The Alpha's Regret Over Omega

The doctor's voice faded to a distant hum as I stared at the scan results displayed on his computer. Black and white images that somehow contained my death sentence.

"Miss Madison, did you hear what I said?" Dr. Evans leaned forward, his kind eyes creased with concern. "The pancreatic cancer is at stage four. It's metastasized to your liver."

I nodded mechanically, my fingers trembling as they clutched the armrests of the chair. "How long?"

"Six months. Perhaps eight with aggressive treatment." His voice softened. "I'm so sorry."

Six months. The words echoed in my mind like a death knell. Six months to live a life I'd barely started. Six months as the wolfless Omega who loved an Alpha who would never love her back.

"Is there someone I can call for you?" Dr. Evans asked, already reaching for the phone. "Family? A pack member?"

Marcus. My heart screamed his name even as my mind rejected the impulse. Marcus Sterling, the Alpha who'd raised me, protected me, and then broken me with his gentle rejection five years ago. The man whose chosen mate now walked the halls of what had once been my home.

"No," I said, then immediately changed my mind. "Actually, yes. I need to tell my Alpha."

Despite everything, Marcus deserved to know. He had been my guardian, my protector since I was eight years old. Whatever had happened between us, whatever cruelty had crept into our relationship over the years, he was still my Alpha. And I was still his responsibility, even if I was nothing more.

I drove to the pack house in a daze, the doctor's words replaying in my mind. Terminal. Inoperable. Six months. The familiar mountain roads blurred through my tears as I gripped the steering wheel.

The Moonstone Pack house rose before me, a sprawling structure of stone and timber nestled against the Colorado mountainside. Once, it had been my home. Now it felt like a fortress I had to breach.

I parked haphazardly and rushed inside, not bothering to announce myself to the guards. They knew me—the wolfless ward of their Alpha, the pack's burden. I headed straight for Marcus's office, my heart pounding against my ribs like it was trying to escape.

I should have knocked. That's what I thought later, when I replayed the moment in my mind. I should have remembered my place.

But I didn't. I pushed open the heavy oak door and stepped inside.

Marcus was there, his broad shoulders tense beneath his crisp white shirt as he leaned over a map spread across his desk. And beside him, her hand possessively resting on his arm, stood Rachel Thompson.

They both looked up at my intrusion. Rachel's perfect features twisted into a sneer, her golden eyes narrowing at the sight of me. But it was Marcus's reaction that froze the words in my throat.

His face, usually so expressive when we were alone, went completely blank. The warm amber of his eyes cooled to distant bronze. And his aura—the powerful Alpha energy that had always enveloped me like a protective cloak—was deliberately suppressed, drawn tight against his skin as if to prevent even that much of him from touching me.

"Chloe," he said, my name flat and emotionless on his tongue. "This is a surprise."

Rachel's lips curved into a triumphant smile as she pressed herself closer to Marcus's side. "An unwelcome one," she added, her voice honeyed poison.

I stood there, cancer diagnosis burning in my pocket, suddenly unable to speak. The words I'd rehearsed in the car evaporated under Rachel's hostile gaze and Marcus's cold indifference.

"I—I need to talk to you," I finally managed, looking directly at Marcus. "It's important."

"Whatever you have to say can be said in front of my future Luna," Marcus replied, the formal title like a slap across my face.

Desperate, I reached for our mind-link, the pack bond that had connected us since I was a child. *Marcus, please. It's about my health. I just found out—*

My thoughts collided with a wall of silence. Where our connection should have been was nothing—a void, an emptiness so profound it made me physically stagger backward. Marcus had blocked me from the pack mind-link, severing the last thread that bound us together.

He had cut me off completely.