The first thing I heard when the healer confirmed my hearing was the steady, triumphant thrum of my wolf’s heart. Years of silence shattered, and the world rushed in, raw, untamed, alive.
Sound had been stolen from me by the last rogue attack. No growls in the training yard, no howls splitting the night sky, no pack heartbeat to anchor me, only the faint vibrations against my skin, the ripple of air when wolves passed near.
Now, as the healer’s glowing hands withdrew, power humming through the bond of pack magic, tears blurred my vision. I could hear it again. Every whisper of claws on stone, every howl carried on the wind, every wild breath of the forest beyond our walls.
But all I wanted was his voice, Alpha Alaric Silverfang’s voice. My mate. I wanted to hear him say my name, sharp and real, anchoring me back to him.
The winter air bit sharply as the driver opened the door, frost and pine filling my senses like fire. Snow drifted from the slate-gray sky, dusting the garden path to our pack house. My cheeks stung, but it was nothing compared to the heat roaring in my chest. The bond between mates was eternal, unbreakable, a tether forged by the Goddess herself, and I ached to let him hear the words my wolf had waited years to speak: that I could finally hear him, fully, with heart and soul.
As I neared the heavy oak doors, voices drifted out, stopping me cold. Each word cut sharper than claws on stone. I should have turned, trusted my mate’s loyalty, but the tone held me fast, my hand frozen over the iron handle, my wolf snarling inside me.
“I thought after five years I could move on,” the deep, familiar voice confessed, weighted with an emotion I had never heard from him before. “But it turns out, I still love Nyra.”
The sound struck me harder than any physical blow, my breath hitching as my wolf bristled inside me, a low growl vibrating through my chest, though I dared not let it slip free. My pulse pounded so fiercely in my ears I almost wished I were deaf again.
“You know,” the voice continued, steady and resolute, “I’ve been thinking of giving her Silverfang Holdings, the pack’s empire, so she never has to worry about money for the rest of her life.”
No stranger spoke those words. It was Alpha Alaric, my mate, my Alpha, the one the Goddess had bound to me. And yet he spoke of another. My vision blurred as I peered through the narrow crack in the door, the scent of betrayal coiling through me as surely as if it were blood spilled on the snow.
Alpha Alaric sat on the plush gray couch, his posture relaxed, predatory even, while opposite him lounged Ram, his Beta and closest confidant. Ram’s expression was tight with disbelief, his aura heavy with disapproval, but my eyes clung to Alpha Alaric, drinking in every detail of the man I thought I knew.
“If you give away Silverfang Holdings,” Ram said, exasperated, “you’ll strip yourself of rank. You’ll just be an ordinary wolf among Alphas. And what about your mate? What about Kaia? She’s the eldest daughter of the Blackthorn family. Are you planning to drag her into hardship?”
Alpha Alaric leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his face calm but unwavering. “Back then, Nyra didn’t choose me. I couldn’t take her as my mate, couldn’t give her my mark. But I can still prove that I’ve never abandoned her. Giving her Silverfang Holdings is the least I can do.”
The air seemed to vanish from my lungs.
“And your Luna?” Ram pressed, his voice low, almost pleading. “What about Kaia? She gave you everything.”
Alpha Alaric’s lips curved, cruel in their softness. “She told me she loves me. She said she’d endure anything with me. A weaker life, even the loss of her title. She won’t complain.”
The words cut deeper than claws. My knees trembled, and I gripped the frame of the door as if it were the only thing holding me up. My wolf whimpered in the back of my mind, wounded, betrayed.
Ram’s gaze darkened. “Alpha Alaric, if Kaia learns the truth, that you never marked her out of love, but only to keep her away from Ronan Stormclaw and Nyra, she’ll be destroyed.”
Destroyed.
The word echoed in my skull, rattling against the walls of my heart.
My vision blurred, my breath shallow as I fought the urge to storm inside and rip the lies from his throat. But my body betrayed me, frozen, trembling in the storm of revelation.
Then, Ram’s eyes flickered to the doorway. He stilled. His expression shifted from anger to dread as his gaze locked on me.
“L-Luna…” he stammered, rising to his feet. Alpha Alaric turned. “You’re back?”
