Forsaken By One Alpha, Claimed By His Rival

Aria POV:

"Cleo..." Dominik groaned huskily, his heavy, bourbon-soaked body pinning me to the mattress as he violently tore at my dress.

At that exact same fraction of a second, I blurted out, "Dominik, I'm pregnant."

The words collided in the tense air. We both froze.

"What did you just call me?" I trembled, my fingers clutching the positive pregnancy test in my pocket. "You are forcing yourself on me, and you call me her name?"

The drunken heat vanished from his deep gray eyes in a split second, replaced by a chilling, predatory glare. He pushed himself off me in disgust. "What did you just say?"

"I'm pregnant," I repeated, my heart pounding frantically.

Dominik sneered, running a cold hand through his messy hair. "Get rid of it. We are getting a divorce."

My mind went blank. For two long years, our marriage had been a peaceful facade. We were intimate, and I had foolishly believed I was happy. I never expected I was just a cheap replacement, a temporary placeholder keeping his bed warm until his true love returned.

"Just because of her?" I asked, my voice breaking. "Because of the woman whose name you just called? Two years... and you can just throw me away without a second thought?"

A dismissive, arrogant scoff escaped his lips. "Aria, you are so pathetically naive. Cleo is back. I never loved you. Even in bed, it was never you I was thinking about."

The brutal honesty pierced my chest, but the heartbreak was instantly swallowed by a sharper, more urgent panic. A chilling realization washed over my mind, instantly sobering me up. The brutal truth was, Dominik Steele was the man who murdered my father. I never loved him initially. I only married him, offering my body to my sworn enemy, to gather evidence and find a chance to ruin his empire. If I were kicked out of the pack territory now, my two years of silent endurance would be completely wasted. I would lose all access to his secrets. I absolutely had to stay, at any cost, to finish my revenge.

Swallowing the bitter taste of humiliation, I forced myself to play the role of a desperate, heartbroken wife. "Please, Dominik," I begged, lowering all my pride, letting my tears fall freely to mask my true intentions. "I can be a servant to you and Cleo. I can do the laundry, scrub the floors... I just want to stay... don't make me leave you."

His gaze remained as absolute and cold as a glacier. "No. Sign the divorce papers. And as for that unexpected mistake in your belly... you will get rid of that child. The doctor will handle the abortion tonight."

My breath hitched. He wanted to kill the baby. I had always been so incredibly careful, taking strong abortion pills on time after every single night we spent together, terrified of carrying my enemy's spawn. But fate played a cruel, twisted joke. The Alpha King's potent, domineering bloodline had somehow overpowered the drugs, planting this unexpected seed in my womb. I had thought he might care for his own flesh and blood, but I underestimated his monstrosity.

Despite our bitter blood feud, despite the fact that this child shared his cursed blood, a fierce, primal maternal instinct flared within me. This tiny, fragile life was innocent. It was half of me. I couldn't just let him murder it.

Just then, the bedroom door was pushed wide open. A woman in an elegant, custom-made maroon dress walked in, utterly unbothered by the intimate setting. Cleo Rivera. The daughter of a powerful political ally, the woman who had vanished two years ago. Her long, smooth hair cascaded down her back, and a confident, possessive smile played on her red lips.

"Cleo is back," he repeated to me, stating it like a fact that had absolutely nothing to do with me.

Cleo walked right past me and leaned intimately into Dominik's chest, smiling at my disheveled state with the condescending pity and scorn of a victor. "Dominik, don't let these little things trouble you. Tonight is our night to celebrate."

He nodded, then turned his emotionless gaze back to me. He moved his lips, but no sound came out. Instead, a powerful, irresistible force slammed into my brain.

"Get rid of that bastard child," his voice echoed directly in my mind through our mind-link, laced with an absolute, crushing Alpha authority. Because of the toxic suppressants I had swallowed for two years to hide my true Alpha bloodline, my chemically weakened body was utterly defenseless against a King's command.

My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the freezing bedroom floor, gasping for air.

Then, he spoke aloud, his voice formal and merciless, each word a rusty nail driven into my coffin. "I, Dominik Steele, Alpha King of the Steele Pack, hereby reject you, Aria, as my mate."

The Rejection. The cruelest severance a wolf could perform. Once spoken, it meant our soul-bond would be forcibly, violently torn apart. An unbearable agony erupted from the depths of my soul, as if a thousand unseen hands were ripping my heart and lungs apart from the inside. A choked, bloody sob escaped my lips.

"Take her to the Pack clinic. Ensure the termination procedure is completed before morning," he issued one final command to the guards through the mind-link, completely ignoring my agonizing screams.

Despair washed over me, a suffocating, black tide. But at the very edge of that darkness, my resolve hardened into a roaring flame. I have to run. For the one precious thing that is truly mine, I have to escape this hell at any cost.