Chapter 1: Have You Had Enough Fun?
545words
"Let me speak to her," came the voice through the speakerphone. Aiden. My Alpha. My husband. My mate who never truly wanted me.
The old phone was pressed against my ear by rough hands.
"Aiden, I've been kidnapped," I managed, fighting to keep my voice steady despite the pain radiating through my body. "I'm in some kind of cellar. Please—"
A second of silence, then a chuckle that chilled me more than the damp floor beneath me. "Really, Luna? Playing games again? Today of all days?"
"I'm not playing," I whispered, tears threatening to spill. "I could die here."
The phone was yanked away. "Your precious Omega isn't as tough as she pretends," my captor sneered into the receiver. "She'll be dead by morning. Remember that when you're comforting your precious Eliza."
Darkness enveloped me as the cellar door slammed shut, a heavy thud suggesting something had been placed on top. The phone call had ended.
I was alone. Abandoned by my mate of three years. My childhood friend of twenty-two years.
* * *
I'd always been the persistent one. The Omega who chased after an Alpha who saw me as nothing more than the girl next door. But Aiden and I were destined mates—I felt it in my bones long before our first shift. He just needed time to realize it too.
When he finally agreed to our mating ceremony, I thought I'd won. I thought the bond would change everything.
It didn't.
Even with my mark on his neck and his on mine, Aiden's heart remained elsewhere—with Eliza, the human girl his family had adopted when we were teenagers. His "sister" who had married into another pack but somehow still commanded his attention whenever she called.
Like today. Our anniversary.
I'd planned a surprise weekend at Whiteridge, the mountain resort where we'd first acknowledged our bond. Three days of just us—no pack duties, no interruptions, no Eliza.
But when I arrived at our cabin this morning, Aiden wasn't there. A text: "Emergency with Eliza. At Mercy Hospital. Rain check?"
Three years of marriage, and I was still second choice.
That's why I'd gone for a walk alone. That's why I'd been easy prey for whoever decided an Alpha's neglected Omega mate was the perfect target.
* * *
Hours passed in that cellar. My heat intensified, making me curl into myself. Without my mate, the pain would only worsen. An unmated Omega in heat was vulnerable enough—a mated one separated from their Alpha during heat was torture.
I heard movement above. The cellar door opened, and moonlight spilled in.
"Still alive, little wolf?" A masked figure peered down. "Your Alpha doesn't seem too concerned. Said something about being busy at the hospital."
I growled weakly, my wolf too distressed to summon any real threat.
"He thinks you're playing some attention-seeking game." The figure laughed. "Maybe when he finds your body, he'll realize this was real."
The door slammed shut again.
