THE DOUBLE C ALPHA CHASE

Anya's POV

The words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. 'I, Arlo Matteo, reject you, Anya Juniper, as my mate.'

The silence that followed was deafening, more terrifying than the subsequent uproar that erupted from the crowd. My heart, a fragile bird, was snatched from its nest and crushed beneath a merciless heel.

Rejection. I was rejected by my mate.

The word tasted like ash, bitter and choking, leaving a desolate emptiness in my heart. I had yearned for this moment for the recognition, the acceptance, the promise of a life beyond the drudgery of servitude. But fate, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humour.

For ten years, the Silver Pack had been my prison. Orphaned at a tender age, I was thrust into a world of servitude, my days filled with endless chores, my nights haunted by the spectre of my parents' tragic demise. The pack, my only refuge, had become my tormentor, its indifference, a constant, suffocating weight.

Rhea, my inner wolf, had erupted in a frenzy of excitement, her senses ablaze with a primal yearning. She had never been this excited before, as she always shared in my misery. But what could make her so happy and excited?

My mate. The one destined to complete me, to heal the wounds of my past. Will my mate rescue me from my predicament? Is he capable of loving me and delivering me from the snares of presilence? Who will be my mate?

I was thinking about who my knight in shining armour would be when he came in: Arlo Matteo.

Arlo Matteo, the heir apparent, his presence radiating an aura of power and authority. His eyes, the colour of melted chocolate, held a captivating intensity that sent shivers down my spine. His scent, a tantalizing blend of pine needles and warm earth, filled my senses, awakening a primal longing I had never known existed.

As he approached, a hush fell over the crowd, all eyes drawn to us, the destined pair.

Two emotions whirled up in mefear and excitement.

My heart pounded a frantic rhythm against my ribs, a mixture of trepidation and exhilarating hope. 'This was it,' I thought, 'the end of my solitary existence, the beginning of a new chapter, one filled with love and companionship.'

But what if he rejected me? The fear tripled its action inside me, and I really hoped that he wouldn't.

But the words that followed shattered my fragile hopes. 'I, Arlo Matteo, reject you, Anya Juniper, as my mate.'

The venom in his voice was unmistakable, the disdain in his eyes a searing brand. My breath hitched, my gaze darting to the Luna, Arlo's mother, who stood beside him, her face a mask of icy contempt. The Luna's eyes, cold and calculating, bore into me, promising a lifetime of torment.

I don't know what hurt the most: the Luna's gaze, or Arlo's rejection words, from my fated mate who had now rejected me.

Rhea whimpered, her initial joy replaced by a deep, soulwrenching sorrow. The vibrant energy that had pulsed through me moments before was extinguished, leaving behind an aching void.

My world crumbled around me. The cheers of the crowd morphed into mocking jeers, the festive music into a jarring cacophony. Each glance, each whispered comment felt like a fresh wound, tearing at my already shattered spirit.

'Did she really think that the tobe Alpha would accept her, a common Omega, as his mate?' The words echoed in my ears, and new tears flowed down my eyes.

Did I really think that Arlo Matteo would accept me as his mate? He is of a highcalibrer, while I'm just a lowborn girl who has never had the opportunity to eat with the elders.

The Luna, her lips twisted in a cruel smile, stepped forward, her voice dripping with disdain. 'Such a pity,' she drawled, her gaze sweeping over me with apractisedd cruelty, 'such a...disappointment.'

Her words crushed my dwindling hope as I looked at Arlo Matteo for the last time. I wanted to ask him why he rejected me. In fact, how did he know my name?

I had never seen him before, nor had he seen me. Yet he knew my name the instant we met, and he rejected me right away.

An Omega, unworthy of an Alpha. A stain on the pack'shonourr. A disgrace. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring my vision. I longed to disappear, to vanish into the shadows, to escape the searing humiliation. But there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I was trappeda caged bird with broken wings, abandoned and forgotten.

As the festival rage  around me, I felt a chilling isolation. The laughter, the music and the vibrant energy of the packit all seemed to mock my misery. I was a ghost, invisible, unheard, my existence reduced to a footnote in the annals of the Silver Pack.

Rhea, her spirit subdued, offered a feeble comfort, her mournful whimpers a stark contrast to her earlier exuberance. I clung to the familiar warmth of my wolf, seeking solace in the shared despair.

But the pain was too deep, the humiliation too profound. As the final embers of the festival fire died down, I retreated to mymeagrer quarters, the echoes of Arlo's rejection still ringing in my ears.

The future, once a canvas filled with vibrant hues, now appeared bleak and desolate. The hope that had bloomed so fleetingly was now crushed beneath the weight of despair. I was alone, adrift in a sea of loneliness, my heart a shattered moon reflecting only the cold, unforgiving light of rejection.