The sound of my name pierced me. At last, I had what I had longed for, my mate’s voice, clear and sharp.
But not as I dreamed it. Not with love. Not with devotion.
His golden eyes meet mine. For a heartbeat, guilt flickered there, raw, unguarded. But in an instant, it was gone, replaced with that cold, calculating indifference he wore like armor.
His lips curved, smooth and dismissive.
“Why are you so flustered, Ram? She’s deaf. Even if you shouted in her ear, she wouldn’t hear a word.”
The words… The lie rang louder than any sound I had ever known.
And for the first time since regaining my hearing, I wished I had never heard at all.
Ram sagged with relief, forcing a nervous laugh as he bowed, his aura shifting from panic to uneasy calm. But I couldn’t look away from Alpha Alaric as he rose and crossed the room toward me.
Each step was deliberate, commanding, the Alpha in every movement. He plucked a shawl from a chair and draped it over my shoulders. His fingers brushed my skin, sending a shiver down my spine, but there was no warmth in his touch, only a yawning distance that left my wolf restless.
He raised his hands in the signs he had once patiently taught me, soft and protective.
“Why would you wander out in such cold, wearing so little? You’ll catch a cold.”
Once, that effort would have melted me. I remembered the long nights when he sat with his tutor, determined to master every sign despite the grueling demands of leading our pack. His brow furrowed, his jaw clenched, and still he persevered. Back then, I believed it was love. I thought he wanted to bridge the silence that had caged me, to pull me into a world where I was not always left behind.
Now, those same hands mocked me. Every graceful movement of his fingers was another mask, another layer of performance. The gentlest gestures hid the cruelest truths, truths he dared to speak aloud only when he thought I was deaf, truths that reduced me from his Luna to a mere placeholder.
Once, on a night drenched in silver moonlight, I begged Alpha Alaric not to push himself so hard to learn my language.
The desk lamp threw a warm pool of light, sharp angles cutting across his jaw as he signed, brows drawn tight with focus. Beneath his skin, his wolf shifted, restless and alert, its pulse brushing against mine, yet man and beast held just enough control to trace the careful, hesitant movements of his hands.
“You don’t need to do this,” I had whispered, placing my hand over his. “I can adjust. I’m used to it, the silence and all.”
But he had only smiled, that gentle curve softening the fierceness that usually clung to him as Alpha. “All these years, you lived in silence. You suffered the pain of being cut off, of being less in the eyes of the pack, of standing apart even from your own family. You endured it alone, with no wolf to confide in, no mate to lean on. I don’t want you to carry that burden anymore. It hurts me. I want to be the one who truly understands you.”
Those words had broken something inside me. The dam of grief, of loneliness, had shattered, and I had cried openly for the first time in years. He had been the first person to make me believe I wasn’t cursed, the first who seemed willing to meet me in my silence. Not even Ronan Stormclaw, whose life I had once risked saving, had bothered to learn my language. My parents never considered it either, because I was nothing more than a shadow of Nyra, a pale reflection of their favored daughter.
But now, standing in the present, watching Alpha Alaric’s fingers move with effortless grace, there was no warmth left in me. Only a cold, merciless irony. His hands, which once felt like a lifeline, now mocked me with every fluid gesture. He had taken the gift of my silence, twisted it into a mask behind which he bared his soul, not to me, his Luna, but to another woman. He had used my deafness as a shield for his betrayal.
His signs were calm, attentive, masked with the tenderness that used to make me ache with love.
“Kaia, Nyra, your sister’s birthday banquet is about to begin. We should leave now. If we’re late, the pack will gossip.”
But the spark in his eyes wasn’t for me. His wolf thrummed beneath his skin, restless and eager, as if the thought of seeing her filled him with vitality I had never given him.
A dull ache bloomed in my chest, coiling tighter with every beat of my heart. I forced a smile, the curve of my lips trembling, and gently pulled my hand away.
“Then wait for me a moment. I’ll go change my clothes,”
I said, my voice steady though my throat burned with the weight of unshed tears.
