Bound To The Billionaire Alpha

CHAPTER 1

ARIA

I stood there, in the cold white hall of the hospital. The doctor's words echoed in my mind. "She needs to get the transplant soon, and only money can help get her on the list and the treatment she needs."

I watched him as he walked away, leaving me there alone with this heavy news.

A lump grew in my throat. It hurt. I tried to swallow it down, but it wouldn't go away. My eyes started to water, and I didn't even know I was crying until I felt wet drops rolling down my cheeks.

Grandma Sue was there right in the hospital room, and I couldn’t help her. Standing out here and crying wouldn’t help her, though.

Sniffing, I wiped my face with the back of my hand and walked out of the hospital. I needed to go home. I needed to see Dad. He could help Grandma.

He just had to, if not for anything, for the sake of her being his first wife’s mother—my mother.

The walk felt long, but finally, I got to Dad's house. The house was pitch black, but I could hear some shuffling sound from down the hall in my stepmother’s room, so that told me she was home.

She was probably drunk or something, and she was now crashing into things.

I sighed, turning on the light.

“Sally?” I called out, but my voice was drowned out by the sound of honking from the cars outside.

As I approached my stepsister’s door with my right hand raised and ready to knock, a sound stopped me.

It was a soft moan that came through the crack in her doorway.

When I realized what was happening, my mouth dropped open, and before I could make a sound, I covered my mouth with my hand.

“Oh my goodness, she has a man in her room.” I whispered to myself.

As I started to turn away from the door, though, I heard it, and I froze, just like that. "Oh, Jasper, just like that.” Sally moaned.

Jasper!

That couldn’t be Jasper, my boyfriend, right? It wasn’t possible that he was the one, right?

I mean, there were so many Jaspers in the world and in Spring Rocks City as well, so it certainly couldn’t be my Jasper.

I was just paranoid, or so I thought, and then he spoke in response to her request. “Yes, honey. I know what you need.”

I froze, rooted to the spot, my heart pounding so loudly that it was all I could hear over the noise outside.

This couldn't be happening. It was just a name, just a coincidence. Jasper. My Jasper? No, it had to be another Jasper.

With my heart in my throat, I pushed the door open, and there he was, with my stepsister. "Sally, what do you think you're doing?" I yelled; my voice was shaky but loud.

“For how long has this been going on?” I asked, looking at her. I couldn’t look at Jasper; no, I just couldn’t.

Sally didn't even flinch as I asked her the question. Instead of answering, she yelled back at me."Get out, Aria! This is none of your business!" she said.

What? None of my business? I couldn't believe it.

She was right there with my boyfriend, and she said it wasn’t my business. I was utterly confused. Was she drunk, as I had thought before?

Inside, my wolf stirred, angry, but I pushed her back in. This wasn’t the time to bare my wolf. She wasn’t just weak; she was just a low-ranked Omega. She had nothing over Sally’s or Jasper’s wolf.

His was an Alpha, and Sally’s, well, she was a half-breed, but still more powerful than I.

But we can still talk about this in our human form.

“Are you kidding me, Sally?” I asked her.

There was no sorry look on her face, no sign that she knew she was doing something wrong.

She was supposed to be my sister, even if she was only that, because of her mother’s marriage to my father.

But there was no guilt.

Nothing.

She put her hand on Jasper’s chest as if to tell him to get off her, then she pushed up from the edge of the bed to drag down her skirt.

“We will continue when she’s gone.” She said this to him before looking back at me.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked again, and my voice came out sharper than I meant it to.

Sally just looked at me and laughed. She threw her head back, not caring about anything I felt. "Do you think anyone would want you, whether mated to you or not, to talk less of an Alpha?" She asked me, and her words stung like bees.

“Is that why you’re sleeping with him and helping me?” I asked her, my voice shaking a little bit.

I could feel the pain at the edge of my throat, and my chest tightened.

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe I was, but now I couldn’t even finish.” She said there was a double meaning behind her words.

I turned to look at Jasper, and I felt as if the room was spinning. "Please tell me it was a mistake, right?" I begged, my voice barely a whisper.

Jasper just looked at me with this bored expression, like I was disturbing him with the question.

