The Rejected daughter chosen by the Alpha (Maya and Atila) novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39

– MAYA

Pain came first.

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Not thought. Not fear. Just pain-raw and immediate, ripping through me before I could even understand what was happening.

It wasn’t one sharp hit. It was being dragged. Hard. My skin burned as my body scraped over stone, over roots, over dirt, like I weighed nothing at all. Like I didn’t matter. The first thing I registered was sound-gravel grinding beneath me, dry leaves snapping, the awful scrape of my own body sliding across the ground.

I forced my eyes open.

Above me, the sky was broken apart by twisted branches. Everything spun. My head pounded like it was about to split open.

I tried to move.

Nothing happened.

Something bit into my wrists. I strained my neck and looked down.

A thick vine. Sloppily knotted. Dug tight into my skin. My hands were tied behind my back.

Panic hit fast, rising hot and wild in my chest.

I lifted my head.

Legs. Two figures ahead of me, walking without a care, dragging me by my ankles.

I recognized the blonde hair instantly. The way she moved.

My stomach dropped.

“E-Elizabeth…?” My voice came out hoarse, barely there.

She stopped.

Slowly, she turned her head.

When she realized I was awake, the smile that spread across her face wasn’t surprise.

It was satisfaction.

“Well, look at that,” she said, her tone sickly sweet. “Sleeping Beauty finally woke up.”

My heart slammed against my ribs.

“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, twisting, trying to kick, trying to fight the pull.

Margot laughed. Short. Sharp. “She can still talk,” she said, almost impressed. “That’s amazing.”

“Let me go!” I screamed. “Let me go-now!”

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Chapter 39

I kicked again. My heel connected with something solid.

“Ow!” Elizabeth snapped, dropping my leg for half a second.

That was all I needed.

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1 twisted hard. pain exploding across my back as I rolled. Something slipped loose from my hair and clinked against the ground.

Metal.

A thin pin.

My pulse jumped.

With my hands bound behind me, I fumbled for it anyway, clumsy and desperate, managing to pinch it between my fingers like it was the only thing keeping me alive. I lifted my arm as high as I could.

Elizabeth saw it.

Her expression darkened instantly.

She moved before I could even take a breath.

Cold metal pressed against my throat. Her weight slammed down on me, pinning me to the forest floor like I was nothing.

“If you keep screaming,” she whispered, low and vicious, “I swear I’ll shove this so far down your throat you won’t make another sound.”

I swallowed hard. my throat tight with fear.

“You.. you wouldn’t,” I whispered, shaking as I met her eyes. “Would you?”

She didn’t blink.

“Don’t test me.”

The fear turned clean and absolute.

Elizabeth had always been cruel. Always. Even when we were kids. But this-this wasn’t her usual spite.

This was different.

Like, for the first time, she actually felt threatened by me.

She stood abruptly and flung the pin into the brush.

“Get up,” she snapped.

“I can’t,” I rasped. “My hands-”

“Then you’ll move like this.”

She grabbed my ankle again and yanked.

I cried out, kicking uselessly at the air.

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“Stop-Elizabeth, stop!”

My eyes found Freida.

“Freida… please.”

She wouldn’t look at me.

Her face was shut down. Hard. No pity. Just something bitter, locked in place.

As they dragged me deeper into the woods, the air changed. Colder. Damp. Heavy. The light thinned until it felt like the trees were swallowing it whole.

Freida stopped first.

“Wait,” she said. “What’s that?”

Elizabeth let go of my leg and moved ahead.

Through the brush, I saw it-a round stone structure half-hidden by vines and moss.

Elizabeth gripped a heavy stone lid and shoved it aside. The sound echoed hollowly, making my skin prickle.

“It’s a well.” she said, brushing her hands together. Then she turned back to me, her eyes shining with something awful. “Perfect. We’ll put her in there.”

My stomach dropped through the ground.

“What do you mean, put me in there?” I screamed. “What if it’s too deep? What if I-what if I die?”

Elizabeth glanced at Margot and Freida-and laughed.

“And whose fault would that be?”

My whole body shook.

“You can’t be serious.”

She crouched until we were face-to-face, close enough that I could smell dirt and adrenaline on her breath.

“Look on the bright side,” she said softly. “If you disappear, Alpha Atila will be alone again. And then he won’t have a choice He’ll have to pick one of your sisters.”

She tilted her head, studying me.

“You don’t really care about that, do you?”

My mouth went dry.

“You’re insane.”

I looked at the other two, clinging to hope I knew I didn’t deserve.

“You’re really doing this?” My voice cracked. “You’re not afraid of what happens after? This is a crime!”

Margot laughed again, light and careless.

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“And who’s here to judge us, Maya?”

My gaze snapped to Freida.

She swallowed.

“She… she’s right,” she murmured.

Something inside me broke. Quietly. Completely.

“All this over a man?” I spat. “What kind of wolves do something like this just because of an Alpha?”

“Shut up!” Elizabeth snarled.

She lunged, scooped up a fistful of dirt, and shoved it into my mouth.

“Swallow it.”

I gagged, choking as grit scraped my tongue and throat. I coughed, trying to breathe.

“Girls!” Elizabeth shouted. “Get over here and help me!”

They rushed me all at once.

Hands everywhere. Dirt. Leaves. Sweat. I was yanked and lifted like I wasn’t even human.

“No!” I cried. “Please-don’t-”

I kicked wildly, sobbing in panic. I hit someone.

‘Hold her!” a voice snapped. “Don’t let her bite!”

Please,” I begged, my voice shattering. “Please-”

They lifted me off the ground.

The well loomed closer.

The opening.

The dark.

‘Now,” Elizabeth said.

The world tipped violently.

For a split second, I felt the shove-and then I was falling.

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Air rushed past me, ripping the breath from my lungs. The shaft was narrow, old, slick with damp stone. I scraped along the side on the way down, pain flaring-

Then I hit.

Hard.

All the air left my body in a single, brutal rush. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe at all My chest locked Panic swallowed

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everything.

When air finally came back, it came in ragged, painful gasps.