Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 02
The Winter Solstice celebration reached its height beneath a clear, icy sky, but Scott was nowhere near the ceremonial platform. Daisy moved through clusters of laughing pack members, searching for the dark formal jacket she had seen him wearing earlier. Each minute without him weakened the promise that had carried her through the day. When she asked if anyone had seen Scott, the answers were evasive or accompanied by knowing smiles.
Mila finally appeared beside a doorway, looking far too pleased with herself. “Don’t worry, honey,” she said. “The Alpha has a surprise for you very soon. But first…” She gestured into a side room as though Scott might be waiting inside. Daisy hesitated, then followed because hope overruled the warning tightening in her stomach.
The room was empty except for several of Mila’s friends and a table covered with party decorations. The door slammed behind Daisy. Before she could turn, hands caught her arms and dragged her away from the exit. “What is this?” she demanded, struggling as laughter rose around her.
“Get her,” Mila ordered. Someone tipped a bowl over Daisy’s head, and cold, sour-smelling liquid ran through her hair and down the front of her dress. Another girl shoved a cheap headband over her wet hair. Furry gray ears stood from it, followed by a strap with a fake tail that they fastened around her waist.
Mila stepped back to admire their work. “There. Now you can pretend you’re a real wolf, just like us.” A phone flashed in Daisy’s face. The girls crowded around her, taking pictures while she fought to cover herself and wrench free of their grip.
The insults came faster once they knew she could not escape. Daisy was eighteen and still had not shifted. The Moon Goddess must hate her. Perhaps she was an inbred little mutt, one girl suggested, and that was why she had no wolf and no father. Each remark struck a wound the pack had spent years carving deeper.
Daisy searched the doorway for Scott. He had said tonight would be special, and Mila had claimed he had arranged a surprise. Yet the new Alpha did not come. No commanding voice stopped the laughter, and no familiar hand pulled her away from the phone recording her humiliation.
“Smile, birthday girl,” Mila said, angling the camera toward Daisy’s face. She demanded a howl, and the others threw back their heads in exaggerated imitation. Their mocking cries filled the room—high, ugly sounds designed to remind Daisy that she alone could not join the pack in wolf form.
Something inside Daisy gave way. She tore one arm free, shoved past the nearest girl, and ripped open the door. Laughter chased her into the corridor. She ran with the false ears still tangled in her hair and the ruined dress clinging to her skin, unable to bear the curious faces turning toward her.
The celebration blurred into candlelight and color. Daisy kept her head down as she crossed the crowded hall, but whispers followed instantly. Several guests lifted their phones. Whatever photographs Mila had taken would soon travel through the entire pack, preserving the worst moment of Daisy’s birthday for everyone to enjoy.
She still looked for Scott. Some stubborn part of her believed that if she found him, he would explain why he had left her alone and make the cruelty stop. He was her mate, the person chosen for her by the Moon Goddess. If that bond meant anything, surely he would feel the pain tearing through her.
In the restricted wing, Nolan pressed a phone to his ear while Elias searched through Eastwind’s files. Their investigation had already uncovered more than either expected. Names, dates, and unexplained communications pointed to dealings the pack leadership had concealed from its own members.
“Yes, I have the records,” Nolan said quietly. He glanced down the hall to ensure they had not been noticed. “No—the whole thing.” With proof in hand, Blackwood would no longer have to rely on suspicion. Eastwind’s carelessness had exposed the territory to a danger Nolan took personally.
A burst of laughter sounded from the celebration hall, followed by the sudden appearance of a soaked young woman racing through the corridor. Nolan saw only a glimpse: pale dress stained with food, fake ears askew, hands trembling as she fled. The distress on her face made him turn, but the urgency of the investigation held him in place.
Daisy did not notice the stranger watching. She pushed through another doorway and paused long enough to remove the humiliating headband. Her fingers shook so badly that it snagged in her hair. When she finally tore it free, strands came with it, and the small pain was almost a relief compared with everything else.
She had to find Scott before the ascension announcement. He might be preparing in one of the private rooms, unaware of what Mila had done. Daisy clung to that explanation because believing he had deliberately abandoned her would destroy the last safe thing in her life.
Behind her, Nolan returned to Elias and the stolen records, though the image of the humiliated girl remained with him. There had been something strangely arresting about her presence, an instinctive pull too brief to name. He dismissed it as anger at seeing pack members torment one of their own.
Daisy hurried toward Scott’s private quarters, following the faint sound of voices behind a closed door. Relief flickered when she recognized his voice. She reached for the handle, ready to tell him everything, only to hear a woman’s soft laugh answer him from inside. It was Mila.