He lifted his shoulder in a shrug, and then he sighed. "What can I say, Aria? It's not like you ever really had me. The moon goddess must have made a mistake pairing us.” He said.

A mistake, huh?

So that was what I was.

“I can’t believe this. This is a dream.” I whispered, using my right hand to pinch my left arm, and I knew it wasn’t a dream. It was far from it.

“So what happens to us now?” I asked, fearing lugging at my brain because of what he might say. Something within me already knew what the answer would be, but I still wanted to hear it.

“What do you think, Aria?” Sally asked me, and the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Sally. I was talking to my boyfriend.” I said, and she laughed again, shaking her head at me.

“Well, if, after what you saw, you still think he’s your boyfriend, then you must be dumb.” She said.

I swallowed hard, looking from Sally to Jasper. Then he finally spoke, shattering the heart he was already crushing in his hands.

“Look, Aria. I’m an Alpha, and you’re just an Omega. I’m sure there was a mistake in our pairing, but I can’t be with you. You’re too weak to be a Luna, and you won’t be of any use to me anyway.” He said.

“I see…” I started, but I trailed off when Jasper continued and said, “I don’t want to be a cruel person, so I’ll free you up to be with someone else.”

“If she’ll ever see someone to take her.” Sally chuckled.

"No, no, no… please don’t do this," but by the time I was done saying that, it was already too late. He already said the words.

“I, Jasper Fernando, reject you, Aria Garland,” he said, with little to no emotion at all, as if he didn't even care what I was feeling.

Bile rose in my throat as I looked at him, and soon, my eyes got blurry with the tears I was trying so hard to keep at bay.

I mean, why should I cry because of these two when I have something else to worry about?

I sniffed, and then I swallowed hard so that when I spoke, it didn’t sound strained. “Where’s Dad?” I asked.

Maybe that was strange—acting right now like nothing matters—but I felt like I could sort this out later if there was anything to sort out after I had already been rejected.

What couldn’t wait was Grandma Sue getting the treatment she needed. I was going to have to push my hurt aside.

It might be true that my world just shattered because here was my boyfriend, my Alpha, rejecting me as though I were nothing.

As though I were the one who had been desperate for him, and not a pairing from the moon goddess herself.

I remembered how happy I was when I knew he was my mate, how proud I felt when he seemed okay with the pairing, and how complete I was to be wanted by an Alpha, even if his pack was small.

Now, it all felt like a cruel joke.

“Daddy’s missing.” She said it, smiling.

I tried to stay strong. "Sally, this isn't a game. I need to talk to Dad. It's about Grandma. She’s in the hospital, and I need some money to help her.” I said.

She rolled her eyes and glanced at my boyfriend. Sorry, he wasn’t my boyfriend anymore.

"And what do you think Daddy will do, huh? Just cough up the cash for her treatment, or what? Please, he's got better things to spend on than your sick grandma." She said.

"She’s his mother-in-law! He would care." I shot back, trying to hold back my tears, but it was threatening.

"Care? Aria, get real. We all know you're our least favorite. Why would he listen to you?" Sally smirked.

I felt a sharp pain in my heart. "It's not about me. It's about Grandma. Remember her? The one who baked you cookies and held you even when you’re not her grandkid?" I said, my voice strained.

"Yeah, well, cookies don't pay the bills, sweetheart." Jasper chimed in, wrapping an arm around her.

I spared him a small glance, wondering how I had never seen this side of him before. I must have been so blind to what was in front of me.

"Please, Sally, I'm begging you. Help me talk to him. She's all I have," I pleaded, my voice breaking.

But Sally just snorted. "Begging? Wow, desperate much? Look, Aria, nobody here is going to help you. Not me, not Dad, and certainly not an Alpha, not for a weak Omega like you." She said this, reminding me of my status.

I couldn't take it anymore; I couldn’t hold it back.

The tears broke free, streaming down my face. I turned and ran out of the house, past the mocking laughter of my stepsister. The pain in my heart grew as I ran, and I didn't look back.

There didn’t seem to be light anywhere; all I could see was darkness, and I wondered if I would ever get to the end of this dark place.