The Snow Wolf's Mate

Invisible, Not Broken

[POV: Aria]

I scrubbed harder at the bottom of the dish until my fingers ached, until my skin turned raw and pink. It wasn’t that the bowl was dirty—it was already spotless. But I needed something to do with my hands. Something to distract me from the silence that followed me like a shadow through this place.

I rinsed it, dried it, and placed it carefully in the cupboard. Then I moved on to the next one. Then the next.

Anything to stay useful. Invisible but useful.

That had become my specialty.

No one said it out loud, of course. But I could feel it in every glance, every pause in conversation when I walked by. I was tolerated—but not trusted. Welcomed, maybe—but not wanted.

They didn’t know me, and they didn’t try to. I was the outsider. The rogue girl with no past she dared speak of and no pack to vouch for her. Just a borrowed name and an invisible wall between myself and everyone else.

And goddess, I was trying.

I took every task Piper gave me without complaint—cleaning, sorting, carrying supplies, kitchen duty, laundry runs. I worked harder than the rest. I stayed late to help reset the training mats. I said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and kept my head down.

I offered smiles, gentle words, open hands.

But what I got in return? Wary nods. Distracted greetings. Eyes that slid past me like I wasn’t even there.

It reminded me too much of home.

Midnight Crest may have been where I was born, but it never felt like home. Not really. It was where I learned what it meant to be treated as if I didn’t exist. To be passed over, talked around, looked through.

No matter how hard I tried—no matter how many times I smiled through the ache, obeyed without question, worked myself to the bone—my efforts were always met with indifference. Or worse… with disgust.

The pack treated me like I was nothing. Less than nothing. A flaw in their perfect lineage. I spent years trying to prove I was worth something, anything.

But every attempt was dismissed, every act of kindness ignored, every success twisted into failure. They chipped away at me in silence and cruelty—one snide glance, one public humiliation, one cold shoulder at a time.

And my family? They were the sharpest knives of all.

My mother’s eyes, when they looked at me, were colder than winter. My father—goddess, even the memory of his presence makes my skin crawl. I still don’t understand what I did to deserve their hatred.

I still wake up wondering: Why?

Why did the people who were supposed to love me look at me like I was a burden they never wanted? Why did they tear me down when they were supposed to be the ones helping me stand?

And Dayana… She made sure I never forgot my place.

My twin. My mirror. My executioner. The one who smiled as she fed their fire. Who thrived in the light while I was buried beneath her shadow. She didn't just resent me. She loathed me. Wanted me erased. And everyone followed her lead.

I still wanted their love. I still hoped—some desperate part of me believed that if I just tried harder, if I just endured long enough, maybe they’d see me. Maybe they’d change.

But they didn’t. And even now, far from that hell, the pain clings to me like a second skin. Raw. Heavy. Unshakable.

Because no matter how far I run, a part of me still breaks beneath the weight of their rejection.

Now, in this new pack, I feel the same ache beginning to settle in my chest. People here don’t laugh in my face—but they don’t welcome me either.

And I can’t help but wonder—is it me? Is something inside me fundamentally wrong? Unlovable? Have I been shaped into something that no one can see as worthy?

I want to believe otherwise. I want to believe there’s still a version of me that’s worth choosing. Worth protecting. Worth loving.

Someone who doesn’t have to prove her existence every single day just to be allowed a place to breathe.

But even that dream… it’s starting to fade. Because once, I thought I had found someone who saw me. Who believed in me.

Once, I thought I had found him.