The Secret Princess: Her Revenge On The Alpha

For the ninety-ninth time, I stood alone at the altar in a polyester dress I bought from a clearance rack, waiting for a Mating Ceremony that would never happen.

Alpha Damian didn't show up. Instead, a photo popped up in the pack group chat showing him feeding strawberries to Hadley, the woman claiming to be his savior.

He called my scars repulsive, never knowing that the mangled flesh on my back was the price I paid to pull his paralyzed body from a fire.

I drained my White Wolf blood for five years to heal his crushed spine, losing my ability to shift, only for him to treat me like a slave in his own house.

But the final straw wasn't the humiliation. It was when my adoptive father had a heart attack in the driveway.

I begged Damian for help. Instead of calling a doctor, he tossed my car keys into a sewer filled with sludge and laughed, watching my father take his last breath because I "needed to learn a lesson in obedience."

Staring at my father's lifeless body, the love I held for five years turned into cold ash.

I looked at the Alpha who thought he was a King, and I picked up the phone to dial a number I hadn't used since I was a Princess.

"Come get me, brother," I told the Lycan King on the other end. "I'm done playing the maid. We are burning this pack to the ground tonight."

Chapter 1

Ariana POV:

'The marble floor of the Pack House ceremony hall radiated a chill that bit through the paper-thin soles of my discount heels.'

I stood alone in the center of the vast, empty room. The crystal chandeliers above 'glared down with an abrasive brilliance', illuminating nothing but my solitude.

I was wearing a white dress. 'It was a polyester nightmare I'd snagged from a clearance rack, simply because the Crawford Pack budget for their future Luna had been slashed to zero.'

"It doesn't fit right," I whispered to the silence.

The fabric bunched at the waist, and the shoes-a careless gift from Damian three years ago-were a size too small. They pinched my toes until they went numb, a dull, throbbing pain that grounded me in reality.

This was the ninety-ninth time.

Ninety-nine times I had stood here, waiting for the Mating Ceremony that would officially make me the Luna of the Crawford Pack.

Ninety-nine times, Alpha Damian Crawford had found a reason not to show up.

I checked the time on my cracked phone screen. Midnight. The ceremony was supposed to start at eight.

Suddenly, a sharp static noise pierced my mind. It was the Pack Mind-Link.

'Attention, Crawford Pack,' Damian's voice echoed in my head. It was deep, commanding. 'The Mating Ceremony is postponed. Urgent border security matters. Go to bed.'

Just like that. No apology. No explanation for the woman standing at the altar.

I didn't tremble. I didn't cry. My tear ducts had dried up somewhere around the fiftieth cancellation.

Then, a picture popped up in the communal group chat. Posted by Hadley Stewart.

The photo showed a candlelit dinner. Damian's hand was feeding a strawberry to Hadley. The caption read: '"My Alpha is so worried about the 'rogues' tonight. Helping him relax. Blessed FutureLuna?"'

The timestamp was two minutes ago.

So, "border security" had blonde hair and 'reeked of designer vanilla-scented pheromone spray.'

'Ariana?'

A different voice entered my mind. 'Dark, velvety, carrying the weight of a mountain range.'

'I saw the announcement,' the voice said. 'Did he leave you standing there again?'

It was Anderson.

"I'm fine, brother," I whispered aloud, though I replied through the link. 'I'm used to it.'

'You shouldn't have to be used to it,' Anderson growled. 'The link vibrated with his suppressed rage.' 'Five years, Lia. You've paid your debt.'

Five years.

My hand instinctively went to my lower back. Through the thin fabric, I could feel the ridge of the scar tissue. 'Ugly, jagged, radiating a phantom heat.'

Five years ago, a rogue wolf attack had set the Crawford estate on fire. Damian had been trapped inside, his spine crushed.

I was the one who ran into the inferno. I was the one who dragged his heavy Alpha body out.

'And when the doctors said his wolf was paralyzed, I made the deal.'

I am a White Wolf. 'We are walking miracles, possessing 'Vitality'-the pure essence of life.'

To save him, I drained my essence. I fed him my blood, drop by drop, month by month.

The cost was everything. My hair lost its silver sheen and turned a dull gray. My scent, once the aroma of winter frost and moonflowers, faded until I smelled like nothing-like a weak, power-less Omega.

I lost the ability to Shift. My wolf went into a deep coma to preserve my life.

I became a cripple to make him a King.

And now that he was healed... I was just an embarrassment.

I looked down at the Mating Contract in my hand. 'Knuckles white, I crumpled it.'

"He's with her," I said to the empty room. "He's with Hadley."

Hadley, who had shown up the day Damian woke up, holding a fake locket and 'claiming her wolf was "too traumatized to shift" to explain why she couldn't heal him herself.'

He believed her. Because she was beautiful, and I was broken.

I looked at my feet. The blood from the tight shoes was starting to stain the white satin.

'Pain brings clarity.'

I realized I wasn't waiting for Damian. I was waiting for myself to die so I could stop caring.

'Lia?' Anderson's voice was urgent now. 'Your heart rate is spiking.'

"I'm done, Anderson," I said, my voice cracking. "I'm tired."

I looked around the hall one last time. 'This wasn't a home. It was a cage.'

I reached up and unclasped the thin silver chain around my neck-the only gift Damian had ever given me, a generic thing bought in bulk. I dropped it on the floor.

'Come get me,' I sent the thought across the miles. 'Take me and my father home.'

'The response was immediate, a sensation of immense power washing over me.'

'The Royal Guards are already en route,' Anderson replied. 'Pack your things, Princess. We are burning that bridge tonight.'

I severed the one-way emotional link I had held open for Damian for five years. 'It felt like snapping a tendon-sharp, agonizing, then... blessed silence.'

I kicked off the bloody shoes and walked out of the hall barefoot.