I Chased The Wrong Alpha

"Still throwing tantrums, huh?" His voice was flat, bored. "What the hell do you think you're pulling with this stunt?"

I looked up at Caspian—the man who'd stolen everything from my family, the bastard I'd loved for five years—and felt my heart shatter all over again.

For five years, I chased the wrong Alpha. I believed Caspian would eventually see past his cold indifference and love me back. Instead, he destroyed my family, murdered my brother, and married my sister-in-law—all while I rotted in captivity.

When I finally escaped and threw myself off a cliff, I thought it was over. But fate had other plans. Damien Blackwood, Caspian's mysterious brother, pulled me from the river and offered everything Caspian never would—protection, tenderness, and a chance at revenge.

But in a world built on lies, who can you really trust?

Seraphina's POV

The familiar scent hit me like a gut punch on the third day of my hunger strike.

Cedar and wild mint—his scent. My heart pounded as footsteps echoed down the hallway. After three days of refusing every meal, every drop of water, he'd finally shown up.

He still cares. He has to.

The door to my room creaked open, and there he stood—Caspian, the bastard who'd stolen everything from my family. But damn it, even now, after all he'd done, my traitorous heart skipped a beat.

He looked every inch the Alpha he'd become: broad shoulders filling out a crisp black shirt, authority rolling off him like heat from a bonfire. But those steel-gray eyes that used to make my knees weak? They were cold as ice, staring at me like I was just some annoying pest.

"Still throwing tantrums, huh?" His voice was flat, bored. "What the hell do you think you're pulling with this stunt?"

I struggled to sit up on the bed, my body weak from the fast. "Caspian, please. Just tell me what's going on. Why am I—"

"You're right where you belong." He stepped inside, and I caught another whiff of that scent that'd haunted my dreams for five years. "You were always a spoiled little princess, weren't you? Acting like the world owed you everything."

The words stung worse than any slap. "I just want to understand—"

"Understand what?" He laughed, sharp and cutting. "That your precious brother's dead? That I'm Alpha now? Get real, Seraphina. You're nobody. Nothing. Why should any of this matter to you?"

Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them back. No way I'd cry in front of him. "You're right. I am nothing now. But Lyanna—my brother's wife—she's pregnant with his kid. Please, don't hurt her. She's innocent."

Something flickered in his eyes—gone in a flash. "Want her safe?" He leaned closer, heat radiating off him. "Then shut your mouth and stop causing trouble."

He turned to leave but paused at the door. "Stupid girl. You were always too blind to see what was right in front of you."

The door slammed shut, taking his scent with it and leaving me alone with the echo of his cruelty.

Three months dragged by in this suffocating house arrest, locked away in my own room. I'd spent them wondering if I'd imagined those five years of stolen glances and gentle smiles. Then, one evening, celebration sounds started drifting through my barred window—laughter, music, the kind of joy reserved for weddings.

"What's happening out there?" I asked Martha, the omega who brought my meals.

She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Alpha Caspian... he married Miss Lyanna today."

The world tilted sideways. "What?"

"They had the ceremony this morning. She looked radiant."

I collapsed onto my bed, memories flooding back like poison. Three years ago, I'd cornered Caspian in the library, demanding to know what kind of woman he wanted to marry.

"What kind of woman do you want to marry?" I'd asked him, curled up by the fire in the pack house library.

He'd been reading, as usual. Always so serious. "Why do you care?"

"Because if you don't answer, I'll assume you want someone just like me." I'd been so cocky then, so sure of myself. What a naive idiot.

He'd looked up from his book, those gray eyes unreadable. "Fine. Someone smart. Graceful. Someone who doesn't throw herself at guys who aren't interested."

Everything he'd described was the opposite of me.

But I'd been too stubborn. "Well, too bad. You're marrying me anyway, so get used to it."

He'd just gone back to his book without a word.

God, what a fool I'd been. Five years chasing someone who'd never wanted me, mistaking his tolerance for affection, his politeness for love.

And now he'd married Lyanna. Beautiful, elegant Lyanna—who was everything I wasn't.

The celebration grew louder, and I clawed at the door like a madwoman.

"Let me out!" I screamed at the guards. "I need to see him! I need to talk to Caspian!"

But no one came.

Two weeks later, desperation finally pushed me to make a move. The guards had gotten lazy, figuring a broken-down Alpha's sister was no threat. I waited until the dead of night, when even the sharpest sentries were nodding off, and slipped out through a side door no one was watching.

The pack house gardens glowed in silver moonlight, every path a ghost from my childhood. I'd played here with Aurelius, learned to shift here, had my first kiss behind the rose bushes with some Beta's son whose name I'd long forgotten.

Voices drifted from the terrace above—low, intimate murmurs that twisted my gut.

I crept closer, hidden in the hedge maze shadows, until I could see them.

Caspian sat on the stone bench where Aurelius used to read in the mornings. But he wasn't alone.

Lyanna was curled against him, her swollen belly prominent under her silk nightgown. And Caspian—cold, distant Caspian who'd barely noticed me for five years—was smiling at her like she'd hung the moon.

His hand rested protectively over her stomach, thumb tracing gentle circles. "How you feeling? Any pain today?"

"Just tired." Her voice was soft, content. "The baby's been kicking up a storm. I think he knows his daddy's here."

His daddy.

The words hit like a sucker punch, knocking the air from my lungs.

"Our baby will be strong," Caspian murmured, kissing her temple. "Our first kid."

"I can't wait to meet him," Lyanna whispered. "You think he'll have your eyes?"

"God, I hope so. The pack needs a strong Alpha bloodline." His voice was warm, tender—nothing like the ice he'd thrown at me. "You've given me everything, Lyanna. The pack, a future, a reason to—"

"What about Seraphina?" Lyanna's question sliced through my shock. "You ever feel guilty about keeping her locked up?"

Caspian's face hardened into that familiar mask. "Guilty? For what?"

"She loved you. Anyone could see it."

My heart stopped.

"Love?" Caspian's laugh was harsh. "That spoiled brat never loved anyone but herself. She doesn't know what love means."

Each word stabbed deep.

"She thought if she wanted something, she should get it. Like the world was her playground." His tone turned vicious. "I never owed her a damn thing. You were always meant to be mine, Lyanna. You were my promised mate before her brother played the big Alpha and stole you away."

The ground shifted under me.

Promised mate. Before Aurelius...

"I hated watching you with him," Caspian continued, gripping her tighter. "Hated pretending to respect him while he paraded what was mine. But it all worked out, didn't it?"

Worked out.

My brother—strong, healthy Aurelius—had gotten sick so suddenly. Right after Lyanna announced her pregnancy. Right after...

Oh God. Oh fuck.

"I love you," Lyanna whispered against his throat. "I've always loved you."

"And I love you. Both of you." His hand moved over her belly, possessive. "My mate. My child. My pack. Everything as it should be."

I stumbled back, vision blurring, stomach churning.

Five years I'd loved him, chased him, convinced he'd eventually see me as more than Aurelius's annoying little sister.

But he'd never wanted me. He'd wanted her. Always her.

And my brother...

I barely made it back to my room before collapsing over the waste bucket, heaving up bile and the bitter taste of shattered illusions.

I'd been a fool from the start.