The Princess in Disguise：My Alpha Mates

For eighteen long years, my mother chose to leave me behind.

That's a lifetime spent navigating the world alone, growing up in an orphanage that felt more like a cage than a home. When she finally decided to reclaim me, it wasn't out of love. It was necessity. She was in a hurry to marry me off.

But why?

Paisley wasn't just my mother. She was the formidable Queen of the Luna Pack, the ruling werewolf clan.

I understood my situation quickly. I was a political pawn. A replacement for a marriage that would secure alliances. My adopted sister was meant to take the throne, but her scandalous reputation had made her the talk of the kingdom. A far greater disgrace than my own flaws.

I was wolfless.

At eighteen, I had never discovered my wolf. To Paisley, this was another mark of shame. I often wondered if this was why she abandoned me all those years ago. After all, she had found a new daughter. The perfect She-wolf. A girl seemingly born to be queen in ways I could never be.

I stared at the list before me. The names danced on the page with an unsettling familiarity.

Wolfham. Lunerly. Moonraiser.

Photographs accompanied each name. Some of the most strikingly handsome men I'd ever seen. Each possessed sharp features and mesmerizing gold eyes that seemed to glow from within.

Alphas.

The woman before me, my mother, sighed wearily. "Amelia," she said, her voice heavy. "They're all exceptional. Heirs to their family legacies. They could teach you so much."

I let out a frustrated sigh of my own. "No, Mother. I don't need this." I shoved the list away as if it were poison. "I just want to be left alone. Marriage is the last thing on my mind."

"Do you want to find yourself homeless again?" she shot back, anger simmering beneath her words. "You are a princess of this nation now. You have no idea what that entails." Her accusation hung in the air. "If it weren't for your sister—"

She stopped mid-sentence. I raised an eyebrow. "My sister?" I echoed, sarcasm dripping from my tone. "If she weren't what? A disgrace?"

Her hand shot up. Instinctively, I raised my arm to shield myself. A reflex honed in the orphanage. But Paisley froze. She didn't strike me. Her voice turned to ice.

"Watch your tone," she warned, eyes narrowing. "Sophia is still your sister. And I am your mother."

"Yet you abandoned me for eighteen years," I snapped back, defiance rising. "Clearly, I'm not the one you care about. Sophia is. So why not let her have the wedding she wants?"

I shot up from the chair. My heart raced as I stormed toward the door, flinging it open with force. It felt like we'd had this same argument a hundred times since I moved in with Paisley and Sophia—Queen Paisley, as she was now known.

I hadn't grown up with that title. My childhood was a blur of orphanages and foster homes. I convinced myself I was just an ordinary girl. Unloved. Unwanted. That part was true. But I was also the heir to the Luna throne. I discovered that shocking truth only on my eighteenth birthday.

I still remember standing on the street. My belongings stuffed into a bag. Nowhere to go after being told I was too old for the orphanage. Tears streamed down my face. Then she appeared.

The woman with fiery red hair and golden honey eyes. Her nose was identical to mine. When she smiled, the dimple I loathed mirrored itself on her face.

In shock, I dropped my bag. "Who are you?" I stammered, heart pounding.

She introduced herself as Queen Paisley Luna. My mother.

A million questions swirled. The only one that escaped was a simple, "Why?"

A question Paisley never bothered to answer. That silence spoke volumes. It told me everything. My mother never loved me. I was a discarded garment, returned only to validate her lineage and secure her position.

I was a political pawn.

A political pawn without a wolf.

Paisley's indifference became glaring when she interrogated me about my childhood. "Did you ever feel irritable during the full moon?" No. "Did you ever long to run?" No. "Did you experience an itchy, scratchy feeling in your bones?" What was she talking about?

Then she dropped the truth. I was supposed to be a werewolf. A creature that could transform at will. Endowed with superhuman strength and senses. All the remarkable abilities I'd only read about. But I had none of it. I was painfully, utterly ordinary.

Paisley despised my normalcy. She loathed my plainness. She let her own flesh and blood wander the earth for eighteen years while she nurtured a stranger's child into a spoiled brat. The thought ignited a fire in me as I stormed down the hall away from her office.

Then her voice called out again.

"Amelia, let's make a deal," my mother said, her tone shifting. "You are the heir to the Luna throne. You need a mate. I'm trying to help you."

"Help me?" I scoffed, incredulous. "If you truly wanted to help, you wouldn't have abandoned me in the first place. You don't want to help me. You don't even want me."

"Of course I want you," Paisley replied, her shoulders slumping in defeat for the first time. "I had my reasons for leaving you with the humans. I—"

"So tell me!" I interjected, anger bubbling over.

"I was trying to protect you," she insisted. "You will learn—"

She opened her mouth to continue. I cut her off. "Is this why you've kept me hidden in this corner of the castle for six months? Sophia strolls in and out as she pleases. She mocks me for being a wolfless failure who will never escape her shadow."

Frustration surged. "I haven't had the chance to explore the place I'm supposed to call home. To 'protect' me? If you truly wanted to keep me safe, you would have left me alone!"