Living in the Shadow of My Sister

Nadia's POV

I stood on the grand terrace of the Alpha's mansion, feeling the cool evening breeze kiss my skin as the moon hung heavy and full in the sky. It should have been a day of celebration, of joy, for it was the 17th birthday of both me and my twin sister, Gloria. But as always, she stood in the center of everyone's attention, and I was just a shadow at her side. I forced a smile, my cheeks aching with the effort, as pack members showered her with gifts and praise.

"Congratulations, Gloria! Such a strong and promising young wolf," they would say, their eyes lighting up as they spoke of her early awakening last year. She had shifted into her wolf form at just sixteen—a rarity that set her apart from others, who usually waited until their eighteenth year. The pack elders adored her for it, whispering about her destined greatness. Meanwhile, my own wolf still lay dormant, as silent as a grave. No one looked at me the way they looked at her. Not even close.

"Nadia! Happy Birthday!" an elder exclaimed in passing. I nodded, offering a polite smile, but his eyes quickly darted back to Gloria, who was laughing at some joke. His excitement for me was only an afterthought. I knew I should be happy for my sister. After all; she was my other half. But today, all I could feel was the emptiness, the weight of expectation crushing down on me. I was the Alpha's daughter without a wolf. Weak. An embarrassment to the Ambersy name.

Then it happened. The moment that shattered everything.

The first howl split the air like a knife through flesh. Then came the screams, the roaring of men and wolves. Chaos erupted around me as the world turned crimson with the blood of my packmates. I saw a flash of fur and fangs—a rogue wolf, its eyes wild with a hunger for violence, lunged at a young warrior, tearing into his flesh.

My heart pounded in my chest, my breath catching in my throat. Father —where was Father? I saw him then, my father, the Alpha, rushing to the front lines, barking orders. His eyes blazed with fury as he tried to rally the warriors. "Everyone, to your positions! Defend the pack!" But then, panic spread through the ranks as the Beta's voice boomed, "We've been poisoned! They've suppressed our ability to shift!"

I felt the blood drain from my face. The warriors tried to shift, their faces contorted in concentration and horror, but nothing happened. No fur. No claws. No howls of transformation. Only the rogues remained in their wolf forms, a sea of snarling beasts, tearing through our defenseless warriors like paper.

I couldn't move—couldn't think. I was frozen in place, watching in helpless horror. A rogue—a monstrous wolf with yellow eyes and foam dripping from its jaws—leaped at my father. He fought bravely, with fists and steel, but it wasn't enough. I saw the blood—so much blood—as the rogue's teeth sank into his neck. He went down with a choked roar, eyes wide in shock and rage, and I felt something inside me shatter.

"Father!" My voice was a raw scream, but it was lost in the chaos. My mother, our Luna, rushed to his side, trying to pull him back, but more rogues swarmed them. She fought fiercely, her eyes blazing with determination. I saw her break a rogue's neck with a twist of her hand, but then another lunged at her from behind. She fell to her knees, clutching her bleeding side, and I could see the life draining from her eyes. She reached for Father's hand, but both were gone too soon-too fast.

"No! No!" I tried to run to them, but a warrior grabbed my arm, yanking me back. "You can't, Nadia!" he yelled. "You need to—" His words cut off as a rogue leaped upon him, ripping out his throat. His blood sprayed across my face, hot and sticky. I stumbled back, my legs trembling beneath me. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I was going to die here.

A rogue wolf lunged at me, its teeth bared and eyes gleaming with hunger. I closed my eyes, bracing for the end, but a powerful growl pierced the chaos. I opened my eyes just in time to see a flash of white—Gloria's wolf. She collided with the rogue, knocking it off course. She was a blur of fur and fury, ripping through the rogues with a savagery that took my breath away.

"Run, Sunshine!" she shouted through the mind-link, her voice fierce and commanding. "Run, now!"

But I couldn't leave her. Not her too. "Gloria, no!" I cried, but she wasn't listening. She was fighting off three rogues at once, her beautiful white fur matted with blood—hers and theirs. She killed one, then another, but a third rogue sank its teeth into her neck. I saw the light in her eyes flicker, her body shuddering under the weight of the wound.