The weight of their scorn pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating. I sank to the floor, my back against the roughhewn wall of my small room. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the cacophony of emotions that threatened to overwhelm me. Anger, shame, despair, and a deep, gnawing loneliness warred within me, leaving me breathless and disoriented.

Rhea whimpered softly, her presence a faint beacon in the darkness. 'I know, girl,' I whispered, my voice hoarse. 'I know.'

The rejection had shattered more than just my hopes and dreams. It had shattered my sense of self, leaving me feeling lost and adrift in a world that seemed to have forgotten my existence. I was no longer Anya Juniper, the Omega who had dared to dream of a better life. I was Anya Juniper, the Omega who had been rejecteda stain on the pride of the Silver Pack.

The thought brought a fresh wave of despair, threatening to drown me. I curled into a ball, burying my face in my knees, the scent of woodsmoke and damp earth filling my nostrils.

I don't know how long I remained huddled in the darkness, lost in the depths of my despair. But as the first rays of dawn crept through the window, casting long, skeletal shadows across the room, a flicker of defiance ignited within me.

I felt a new strength and hope within me. So, it is true that 'new day, new hope.' I had never felt this kind of hope swirling in me before.

I would not let them break me. I would not allow their rejection to define me. I was more than just an Omega, more than just a discarded mate. I was Anya Juniper, and I would survive.

I rose to my feet, my body stiff and aching. The world outside my window was bathed in the soft hues of dawn, a new day beckoning. It would be a long and arduous journey, but I would find my way, one step at a time.

I would rebuild myself, stronger, more resilient, and I would prove to them all that they had underestimated me.

The road ahead was uncertain, fraught with danger and uncertainty. But as I stepped out of my small room, the first rays of sunlight warming my face, I knew that I would not face it alone. Rhea, my loyal companion, would be by my side, her unwavering support a beacon of hope in the face of adversity.

And as I walked towards the rising sun, a newfound resolve steeled my resolve. I would not be defined by rejection. I would define myself.

Anya's POV

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me. I had no destination, and neither did I have someone waiting for me ahead. The day was fast approaching, and I had to leave the Silver Pack territory before the sun rose, or else I would face a severe punishment.

I was feeling tired, weary, and thirsty. As soon as I saw the border that demarcated the neighboring pack and Silver Pack, I forced every ounce of energy in me. I staggered towards the border, dragging my feet amidst the cold, wet grasses.

As I took the last step, crossing over the border, my eyes were filled with a void of light, and I knew nothing else. I could feel my eyes swirling and turning. My heart was aching seriously, as if it was about to burst from my chest.

I clung to my chest as I squeezed my clothes tight, hoping to transfer the pain I was feeling in my head and chest to the clothes, but to no avail. I collapsed to the ground, and before I knew it, my skin started to burn, and it hurt like hell. What the fuck was happening to me? Why all these reactions to stress?

Before I could figure out what the hell was happening, I was gone. Far gone.

My body ached as I struggled to open my eyes. I could feel the soft and warm substance under me, but I couldn't figure out what it was unless I opened my eyes.

'Anya, open your damn eyes,' Rhea growled, but I still found it difficult to open my eyes.

And just then, pain surged through me, and I jerked my eyes open. The fluorescent light did no justice to the pain and struggle I had before I opened my eyes, as the bright light hurt me more.

Involuntarily, I closed my eyes due to the beaming light. Then, after a while, I found myself adjusted to the light.

'Where am I?' 'How did I get here?' 'What happened?'

I asked myself those questions as I looked around the room I was in. As I was looking at my surroundings, the memories of what had happened earlier came to me like a running river.

I took a look at my skin, and it was smooth and clean, as if it wasn't the same skin that was burning a while ago.

'A while ago? You've been out for the past three days, girl,' Rhea said to me.

"Three days?" I said louder than I intended, and just then, someone opened the door, and I jerked in fear.

"You are awake," the person who opened the door earlier said.

He was dressed like a guard, and I'm sure that he had been watching over this room, which justified his action when he suddenly opened the door upon hearing my voice.

I nodded my head towards him, and with that, he closed the door.

"What was that?" I asked no one in particular.

After some minutes, two maids came to the room I was staying in with a lot of food. And when I said food, I meant different varieties that I had never had the opportunity to eat or cook, despite the fact that I'm a slave.

I was banned from cooking the Alpha family's delicacies as I was regarded as filth. But today, I'm not only seeing it; I will be eating it also.

"Your Highness," the two maids said at the same time as they bowed their heads in accordance.

"Your Highness? You must have been mistaken. I'm not... I'm not... who... who... who you think I am. In fact, I have no idea how I got here," I said all that in a rush, and I wondered where all the energy that I just used to speak came from.

