Punished for a Bastard, But My Pup is the Alpha King's

Lila's POV

I ran through the Darkwood, my heart pounding in my chest, branches whipping at my face and tearing at my dress. The cool night air did nothing to calm the fire burning through me - a mixture of shame, anger, and the lingering sensation of the stranger's touch on my skin. I could still feel where his hands had gripped my waist, where his mouth had pressed against my breast.

Mother would be ashamed of me.

The thought echoed through my mind with every step. I had given away the one thing that made me valuable to my pack, to my family. The one thing a female wolf had to trade for security, for status, for a future. And

I'd given it to a dying stranger in the woods, a man I didn't even know.

The lights of our pack house appeared through the trees, casting long shadows across the clearing. My legs burned as I pushed myself harder, desperate to reach the safety of my room before anyone saw me. Maybe I could wash away the evidence, pretend none of it had happened. Maybe I could still find a way to fix this shattered night.

I burst through the front door, my chest heaving, hair wild and dress in disarray. But my hopes died as I saw who was waiting.

Father sat in his heavy wooden chair by the fireplace, his face a mask of barely contained rage. Beside him stood my stepmother, her lips twisted in judgment. And there, between them, was my stepsister Clara, wearing a dress barely disguised by a thin shawl, her hair mussed and cheeks flushed.

"There she is!" Clara pointed a manicured finger at me, her voice shrill with triumph. "The shameless whore returns!"

I froze in the doorway, my blood turning to ice.

"Father, I saw Lila," Clara continued, her eyes gleaming with malice. "In the Darkwood. She was... she was with a strange man." She lowered her voice to a scandalized whisper. "Having sex. Like a common animal in the woods!"

"Shameless!" my stepmother chimed in, her voice dripping with venom. "After everything we've done for you, after all the sacrifices..."

My father rose from his chair, his massive frame filling the room. I cowered back, knowing what was coming, but still the force of his hand against my face knocked me sideways. My cheek burned, tears springing to my eyes as I stumbled back against the wall.

"You stupid girl!" he roared, his face contorted with fury. "You've shamed our entire family! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I didn't!" I cried out, tears streaming down my face. "I swear, Father, I'm still a virgin! I didn't do anything!"

My stepsister let out a cruel laugh. "Liar! I saw you with my own eyes. I followed the scent of your perfume, thinking you were up to no good, and what did I find? You, rutting with some stranger in the woods like a bitch in heat!"

"No!" I shook my head frantically, my mind racing. "It's not like that! I found him injured, I was trying to help..."

"Don't lie to me!" My father stepped closer, his hand raised again. "Your stepsister tells me she saw everything. Saw you on top of him, heard your moans of pleasure."

"I wasn't -" I started, but he cut me off with a backhand that sent me sprawling to the floor.

"You'll speak when spoken to!" He loomed over me, his eyes burning with Alpha authority. "Do you know what this means? No respectable male will ever want you now. You're damaged goods, worthless to us, worthless to the pack."

Tears choked my throat as I looked up at him. "But Kael... Kael is my chosen mate. He'll still want me..."

Clara's laughter filled the room again. "Oh, you poor, stupid girl. Kael told my father everything. He and I are fated mates, true bonded by the Moon Goddess herself. You? You're just a placeholder, a mistake he was forced into by your father and his weak position in the pack."

My heart shattered all over again. "But... but he said he loved me. We've been preparing for the mating ceremony for years..."

"And now he's preparing for me," Clara gloated, stepping closer so I could smell Kael's scent still lingering on her skin. "He told me everything - how he's been counting down the days until he could be free of you. How he never wanted you, that you were nothing but a duty imposed on him by pack politics."

"No!" I scrambled to my feet, desperation clawing at my chest. "Father, you can't believe her! She's lying! I saw them together today - Kael and Clara - I saw them having sex in his cabin!"

My father's expression darkened, if that was even possible. "So you admit you were spying on them?

Violating their privacy, trying to catch them in some imagined wrongdoing to cover for your own indiscretions?"

"I wasn't spying! I went to bring him flowers for his birthday, and I heard them!" My voice cracked as I pleaded. "Please, Father, you have to believe me. Kael said terrible things about me, said I was nothing, that

Clara was his true mate..."

"And so she is," my father growled. "Kael came to me himself after he and Clara had... bonded. He told me how you've been pursuing him, how you've been throwing yourself at him despite his lack of interest. How you've been trying to seduce him away from his true mate."

"That's not true!" I cried. "I never -"

"Silence!" My father's hand came down again, striking me so hard I tasted blood. "Kael told me everything.

About how you've been obsessed with him for years, how you've been using every trick you could think of to get him to claim you. How you offered yourself to him, again and again, even when he made it clear he wanted someone else."

"Father, please..."

"He said you even threatened to kill yourself if he didn't choose you," my stepmother added, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "That you've been unstable for months, becoming increasingly desperate as your birthday approached."

"That's a lie!" I screamed. "I never said that! Kael never said anything to me about -"

"Enough!" My father grabbed me by the front of my dress, shaking me like a disobedient pup. "You're not only a whore, you're a liar. You shame our family, you shame our pack, and you dishonor the Moon Goddess with your behavior."

He released me, letting me fall to the floor in a heap of tears and broken pride. "I've spoken with Alpha Kael and his father. Tomorrow night, there's a mating dance for eligible unmated wolves. You will attend, and you will find someone - anyone - willing to take you despite your... indiscretions."

"What?" I stared up at him in horror. "But I thought Kael was..."

"Kael is with Clara now, as fate intended," my father spat. "And you need to be off my hands, before your disgrace spreads any further. You'll find a replacement mate tomorrow night, or I'll have no choice but to sentence you to death."

The blood drained from my face. "Death? Father, you can't be serious..."

"I am deadly serious," he said coldly. "A daughter who brings shame to her family, who refuses to accept her place, who can't even keep her legs closed for her chosen mate... such a daughter is worse than useless to me.

She's a liability."

He turned his back on me, dismissing me as easily as he would swat away a fly. "Go to your room. You're not to leave until tomorrow night's dance. And if I hear so much as a whisper of any more inappropriate behavior..."

He didn't need to finish the threat. I knew what he was capable of. Every wolf in the pack knew.

I scrambled to my feet and fled to my room, ignoring Clara's triumphant smirk and my stepmother's sneer.

Once inside, I locked the door and collapsed onto my bed, tears soaking my pillow as my world crumbled around me.

Outside my window, the moon hung full and bright, mocking me with its perfect silver light. The Moon

Goddess had supposedly destined Kael and Clara to be together, had supposedly crafted their perfect match while leaving me to be nothing more than an obstacle, a third wheel, a joke.

I curled into a ball, my body trembling, and for the first time in my life, I cursed the Moon Goddess. I cursed the pack, the traditions, the unfair expectations placed on me as a female wolf. And most of all, I cursed myself for believing that I could ever be worthy of love.

Tomorrow night, I would have to find a mate, or die. And as I drifted into an uneasy sleep, one face kept flashing through my mind - the dying stranger in the woods, with his piercing gray eyes and his hands that had held me with such desperate need.

The stranger whose touch still burned on my skin, whose scent still lingered in my memory. The stranger who had taken my virginity and perhaps, in that one brief moment, given me something real in exchange.

A stranger whose identity I might never know.