Fake Mating To My Ex's Powerful Enemy

Christina's POV

Slap!

My head snapped to the side, vision blurring, skin burning as if someone had pressed a brand into me.

I looked up to see Niall's furious eyes.

My fated mate just hit me.

Three minutes ago, I was daydreaming about redecorating this ridiculously expensive pack house. Two minutes ago, I accidentally knocked over a framed photo in his bedroom. A picture of my sister.

Now blood rushed in my ears- sharp, humiliating. Akira roared inside me, a storm of betrayal that stole my breath.

"You broke it!?" Niall spat. "This is the only picture I had with Beatrice. Your jealousy makes me sick."

"Are you fucking insane?" I gritted my teeth.

"No, you're the one who's twisted!" he roared."I already agreed to marry you, what more do you want? Beatrice left because of you! Because you forced the mate bond on me!"

The hatred in his eyes cut deeper than any slap.

"She was your sister! And now you covet what was hers? You won't stop until every trace of her is erased, will you?" He said in anger as he shoved me backward, into the coffee table.

I landed on the shattered glass. Pain lanced through my palm, and my blood smeared across Beatrice's perfect smile.

How bitterly fitting.

My cheek throbbed. My hand was bleeding. But nothing hurt more than the realization that my so-called mate had never loved me.

"It wasn't me," I said, one final attempt at reason. "I never forced this mate bond on you. I never asked her to leave."

Logically speaking, I understood why someone might blame me.

On my eighteenth birthday, I shifted and realized Niall was my fated mate.Stupidly, I wrote it all down in my diary. I planned to tell him when he returned from his business trip. If he couldn't accept me, I was prepared for rejection.

But Beatrice found my diary and made it public.

Privacy meant nothing to her. She broadcast my diary to everyone in the Crescent pack .

I was publicly shamed as the pathetic spare who dared reach above her station for her perfect sister's Alpha.

Then Beatrice graciously left for abroad, leaving behind a letter saying she'd discovered my secret and decided to let go and let him be mine.

Her generosity was as real as someone being generous with a credit card that wasn't hers.

And I was the villain who drove away The Crescent Pack's perfect princess.

To my family, I was a long-neglected player suddenly promoted to the first string-a strategic shift I was now duty-bound to appreciate. My parents didn't truly care which daughter married Niall, only that the pack alliance was sealed. Even if Niall had literally ripped my heart out, my parents would've handed him napkins to clean up.

It was as if my parents had always hated me. No matter how much I outperformed Beatrice in training, they always made excuses for her and found fault with me. I was bitter, ungrateful, someone who couldn't appreciate her dear sister.

My fingers clenched around the engagement ring. This pathetic symbol of our joke mateship.

Hot tears blurred my vision. I blinked them back fast.

I bolted for the door and got out before the tears came.

Niall grabbed my wrist to stop me. "Clean it up."

"What?"I stared him in disbelief, needing to confirm I'd heard him right.

"You broke the photo frame. Clean up the pieces." Ice-cold command.

Too bad I never was good at taking orders.

"No." I lifted my chin. Zero compromise.

His jaw clenched. "You sure you want to do this, Christina?"

"Yes. I said no." I stared him down without flinching.

If love meant grinding my self-respect into dust, then fuck love.

The air between us snapped, tension rising like a storm. He leaned in, fury blazing. "Last chance. Disobey me, and I'll end this bond right here-".

"We are over," I cut in.

Shock froze his face.

For a moment,the air went still.

He hadn't expected me to actually say it.

I yanked my arm free, breath hitching as hope for escape flared-only for him to seize me again, his grip bruising, his eyes burning with something close to hatred.

"This is on you, Christina!" Niall snarled, his tone that of a sworn enemy rather than the mate fate had chained me to.

"I, Niall Granger, Alpha of the Frostpelt Pack, reject-"

"Shut the hell up!" I snapped.

If anyone was ending this bond, it would be me.

My gaze locked onto his, unflinching.

"You don't get to reject me. I reject you, Niall. Now accept it."

The world seemed to crack in half.

Akira howled inside me, a keening wail of loss, while searing agony tore through my chest as the bond unraveled thread by thread.

His jaw tightened,but he forced the words past clenched teeth.

"I accept your rejection. Now clean up your mess and fix the damn photo."

My hands shook as I picked up the shattered frame, shards biting into my skin, my blood smearing across the glass. I tore the picture down the middle, ripping his face away from my sister's, as if severing every last tie.

Without hesitation,I swung my hand and slapped him hard across that infuriatingly handsome, arrogant face. The crack echoed between us.

I leaned in, letting him see the fire in my eyes.

"Now," I hissed, "we're done..."

The silence was absolute.

My palm stung, but oh, the satisfaction almost dulled the pain in my chest.

Niall staggered back, shock flashing in his eyes.

It wasn't from pain, but from realizing the docile girl he'd despised no longer existed.

I smiled coldly. "Goodbye, Niall. Go worship your shrine to Beatrice."

And I walked out of that suffocating hell, head high.

I would rather drown in my own tears than let him see one more drop.

When I reached the parking lot, the cold night air hit my face, but overwhelming pain crashed over me like a tidal wave.

Fuck, no one ever told me that breaking the mate bond would be this excruciating.

It felt like having my heart sliced up and served to Hannibal Lecter.He'd probably enjoy it with a nice Chianti and some fava beans.

I curled up in the driver's seat, cold sweat streaming down my face.

Akira lay weakly inside me, whimpering,"It's so fucking strange!Like someone reached into my gut and tore something out with their fist."

I couldn't agree more.

I wanted to find my mother,she would definitely know how to ease this kind of pain.

Or maybe any creature in pain instinctively thinks of their mother.

As I hesitated between sending a mind-link or making a call, my phone vibrated.

My eyes were so blurry that I fumbled to swipe and answer.

"Chrissy, you must be insane!" My mother screamed."How dare you humiliate Niall like this! The pack alliance is ruined!"

"Mom, he rejected me," I said weakly. "As in, formally. Also, he hit me. So there's that fun detail."

"He... what?" For once, she sounded stunned.

My dad's voice cut in, "Don't be dramatic. After everything Beatrice sacrificed for you? You will apologize to Niall immediately and beg him to marry you, or you're no longer welcome in our territory!"

He hung up before I could respond.

I stared at my phone in bewilderment, my father's words echoing in my head.

Not "Are you okay?" Not "We're coming to get you."

Just threats about banishing me from the pack.

Why was it that no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't earn even a sliver of their approval? When I was rejected by my mate and dying from the pain, all my parents could think about was the pack alliance and my fucking sister who had disappeared God knows where!

Beatrice never had to do anything, yet she was their precious jewel.

So, this is it?

On the day I severed the mate bond with my fated mate, I finally realized that my parents had never loved me.

It shattered my last remaining, pathetic and pitiful longing for my parents' love.

Enough.

I was done trying to earn love that would never be given.

I was done being the convenient backup daughter.

I was taking back the self-respect I'd lost long ago, and I was breaking free of this engagement-no matter the consequences.