But the maids did not say a word as their mouths curved into great and vibrant smiles. One of the maids was about to say something, but she immediately kept quiet and bowed her head deeply as a sign of respect.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense and cold, and the once happy maids now looked so serious.

Nobody was there with us unless they didn't pass through the door. And where would he or she pass if not the door?

They did not utter any words, nor did they raise their heads to look at me. Swiftly, they left the room in a hurry.

Without further ado, I pulled the food towards me and devoured it. I was famished and weak at the same time. I kept on eating the food in front of me, and I didn't know when I finished eating all the food. I gulped down a lot of water.

If it were a normal human being, she wouldn't have finished the food, but as a werewolf, despite being an Omega, the food meant nothing.

"Do you need more?" A deep, authoritative voice vibrated throughout the room, and I jerked in fear.

I turned my head in the direction from where the voice came, and my eyes saw a very handsome man who, by guessing his age, should be around his early twenties. His pointed nose and brown eyes did more good to his beauty. His jaw was well sculpted, and I started to imagine what his mouth coveredhis sweet tongue and beautiful teeth and lips that were slightly raised upward while smirking.

I have never seen this kind of beauty before, even in movies, because I didn't have the time to watch movies in my former pack.

Speaking of movies and my former pack, I have no intention to go back there, and I badly want to watch a movie. I wished I could see a wellmade man like the one in front of me right now.

This man was the reason why the maids left earlierthen how did I not notice that he was in? He must be the person they were referring to as "Your Highness," because the man I'm looking at right now commands respect with his entire body. Without being told, one could have known that he is somewhat in a position of power.

It all makes sense now.

"I said, do you want more?" The man in front of me asked again, his deep voice now laced with some sort of anger.

I recovered myself and looked away immediately. As soon as I turned my head away from him, he took a step towards me.

"Hmm, hmmm, not now," I cleared my throat before answering his question.

The man that was staying a few steps behind me was now directly in front of me, holding my chin up with his fingers.

I closed my eyes out of impulse, and I could hear him hiss. He touched the front of my head and tucked my hair behind my ear.

Throughout this time, Rhea just went AWOL. She had not said anything to me since the maids came inside the room, and it was as if she was no longer there.

If we hadn't interacted earlier, I would believe that something is wrong. Everything in me felt empty, and now the cold, icy man in front of me is touching me.

If I was afraid of the man in front of me initially, I'm in shock as of this moment as everything in front of me went blank.

The touch makes me go cold and out.

THIRD PERSON POV

In a room illuminated by a single chandelier, a heavy silence hung in the air. It wasn't just ordinary quiet; it was a cowering fear that overwhelmed everyone, silencing them all.

The room was filled with a strong, assertive scent, balanced by a subtle sweetness. It was an untamed fragrance, both alluring and intimidating. Alpha Chase, the Alpha King of Dark Moon Pack, was sitting on a chair placed at the head of the large round table, and five elders sat at each side of the table.

Despite him being with the elders, only his scent and aura were noticed and recognized in the room.

The light illuminating from the chandelier cast an eerie shadow in the room. It is said that Alpha Chase loves darkness more than anything, and in fact, that is why he is the more cruel and dominant Alpha. No one has ever seen his nice side, not even his mother and sibling.

Alpha Chase was a tall man, measuring six feet two inches. His brown eyes added a very distinctive characteristic to his facial appearance. His jawline was finely chiselled, and his hairline was perfect. He was the kind of handsome that captivated any lady's eyes and stirred their very bones.

They say a handsome man's beauty starts from his hearty, loving soul and radiates from there to create his final form, but this didn't apply to Alpha Chase, because his handsomeness came from a wicked and devilish heart. He was handsome from the depth of his eyes to the expressions of his voice. The way his voice quickened when he sparked with a new idea made people cower in fear.

People often speak of the colour of eyes, as if that were of importance, yet his would be beautiful in any shade. From them came an intensity, an honesty, a voice no one dared to disobey.

He had the kind of face that stopped you in your tracks. He must be used to that, the sudden pause in a person's natural expression when they looked his way, followed by overcompensating with a nonchalant gaze and a weak smile. Of course, the blush that accompanied it was a dead giveaway. It didn't help that he was so modest with it. It made the girls fall for him all the more.

"Alpha Chase, we would be pleased if you would heed our advice?" one of the elders said.

He didn't dare to look at Alpha Chase's face as he bowed his head while talking. Alpha Chase commanded respect wherever he was.

"Advice?" Alpha Chase asked rhetorically as he smirked.

"And when exactly did you start to advise me?" Alpha Chase said again.

"Never, Alpha. But the matter at hand needs you to take things more seriously," the elder who spoke earlier said.

