Claimed by the Alpha I Hate – Episode 04
“I want Mila to be my mate.” Scott repeated the decision as though saying it twice could make it sacred. Mila remained linked to his arm, wearing the satisfied expression of someone who had already won. Daisy stared at them, struggling to reconcile this cold new Alpha with the boy who had once promised she would never face the pack alone.
“No.” The protest escaped before Daisy could stop it. “I’m your mate. I’m the one you’re bonded to.” She felt that bond now only as pressure beneath her ribs, stretched painfully between them. Whatever Scott wanted, the Moon Goddess had chosen Daisy, and she could not understand how he dismissed that truth so easily.
Mila gave a contemptuous laugh. “How could someone like you ever be mates with the Alpha? You’re no better than a human.” She looked Daisy over, taking in her stained dress and fake tail. “You don’t belong here.”
Anger briefly cut through Daisy’s shock. “You don’t get to decide where I belong.” She stepped toward Mila, but Scott immediately placed himself between them. The instinctive way he shielded Mila made Daisy falter.
“I’m the Alpha now,” Scott warned. The ceremonial title rang through his voice with an authority he had never used against Daisy before. “Don’t forget it. I won’t tolerate any disrespect toward me or my future mate.”
Future mate. The phrase reduced Daisy’s bond to an inconvenience he planned to discard. Around them, the walls trembled faintly with music from the celebration. The pack was waiting to hear who would stand beside its new leader, and Scott had chosen the woman who had tormented Daisy for years.
“Be real, Daisy,” he continued. “Did you honestly think I would spend the rest of my life bonded to someone who can’t even shift? Someone who doesn’t even have a wolf?” Each question was delivered with the impatience of a truth he thought she should already have accepted.
Daisy remembered every time Scott had told her that her wolf would come when she was ready. She remembered his hand in hers after the pack mocked her and the private assurances that the bond mattered more than status. Now those memories felt contaminated. Perhaps he had only been waiting for the moment when pity became inconvenient.
“I’d rather die than live with that shame,” Scott said. He did not look away, even when Daisy visibly recoiled. Mila’s fingers tightened possessively around his arm.
Shame spread through Daisy, but it was no longer only hers. Scott had allowed the pack’s prejudice to become his measure of worth, and he was willing to destroy his fated mate to protect his image. Understanding that did not lessen the pain, yet it stripped away the last illusion that love might still reach him.
Scott stepped into the pale light falling through the window. “Daisy Storm, by the Moon Goddess’s light, I reject you as my mate.” The formal words struck the bond like a blade. Pain tore through her chest and dropped her to one knee before she could brace herself.
Her breath came in broken gasps. It felt as if an invisible hook had lodged beneath her ribs and was being ripped free. Scott watched without moving to help. “Accept it,” he said. “The pain ends when you accept it.”
Daisy pressed a hand to the floor. Accepting would sever the bond completely, and everything she had been taught warned that a rejected mate might never be chosen again. “But I won’t be mated again,” she pleaded. “Please, Scott. You told me you loved me.”
For a heartbeat she searched his face for the person she had trusted. He answered with weary condescension. “Come on, Daze. Can you really not tell the difference between love and pity?”
The nickname wounded her more deeply than his title had. He used it as if tenderness had never existed, as if every private moment had been an act of charity. Daisy understood then that begging would only give Mila another memory to laugh about and Scott another chance to diminish her.
She forced herself upright despite the agony clawing through her body. Her eyes burned, but she would not lower them. If Scott wanted freedom from the mate he considered an embarrassment, she would give it to him—and deny him the pleasure of watching her remain at his feet.
“I accept your rejection.” The bond snapped. A terrible emptiness followed the pain, leaving Daisy cold from the inside out. Scott exhaled as though relieved, and Mila leaned closer to him, already occupying the space Daisy had surrendered.
Daisy turned and walked out before either could speak again. The Winter Solstice lights blurred through her tears as she passed the celebrating pack. She had entered the night praying for a wolf, a mate, and a future at Scott’s side. She left with none of them—and with no reason to remain in Eastwind.