Mated To My Boyfriend's Brother

Sophia Burga, an Omega of the Nightshade Pack, had planned to give everything to her boyfriend Bruce on her eighteenth birthday. The night before, she saw him step out of her best friend Louisa's bathroom in nothing but a white bathrobe. She told him it was over, locked herself in her room, and as she blew out her candle at midnight, her wolf finally stirred awake—a strange, warm, wild force.

The next evening, at Head Alpha Bryan Morrison's engagement ceremony, an unfamiliar scent pulled Sophia across the hall. Her wolf chanted "mate, mate, mate" inside her. She pushed through the crowd, fell to her knees before Bryan, her eyes turning ocean blue, and called out the word that shattered the celebration. Bryan's eyes flared red before he forced his wolf back into its cage. The guards could not touch her—his own Alpha dominance cleared her path. After ordering the guests to leave, he sent everyone out and wrapped his hand around her throat. "I will kill you before accepting you as my mate," he spat. When she dared him to reject her, he froze—ancient law forbade a head alpha from rejecting his fated mate without losing his position. Instead, he fired her brother Abraham, the pack's Gamma. Their mother, upon hearing the news, clutched her chest and collapsed. At the hospital, Sophia learned she had a heart condition and had suffered a mild stroke.

Sophia returned to the packhouse that night and stood outside in the cold until dawn, refusing to leave until Bryan spoke to her. He finally called her inside. He would reinstate her brother, but she would make herself useful. For six months, he ignored her existence while his secretary Lily dumped grunt work on her. At a university project presentation, Louisa stole Sophia's work and humiliated her by replacing her slides with a desperate love confession to Bruce. As the audience mocked her, the doors swung open. Bryan walked in against the light, descending like a deity. Overwhelmed by the suppressed mate bond, Sophia rose on her toes and kissed him in front of the entire hall. He did not push her away but did not kiss her back. In the corridor, his words cut deep: "Know your place. You are nothing." Yet outside, his car was waiting. He told her Louisa stole her project, but the weak must claim their own justice. Then he offered her an interview—an interview that turned brutal. "Do you think you're qualified for any job here? Your skills aren't even good enough to serve coffee." She refused to beg. He hired her anyway.

The fragile peace shattered when a major project was leaked to a rival pack, and all evidence pointed to Sophia. Bryan summoned her to his office. "Explain this," he demanded, showing her photos of her talking to an Alpha from another pack. She insisted he was just asking for directions. "A head Alpha came all the way to ask you for directions?" He did not believe her. "You're still lying." His face full of rage, he flung the photos from his desk straight at her face. The sharp edge sliced across her left cheek—a tearing, searing pain. "You're fired. Get out of my company." Sophia ran out with her hand over her face, tears and blood streaming down together.

Days later, at her friend Sarah's birthday party, Sophia drank alcohol for the first time. A few glasses in, the world began to spin. As she was leaving, she almost fell. A pair of hands caught her. She looked up in a daze and, in her drunken state, mistook the figure for Bruce. "Bruce—why did you do this to me?" She buried her face in his chest and grabbed his clothes. "Look closer. Who am I?" That voice was too cold, too deep. She blinked hard and saw the face clearly. Not Bruce. It was Bryan. "Why did you chase me all the way here? Haven't you humiliated me enough?" He shoved her away. She stumbled and hit the bar counter, her elbow slamming into the edge. He turned and strode toward the exit, his back cold as a wall.

Outside, the night wind hit her, and her stomach churned violently. She staggered to the roadside and vomited until her stomach was empty. Footsteps came from behind. "Get in the car." "No. I can go back on my own." "That's an order from your Alpha." An Omega cannot disobey an Alpha's command. She got in. In the car, the silence was suffocating. Suddenly she felt a gaze land on her left cheek—the wound he had cut with the photo, still crusted with blood. "It hasn't healed yet," he said. After a few seconds of silence, he reached out and cupped her face. He lowered his head, his lips gently pressing against the wound, the warm tip of his tongue slowly tracing over the scab—the way wolves healed their mates. She closed her eyes, her heart pounding. After what felt like a long time, he let go. "The wound is healed." She instinctively touched her left cheek. Smooth skin. The wound was gone. "Hurting you that day was my fault," he said. "Just stating a fact. Don't overthink it."

Three days after she was fired, Bryan reviewed all the surveillance and financial records. He discovered that Lily's bank account had received a huge transfer from an Alpha of another pack. Confronted, Lily confessed: "I leaked the information and framed Sophia." Bryan fired her on the spot. The next morning, Sophia opened her door and froze. Bryan stood there, in his arms a large bouquet of red roses. "I wronged you. I'm sorry." She took the bouquet, her fingers trembling slightly. "Come back to work tomorrow," he said. "But that's an order." He turned and left. She stood at the door holding the roses, watching him get in the car and drive away. The scent of roses filled the air. There were still dewdrops on the petals. Her heart was racing.