I turned before the mask could slip, retreating up the staircase with steps that grew heavier, leaden with every heartbeat. The instant the bedroom door closed behind me, the fragile composure I had clung to disintegrate. My shoulders shook, my hands pressed over my mouth as tears streamed freely, silent yet unrelenting, like rivers dammed too long. My wolf whimpered deep within, curling into herself, powerless to shield us both from the shattering truth.
When the storm inside me finally ebbed, I wiped my face, forcing the swelling in my eyes to fade. I dressed in a modest but elegant gown, smoothing my hair until not a strand was out of place. I would not give Nyra, or anyone else, another weapon to cut me down with.
On my way downstairs, a sliver of light caught my eye. The door to Alpha Alaric’s study stood slightly open. For five years, I had never stepped into that room, respecting the boundary he had drawn with such quiet finality. I had thought it was where he worked tirelessly to protect his company and the pack’s interests.
But tonight, something stronger than reason guided my hand. I pushed the door open, and the breath was torn from my chest.
The walls were covered in photographs. Dozens upon dozens of images, spanning years, Nyra smiling, Nyra crying, Nyra laughing, Nyra standing proud under the moon’s glow. From her childhood innocence to her poised womanhood, her entire life was laid out with obsessive reverence. The air of a study was gone; in its place stood a shrine.
Not one picture of me adorned those walls.
My legs trembled as I stumbled toward the desk. There, arranged in neat stacks, were countless letters. My fingers shook as I lifted the first one.
To Nyra, my 99th love letter.
Each word bled with devotion, a kind of passion that scorched every line. They weren’t merely notes, they were offerings, desperate prayers written to a woman who wasn’t his mate. My stomach twisted as my eyes fell upon the document beside them, a transfer contract for Silverfang Holdings.
Silverfang Holdings is the crown jewel of the Silverfang line and the pack’s empire. The company Alpha Alaric had poured its blood into protecting the legacy generations of Alphas that it had safeguarded. And yet he was ready to hand it over, to offer it as tribute at Nyra’s feet.
It became clear then. All those nights he had spent in this study, all those hours he had claimed were for the sake of the pack, none of it had been about us. None of it had been about me. It was always her. Always Nyra.
The realization hollowed me out, as though my very soul had been scooped clean. My wolf recoiled, pressing claws into the walls of my chest, her anguish blending with mine until I could scarcely breathe.
By the time we arrived at my parents’ home, the Blackthorn Pack House, I felt like little more than a ghost wearing a Luna’s gown. The estate glowed beneath chandeliers, music weaving with the murmurs of the gathered wolves. The air was rich with the mingled scents of pack and kin, but none of it warmed me.
At the center stood Nyra, radiant as though the Moon Goddess herself had chosen her for the spotlight. Her gown shimmered, her beauty sharpened by perfection, every detail calculated to draw every gaze. My parents hovered near, their faces alight with pride, hands brushing against hers as though terrified to lose her again.
They had once touched me that way, held me as though I was precious. But that was before. Before Nyra had returned.
Ten years ago, when she was found after her long disappearance, I thought it was the beginning of healing. I had dreamed we would rebuild, that blood would outweigh distance, that I would finally have a sister again.
But her first words to me had carved open a wound that never closed.
“Sis K-Kaia, what did I do wrong? Wh-why did you let them kidnap me?”
Nyra’s words had turned my entire world upside down.
Those words, deceptively soft and trembling with feigned innocence, had echoed through the pack house like the thunderous snap of a wolf’s neck breaking. The pack’s trust in me crumbled that day, and my family… The very people meant to protect me looked upon me not as daughter or sister but as a curse.
An embarrassment they can never erase.
In their eyes, I was no longer Kaia Blackthorn, their blood and kin, but a villain, the shadow blamed for Nyra’s abduction. My parents’ gazes grew colder than winter steel, full of disgust so heavy it suffocated me, as though they regretted ever bringing me into this world.
Overnight, the warmth of their love was stripped from me, replaced by the bitter frost of indifference that seeped into every corner of my life.
Even now, years later, that venom lingered. Their resentment clung to every glance, every clipped word, every silence that screamed louder than any accusation.
