Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother
Chapter 266: _The Secret Lair

Chapter 266: _The Secret Lair

Chapter 266

~María José Point Of View~

I’d always thought fear had a voice.

Turns out, it sounded a lot like a lazy chuckle from a man pretending to be someone else, standing in your bedroom doorway like he owned your life and the dim air you breathed.

When Mateo, who I was now sure was a fake and probably some devil’s errand boy with eyes too dark to hold sunlight, first walked in, I thought I was going to die. No. Scratch that. I knew I was going to die. You don’t grow up under Don Diego without recognizing the scent of death when it walks into your room wearing someone else’s skin.

But I didn’t die. Not that night.

Instead, I remembered what Axel had whispered to me that afternoon: "This is our shot, María. One chance. Keep him close."

And so, I kept him close. Not because I trusted him—hell no, but because I wanted out. Out of this unsure life. Out of the invisible bruises that lived beneath my skin. Out of the status of the victim.

Because I wanted to spend forever with the love of my life.

He’d tested me the second he stepped into the room, asked me things no real Mateo would ask, smiled like he was pulling the wings off butterflies just to see if I’d notice. I’d noticed. And still, I played along.

Because you don’t get to leave hell unless you dance with the devil. But the real nightmare started when he said, "Can I sleep beside you?"

With me. In that tiny, sour-smelling excuse for a bed.

I’d nodded after he made his subtle threat, my throat dry, my fists curled beneath the blanket where he couldn’t see them tremble. I told myself I could handle this. That it was a test. That if I flinched, the illusion would crack and he’d see me for what I was. Not a liar. Not bold. Not untouchable.

Just María José. The girl who cried under her father’s fists and never learned how to scream loud enough to matter.

And so I let the devil lie beside me. His presence soaked the room like oil. Heavy. Slick. Flammable.

Strangely, I slept so well that night. After his little tragic story, I slept like a baby. Ever since I moved into Mateo’s house, I haven’t been sleeping well.

And most of the time, when I did, my sleep was always plagued with nightmares. Yet, tonight, my body chose to ignore the fact that a faceless and nameless imposter was lying beside me and fell into slumber.

Oh, what guts you have, María José, sleeping like that.

.

.

And now, the next morning, we were here at Rosa and her lover’s hidden sanctuary. Rosa, my devilish sister with an apparent skeleton in her closet. I knew I had sworn to take revenge on her for making life miserable for me.

For daring to scar my face as if all those years of bullying weren’t enough. I had sworn to make her pay for trying to steal Axel from me, and for all the stress she was putting him through, pinning a bastard pregnancy on him like that.

However, as the impostor Mateo led me into the lair, which was a stone fortress, I couldn’t help but feel like this solution he was serving to me on a golden platter was going to come with a price I might never finish paying.

I watched him turn and stalk to the door, pushing it open with a crack of ancient hinges and a gust of stale air. Moss clung to the stone. The scent of rosemary and blood on the walls. I followed, slowly, as though my body couldn’t accept what my mind already knew.

Inside, the cottage was still warm from the last fire. A cracked teacup lay on the edge of the table. The sheets on the bed were tangled. A boot that was not Rosa’s was tucked beneath the dresser.

There was a photo on the nightstand.

Rosa and a man I had never seen before.

I stopped in the doorway, unable to believe my eyes. Rosa was the perfect daughter. She was an exemplary figure in the pack.

She was the type of person mothers secretly wish their daughters could become in the future. She was the type girls look up to and hope they could achieve half of what she had when they got to her age.

Now, seeing the evidence that said it was a lie right before me was unbelievable. It had gotten to the point that even though the evidence was right in front of me, not just my heart, but my brain even was stuttering, trying to catch up with it.

I covered my mouth with a palm. "This is..."

"Where she came," Fake Mateo said, stepping past the table, "when she didn’t want to be found. Where she whispered names in the dark that didn’t belong to Axel. Where she let that witch fill her with a child and then act all noble in the pack."

I looked around with slow, horrified disbelief. "She lied to us all."

"She lied to everyone." He affirmed as if he were any different.

My fingers curled into my shirt, gripping the fabric like it was the only thing keeping me from falling apart.

He watched her. I could feel his eyes on me. He was probably watching the truth splinter across him like a hammer on glass.

"She’s... she’s pregnant. With his child." I choked on the words. "And she wanted people to believe it was Axel’s. So he’d do the noble thing. So he’d..."

"Take responsibility. Marry her. Give her status. Protect her. The whole fairy tale." He finished for me.

Oh, dear Moon Goddess, Rosa deserves to perish in the deepest pit of hell.

I remembered the way she held her head high at every pack assembly. How the Elders nodded when she spoke. How even Axel... my Axel—once said she was the kind of woman people wrote ballads about. And now? She was just another fraud wrapped in silk.

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