"No! Gloria!" I screamed, feeling the world collapse around me as I watched her fall, her body going limp in the dirt. She had fought for me, died for me. I should have been the one. I should have—

A roar tore through the chaos, a sound so deep and filled with wrath that it seemed to shake the earth itself. My vision blurred with tears, but I saw him then—a tall, powerful figure cutting through the rogues like a force of nature. Alpha Lucas Casimir of the Lockheart Pack, Gloria's intended mate. His eyes burned with rage and grief as he laid waste to the rogues that remained. His warriors followed his lead, and soon, the ground was slick with blood and bodies.

But it was too late. Far too late.

I knelt beside Gloria's broken form, numb to everything. I could hear my heart breaking with every ragged breath I took. She was gone. They were all gone. And I was alone.

Alpha Lucas's shadow fell over me, and I looked up my vision swimming. His eyes were wild, filled with a hatred so raw that it made my blood run cold. "Why are you still breathing?" he spat, his voice a low, venomous growl. "Why did she have to die for someone as useless as you? A girl without a wolf who couldn't protect her own pack!"

His words cut deeper than any blade. My lips trembled, but no words came out. What could I say? He was right. Gloria, my parents, my pack—none of them deserved this. And I—what was I? A weakling. A disgrace. My sister had died saving me when it should have been the other way around.

Lucas's hand gripped my arm, hauling me to my feet. "You don't get to die here," he said, his voice cold and unforgiving. "You'll come with me. And you'll pay for what happened today."

I didn't fight him. What was the point? I had nothing left. As his warriors took me away, my mind whispered to me, a bitter, broken thought. If I had known it would come to this, I would have prayed to die instead, I should have been the one to die, not her. Not Gloria.

But fate had other plans. And I was about to face them, whether I wanted to or not.

Nadia'S POV

It had been weeks—maybe months—since I’d arrived at the Lockheart Pack. Days passed like a never-ending cycle of torment and exhaustion. I didn’t have a place among these wolves. I was neither friend nor foe. I was less than the dirt beneath their boots, and they made sure I knew it every single day.

I was given no bed and no room of my own. At night, when the bitter wind howled through the gaps in the stone walls, I curled up on the cold floor in a small, dark corner of the servants' quarters. No one dared to give me even a rag of a blanket; that would mean acknowledging my existence. So I slept on the hard ground, with nothing but a torn shirt and threadbare pants to keep the winter's chill from gnawing at my bones.

The frost crept in through the cracks and settled into my flesh. My hands were the worst. The skin was cracked and raw, the edges swollen and purple from the cold, and every movement sent fresh waves of pain shooting up my arms. At night, I would press my hands against my chest, trying to warm them, but it was no use. The frostbite took more of me every day.

During the day, I worked. Hard. Scrubbing floors until my hands bled, carrying heavy buckets of water that sloshed over my feet and soaked through my thin shoes, washing clothes in the icy river until I could no longer feel my fingers. If I faltered, if I paused for even a moment to catch my breath, I’d feel the sharp sting of a cane across my back or the scornful laughter of the pack members. They thrived on my suffering. To them, I was a broken creature, unworthy of the name I once bore with pride.

“Hey, wolf-less girl!” a servant sneered one morning, throwing a pile of muddy boots in my path. “Clean these. And make it quick, unless you want to be our new chew toy.”

I lowered myself to the ground, my knees hitting the cold stone, and reached for the boots. My hands were trembling, not from fear but from sheer exhaustion. I could feel their eyes on me, the snickering, the whispers. I was a spectacle, a source of cruel entertainment. 'How far the Alpha's daughter has fallen', I imagined them saying. But I gritted my teeth and kept scrubbing. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of breaking.

And then there was Lucas.

He was a different kind of torment, a storm I couldn’t escape. Every time he saw me, his face twisted into something dark, something feral. I looked too much like her—like Gloria, his angel, his lost love. My sister’s memory haunted him, and every time he laid eyes on me, it seemed like he wanted to tear me apart just for existing.

One afternoon, I was in the main hall, mopping the floor near the long, heavy table where the warriors took their meals. I kept my head down, my hair falling around my face, hoping to remain invisible. But I could feel him before I saw him—Alpha Lucas. His presence was like a pressure in the air, thick and heavy.

“Stop,” he commanded, and his voice cut through the room like a blade. My hands stilled, the mop slipping from my grasp.

He was staring at me, his eyes cold and full of loathing. “How dare you stand there with her face?” he growled, his voice low, like a rumble of distant thunder. “How dare you breathe with the face of my Gloria?”