At the banquet, Nyra shone brighter than the crystal chandeliers that crowned the grand hall. She noticed Alpha Alaric and me the moment we entered, her golden gown glittering like spun sunlight, her beauty magnified by the adoration of those gathered. She moved toward us with practiced grace, her smile dazzling enough to make the crowd sigh in admiration.
“Kaia, Alpha Alaric, you’re finally here! I thought you weren’t going to come.”
Her voice was sugar-sweet, but her wolf aura betrayed her, subtle, predatory, tinged with challenge. Then, as if remembering something, she pressed a manicured hand to her lips, her eyes widening with mock innocence. “Oh, I’m sorry, sis. I forgot, you’re deaf. I should have used sign language, but… I never learned. You won’t blame me for that, will you?”
The words dripped with syrup, but beneath the surface gleamed poison. Her smile was wide and angelic, yet her eyes glimmered with malice.
Behind her, Maera Blackthorn, my mother, crossed her arms, her lip curling into a cruel sneer.
“If it weren’t for her, you never would have been kidnapped in the first place. How could she possibly blame you? The only one at fault is her, for being deaf, for being weak, and shaming the Blackthorns in front of the whole pack.”
The Luna-blood in her voice made the insult sting all the sharper, cutting through me like a whip across bare skin. My father, Alpha Castor Blackthorn, remained silent, but the disdain in his eyes was more damning than words. His wolf stirred faintly, its judgment pressing against me, and I lowered my eyes, fighting to steady my breath.
It wasn’t the first time they had treated me like this. It would not be the last. But familiarity did nothing to dull the pain; it only deepened the wound.
Before I could find words to defend myself, Alpha Alaric stepped forward, calm as ever, his presence commanding. He placed a steady hand on Nyra’s shoulder and said warmly, “Kaia isn’t petty. There’s no need to apologize to her.”
His voice carried through the hall, smooth, reassuring, the voice of an Alpha everyone obeyed. And yet his words, meant to soothe, felt like a knife twisting deeper.
Then he reached into his coat, producing a small velvet box. His movements were deliberate, reverent, as though he carried a sacred relic.
“Nyra,” he said softly, “this is for you.”
Her smile bloomed brighter, radiant with triumph as she accepted the gift. “Thank you, Alpha Alaric. You’ve always been so thoughtful.”
She tilted her wrist as she held the box, and that was when I saw it, the flash of silver that stole the breath from my lungs.
The bracelet.
The Silverfang Pack heirloom. A symbol of our bloodline’s legacy, a token passed from one generation to the next, carrying with it the weight of devotion and honor. I had asked him about it once, when we were newly mated, still clinging to the fragile belief that his heart might someday be mine. He had faltered only for a heartbeat before dismissing me.
“It’s nothing but an old trinket, Kaia. Lost years ago. What matters is that my heart belongs to you.”
But now, under the glow of the chandeliers, I saw the truth. It was not lost. It had never been mine to claim. It was always hers.
A searing pain ripped through my chest, sharper than any claw. My wolf whimpered, curling into herself, her anguish mirroring my own as though we shared the same shredded heart. My hands trembled, but I forced them still, swallowing back the storm clawing to break free. I could not show weakness here, not before them.
“I need some air,” I muttered, barely holding my voice steady, before slipping away into the crowd.
The garden beyond was cloaked in shadows, the pool at its center shimmering with pale moonlight. The crisp night air bit into my skin, but compared to the suffocating weight of the hall, it was a relief. I leaned against the railing, staring into the dark water. My reflection wavered there, unrecognizable, a stranger, haunted, broken, utterly alone.
I hadn’t expected Nyra to follow.
When she appeared, her expression had shed the sweetness of the banquet hall. Gone was the radiant smile, the innocent tilt of her head. In its place was a sneer sharp enough to draw blood, her delicate features twisted with disdain.
“I don’t know how you have the audacity to show your face here,” she hissed, her voice low, venomous. “Can’t you see? No one wants you. Not the pack, not your family, not even him. Your thick skin is truly impressive.”
Her words stung, but I said nothing. I kept my gaze fixed on the rippling water, refusing to grant her the victory of my pain.
Her tone hardened, sharper than fangs.
