The Alpha's Regret: He Lost His Fated White Wolf

I was drowning in the pool, chlorine burning my lungs, but my fated mate, Jax, swam right past me.

He scooped up Catalina, the swim team captain who was faking a cramp, and carried her to safety like she was made of glass.

When I dragged myself out, shivering and humiliated, Jax didn't offer a hand. Instead, he glared at me with cold hazel eyes.

"Stop acting like a victim, Eliana," he spat in front of the whole pack. "You're just jealous."

He was the Alpha Heir, and I was the unshifted failure. He broke our bond piece by piece, culminating at the sacred Moon Tree where he slashed through our carved initials to replace them with hers.

But the final blow wasn't emotional; it was lethal.

Catalina threw my car keys into a pond laced with Wolfsbane. As the poison paralyzed my limbs and I sank into the dark water, unable to breathe, I saw Jax standing on the bank.

"Stop playing games!" he shouted at the ripples.

He turned his back and walked away, leaving me to die.

I survived, but the girl who loved him didn't. I finally accepted the rejection he never had the guts to speak.

Jax thought I would crawl back in a week. He thought I was nothing without the pack's protection.

He was wrong.

I moved to New York and walked into a dance studio, right into the arms of a True Alpha named Daryl.

And when I finally shifted, I wasn't a weak Omega.

I was a White Wolf.

By the time Jax realized what he had thrown away, I was already a Queen.

Chapter 1

Eliana POV:

The water of the pool was cold, but the reality hitting my chest was colder.

I thrashed, my limbs heavy, panic seizing my throat as chlorine burned my nose. I wasn't a strong swimmer. Everyone in the North Gate Pack knew that. I was the unshifted girl, the eighteen-year-old failure who still hadn't met her wolf. To them, I was barely better than a human.

"Help!" I choked out, swallowing a mouthful of chemically treated water.

Through the splashing chaos of the Summer Solstice party, I saw him. Jax.

He was standing by the edge, his dark hair gleaming under the string lights. He was the Alpha Heir, the strongest of our generation, and the boy who held my heart in his hands. He was my mate. We hadn't completed the marking ceremony, but our souls knew. My inner wolf, though dormant, always hummed when he was near.

But he wasn't looking at me.

"Jax!" Catalina screamed from the other side of the pool.

She was flailing, her perfectly manicured hands slapping the water. Catalina was a transfer student, a Beta female who had arrived two months ago. She was beautiful, curvaceous, and smelled like expensive vanilla and trouble. She was also the captain of the swim team.

She didn't need saving. I did.

Jax didn't hesitate. He didn't even glance in my direction. With a growl that vibrated through the deck, he dove in. But he swam away from me.

He swam to her.

The pain wasn't just heartbreak; it was a physical severance, a jagged tear in the bond connecting us. I watched as he scooped Catalina up in his powerful arms, carrying her to the poolside as if she were made of porcelain.

I managed to grab the ladder, hauling my coughing, shivering body out of the water. No one offered me a hand. The music had stopped. The entire pack was watching.

Jax set Catalina down. She clung to his wet t-shirt, shivering dramatically, looking up at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"Are you okay?" Jax asked, his voice tender.

"I... I got a cramp," she whimpered.

I stood there, water dripping from my cheap sundress, shivering violently. "Jax," I whispered. "I was drowning."

He turned to me then. His eyes, usually a warm hazel, were hard and cold. There was no concern in them. Only annoyance.

"Stop it, Eliana," he snapped.

I blinked, stunned. "What?"

"Stop acting like a victim," he said, his voice rising so everyone could hear. "Catalina was in trouble. You're just jealous because I paid attention to her."

"I can't swim, Jax! You know that!"

He took a step toward me, his Alpha aura flaring. It was a heavy, suffocating pressure that forced the air out of my lungs.

"Enough."

The word wasn't spoken; it was slammed directly into my skull.

*Stop using these pathetic stunts to get attention,* he projected through the mind-link, his voice booming in my head like thunder. *You are embarrassing me.*

The command slammed into my brain. My knees buckled. As an unshifted wolf—an Omega by status until I proved otherwise—I had no defense against an Alpha's command.

I fell to the concrete, scraping my knees.

Laughter rippled through the crowd.

This was it. The ninety-ninth time he had put me second. The ninety-ninth time he had looked at me with disappointment instead of love.

Inside me, something broke.

My inner wolf let out a single, high-pitched keening sound. And then, silence.

Dead silent.

I looked up at him. Jax was wrapping a towel around Catalina's shoulders. He didn't look back.

I stood up. My legs were shaking, but not from the cold anymore.

"Okay," I said softly.

He didn't hear me. He was too busy whispering comfort to the girl who had faked drowning.

I turned around and walked away. I walked past the judging eyes of the pack members, past the snickering teenagers, past the life I thought I was destined for.

I didn't stop until I reached my parents' house on the edge of the territory.

My room was dark. I didn't turn on the lights. I sat at my desk, water pooling on the floor, and opened my laptop.

The screen glowed, illuminating the acceptance letter I had been ignoring for weeks.

New York University.

It was in the city. Human territory. Neutral ground. Far away from the North Gate Pack. Far away from the forests where I was supposed to run with Jax.

I had applied to UCLA because that's where Jax was going. I had planned my entire future around being his Luna.

I moved the cursor.

Accept Offer.

I clicked it.

Then I stood up and looked around my room. It was filled with him. The dried flowers from prom, the oversized hoodies he let me steal, the teddy bear he won for me at the county fair three years ago.

I picked up the bear. It used to smell like him—like pine and rain. Now, it just smelled like dust and lies.

I grabbed a trash bag.

I didn't cry. I think I had run out of tears in the pool. I just started throwing things away. Every memory, every gift, every trace of Jax Little.

I was done waiting.

*