But I wouldn't back down. "Please, Father," I pleaded, my voice breaking with desperation. "He has no one else. If we don’t help him, he’ll die!"
My mother, ever the gentle soul, looked at the boy with pity. "Aldous," she whispered, "he's just a child."
My father’s resolve wavered, but he still wasn’t convinced. It was then that I made the boldest decision of my young life. I went on a hunger strike, refusing to eat until they agreed to adopt him.
Days passed, and my strength waned, but I never gave up. Eventually, my parents relented. "Alright, Claire," my father sighed, his voice tinged with resignation. "We’ll take him in."
That day, Caspian became our brother. Or so I thought.
Years later, when I turned 18, everything changed. My father, driven by a desire for more power and territory, began to look down on my mother, who was just an ordinary she-wolf before she became Luna. He sought out the daughter of a powerful Alpha from another pack, seduced by the promise of greater power. He abandoned my mother, rejected her as his mate, and instead mated with that other woman, becoming the Alpha of the Shadow Crest Pack.
That was how selfish he was.
He moved to that pack without a second thought, leaving us behind. "You and Ophelia should come with me," he had said, his voice devoid of any fatherly warmth. "There’s no future for you here."
But I couldn’t abandon my mother. "I’m staying with Mom," I had said, my voice firm. "She needs me."
Ophelia, however, was different. She craved the power and prestige our father’s new position offered. She chose to follow him, leaving me and our mother behind without a second glance.
The day she left, I stood at the edge of the pack’s territory, watching her walk away. "Ophelia," I called out, my voice trembling. "Don’t go."
She had turned to me, her eyes cold and distant. "This is our chance, Claire," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. "I won’t waste it."
In the years that followed, I earned Caspian's resentment. He blamed me for everything—for keeping him from joining Ophelia, for holding him back, for being the reason he was stuck in Bloodvenom Pack. Especially after I became his mate, his hatred for me only grew.
From a young age, I had always followed Caspian around like a shadow. I adore him, admire him. And when I turned 18 and discovered he was my mate, I was overjoyed. I thought it was fate, that we were meant to be together.