Alpha's Abandoned Daughter is the Secret Heiress novel Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Power Couple

(Amelia's POV)

"Amelia, I want to end our mate bond," my fated mate, Damien, said solemnly over the phone.

The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs. For a moment, I couldn't process what I'd just heard. The phone felt heavy in my hand. My heart stuttered, then began to race, pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat, in my temples, in the very tips of my fingers gripping the device.

Inside me, Ava stirred-no, not stirred. She erupted. My wolf surged forward with a violence I'd never felt from her before, her presence flooding my consciousness with white-hot fury and disbelief. The mate bond, that sacred thread connecting us to Damien, suddenly felt like it was being pulled taut, stretched to its breaking point. I could feel it thrumming painfully beneath my skin, a warning, a protest.

"What the hell? What are you talking about?" The words came out sharper than I intended, but I couldn't help it. Ava was clawing at my control, her growl reverberating through my chest.

Memories flashed unbidden through my mind-Damien, bloodied and broken, stumbling into Meadow Brook territory six months ago. The moment our eyes met and the mate bond had snapped into place, fierce and undeniable. Moon Goddess, I had been overjoyed. Ava had been overjoyed. Yes, we'd both sensed his wolf's weakness, the strange frailty in his aura that didn't match a typical warrior. But we had accepted it without hesitation. The Moon Goddess had chosen him for us, and we had chosen to honor that bond.

I had spent months healing him, pouring my energy and skill into mending his wounds. I had held him through nightmares, soothed him when memories of his attack haunted him. I had given him everything-my care, my devotion, my trust. And now, now he wanted to sever our bond?

"I've discovered something important about myself," Damien continued, his voice maddeningly calm, as if he were discussing the weather and not destroying everything between us. "I'm not just some warrior from Meadow Brook Pack. I'm actually the son of the Alpha of Blackwood Pack in Northgate City. I've taken my rightful name-Damien Blackwood."

Alpha heir. The words echoed in my mind, hollow and bitter. 

I forced myself to breathe, to think past the roaring in my ears. My free hand clenched into a fist at my side, nails digging into my palm hard enough to hurt. The pain helped ground me, kept me from completely losing control.

"That's... unexpected," I managed, my voice coming out steadier than I felt. "Congratulations, I guess."

The word tasted like ash on my tongue. Congratulations for discovering you're someone important? Congratulations for deciding I'm no longer good enough?

"As the future Alpha of Blackwood Pack," he continued, and there was something in his tone now-pride, satisfaction, things I'd never heard from him before, "I need to reconsider certain... arrangements. Our mate bond isn't suitable anymore."

Arrangements. He called our sacred mate bond an arrangement. The mate bond the Moon Goddess herself had forged between us.

"You're just a healer from a small, remote pack," Damien said, each word a carefully placed knife. "You don't have the status required to be an Alpha's mate. I need to mark someone more appropriate-perhaps an Alpha's daughter from another powerful pack."

Status. Appropriate. The words swirled in my head, each one more insulting than the last. I felt something inside me begin to c***k, a fissure spreading through the careful composure I'd been maintaining.

Ava howled in rage, a sound so fierce it threatened to burst from my throat. 'Weak! Coward! Ungrateful dog!' she snarled in my mind. 'We saved his pathetic life and this is how he repays us?'

My blood boiled, heat flooding my veins as fury mixed with something darker-humiliation, betrayal, grief all tangled together into something that made my chest feel too tight, too small to contain it all. The mate bond pulsed erratically now, as if sensing its imminent destruction, and the sensation was nauseating.

"So you're breaking our bond because I'm suddenly not good enough for you?" I asked, my voice low and dangerous.

"Don't be dramatic. I'm being practical," he replied dismissively, and somehow that casual dismissal hurt worse than anything else. How could he sound so unaffected? How could this mean nothing to him when it was everything to me?

Then he said something that made my stomach turn: "I could still keep you as my lover, of course. You'd have certain privileges-"

The world seemed to tilt. Lover. Mistress. He wanted to reduce me to that? After everything?

I looked up to see the handsome man in a wheelchair still sitting across from me, one eyebrow raised in what might have been concern or curiosity. Theodore Crimson. The man who had appeared at my healing clinic just five minutes before Damien's call, introducing himself with claims so outrageous they should have been laughable.

Heir to the Alpha King of the Northern Territories. Future Alpha of the Crimson Moon Pack. And according to him, I was the long-lost daughter of the Stone River Pack's Alpha.

I should have been more affected by his presence, more concerned with verifying his wild claims. But right now, with the phantom pain of the broken bond still echoing through my chest, with Ava's continued snarling in my mind, I couldn't quite bring myself to care about the timing.

A laugh bubbled up from my chest, bitter and sharp. I smiled at him, though I knew it probably didn't reach my eyes.

"Is this a coincidence?" I asked, gesturing vaguely with the hand that still held my phone. "You, the heir to the Alpha King, just appeared before me, and my ex-mate also discovered that he is a long-lost Alpha heir. Is today April Fools' Day or something?"

The absurdity of it all was almost funny. Almost. If my chest didn't feel like someone had hollowed it out with a dull knife, I might have actually laughed.

"I assure you, everything I just told you is true," Theodore said, his expression remaining grave, unaffected by my sarcasm. "You really are the daughter of Adrian and Livia Stone, rulers of one of the most powerful packs in Northgate City."

I studied him as he spoke, really looked at him for the first time since his arrival. Even seated in a wheelchair, his presence was commanding. Golden eyes that seemed to see right through me. Strong, aristocratic features that spoke of generations of powerful bloodlines. Dark hair that fell just so across his forehead. And underneath all of that, despite his obvious physical limitations, an aura of strength that made something in my chest tighten.

Something about him felt... right. Different from Damien. Where Damien's presence had always felt slightly off, slightly weak despite the mate bond, Theodore's felt solid. Grounded. Real.

But I pushed that observation aside. Now was not the time to analyze why a stranger in a wheelchair felt more substantial than my fated mate had.

I laughed again, the sound even more bitter than before. "First my mate dumps me for not being high-status enough, and now a stranger claims I'm some lost princess? This day kee…