I dared not speak. I dared not move. But he stepped closer, his hand reaching out and grabbing my chin roughly. He tilted my head up, forcing me to look at him. His eyes bored into mine, searching for something he would never find.

“You think you deserve to live with that face?” His grip tightened, nails digging into my skin. “You think you can just walk around, reminding me of what I lost?”

“I didn’t choose this,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “I didn’t ask to look like her.”

His eyes flared with rage, and he shoved me backward. I stumbled and fell hard against the floor, the breath knocked out of me. “Then hide it!” he snapped. “Hide it or I’ll rip it off myself!”

I stayed on the ground until he left, the pain radiating through my body, but I made no sound. If there was one thing I had learned here, it was how to keep quiet when every bone in my body wanted to scream.

---

The days turned to nights, and the nights to more days of hell. But one night was different. That night, Lucas had drunk more than usual. His eyes were glassy, his movements unsteady as he slumped in his chair at the head of the long dining table. I could smell the liquor from where I stood at the entrance, holding a fresh jug of wine.

“Nadia!” he barked, his voice slurred. “Bring me more!”

I hurried over, careful not to spill a drop. As I approached, his eyes settled on my face, and something flickered there—something beyond his usual anger. His lips parted, and for a moment, he seemed lost, trapped in a memory.

“Gloria…” he whispered, his voice breaking like fragile glass.

Before I could react, his hand shot out and gripped my arm, pulling me closer. “You came back,” he murmured, his breath hot and sour against my cheek. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me. My angel…”

“No, Alpha—” I tried to pull away, but his strength was overwhelming. He wrapped his arms around me, crushing me against his chest, his lips brushing against my temple. My heart thundered in my chest, panic surging through me. “Please, you’ve got the wrong person. I’m not—”

But he wasn’t listening. He pressed me against the edge of the table, his lips finding mine in a desperate, drunken kiss. His hands roamed my back, pulling me closer, his body heavy and suffocating. I squirmed, trying to free myself, my mind racing with fear.

“Alpha Lucas, stop!” I pleaded, my voice muffled against his lips. “I’m not Gloria!”

Those words seemed to snap him out of his drunken stupor. His eyes sharpened, and his expression twisted into something cruel. He shoved me away so hard that I stumbled back, hitting the stone floor. I barely had a second to catch my breath before his hand cracked across my face, the force of the slap ringing in my ears.

“You disgusting bitch!” he roared, his face twisted with hatred. “How dare you trick me? How dare you show your face to me, looking like her? Get out of here! Now!”

I scrambled to my feet, my cheek burning, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. I ran, my heart pounding in my chest, my breath ragged. I sank to the ground, my body shaking with silent sobs. The tears came then, hot and fast, freezing on my cheeks as they fell.

Why was I still here? Why hadn’t the rogues just killed me that night? I should’ve been the one to die. I should’ve…

But I was still alive, clinging to this cruel existence like a threadbare rope. And for what? For what?

Nadia'S POV

I stumbled back to my shabby room, a dark, damp space in the far corner of the servants' quarters that smelled of mold and neglect. The floor creaked beneath my feet as I dragged myself to the thin, ragged mattress that served as my bed. The stone walls were cold to the touch, sucking the warmth from my bones like a leech. I curled up on the worn fabric, hugging my knees to my chest, and the tears I had held back in the hall came rushing out, hot and uncontrollable.

The world outside was silent, save for the distant howling of the wind through the cracks in the walls. My breath hitched, each sob tearing through my chest like a jagged knife. I couldn’t stop thinking of Gloria—her face, her voice, her final words to me. "Sunshine, run!"

That nickname—my name—pierced me deeper than any wound. Sunshine. She hadn’t called me that in years. I buried my face in my arms, my shoulders trembling with the weight of it all. She used to call me Sunshine every day, back when we were young and inseparable, before everything changed, before she changed.

"Why did you call me that again, Tori?" I thought as the sobs wracked my body. "Why only in your last breath?"

I closed my eyes and let the memories come, let them take me away from this place, from the cold and the pain.

---

Flashback

Before we turned 13, Gloria and I were more than sisters; we were a team, two halves of the same whole. Where she went, I followed, and where I led, she was right behind me. We did everything together—training, hunting, dreaming of the day we’d run side by side through the moonlit forests.

“Come on, Sunshine, keep up!” Gloria would laugh, her hair wild and her eyes bright as she sprinted ahead of me through the woods. I’d chase after her, panting and grinning, the sun casting dappled shadows on our faces.

