Rejected Bride Claimed by the Alpha King

Hannah Price POV:

I coughed up a mouthful of foul lake water, my fingers digging into the freezing mud along the bank. Sharp gravel cut into my nail beds as the suffocating panic in my chest vanished into the night wind.

Gasping for air, I pushed wet strands of silver-white hair off my face and stared at the brightly lit main house of the Sheppard estate. My heart hammered against my ribs. It was not from the cold. I looked down at my smooth, unscarred hands and realized the truth-I was twenty years old again, brought back to the night before the mate selection that had ruined my life.

I forced my stiff legs to straighten. The wind whipped through my soaked dress, making my teeth chatter, though the chill inside my chest was far colder.

In my past life, I had been bled dry and murdered by Daryl Ratcliff, my fiancé. Everyone thought he was a rising star, but he was a genetic defect-a wolfless weakling born without an Inner Wolf, incapable of shifting, mind-linking, or even fathering pups. In our world, genes dictated rank from birth, and a wolfless male was at the very bottom. This time, he would pay for my blood.

Instead of crying for help, I slipped off my heavy heels. Barefoot on the frost-covered grass, I crept toward the half-open French doors of the main hall.

As I reached the stone porch, my hidden White Wolf hearing-a rare, royal bloodline trait I kept strictly suppressed-picked up shrill weeping inside. I froze and pressed my back against a cold stone pillar.

Peering through the gap, I saw my cousin, Kaelyn Dotson, kneeling on the carpet and clinging to the trouser leg of my biological father, Alvan Sheppard.

"Uncle! Please let me marry Daryl in Hannah's place!" Kaelyn cried, her voice trembling with frantic greed. "I love him! I will gladly give Hannah my spot to go to the Nightshadow Pack headquarters for the Alpha King's mate selection!"

I narrowed my ice-blue eyes, a cold smirk touching my lips. It looked like I was not the only one who had come back. Kaelyn clearly remembered my past glory as the wife of a high-ranking official, never knowing that every bit of Daryl's success had been built by my sweat and blood.

Alvan frowned, his gray-streaked hair bristling with irritation as he yanked his leg free.

"Nonsense! Daryl is a promising young male I chose myself. The marriage contract is settled, and the selection at headquarters is a death trap! How dare you treat this like a game!"

My stepmother, Penelope Carlisle, sat on a velvet sofa, slowly sipping black tea from a bone-china cup. Her sharp eyes flickered as she calculated the profits of this swap.

I took a deep breath, wiped every trace of malice from my face, and put on a terrified, Pitiful expression before stumbling through the French doors.

The heavy thud of the door silenced the room. Water dripped from my hem onto the floor as I spoke in a shaking voice.

"Father, Mother... is what Kaelyn just said true?"

As the illegitimate daughter of a low-ranking concubine, I had always been an invisible outcast in this house. Kaelyn whipped her head around, her brown eyes flashing with disgust before she scrambled up and rushed at me.

"Hannah, since you heard everything, just agree!" Kaelyn sneered, puffing out her chest as if handing me a grand charity. "Daryl is too good for a lowborn girl like you. The Pack headquarters selection suits someone arrogant like you much better."

I flinched and took half a step back, acting frightened while laughing inside. She had no idea the Ratcliff house was a den of monsters.

Penelope set her teacup down, her manicured fingers tapping the table as she gave me a cold look.

"Hannah, the selection at headquarters is a rare chance. Since your cousin wants to fulfill your ambition, think carefully."

Staying here meant being a pawn forever; the lethal selection at headquarters was my only ladder to supreme power. I lowered my gaze, hiding my sharp eyes behind wet lashes, and whispered.

"If Kaelyn truly cannot live without Daryl, then for the peace of our family... I am willing to step aside and go to headquarters."

Joy practically burst from Kaelyn's face as she spun back to Alvan.

"Uncle, you heard her! Hannah agreed with her own mouth!"

Alvan squinted his dark eyes at my shivering form, his brow still furrowed.

"This concerns our family reputation. It cannot be decided by a few words between you two."

Terrified of losing her prize, Kaelyn grabbed Penelope's arm and begged frantically. Penelope did not answer right away, simply waving a maid over to take me upstairs so I would not freeze and embarrass them.

I bowed meekly and followed the maid toward the stairs, casting one last side-glance at Kaelyn, who was practically dancing into her own grave.

When I pushed open the door to my remote second-floor guest room, my loyal nanny, Martha Kowalski, gasped and wrapped me in a thick dry towel. Sitting before the vanity mirror as heat seeped back into my skin, I listened to Martha wipe her tears.

"Miss Kaelyn is bullying you too much! That was your hard-won marriage!"

I patted Martha's rough hand.

"Trust me, Martha. What lies in a shallow swamp is not treasure, but a viper. Stepping back is the only way to walk a wider road."

Footsteps sounded lightly in the hallway outside. Knowing Penelope's spies were watching, I quickly pulled my knees to my chest on the bed, shivering like a helpless girl abandoned by her fiancé.