Rejected by the King, Protected by Her Alpha Twin Chapter 01

Rejected by the King, Protected by Her Alpha Twin Chapter 01 Twins Bound by Wolf-Spirits 

My twin sister Selene Thorne and I shared an identical face, yet our wolf-spirits could not have been more different.

She was a quiet, skittish omega. I was born a female alpha.

My code was simple: Harm my family, and I will rip your throat out.

When we turned eighteen, Selene’s fated-mate bond ignited with Caius Rourke, the alpha king.

But an ancient prophecy warned that twin wolf-born sisters would bring ruin to the pack. For Selene to claim the title of luna, I had to die.

Tears streaming down their faces, my parents begged me to take an herb that would fake my own death. accepted-on three non-negotiable terms.

First: Every private guard I’d trained must remain in Selene’s service.

Second: She would receive enough wealth and territory that no one in the pack would dare look down on

her.

Third: If Caius ever betrayed her, they had to bring her home, whatever the cost.

My parents swore repeatedly; Once I left, Selene would live safely for the rest of her days.

So I took the herb, left the pack behind, and spent three brutal years alone in the northern wastelands.

The potion faked my death, but it shattered my wolf-spirit.

When I woke, most of my power was gone. I could no longer sense Selene at all. The thread tying our wolf- spirits together had felt violently torn apart.

I wrote it off as a lingering side-effect of the death-feigning herb.

That changed one month ago. Agony jolted me from sleep deep in the night. Searing pain-silver whip tearing through flesh-shot up my right arm and burned straight into my heart. Then I heard Selene’s faint, shaking call.

“Sister.”

That single word re-awakened the twin bond that had lain dormant for three years.

I understood then: The link had never truly broken.

My wolf-spirit had simply sustained too much damage to pick up ordinary pain. Only silver-inflicted, near- death torment from Selene could punch through that barrier and reach my body.

Something terrible had happened to her,

I rode through the night back to the pack, only to arrive and watch another woman receive the luna

coronation.

Evelyn Corvina stood there wearing a silver crown, pressed tight against Caius’s side. There was no trace of grief on my parents’ faces.

I Ingered unseen within the crowd for a long time, choking back the snarl building inside my wolf spirit.

Killing them right then would be too merciful.

First, I needed to find Selene.

I slipped through an abandoned secret passage into my sister’s old quarters.

The grounds lay in ruins. Every tree Selene had loved had been chopped down. Her engraved nameplate lay half-buried in mud.

A beta hand-maiden stood there, wiping her boots on top of it.

She caught sight of my face and froze, shocked.

“Selene? Weren’t you exiled from the pack?”

She’d mistaken me for my sister.

My gaze locked onto her wrist. The white bracelet there was the coming-of-age gift I’d given Selene.

“Take it off.”

The hand-maiden stared, then huffed a mocking snort.

“The Luna Evelyn gave this to me. Everything you left behind belongs to her now.”

She shoved me, full of contempt.

“Get the hell out of here! If the Alpha King finds out you snuck back, thirty lashes won’t save you!”

Thirty lashes.

Rage exploded inside my wolf-spirit, howling against my consciousness.

That agony I’d felt in the night-Selene had been enduring those lashes.

I clamped my hand hard around her wrist, voice ice-cold. “Why was she exiled?”

“She grew consumed with jealousy over Evelyn and murdered the Alpha King’s cub! It’s mercy they didn’t execute her on the spot!”

Several guards heard the back-and-forth, drew steel, and burst into the courtyard.

Bolstered by backup, the hand-maiden grew bold.

She grabbed fistfuls of my hair and sneered, “A cast-aside omega thinks she can give me orders?”

I smiled.

They’d forgotten this face didn’t belong only to Selene’s gentle soul.

I twisted and snapped her wrist, then drove my boot down, grinding her face into thick mud. Her scream

ped across the courtyard.

“Ahhh! How dare you!”

I reclaimed my bracelet, forced her face toward the mud-caked nameplate, and wore a cold, mening

smile.

“Lick it clean.

“Leave one speck of mud, and I’ll pull one of your teeth.”

She thrashed wildly. Annoyed by her struggle, I struck and knocked out one of her front teeth. Blood flooded out, staining the muddy water crimson.

“I do not repeat myself.”

“Let her go!” the captain of the guards bellowed, charging in with sword raised.

I dodged his swing, seized his wrist, and wrenched it. I tore his blade free while kicking hard and shattering his kneecap.

He crashed heavily to his knees.

In an instant, I unleashed the crushing aura of a high-ranking alpha. The remaining guards paled. Their inner wolf-spirits whimpered, forcing them to drop to the ground, heads bowed.

I planted my boot on the back of the captain’s neck and ground his face against the rough nameplate.

“She uses her tongue.”

“You use your face.”

Blood streamed down his face, yet he still spat threats. “The Alpha King will not let you get away with this!”

“Funny that.” I leaned down toward him. “Neither will I let him.

“Now tell me-

“Where did they exile Selene?”