Bound to the Bastard Alpha

Fiona's POV

"I'm getting married!"

Serena's announcement exploded through the living room, and for one stupid second my heart lifted with genuine happiness for her.

Then I saw whose hand she was holding.

Nathan.

My Nathan.

My boyfriend, my mate, sitting on the couch with his fingers laced through my sister's like they'd been doing it forever. Their smiles were too bright, too pleased with themselves, and my pulse started hammering so hard I could hear it in my ears.

My parents sat across from them, laughing and chatting like someone had just handed them the best news of their lives. They looked happier than they'd been around me in months, not since they'd found Serena, their real daughter, their biological child who'd been lost to them for over twenty years.

The daughter I'd been raised to replace.

The room felt like it was tilting.

I'd walked in here expecting the usual quiet, expecting to fade into the background like I'd been doing ever since Serena came home three months ago. But this? This was something else entirely.

I tried to steady my breathing, tried to smile like everything was fine, but my brain was screaming questions I couldn't answer. When did Nathan and Serena get this close? When did they even start talking to each other? And why did I feel like the last person on earth to know what was happening?

"That's wonderful news, Serena," I managed to say, but my voice came out strained and wrong.

Something was horribly wrong here.

Serena caught my stare and her smile turned sharp and knowing. She lifted their joined hands high in the air like she was showing off a trophy.

"What are you so confused about, sis?" Her tone was light and teasing, dripping with fake innocence. "Isn't it perfectly normal for a couple to hold hands?"

Couple?

The word hit me like a freight train.

"What do you mean? Nathan's my boyfriend, my mate, and you're my sister. Don't you know that?"

My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I couldn't help it. Ever since my parents found their long-lost daughter and brought her home, my entire world had flipped upside down. I'd gone from being the beloved only child to being the temporary replacement they no longer needed, the adopted girl who'd served her purpose and could now be pushed aside.

My parents made it clear every single day that Serena was what they'd been searching for all these years, and I was just the shadow they'd settled for in the meantime.

And Serena? She hadn't just come home to reunite with her family. She'd made it her personal mission to make my existence in this house unbearable, like I was nothing more than an annoying obstacle she needed to remove.

But I never thought she'd go after Nathan.

Serena shrugged, casual as anything, like my question was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. "Of course I know that. So what?"

So what?

My mind