She always called me Sunshine. She said it was because my hair caught the sunlight like a beacon, bright and warm, just like me. I was the little sister, always in her shadow, but she never made me feel small. Not back then.

One day, when the trees were heavy with the scent of pine and the air was crisp with the promise of autumn, Gloria came to me with a gleam in her eyes. “Sunshine, I’m going hunting in the forest. Wanna come?”

I was lying on my bed, half-asleep from a lazy afternoon. I yawned and stretched, glancing up at her with half-lidded eyes. “Nah, I think I’ll stay here and nap. You know me—your little lazybones.”

She laughed softly and ruffled my hair. “Alright, little lazybones. I’ll go by myself then. Don’t get too bored without me.”

I watched her leave, her steps light and eager, and I remember feeling a pang of guilt. I should have gone with her. But I shrugged it off. "She’ll be fine," I’d told myself. Gloria could handle herself in the woods. She was always the stronger one, the braver one.

But then she didn’t come back that night. Or the next day. And the whole pack descended into chaos.

Warriors, scouts, everyone—my father, the Alpha, led the search, his face pale with worry. My mother, the Luna, prayed to the Moon Goddess every waking second, her eyes red from crying. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. The house felt empty, like a void had swallowed all the light, all the warmth. And I realized how much I needed her, how lost I was without her.

When Gloria finally returned after two days, everyone rejoiced, myself most of all. I remember running to her, throwing my arms around her and burying my face in her neck, breathing in her scent. “Tori! Tori, I thought I lost you!”

But she didn’t hug me back. She stood stiff, her body cold and unyielding. I pulled back, confused, searching her face for the warmth that had always been there. She looked the same, but something in her eyes had changed. When she smiled, it wasn’t the bright, loving smile I’d known my whole life—it was colder, more distant, like a stranger’s smile wearing my sister’s face.

“Sorry to worry you,” she said, her voice flat. “I’m fine now. Don’t be so dramatic.”

I blinked up at her, feeling the sting of her words. It wasn’t like her to be so... distant. So cold. But I nodded, swallowing back my hurt. “I’m just glad you’re home.”

From that day on, Gloria was never the same. She stopped calling me Sunshine, stopped laughing with me. Her smiles were scarce, and when they did come, they were thin and strained, lacking the warmth they once had. I couldn’t understand it. I thought maybe she was mad at me for not going with her that day, for not being there when she needed me.

So I tried everything to make it up to her. I made her little gifts—hand-carved trinkets from wood, braided bracelets, anything I thought might bring back her smile. I even learned to cook her favorite meals, spending hours in the kitchen until my hands were blistered and my feet ached. But no matter what I did, her eyes remained distant, her voice cold.

I’d wait for her to say it again, to call me Sunshine, but she never did. I lost count of the times I stayed up late, listening to her move around in the room next to mine, wanting to knock on her door and ask, "What happened to you?" But the words always got stuck in my throat.

End of Flashback

----

My tears flowed freely now, soaking into the thin mattress beneath me. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hearing that name, how much I missed her—the real Gloria. The sister who used to laugh with me, who used to love me.

It wasn’t until the moment she saved me—pushing me out of harm’s way, sacrificing herself for me—that I heard it again. "Sunshine, run!" She’d said it with so much urgency, so much desperation. It had been years since that word passed her lips, and she’d saved it for her dying breath.

Why? Why then? Why, after all those years of silence and coldness, did she use it again?

I would never know. That was the cruelty of it. She was gone, my parents were gone, and I was left alone with nothing but these questions and the crushing weight of regret. I clutched my chest, feeling the emptiness there, the gnawing void where their love used to be.

I should have gone with her that day. Maybe I could have protected her. Maybe she would have stayed my sister, the one who called me Sunshine and patted my head when I was lazy. Maybe none of this would have happened.

But it did happen, and now I was here, lying on a cold, hard bed in a pack that hated me, my heart breaking over and over again as I whispered into the darkness, "I’m sorry, Tori. I’m so, so sorry."

But the shadows swallowed my words, and there was no one left to hear them.

Nadia'S POV

A year. A whole year since I was dragged here, to this prison in the guise of a pack. Time lost all meaning in the endless cycle of torment and labor. The days blurred together, each one more unbearable than the last, each humiliation cutting deeper than the one before. My body was numb to the ache, but my soul—my spirit—was shredded beyond recognition.