"We saw her cold at the border. Her body was sore and all covered in bruises. We can't really decipher if it was the impact of the vervain placed at the border against vampires or if it was a normal bruise," another elder said.

"So?" Alpha Chase asked, and the room that was cold earlier began to fill with murmurs.

The elders were afraid to talk, but yet they needed to, and they knew better than anyone that they needed to keep everything cool and silentso they stopped murmuring all at once.

"Instead of you taking her into the guest room in your house to be treated, we would like to perform some tests on her to be sure that she is not a vampire," the elder who had been talking said.

"There is no need for that," Alpha Chase said his final words and stood up in a jiffy.

"Your Highness," they all said in unison as he stood up.

"Just to be rest assured, Alpha, please heed our plea," the outspoken elder said again, and Alpha Chase gave him a death look.

"You need to find yourself a wife," the elder said again.

As if what he had been saying all along wasn't enough for Alpha Chase to behead him, he still went ahead to talk about him finding a wife.

"I don't need anyone's advice," Alpha Chase said with a stern voice which no one dared to disobey, but Talon, who was Alpha Chase's uncle, and the one that had been talking since, didn't seem to see the threat in his voice as he continued.

The elder, who was Alpha Chase's uncle, was the only one talking since the beginning of the meeting as everyone was too scared to piss off the Alpha King.

"We know you've not met with your mate, but we can't wait forever, Alpha," he said again.

"You have harboured a girl who is likely to be a vampire in your house, and you are not ready to have a wife. If you had already found your mate, you wouldn't allow a girl you never met before, and a girl whom everything is pointing to as a vampire, in your house," Talon said again, and this time he was looking at Alpha Chase directly whilst everybody's heads were bowed down.

"Talon, right?" Alpha Chase said, and the room was again filled with hot tension.

"Yes, Alpha," the man replied to him with fear lacing his voice this time around.

"What age did you encounter your mate?" Alpha Chase asked him.

"22, Alpha," Talon answered with his head bowed.

"That's nice," Alpha Chase said, and all eyes that were focused on the ground, and some that were focused on the invisible and untouchable atmosphere, turned to look at his face.

His reply took them all by surprise. They all expected something more bossy, more rudenot that that was rude at allthey were all expecting a furious and raging reply, but they were met with this nice comment.

Without saying anything else, Alpha Chase stood up on his feet and burted out of the meeting room, as he couldn't wait a second among these people.

Every maid and person he met on the way would bow after stopping in their tracks, while Alpha Chase never once stopped in his tracks.

His mind was somehow deliberating on what the elders said earlier in the meeting room. At the age of 27, he was yet to find his fated mate. His Beta, who was his second in command, had found his mate at the age of 22, their first year of ruling.

It had been five years since they had started ruling, and he had not met his mate. "Get yourself a mate" was his mother's word to him every time they met, and it became his daily sermon.

His mother had told him that she would find a mate for him if this year had passed, and he was still without a mate. He had tried to warn his mother before, but his mother did not seem to stop speaking her mind.

After several persuasions from his mother, he let her do whatever she liked. But somehow, he was desperate about finding his mate during this ruling year, before the next, because he had no intention to marry a woman who was not his mate.

But as he found this girl, whom he never knew her name, his heart and mind were on her as he couldn't seem to take his mind off her as he kept thinking of her.

He saw her when he was coming back from a trip, and on his first instinct, he took her in. Despite her being all bruised and hurt. He knew that that was the main reaction of vampires to vervain, which by chance was laced on the border in accordance with his rules.

But he couldn't seem to check for himself if she was really a vampire or not, as his heart was drawn to her throughout the entire time he carried her into his housenot even the nursing houseto be treated.

He was mesmerized by her beauty. Her long hair was partially covering her face and her tiny and skinny body that was covered with rags, and he was angry at himself for no reason.

He assigned guards, maids, and the nurse to treat her. But little did he know that his action had been spread all over the pack, and the elders were organizing a meeting.

For the past three days, he was able to grace them with his presence today, the first time he would leave her side, waiting for her to open her eyes. His mother came to ask if what they said he did was true and if she could see the girl that got her son's attention this much, but Alpha Chase declined his mother access to see her.

Now he was on his way back to the girl he took in, as all his mind was on her. He got in the same moment the maids brought in food for her, and if he was captivated by her beauty when she was halfdead, he was now enthralled and excited by her beauty. And not to mention her voice when she spoke.

He tried so hard not to laugh when the maids greeted him, and she thought she was the one they were greeting. He immediately ordered the maids to keep quiet, and they obliged.

What got him more excited was when she started to eat the food brought in for her. She ate as if she had been deprived of food for some months.

When she knew about his presence, he saw that she was afraid of himwhich made him sad. But it got to the point of him being scared when he touched her, and she fainted.