Alpha Nocturnes Contracted Mate

Kali's POV.

I dragged my feet through the forest, my heart heavy as I swallowed in shame and self-pity. Atlas, my mate and the son of our pack's alpha had just rejected me in front of the entire pack. I felt like a failure, nothing but a cursed wolf not worthy of love or respect.

As I approached our family's house, I could feel my mother's anger and disappointment. She was waiting for me, her eyes blazing with rage.

"So, you're back," she spat, her voice filled with hate. "With no mate by your side, I see."

I hung my head low, unable to meet her blazing eyes. "Mother, please-"

But she cut me off, her words like a slap to my face. "You're a disgrace, Kali. A cursed mistake that should have never been born. You're a failure as a daughter, a failure as a wolf. You should have never been brought into existence, a blight on the earth. A wretched cursed wolf is all you are and all you will ever be."

"I. I am sorry mother..." I managed to force the words out of my throat.

"Sorry? Will sorry rid you of that curse?! Will sorry get you a mate?" My mother hissed and walked menacingly towards me.

My breath caught in my throat and I closed my eyes expecting a slap on my cheek but to my utmost surprise, she stopped right in front of me, looking at me like I was some worthless piece of shit.

Finally, she hardly pulled my hand and dragged me to my room, roughly shoved me inside slammed the door to my room, locking me in. "You'll stay in there until you learn to be worthy of our pack," she hissed.

I collapsed on the bed, my body shaking as I sobbed. I felt like I would die of shame and rejection, my mother's cruel words echoing in my mind, refusing to stop, reminding me of how I never got any form of maternal love from my mother.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours, then realized that had two choices: give up and accept my fate as a cursed wolf and the pack's spitbowl, or find a way to escape and prove myself worthy. But how could I possibly do that, when my mother thought I was a cursed mistake?

I lay there, my tears running down my cheeks, my mind filled with the cruel truth of my mother's words. Every word, every sentence, every hiss reminded me of how she hated me. I was born with a curse, I didn't choose to be cursed.

Why should I be blamed for something I didn't want?

As I cried, my sobs seemed to have found their way into my mother's ears. She stormed into my room, her eyes blazing with fury, her hand balled into a fist.

"You're crying?" she sneered. "You're crying because you're a failure? Because you're a cursed wolf who can't even keep a mate? You're pathetic, Kali. You're a weak, little wolf who can't even stand up for herself. A mutt who should have never been born in the first place."

"You're a disgrace to our pack," she spat. "You're a shame to our family. You're nothing but a cursed mistake, a wolf who should have never been born. I should have fed you with poison instead of my milk!"

"Mother..."

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare call me a mother?"