Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother
Chapter 271: _ The Truth Hurts

Chapter 271: _ The Truth Hurts

My voice didn’t sound like mine. It was too hollow and too far away. A stranger’s voice in my own mouth.

Tears blurred my vision and spilled fast and hard, soaking the hoodie, my hands, and the sheets. I curled in on myself, forehead to my knees like a child hiding from a thunderstorm, except this storm was inside me.

"Why?" I choked. "Why would you do that to her?"

Mamá hadn’t deserved it. She hadn’t deserved any of it. She was strong, wise, loving—everything a mother was meant to be. And Rosa... Rosa had looked her in the face every day while draining her wolf like some parasite.

"I hate you," I hissed to the room, to the journal, to the mirror across the wall where I saw my own reflection twisted in grief. "I hate you, Rosa. I hate you."

And yet... I still loved her. And that made it worse.

Because how could I mourn one sister while grieving the monster the other had become?

The journal stared at me from the floor, open to the next page.

I should have burned it. Instead, I reached for it like a moth flying into fire. I needed to know.

"After Mamá was gone, it was easier. I had her wolf. I had power. But the elders who were the start of all of this, they didn’t approve. At least not all of them. Some threatened to expose me. So I made sure they wouldn’t. After all, it was they who came to me a few months before my eighteenth birthday, a few months before I was to stand before the Alpha heir, whom I had hoped would be Axel, but it turned out to be his pompous brother."

I blinked. My brain stalled. The elders were the ones who went to Rosa?

I read on: "They came with an alliance deal, promising to give me their loyalty in return for me having their backs when I become Luna. Hence, we had a secret ritual to see if I possessed the Luna wolf. Imagine my shock when it was discovered I was an Omega. However, starting this, some of the elders wanted to back away. Like hell I’d let them."

"Oh, God." I groaned, clutching my stomach in pain.

It felt like I’d been stabbed there. All these years, and we had all been living with a monster.

"Elder Pablo had a heart attack last spring. They all thought it was natural. It wasn’t. The tea I gave him was laced with witchroot. It paralyzes the heart. Very effective."

I gagged.

Not even dramatic. Just a pure, gut-level, full-bodied gag. I jumped off the bed and barely made it to the sink before dry-heaving until my ribs ached and my throat burned. My body shook as a wave of nausea slammed through me like punishment for loving her once.

She had murdered our mother. She had poisoned an elder. She had made a pact with a witch family and used it to claw her way to power—and I had smiled at her, trusted her even when she treated me like shit.

God.

I pressed my forehead to the cold ceramic of the sink.

"You’re so stupid, María José," I muttered to myself. "So blind."

My head felt too full and too empty at the same time. Thoughts ricocheted inside like marbles in a tin can, all sharp edges and screeching noise.

I had lived my whole life blaming myself for Mamá’s death. I thought maybe if I’d been stronger, faster, braver... maybe she’d still be alive.

But it had been Rosa.

Rosa, who had cried at Mamá’s funeral like she hadn’t just carved her out of existence. Rosa, who had carried our mother’s coffin like it wasn’t her fault.

And the elders-the ones she hadn’t killed, had helped her. Or at least covered for her.

The room felt like it was shrinking. I couldn’t breathe.

I slid down the sink cabinet until I was curled on the floor like a trembling pile of flesh and betrayal. The journal lay open beside me, pages fluttering as if the truth itself was laughing.

"I loved you," I whispered, tears sliding into my mouth and down my chin. "Both of you."

I tried to remember Mamá’s voice. The way she used to hum in the kitchen. The way her hands smelled like cinnamon and garden soil. I tried, and I failed.

All I could hear now was Rosa’s pen scratching on paper. All I could feel was the weight of a betrayal so deep it carved out pieces of me I didn’t know were there.

"I can’t forgive you," I said softly. "Not for this. Not ever."

But even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t that simple. My heart would always ache for a big sister who never felt like one. For the strong woman I thought she was. For the sister who would beat up the boys in high school if they ever spoke ill of the family name.

But that girl was gone. Or maybe she’d never existed.

I stood up on shaky legs and picked up the journal. I didn’t want it. But I needed it. It was evidence now. Proof.

If Rosa could do this—if the elders could let her, what else were they hiding?

The pack was rotten. From the inside out. And I had lived in its decay like it was home.

My hands trembled as I put the journal away, locking it in the drawer beside Mamá’s old rosary. I needed Axel. Needed someone. But he wasn’t here.

And for the first time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to see me like this.

No.

I would wash my face. Clean my room. Hide the pieces of my broken heart in plain sight. Like Rosa taught me, without teaching me. Ironic, isn’t it?

But unlike her, I wasn’t doing it to lie. I was doing it to fight. Because if she thought I would let her destroy what was left of Mamá’s memory...

She didn’t know me at all.

Tomorrow, I’d keep it all in until that perfect moment when I’d let the cat out of the bag. You wait and watch.

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