After My Mate Drugged Me, I Ran with His Beta

The forest floor was cold beneath my knees, damp earth seeping through my torn jeans. My hands trembled as I pressed them against the ground, trying to steady myself, trying to find that spark inside me that everyone said should be there.

"Shift, Norah." Cassius's voice cut through the clearing, sharp and impatient. "We don't have all day."

I closed my eyes, reaching inward for the hundredth time today, searching for my wolf. For Sasha. The name had come to me in a dream years ago, whispered like a promise I couldn't quite grasp. But now, like always, there was only silence where she should be.

The Rogue wolf circled me, its lips pulled back in a snarl. The pack warriors had captured it three days ago, and now it was my test. My tenth trial. Take it down in wolf form, prove I could protect the pack, prove I deserved to stand beside an Alpha.

Prove I wasn't worthless.

"I'm trying," I whispered, hating how small my voice sounded.

A searing pain ripped through my gut, so sudden and vicious that I gasped. It felt like my insides were twisting, like something was clawing at me from within. Anxiety, I told myself. Just anxiety. I'd felt it before every trial, this crippling sensation that made my body betray me at the worst possible moment.

The Rogue lunged.

I threw my arms up instinctively, a pathetic human gesture against supernatural teeth. Time slowed. I could see the yellowed fangs, smell the rancid breath, feel the certainty of failure crushing down on me like a physical weight.

Then Gamma Ryan was there, his massive gray wolf slamming into the Rogue mid-leap. The crack of bone echoed through the trees as two other warriors joined him, tearing into the threat with practiced efficiency. Within seconds, it was over.

I was still on my knees, arms raised, frozen in my uselessness.

"Pathetic." Bria's voice drifted from where she stood beside Cassius, just loud enough for me to hear. "Ten times, and she still can't shift. What kind of wolf can't even find their animal?"

The kind that's broken, I thought. The kind that doesn't deserve to be here.

Cassius said nothing, but I felt his disappointment like a physical blow. After seven years, I'd learned to read every micro-expression, every subtle shift in his posture. Right now, he was disgusted.

The walk back to the pack house was a blur of whispers and pitying glances. By the time we reached the main clearing, the entire pack had gathered. Word traveled fast when the Alpha's promised mate failed. Again.

Cassius mounted the dais with Bria trailing behind him like a shadow. She wore a fitted black dress that hugged every curve, her dark hair cascading over her shoulders. Everything about her screamed confidence, power, worthiness. Everything I wasn't.

"Norah Carter." Cassius's Alpha Tone rolled over the crowd, and every wolf present straightened instinctively. "Step forward."

My legs moved without my permission, carrying me through