The Alpha's Greatest Regret: Losing His True Fated Mate

yah

r, pl

heat radiating from the small body in my arms. Ellum was burning up. His breaths were shallow little puffs that bare

ebt. And Asher... Asher forgot me. I heard the whispers before I understood them-the old Luna saying I was fit only to warm his bed, not to stand beside his throne. The elders murmuring that the blood debt could be satisfied with far less than a crown. And Elara, that distant cousin from the Silver Lake pack, arriving with her perfect pedigree and her

vy oak door of the Blackwood pack house. Spli

voice was a shredded wreck, t

e pack doctor. All I needed was fo

k. The door cracked open, a sliver of golde

sn't

. His eyes flickered over my drenched form, then to the

ting," he said, his voice as starched

"He's sick. He can't breathe right. I just nee

ted from behind the butler.

rry. She was wrapped in a luxurious silk robe, her feet tucked into plush slippers. She looked warm and dry and utterly unt

sn't a glance. It was an assessment-the kind you giv

dripping with condescension, "why waste the doctor's precious time on a wolfless runt who can bar

t rigid. The rain, the cold, my bleeding knuckles-all of it vanished, replaced by a white-hot surge of fury. My inner w

d stay. In the cabin. After the wedding. A convenient little arrangement-you'd still be his, just not in any way that matters. A mistress for an Alpha is practically a tradition, isn't it?" Her smile sharpened. "But that dying thing in your arms? He's not part of the

out. The words tasted bitter,

lass. Behind her, I heard a few of the house serv

ell yourself? The Moon Goddess bonds bloodlines, Aaliyah. She doesn't waste her magic

ighteenth birthday, since we both knew, he had never shown me a shred of affection. Not a touch, not a kind wo

r study. The curtains were pulled aside. A tall, p

he

. He would come down and make it right. I tilted my head back, the rai

vering, pathetic sight I must have been. It passed over the dying chil

ng against my rib

ceptible nod. An affirmation. An agreement. Not just to her. To all of it.

d pulled the heavy curtains closed, pl

d and died. All that remained was a woman with nothing left to lose-and a brother who needed her to be stronger than she had ever been. They wanted me to be his mistress. His dirty secret, hidden in the

She turned to the butler. "Close

slammed shut with

ed the shatter

l if it was from the cold or from the utter devastation that wracked my soul, bu

last fragile thread of hope, the last lingering fanta

n't a home. It

tion. He was my ruin. I would be m

m settled over me-an unbreakable, unbendable will forged in the cruc

carrying my brother into the deepening storm. My back was