“You deaf freak, did you actually believe Alpha Alaric married you for love? He told me everything the night of your wedding. He asked you to keep you from ruining my bond with Ronan Stormclaw. He said the one he loves, the one he has always loved, is me.”
She stepped closer, her perfume cloying, her aura pressing against mine with dominance she had no right to wield. “Face it. No one loves you. If I were you, I’d slit my own throat beneath the moon.”
Each word was a dagger, driving deeper until I could feel my very wolf bleeding inside me. My fists clenched, nails cutting into flesh, my breath shaking as I battled the tears burning my eyes.
She laughed coldly at my silence, her voice curling with cruelty.
“Still clinging to Alpha Alaric? Then let me help you.”
And before I could move, she threw herself into the pool.
The splash shattered the stillness of the night, water churning violently around her as she flailed, her cries shrill and piercing.
“Help! Help me, someone!”
Her voice carried across the garden, echoing like a siren’s wail. And there I stood, frozen at the edge of the water, my heart pounding as the weight of her deceit crashed down upon me.
Nyra’s shrill cries split the night like a wounded wolf’s howl, shattering the moonlit garden and pulling the entire pack to the poolside. Gasps of shock replaced the low hum of chatter as every eye widened at the scene.
Without hesitation, Alpha Alaric tore off his jacket, his wolf surging. He plunged into the pool, slicing through the icy water with lethal precision, every stroke driven by raw desperation. He reached Nyra in powerful swipes, scooping her trembling form into his arms like the most prized treasure of the Silverfang Pack.
Water poured from her gown as he lifted her out, his hold fierce yet careful. “Nyra, are you hurt? Tell me you’re all right!” His golden eyes, once my sanctuary, scanned her face with frantic devotion.
Nyra clung to him, shaking, lashes heavy with tears that caught the chandelier’s light. Then, with the skill of a predator, she flicked a glance at me, her fake anguish glimmering sharp and cruel.
“Kaia,” she whispered, loud enough for the pack to hear, “if I upset you, you could have told me. Why did you push me? You know I’ve always been terrified of drowning…”
Her venom-laced words poisoned the gathering wolves. Mutters rose like restless growls. My mother surged forward, her Luna authority slicing through the air like a whip, her eyes burning with fury as she snarled,
“Kaia, how dare you push Nyra into the pool in front of the entire pack!”
Before I could move, before I could defend myself, her hands struck out with ruthless force. The shove was not merely maternal anger; it carried the strength of a wolf seasoned in dominance. I staggered backward, my feet slipping on the slick tiles, and then the world vanished into freezing chaos.
The instant I broke the surface, the water’s icy grip wrapped around me like shackles of frost. Air tore from my lungs in a violent gasp as panic clawed through me, dragging me under. I thrashed blindly, each frantic kick burning what little strength remained.
I couldn’t swim. I’d never been taught; they always said I was too unworthy, too forgotten.
My chest burned as water flooded my mouth and nose, suffocating me. Above, voices warped into cruel laughter, merging with the thunder of my own heartbeat. Through the blur, I saw my mother’s cold silhouette at the pool’s edge, arms crossed, eyes gleaming with icy disdain, her voice sharper than any claw.
“Stop pretending, Kaia,” she sneered, her words dripping with venom.
“No wolf will fall for your pitiful act. You have been nothing but a curse since the day you were born. It was your weakness that allowed Nyra to be taken before, and now you try to destroy her again? I should never have birthed you into this world.”
Each word was a stone tied to my body, dragging me further beneath the surface.
Beside her, my father stood silent as the grave, his lips pressed into a line of condemnation that spoke more than words ever could. His piercing gaze cut deeper than any blade, declaring what I had known my whole life, that I was not their daughter, only their burden.
I broke the surface once, coughing, gasping, fighting for even a fragment of air, but it stole the last of my strength. My eyes, blurred by tears and chlorine, found Alpha Alaric. My soul clung to him as my final lifeline. He knew I couldn’t swim. He knew my fragility. He was my mate, perhaps not by love, but at least by bond. Surely, surely, he would not watch me die.
But he did not move.
