The Alpha's Desperate Regret

~ELARA’s POV~

I always thought the Moon Goddess was kind, but as my fated mate looked at me with pure disgust, I realized she was a sadist.

In the Eclipse pack, most wolves carry this scent of cedar, spice or something wild. Me? Nothing. I’m just a blank space. And everyone here is happy to fill that emptiness with their hate. They call me 'Scentless Mutt.' It’s the only name I’ve ever known, and they never miss a chance to shove it down my throat.

​I was lugging a heavy tray of greasy bones from last night's feast, arms already burning, still waiting for my wolf to decide I was worth showing up for. Twenty-two years, and she was apparently still on vacation.

​CLANG-A-LANG!

Jax didn’t just kick the tray. He stepped onto the edge of it, tilting it slowly until the bones slid into the dirt. He watched them fall with a look of mock pity.

"You're still trying, Elara," he sighed, leaning in close enough that I could smell the stale ale on his breath. "That’s the saddest part. You carry these trays around like if you work hard enough, a soul will finally grow inside that empty skin."

He reached out, almost gently, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear before his grip tightened, yanking my head back.

"But we both know the truth. You aren't a wolf waiting to happen. You're just a ghost that refuses to leave. Why don't you do us a favor and stop pretending you belong to the living?”

He let go of my hair with a sharp shove, watching me stumble into the mess.

I stayed frozen for a second. That hot prickly burn started behind my eyes, the one that meant tears were coming but I swallowed it down fast.

A shadow, colder than the one Jax had left behind, fell over me. I looked up to see Elder Mara, the Alpha's mother standing a few feet away. She didn’t just look at me like I was trash, she looked at me like I was a mistake she thought she’d fixed.

Her hand flew to that silver locket on her neck clutching it like a weapon, her eyes fixed on me with a hatred that felt personal, even though I was just a servant.

It chilled me more than Jax ever had.

She didn't say a word, instead she just turned and walked toward the castle, but her silence felt like a death sentence.

I gathered the bones with trembling, bloody hands.

Tonight was the full moon. The whole pack would gather at the communal grounds for the ceremony. Shifts. Mate bonds. Everyone celebrating their wolves and their futures.

Everyone except the ones like me who still hadn’t shifted. I'm twenty-two. Most wolves got their shift by sixteen or seventeen at the latest.

But here I was. Late. Broken. Call it whatever word you want. Maybe empty.

But as the first drumbeat sounded from the communal grounds, a