Chosen By The Cursed Alpha King

Emilia's POV

I have always known that I was hated. I have always known that I was unloved. Unwanted.

But this—

This was something else entirely.

I stood there, hands clenched at my side as my father, mother, and sister looked at me like I was trash.

Like I was nothing. Like they weren't talking about my life like it meant nothing.

“You should be grateful to us." My father's voice said, bringing me out of my thoughts.

Grateful? I couldn't help but scoff as my eyes met his.

“Why? Why do you hate me so much?" I whispered, my chest squeezing in pain.

“Oh please, stop with the drama, take a look at yourself, would you love you if you were you?" My sister Rosella asked and my mother chuckled like it was funny.

“You're sending me to die and you're laughing about it?" I asked, my chest boiling in anger.

"We're giving you redemption from your pathetic life, you've done nothing but disgrace us as a family. We're only doing what's best for our family.” My mother finally said, looking at me with disdain.

She didn't need to say it directly but I knew I wasn't part of that family.

“What about me? What's best for me?" I asked and my father took a threatening step towards me.

“You ungrateful child, you should be happy we kept you alive, what gives you the right to think you can question us?!" My father boomed in anger and that made something in me snap.

“I am your daughter! I am your daughter, and you've done nothing but hate me for twenty two years, what have I ever done to you?!" I yelled in anger and I didn't see it coming when his hand landed on my face with a hard slap.

“How dare you?! How dare you raise your voice at me?!”

My eyes burned, my mouth wobbled but I refused to let the tears fall. I wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.

“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Do you know how disgusting and ugly you look?” He sneered and all I did was stand there and take his insult.

"And you had to fucking come through my bloodline, do you know how embarrassing that is?! And as if that wasn't enough humiliation, you don't have a fucking wolf!”

My heart squeezed. My eyes burned harder but I'd rather die than let the tears fall.

"Father, father,” my sister said in her overly sweet voice she used in fooling everyone.

"Don't let her upset you, she's not worth it," she said as she held his hand and he sighed looking at her like the moon and stars revolved around her.

A look he'd never give me. Ever.

“If only you were like your sister. Rosella is making us proud. She's not only beautiful, she's strong and talented, unlike you.” My father said as he turned from Rosella, the look of pride he earlier had for her vanishing to disgust immediately his eyes landed on me.

"You will be sent to the King's palace with the other omegas and there's nothing you're going to do about it.”

“You know what Emilia, you should be happy. You get to die in the King's bed. That's if he doesn't kill you on the spot because there's no way the Alpha king would want to touch a pathetic loser like you.”

“You all are going to regret this." I said as I clenched my hands tightly, drawing blood.

“What are you going to do? Crawl from the grave and haunt us?” Rosella asked and they all burst out laughing.

To think that this was my family. They never really loved me.

My father said I was a disgrace to his family. I didn't have a wolf and I wasn't as pretty as Rosella.

So as punishment, he made me an omega. Imagine the daughter of an alpha being demoted to an omega.

I became invisible. Treated like trash in my own pack. Called all manner of names.

‘Fat.’

‘Ugly pig.’

‘Pathetic loser.’

At some point I began to believe them.

“I won't die." I suddenly said out of nowhere and they stopped laughing and all turned to me.

“I will survive." I said with determination but my sister snickered.

“Oh please, haven't you heard? No woman leaves his bed alive.”

And yet they were offering me to him.

"But I will survive.” I said again, determination wrapping around my chest like a chain.

"You're delulu,” my sister said with a shake of her head.

“You all will regret what you've done to me. I'll make you pay. I promise."

"Stop with the drama and go pack whatever garbage you have, you're leaving tonight with the others.” My mother said, like it was the most natural thing to say.

Rosella smirked as she looked me dead in the eye.

“You'll die Emilia, you'll die."

The door slammed shut behind me, the final punctuation to my exile.

I stood there in the hallway, staring blankly at the cracked wooden floor beneath my feet. My cheek still throbbed from my father’s slap, and my fingers were sticky with blood from how tightly I’d clenched my fists.

But that pain—it was nothing compared to what I felt in my chest.