Sitting at the pool’s edge with Nyra draped in his arms like a queen carried by her chosen king, he looked down at me with eyes hardened into stone.
“Do you even realize Nyra is carrying a child?” His words boomed like thunder across the silent crowd. “How could you be so heartless? You could have killed her, and the heir she bears!”
The word heir struck me like a blade, a reminder of the Silverfang bloodline’s obsession with lineage. My throat locked with anguish, but my pleas drowned within the water.
His lip curled in disgust, his amber eyes now darkened to the hue of his wolf.
“Stay in the water, Kaia, and reflect on your sins.”
With those damning words, he rose, hoisting Nyra into his arms. Her wet hair clung to his shoulder, her head pressed against him as if she truly belonged there. She dared one last, triumphant glance at me, her smile masked by false exhaustion.
The pack scattered, whispers thick with judgment, eyes sharp with disdain. My parents followed, turning away without a backward glance.
The night deepened. Cold water seeped into my bones, despair sinking its claws into my will. My limbs grew heavy, each kick weaker than the last. My body surrendered, sinking once more as the moonlight faded from view.
This time, I didn’t break the surface. Fire filled my lungs, my vision blurred, and my thoughts dissolved into nothingness. Just as the shadows claimed me, a splash tore through the silence.
Until a strong arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me upward with urgent, feral force. The scent that enveloped me was wild, untamed, cedar and stormy. My fading mind clung to one desperate question:
Who was he?
**
When my consciousness returned, it was not the cold water that greeted me but the stark white ceiling of a healer’s ward. The sterile air carried faint traces of herbs used in pack medicine. My body felt unbearably heavy, every breath dragging through my chest as though the water still lingered there.
Turning my head, I froze at the sight of Alpha Alaric seated beside me. His hair was disheveled, his shirt wrinkled, his face pale with exhaustion, though relief ignited the moment our eyes met.
He immediately began signing, his hands moving swiftly, his gestures filled with urgency.
“My love, you are awake! I never meant to leave you behind. Ronan Stormclaw was away, and Nyra needed me; she is pregnant, and I had to take her to the healers first. Please, you must understand…”
His movements slowed, his eyes softening, his tone shifting into one of coaxing persuasion. “You know how vital heirs are to the Silverfang Pack. If something had happened to Nyra’s child, the family would never forgive you. Even your parents would have cast you out. I only did this to protect you, Kaia. Please believe me.”
His face carried such sincerity that any outsider might have believed his lies. But I, bound to him by mate bond and betrayal, knew better.
The ache within my chest hollowed me, but I refused to break in front of him. I refused to allow him to see the depth of my pain.
I said nothing.
His smile faltered; the flicker of disappointment was undeniable. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached for my hand.
I neither pulled away nor accepted his touch. I simply turned my gaze toward the window, letting the silence between us grow heavier than any words, a silence that carried the weight of all the truths I could no longer ignore.
Later that evening, the sterile quiet of the hospital room pressed down on me like a suffocating shroud, the faint hum of the ventilation system mingling with the distant calls of night wolves echoing across the estate.
My eyes remained fixed on the photo Nyra had sent, the image burning itself into my mind: Alpha Alaric, leaning over her hospital bed, pen in hand, his expression tender, meticulous, and frighteningly devoted. Beneath it, her caption cut sharper than any fang:
[Your mate is impossibly devoted, very romantic. He penned me a hundred letters, watched over me all night, never once resting. The pack omegas only told him you were stirring, and that’s when he finally tore himself away to see you.]
The next message arrived almost instantly, each word coated in deliberate malice, a venomous taunt designed to twist the knife deeper:
[Kaia, you’ll never surpass me. If you have any sense, you should just step aside.]
My chest burned, a wild, bitter fire igniting behind my ribs, yet I refused to give her the satisfaction of seeing me break. My fingers hovered over the screen, trembling as if the blood of my ancestors, the fierce Blackthorn wolves, were coursing through them, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Before I could respond, the door creaked open, carrying the stiff, deliberate energy of someone who belonged to the human world but knew little of the pack’s silent rules. A man in a crisp black suit stepped in, his movements precise, his gaze sweeping the room with practiced efficiency, barely acknowledging me before turning to Alpha Alaric.