Today was different, though. Today was Alpha Lucas's coming of age ceremony. His 18th birthday. The whole Lockheart Pack buzzed with excitement and anticipation. The great hall was being prepared for a feast, the tables set with dishes I had scrubbed clean until my fingers bled, and the floors polished so that they gleamed beneath the candlelight. I was given the same rags to wear, my frostbitten hands working tirelessly without a hint of compassion from anyone.

Lucas’s coming of age was meant to be a grand event. For most werewolves, the 18th birthday was the day their wolf awakened. But Lucas, like my sister Gloria, had already awakened his wolf early—a rare, powerful omen that only strengthened his arrogance. Today, though, was still special. Today was the day he would be bound to his mate, his destined one.

But everyone knew, including him, that it wouldn’t matter. Lucas had already decided his fated mate was dead—lost forever when Gloria took her last breath in front of me. He had made it clear to anyone who would listen that he had no interest in any other mate, that no one could replace her. And certainly not me.

I knew I should stay out of sight today, keep my head down and pray to the Moon Goddess that no one would notice me. But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

I was serving dishes when I felt it—a sudden, inexplicable pull. It was like a cord tugging at my very soul, commanding my attention, pulling me closer. My breath hitched in my throat, and I almost dropped the bowl in my hand. The air was filled with a scent, something raw and primal, like cedar and rain-soaked earth. It flooded my senses, making my heart race.

I stumbled back, my eyes wide, and I looked up, searching for the source. And then I saw him—Lucas. His head snapped up, his piercing eyes locking onto mine from across the hall. His face twisted in shock, then anger, and I realized with horror that he had felt it too.

'No,' I thought, my blood turning to ice. 'No, it can’t be.'

Lucas’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, catching the scent—my scent. His expression darkened, a storm brewing in his eyes. “You?” His voice was a low growl that carried across the room, filled with disbelief and rage. “My fated mate is you? Ridiculous!”

The room fell silent. Every pair of eyes turned to me, burning with a mixture of shock, confusion, and disgust. I felt my face burn under their gazes, humiliation searing into my skin. Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not again. I’d cried enough for a lifetime.

“How dare you,” Lucas snarled, his voice trembling with fury. “How dare you share her face and now—now you think you could be my mate?”

He stormed over to me, his towering figure casting a long shadow that seemed to swallow me whole. “The Moon Goddess must be mistaken. Even if Gloria is dead, she’s the only one I’d ever acknowledge as my mate. Not you—a worthless, weak slave!”

I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt like they were collapsing under the weight of his words, his hatred. I kept my head down, tears slipping onto my trembling hands, mixing with the dirt and grime. 'What did I ever do to deserve this?' I lost everything—my parents, my sister, my pack—and now I was losing even the last shreds of my dignity.

Lucas’s voice rose, echoing in the great hall, each word a knife digging into my flesh. “I will never accept a slave as my mate. Never.”

I was trembling, not from fear but from something that had been building inside me for so long—anger. I was tired. Tired of being stepped on, spat at, degraded. Tired of being nothing but a shadow of my sister. 'Why was I born to suffer this?'

I felt something stir inside me, a flicker of warmth in the deep cold that had settled in my bones. I raised my head, my vision blurring with tears, but there was a clarity in my heart that hadn’t been there before. I straightened my back, my posture shifting from submission to defiance.

Lucas sneered at the sight of me daring to meet his eyes. “Don’t even think about it. I will never accept—”

But I cut him off, my voice trembling but fierce. “And I, Nadia Ambersy, daughter of Alpha Victor Ambersy, reject you, Alpha Lucas Casimir of the Lockheart Pack, as my mate!”

A shocked gasp rippled through the crowd. Lucas’s eyes widened, the anger momentarily replaced by something like disbelief, and then fury.

“You dare—”

“Yes, I dare!” I shouted, my voice louder than it had ever been in this pack. “I’d rather die than be bound to you. I’d rather die than live another day in this hell you’ve created for me!”

There it was—the truth I’d been too afraid to speak. I wasn’t living; I was surviving, and barely at that. What did I have to lose? I’d lost it all already. I raised my chin higher, meeting Lucas’s furious gaze with all the strength I could muster. “I reject you, Lucas Casimir. May the Moon Goddess curse this bond and free me from this torment.”