Betrayal. Loneliness. Rage so sharp it threatened to carve me from the inside out.

I swallowed the scream caught in my throat and walked stiffly to the tiny, cold room at the back of the house. It used to be the storage room—until my mother decided it was fitting for the disgrace of the family. Me.

I pushed the creaky door open and stood in the doorway, looking around at the pathetic excuse of a room I’d been reduced to. A thin mattress on the floor. A broken dresser missing one leg. A cracked mirror.

They’d stolen everything from me. My dignity. My birthright. My future.

But they hadn’t stolen me.

Not yet.

I grabbed the small cloth bag I kept beside the mattress. It had a few belongings—some clothes, an old book with the corners worn and curled.

I tucked it all inside, ignoring the way my fingers trembled. The clock on the wall ticked with every second closer to nightfall.

Tonight, I would be sent to the Alpha King's palace. With the other omegas. Like cattle to slaughter.

They all said he was cursed. Touched by death itself. That his bed was a graveyard of broken women.

But what choice did I have?

My chest rose and fell with deep, shaky breaths as I stood in front of the cracked mirror. My reflection stared back at me, pale and ghostlike. My eyes were rimmed red from crying in silence too many nights. My lips were chapped, and the bruise blooming on my cheek stood out like a scarlet brand.

And still, somewhere deep in that reflection, I saw something else—something they didn’t.

Fire.

I wiped the blood from my palm and pressed my fingers to the glass.

"You’ll survive,” I whispered to myself. “You’ll survive this, even if it kills you.”

The ride to the palace was in a rusted black van that smelled like wet dogs and old metal. There were six of us in total, all dressed in the same plain gray dress that clung awkwardly to our bodies. We were sacrifices.

I recognized a few of them from other packs. Some were shaking in fear. Others were trying to mask it behind false bravado. Me? I stayed silent.

I stared out the window, watching the trees blur past, the darkening sky swallowing the sun in slow, greedy bites. The closer we got to the palace, the colder the air felt.

They said the Alpha King's palace was carved into the side of the Black Mountains. That no sunlight ever touched it. That no laughter ever echoed within its walls. That it was cursed… like the man who ruled it.

I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was I wasn’t going there to die.

I was going there to live.

By the time we arrived, the moon was high and full, hanging like a silent witness in the starless sky. The palace loomed in front of us—black stone and jagged towers, its walls crawling with ivy that looked more like veins than plants.

I stepped out of the van, my breath catching in my throat.

The rumors hadn’t done it justice.

It looked like a fortress built by death itself.

Guards stood by the massive iron gates, dressed in complete black. Their eyes scanned us with disinterest as the van driver handed over some papers. A list, no doubt.

We were lined up, inspected like animals at market. One of the guards came down the line, his nose wrinkling as he looked us over.

He stopped in front of me.

“Name,” he barked.

“Emilia,” I replied, voice steady.

He raised a brow at me. “Daughter of?”

My jaw tightened. “Alpha Gregor of the Red Moon Pack.”

That made him pause. “Alpha’s daughter?”

“Not anymore,” I muttered.

He looked me over again, and I saw the flicker of something in his eyes—pity? Curiosity? It was gone as fast as it came.

“Move,” he ordered, pointing toward the gate.

We were herded in like sheep.

Inside, the palace was eerily quiet. The stone walls were cold to the touch, the corridors long and narrow. The air smelled of old ashes and something metallic—blood, maybe.

A woman in a tight black dress with sharp eyes and an even sharper tone greeted us in the main hall.

“You will remain silent unless spoken to. You will not speak of the King unless commanded. You will not look him in the eye.”

She paced in front of us like a predator.

“If you are called upon, you will go. Without protest. Without hesitation. If you scream… no one will come.”

Another girl to my left whimpered.

The woman’s eyes snapped to her. “Do not test the King’s mercy. There is none.”

She turned to us fully. “You will now be taken to your quarters. One of you will be summoned tonight.”

It became silent as she paced, looking at each one of us like she was deciding who will be suitable for slaughter tonight.

Her eyes finally settled on me.

I didn’t flinch.

Her lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile.

“Take her first.”