“Alpha. Alaric,” he said, his voice low and deferential, almost ceremonial, “as per your instructions, we’ve prepared everything for the press conference. The transfer of Silverfang Holdings to Nyra Blackthorn can proceed as planned.”
My heart constricted in my chest as the truth settled over me like a heavy, suffocating fog. I turned my gaze to Alpha Alaric, searching for a hint of remorse, for a flicker of the man who had once been my mate, but instead, I found only the calm, controlled smile of a predator, satisfied with the hunt.
“Good,” he said, his voice smooth, measured, and terrifying in its ease. “If my wife, Luna Kaia, asks about this, tell her that Silverfang Holdings suffered a major financial crisis and went bankrupt.”
Then, turning to me with the practiced concern of a wolf feigning tenderness to protect its territory, he signed with exaggerated urgency, “Kaia, something urgent happened at the company. I have to handle it. Wait here for me.” Each motion was flawless, the care in his hands meticulous, but my restored hearing revealed the silent truth behind his act. His words were empty, rehearsed, a performance, not protection.
For a long moment, I simply stared, letting the room, the sterile walls, the faint scent of antiseptic, and the quiet hum of the hospital sink into me. The truth was blindingly clear: Alpha Alaric’s loyalty, his supposed devotion, had never been mine. It had been a lie wrapped in skillful deception, designed to entrap me in a role I had outgrown, a pack member who had never truly belonged.
I nodded silently as he left, the door clicking shut behind him, leaving a vacuum of oppressive silence in his wake. My hands clenched into fists, the tension coursing through me like wildfire, every vein thrumming with the instinctive fury of my wolf bloodline.
The realization struck me like a full moon rising over the pack lands; there was nothing left here for me. No trust, no love, no future.
With a deliberate calm that belied the storm raging inside me, I reached into my bag and pulled out a divorce agreement. The papers creased and worn from the hours I had spent weighing every choice, every consequence. I placed them neatly on the bedside table, the stark white sheets a symbol of resolve, of freedom, and of the inevitable severing of chains that had bound me to this false life.
Before leaving, I reached for my phone and deleted every trace of them, the names of Alpha Alaric, Nyra, and even my parents. Each press of the delete button was a spark of liberation, a severing of ties soaked in years of betrayal, pain, and suffocating expectation.
Alpha Alaric’s POV
By the time the press conference began, the room thrummed with energy, human and wolf media alike poised to record every movement, every word. I stood on the stage beside Nyra, my posture calm, commanding, radiating the alpha dominance that made lesser wolves instinctively bow their heads. Cameras flashed like lightning storms, reporters scribbled furiously, and I announced the transfer of Knight Holdings to her with the cold, measured authority of a wolf marking its territory.
“This marks a new chapter for our family,” I said, each word calculated, dripping with control and predation. The applause rolled through the crowd, vibrating through the walls like a pack call. I caught the hollow pride in Nyra’s parents’ faces, their smiles fixed, celebrating Nyra’s triumph as if Kaia had never existed.
As the event ended and I offered Nyra my arm, her hand clinging to me with radiant certainty, I felt the thrill of victory. She was untouchable in the glow of the crowd, the perfect image of dominance and submission entwined. But then… a familiar presence sliced through the golden haze, a wolf in human form whose confidence pressed against me like a challenge I could not ignore. Manuel, Kaia’s healer.
“Long time no see, Alpha Alaric,” Manuel said, his tone casual but layered with the weight of a rival alpha. “Taking your Sister-in-law out again? Why not bring your Luna? I was curious, wondered if she still struggles with her ears, or if she’s finally hearing properly.”
My blood ran cold. My alpha composure, so carefully honed, faltered like the moon had shifted in the sky. golden eyes, once calculating and lethal, flashed with disbelief and panic. “What did you just say?” My voice dropped low, sharp, trembling with an emotion no predator admits. “Kaia… she can hear now?”
Manuel’s gaze held mine, steady and unrelentless, his tone almost teasing against the tension that gripped me. “Her hearing recovered yesterday. Didn’t anyone tell you?”
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