lphas Second Choice novel Chapter 50

Jaxon let out a sharp, humorless laugh.

“Lucien, stop pretending to be the saint here. Don’t tell me you didn’t already lose patience with my sister back then. You expect anyone to believe you weren’t falling for Skyla?

“She’s the true–born daughter, after all. Marrying her secured your path to the Alpha inheritance, didn’t it?”

Lucien’s jaw tightened.

“Don’t call her your sister. You abandoned her when she came to you that night. You left her standing in the snow till morning!

“If you’d taken her in, she never would’ve left the pack in despair. So what’s with this fake brotherly guilt now?”

“I…”

Jaxon sneered, refusing to back down. “At least I’m the one most qualified to stay by her side!”

“I’m her brother,” Cassian cut in coldly. “I’m the one with the right. I’ll be taking Paige back to the pack. She and her child have nothing to do with either of you.”

“The hell you will!” Jaxon snapped. “And what gives you that right? You were the one who severed

ties with her yourself.

“I’m her blood brother! I’m the only one here who still has a real tie to her and to her child.”

Lucien stepped forward, fury burning in his eyes. “You shameless bastard. You dare even say those

words?

“She sacrificed her pride and begged people for favors so you could stand on stage and chase your dream. And when you made it big, who did you thank first? Skyla.

“Did you ever once mention her name?!”

“I’m the father of her child,” he added, voice trembling with anger. “We’re a family, Jaxon! You

can’t change that!”

“Enough!” a nurse barked, bursting into the room.

“The patient needs rest! Only one immediate family member stays. Everyone else, out.”

“I’m her older brother!” Cassian immediately declared.

“I’m her younger brother!” Jaxon shot back.

The nurse blinked, confused. “You two… are both the patient’s brothers?”

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Awkward silence filled the room.

“I–I’m her daughter’s father,” Lucien said quickly

“Then you stay,” the nurse said impatiently. “The other two get outside.”

When I opened my eyes again, the world was quiet.

Lucien sat beside my bed, staring at me, motionless

Four years had passed. He looked older, wearier.

Once upon a time, I had truly loved this man.

He was my childhood sweetheart, my fated mate.

Four years ago, when my bandages came off after the accident, when Cassian and Jaxon were too busy doting on Skyla, Lucien was the only one who came to visit me.

The only one who didn’t scold me.

“Paige, silly girl, what are you crying for?” he’d said, pulling me into his arms.

Through my tears, I asked, “Will you always be here for me? Always?”

He hesitated for a moment, then said yes.

Maybe to prove it, he made me his that night.

But in the middle of the night, I half–awoke to the sound of his voice, soft and gentle, on the phone.

“You have to listen to the pack doctor, okay? If you keep scratching, your wrist will scar. And you can’t keep crying every night, or your eyes will get puffy…”

I froze. That tenderness wasn’t for me. It was for Skyla.

I confronted him, screaming, asking why he was talking to her behind my back.

At first, he tried to calm me down. But when I didn’t stop crying, his patience snapped.

“Paige, the world doesn’t revolve around you! Why can’t you just be more like Skyla? More understanding? And besides, if she hadn’t been switched, she would’ve been my Luna anyway!”

The moment the words left his mouth, his face paled.

He reached out to hold me, but I shoved him away and ran.

After that, we barely spoke.

Maybe he had long since grown tired of me, our quiet, decade–long love had dulled, and Skyla’s arrival had thrown a stone into the calm lake of his heart, stirring something new.

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Later, when Skyla accused me of pushing her down the stairs, he sided with her, just like Cassian

and Jaxon did.

Then, he rejected me.

Their betrayal sealed my fate. The pack believed every word that the fake daughter, raised in luxury, had turned vicious and jealous, that I’d tried to harm the true heir.

“The mountain bird will never become a phoenix,” they said.

“Raise it in the nest all you want, it’ll still be a wild thing from the woods.”

I became the outcast, the villain whispered about in every corner.

No one answered my calls. Not even Lucien. Until I found him, trembling, broken, demanding to

know why.

He hesitated, then said quietly, “Paige, you were jealous of Skyla, weren’t you?”

He told me to apologize. In my fury, I grabbed an ashtray and hurled it at him.

After that, the engagement that was meant to be ours became theirs.

Lucien and Skyla.

And I, driven by grief and hate, became someone I no longer recognized.

I didn’t understand why Lucien’s love had turned to ice.

Why Cassian stopped believing in me. Why Jaxon never once stood on my side.

I was drowning in emotions that devoured me whole, spiraling into madness.

That night, I nearly drove straight into the pack hall ready to end everything and take them all with

1. me.

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