My Fiancé Tricked Me into Leaving the Pack

Alaric and I had agreed to elope together. But he changed his mind the moment I signed the papers to leave the pack.

Standing outside the back booth at the hotel bar, I overheard him talking with his friends.

"You tricked Sophie into leaving the pack just so you could have more alone time with Vivienne? Aren't you worried she'll lose it when she finds out?"

Alaric took a lazy sip of his drink. "Why would she? She's so obsessed with me she'd cling to me all day if she could. Tell her what she wants to hear afterward and she'll forgive me, guaranteed."

"Besides, Vivienne's family has real pull. That kind of backing could tip the scales in my fight for the Alpha position. Sophie will just have to deal with it."

Every word sliced through me until I couldn't breathe. I fought back the urge to storm in and confront him, and turned away instead.

Back home, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the very last contact in my list.

"Dad. That arranged mating you mentioned — I accept."

I had come to Alaric's pack under a false name, running from the arranged mating my parents had set up.

No one knew who I really was. To them, I was nothing more than a rogue with no family and no name worth knowing.

Alaric, on the other hand, was the Alpha's son — born into privilege, raised like royalty, admired by everyone around him.

That was precisely why no one believed in us. The whole pack thought I was beneath him, that I was only with him to leech off his power and status.

Despite the pressure, Alaric chose me anyway.

But the constant hostility broke me down. The doctor said it was depression.

When Alaric pried open my locked bedroom door, clutching my diagnosis, he found me curled up in the corner, shaking.

He knelt beside me, took my hands in his, and looked at me with what I thought was sincerity. "Sophie, I don't care what anyone thinks. You're the only one I love. I'll give up my right to the Alpha title for you."

"Let's run away together. I'll take you somewhere it's just us. We'll build a life of our own."

I looked up into his steady eyes, and in that moment, he felt like the sun — burning away every shadow inside me.

I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his chest, nodding over and over.

But now I knew the truth. The rumors that had destroyed me, the ones that drove me into depression — Alaric had spread them himself.

All of it was calculated to push me out, to make room for Vivienne.

Watching him through the doorway, grinning and laughing with his friends like he'd pulled off something clever, I dug my nails into my own arms just to keep from screaming.

Another voice drifted out from the private room. "Alaric, what if Sophie finds out