Unwanted by the Alpha, Marked by the Supreme Lycan

Clio Shepard POV:

"Mommy, please wake up! Save my mommy!" Kain's desperate cries pierced the freezing snowstorm. My five-year-old son knelt in the snow, wearing only a thin threadbare sweater. His small fingers were torn and bleeding from frantically digging through the hard ice trying to warm my frozen body. His little lips were entirely blue from the deadly cold.

I lay trapped in the ice like a literal corpse. My eyelashes were frozen shut with heavy frost, and my breathing had almost completely stopped. My consciousness was floating in a dark void. Around us, a crowd of pack members had gathered. Their breath puffed in white clouds as they watched the tragedy unfold.

"Such a pity," a bystander whispered. "That is Clio Shepard, isn't it? She is the trueborn daughter of the Silvercrest Pack. She is ugly and completely out of her mind. She is a literal fool."

"Yeah," another chimed in. "Even though she is a fool, she still knows how to protect her pup. Pierce Logan is her fiancé, right? How cruel of him to let her freeze to death in the snow like this."

"Look at how ridiculous this is," a third voice hissed sharply. "The trueborn heiress and the real fiancée is dying outside like a stray dog, while that fake-heiress adopted sister, Hessie, is sleeping in the young master's bed! Everyone knows Pierce favors Hessie. That pup got a sudden illness a few days ago. The fool heard Pierce's private doctor is amazing, so she came here to kneel and beg for her pup's life. But Pierce despises her, so he left her here to rot."

At that moment, the heavy iron gates of the estate swung open. Pierce Logan, my arrogant fiancé, walked out. Hessie Castillo was practically molded to his side. Both were wrapped in thick luxurious fur coats. Hessie was even wearing my mother's stolen diamond necklace. Pierce wrapped his arm tightly around her waist and kissed her forehead tenderly to ward off the chill. They looked like a perfectly in-love couple, making my status as his real fiancée a complete and utter joke.

Hessie leaned against Pierce. She pretended to be gentle and kind. "Oh, Pierce. She has been freezing out here for three days and nights. I am afraid she won't make it."

Pierce snorted in absolute disgust, looking at me as if I were a rotting rat. "Let her die. A dead dog blocking my gate is just an eyesore. Guards, drag this trash away."

Hessie then walked up to my frozen body and crouched down. She put on a crying face for the crowd, but she leaned in close to my ear. Her voice dropped into a venomous whisper that only I could hear.

"Sister, Pierce's embrace is truly so warm," Hessie sneered. "Just stay here and slowly turn into an ice sculpture. Seeing you look as pathetic as a dying dog makes me so incredibly happy. Once you are dead, your sick little bastard won't survive either. I will personally have the servants throw him into a mass grave so you two can reunite in hell!"

Every single word of her pure malice pierced through the ice. The sheer cruelty of her curse snapped my consciousness awake. Five years of fog shattered inside my brain. Memories of my true life as the Supreme Arbiter of the Immortal Syndicate, the underground medical empire that held the life and death of every high-ranking werewolf in the country, flooded back. Right alongside them, a dormant ancient heat uncoiled in my chest.

Before I could fully process my awakened memories, Hessie stood up and pretended to reach out for Kain. Kain dodged her fake reaching hand, wanting to protect me. Taking advantage of this, Hessie purposely slipped and fell into the snow. The gold bracelet on her wrist slid off and dropped straight down into the open sewer grate nearby.

Hessie's eyes instantly turned red as she choked out a sob. "Kain, why did you push me? I just wanted to help your mother. Did she teach you to do this?" She turned to Pierce, crying pitifully. "Pierce, that was the bracelet you gave me!"

Pierce flew into a violent rage. "Like mother, like son! How dare you bully your aunt!" He lunged forward and viciously grabbed Kain by the collar of his thin sweater, lifting the boy into the freezing air. "You want to save your mother? Jump down into that sewer and fetch Hessie's bracelet. Then I will have my doctor treat her!"

Hessie feigned a gasp. "Pierce, that is not good."

"He deserves it!" Pierce spat. He dragged my struggling son toward the open sewer. The stench of rotting sewage and foul black water immediately filled the air.

Seeing my son being violently abused by this disgusting couple triggered an explosive rage within me. My stiff body broke through its physical limits. I lunged forward like a striking viper and clamped my hand around Pierce's wrist with bone-crushing force, yanking Kain back into my arms. I glared at the couple with pure hatred.

My mind was crystal clear now. Pierce had always looked down on my trueborn status. He thought I was a vulgar country girl unworthy of him, while secretly hooking up with my fake-heiress sister. And Hessie was purely evil. She not only abused me when my soul was incomplete, but she also directly caused Kain's sudden illness! She was the one who encouraged the foolish me to kneel in the snowstorm, calculating that I would freeze to death so she could steal my marriage contract!

My face was frighteningly cold. I reached out and grabbed a handful of Hessie's perfectly styled hair.

"You want your gold bracelet so badly? Go find it yourself!" I snarled, and with a powerful kick, I sent Hessie tumbling straight into the open sewer.

Hessie screamed as she splashed into the foul freezing excrement. She thrashed wildly in the filth, desperately trying to climb out. Her expensive clothes were completely ruined.

I wasn't about to let her off so easily. I stepped my boot firmly onto her head, pushing her back down into the muck with a cold smile. "Don't you love stealing your sister's man? Since you love trash so much, you belong exactly where the trash is."

Hessie choked on the sewage. She cried for help and affectionately screamed Pierce's name.

Pierce couldn't stand it anymore. He rushed forward to attack me, cursing loudly. "You have a lot of nerve, you crazy bitch!"

I didn't back down. I casually grabbed a long wooden stick from the ground, plunged it deep into the cesspool, and then pulled it out. I pointed the dripping foul-smelling tip right at Pierce's chest.

"You two really are deeply in love," I mocked, watching him recoil in disgust. "Seeing her having so much fun down there, you must be dying to jump in and join her, right?"

Pierce backed away. He was terrified of the filth, shouting that I was getting crazier.

"Pierce Logan, put away your laughable pride," I announced loudly, my voice ringing across the snow. "I, Clio Shepard, reject you, Pierce Logan, as my mate and fiancé. And here is my blessing for you. May you be infertile, yet somehow end up with a house full of bastards!"

I picked up my semi-conscious son and turned to leave. Pierce, humiliated in front of the crowd by the woman he despised, unleashed his secondary Alpha aura and lunged at me. My newly awakened body was already at its physical limit. I knew escaping today wouldn't be easy.

Just then, a pair of blinding headlights cut through the snowstorm. A heavily armored black SUV barreled down the road. I recognized the silver emblem on the grille. It was the crest of the Apex Pack.

My eyes lit up. I rushed straight into the middle of the road, shielding Kain, and screamed at the top of my lungs at the approaching vehicle.

"Husband! You cannot just abandon our son and me!"

Tires screeched violently against the asphalt. The heavy steel bumper stopped half an inch from my kneecaps.

The front passenger window slid down a crack. Demian Morton, the chief Gamma, thrust a handgun loaded with lethal silver hollow-point bullets through the gap.

"Looking for a death wish, Rogue?" Demian's voice was ice.