alpha House has a war room. Jacob keeps the border patrol maps there. Troop counts. Rotation schedules." He folded his hands. "And he carries the Alpha seal on a chain around his neck. I want both."

My stomach dropped.

"You want me to *steal* from him."

"You're his wife. You're in his house. In his bed, soon enough." His lip curled slightly. "Nobody will look twice."

"And what happens when you have them?"

"When Jacob dies, and he will, the pack needs a strong Alpha ready to step in. Leo has the blood. He has the support. All he needs is the proof that Jacob's leadership is failing." He tapped the desk. "You'll give him that."

"Leo." I almost laughed. "The man who's mated to your *other* daughter."

"Winnie understands family duty. You'd do well to learn."

"And if I say no?"

He didn't blink.

"Then I'll stand before the council and tell them the truth. That your mother was unfaithful. That you're not of my blood at all." His voice didn't change. Not even a little. "A wolfless girl with no family name. Jacob will have to cast you out. The pack will make sure of it."

The room tilted.

"Is it true?" I whispered.

"Does it matter?"

I stared at him. At the man who'd taught me to ride a bike. Who'd signed my school forms. Who'd never once, I realized now, hugged me.

"No," I said. "I guess it doesn't."

"You have three days."

...

The walk back up the hill felt longer than it had last night.

The Alpha House was dark. Every window. I slipped through the side door and felt my way down the hall toward our room, my heart pounding so loud I thought the walls might hear it.

A lamp clicked on.

I froze.

Jacob sat in the armchair by the cold fireplace, his cane resting across his knees. He was still dressed. He looked like he'd been sitting there for hours.

"You're late," he said.

"I went for a walk."

"To your father's house."

My mouth went dry.

He leaned forward and slid a thick leather folder across the low table. It stopped right at the edge, in front of me. Stamped across the top in red ink was a single word.

*CLASSIFIED.*

Border maps. Troop rotations. I could see the corners of them sticking out.

Jacob looked up at me, his dark eyes calm. Too calm.

"That's what your father wants," he said softly. "Isn't it?"

Ice poured down my spine.

He knew.

He knew *everything*.