Betrayed by the Alpha, Fated to the Lycan King

Karel POV:

Thick silver chains bit deep into my wrists, searing my flesh and sending up curls of acrid white smoke that made my whole body convulse on the torture rack.

The heavy iron door of the damp basement creaked open. Crisp high heels clicked against the concrete floor, echoing through the dark space and squeezing the air right out of my lungs.

Cherise Carlisle stepped into the dim light, wearing a spotless white couture gown. She was the heiress of the Carlisle family-the wealthy clan that had taken me in from the slums as a charity foster daughter-and my nominal older sister.

Now she looked down at me with pale amber eyes full of mockery.

"My dear sister, how does pure silver feel against your skin?"

She covered her mouth and giggled, her voice soft and fragile yet dripping with malice.

In our world, silver is the only lethal weakness to a werewolf, capable of burning away our strength and ending our lives, which is why no pack ever allows it in daily life.

I gasped for air and tried to reach for an inner wolf inside me, but my veins felt hollow and dead. I was just a defective wolfless girl from the slums, born without an inner wolf gene, unable to shift or use a mind-link.

"Where is Hampton? I want to see him!"

I roared in a raspy voice, the ugly red birthmark at the corner of my right eye swelling with heat and blood.

Steady footsteps approached from outside the door. Hampton Harper, my fiance and the Alpha heir to the Harper Pack corporate empire, walked in wearing a tailored black suit like a noble king.

Tears spilled from my eyes as I looked at him with desperate hope.

"Hampton, save me! Our baby..."

Hampton didn't even glance at me. Instead, he gently draped a cashmere coat over Cherise's shoulders and spoke in a low, doting tone.

"The basement is too damp, Cherise. Be careful not to ruin your dress."

His words hit me like a bucket of ice water poured from head to toe, freezing me solid. My eyes widened and my breath stopped completely. He had lied to me from the very beginning.

"Why..."

I bit down hard on my lower lip until I tasted rusty blood, digging my fingernails deep into my palms.

Cherise leaned into Hampton's chest, laughing brightly.

"For that little bit of special bloodline left inside you, of course. Otherwise, why would an Alpha heir ever look twice at a defective piece of trash from the slums?"

Hampton turned his head, his pale green eyes completely cold.

"Karel, your only purpose in existing was to serve as an incubator to cultivate gene serum for Cherise."

He raised his hand and unleashed his Alpha's Command. In werewolf society, genetics dictate hierarchy, and an Alpha's aura carries an absolute physical compulsion that lower-ranked wolves in the same pack cannot resist. That invisible weight slammed onto my spine like a collapsing mountain, forcing my head down.

I fought against the crushing pressure with everything I had, letting out a desperate, animalistic whimper as the silver chains rattled violently against the wooden frame.

Cherise picked up a gleaming silver scalpel from a metal tray nearby. She walked up to me and tapped the flat of the blade against my heavily swollen belly.

"As for this little bastard inside you, keeping it alive is just a waste."

"Don't touch my baby!"

I lunged forward like a madwoman, but the silver chains yanked me back, tearing the burned skin on my wrists until blood poured down my arms.

Hampton watched me thrash around with dead eyes, showing not a single trace of pity.

Cherise narrowed her eyes and pressed the freezing tip of the silver scalpel against my stomach, slicing through the top layer of skin.

Searing pain tore through my nerves. I threw my head back and screamed, the red birthmark at the corner of my eye burning as if it had caught fire.

Cherise leaned close to my ear, dropping her voice to a whisper meant only for the two of us.

"Do you know the truth, Karel? You really thought the man who slept with you during your heat that night was Hampton?"

I froze, staring at her in terror as memories of that stormy night flashed through my mind-the overwhelming heat, and the man whose embrace smelled powerfully of cedar and pine.

"That was just a filthy, greasy Rogue I hired off the streets! The thing in your belly is nothing but a mongrel!"

She threw her head back and laughed.

No, that was impossible! Every werewolf has a unique scent, and the man from that night carried an aura far too noble to belong to a packless stray!

I shook my head in despair as tears blurred my vision, my birthmark burning hotter than ever before.

Hampton checked his wristwatch impatiently.

"Stop wasting time and cut it out. The blood is going to get cold."

Cherise wiped the smile off her face, raising the silver scalpel high in the air.

I stared straight into their hypocritical faces, burning their features into my soul-if there is another life, I will make you pay in blood!

The silver blade plunged straight into my abdomen, and hot blood spurted out, staining the hem of her pure white dress bright red.

The freezing silver blade twisted inside my flesh, severing the lifeblood connecting me to my unborn child and choking the scream right out of my throat.

Cherise reached into the wound with blood-soaked hands and pulled the tiny, premature body out of my abdomen, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"How revolting. A mongrel reeking of the slums."

She dangled my baby in midair by one arm like a dirty rag.

My head hung low, my vision swimming with blood and tears, yet I used every last shred of strength to keep my eyes locked on my child.

Suddenly, the motionless pup snapped its eyes open.

They were not the cloudy eyes of a newborn human, but a pair of double pupils blazing with the silver-gold light of an immortal Lycan!

Karel POV:

An ancient, violent, and sacred bloodline pressure exploded outward from that tiny body.

The dim lightbulbs overhead shattered instantly, raining glass shards across the floor as the air in the basement grew crushing and heavy.

Cherise took the brunt of the blast. Her fragile body couldn't withstand the supreme dominance of a pureblood Lycan-only a wolfless fraud hiding behind faked genetic records, with no inner wolf to shield her, could crumble that fast.

She let out a terrified shriek, her knees buckling as she crashed into the pool of blood, her trembling hands letting go of the pup.

Instead of falling to the floor, the pup floated in midair supported by an invisible current of wind, its silver-gold double pupils glaring coldly down at Cherise.

Hampton's cold mask finally cracked. He stumbled half a step back, his pale green pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

"What... what kind of monster is this?"

His proud Alpha aura flickered like a weak candle flame against a hurricane. Lycans stand above all Alphas as the supreme rulers of our kind, and even a newborn's aura was enough to crush him.

Watching my child float in the air, my heart hammered wildly against my ribs. That was never the blood of a lowly Rogue-that was the mark of a supreme king!

Sensing my fading life, the pup turned its head toward me, its silver-gold eyes showing a flash of deep grief and rage.

It opened its toothless little mouth and let out a silent howl that shook the very core of my soul.

At that silent roar, the red birthmark at the corner of my eye flared with blinding crimson light, as if an ancient seal inside my blood was breaking apart.

Cherise clapped her hands over her ears and rolled on the concrete floor in agony as blood began to trickle from her eyes, nose, and mouth, her body breaking down under the absolute genetic suppression.

"Hampton! Kill it! Hurry up and kill it!"

She screeched at the top of her lungs, her pretty face twisted in terror.

Hampton gritted his teeth, fighting against the crushing bloodline pressure to pull a silver pistol from his holster and aim it straight at my floating child.

"No!"

A surge of desperate strength erupted from deep within me, and I yanked my left arm so hard that the blood-corroded silver chain snapped in two.

I threw my broken body forward to block the muzzle just as the gunshot roared through the cramped basement.

The silver bullet tore straight through my left shoulder. The searing pain knocked me to the ground, but I wrapped my arms tightly around Hampton's legs.

"Get off me, you crazy bitch!"

Hampton kicked me away, his leather shoe slamming straight into the open wound on my stomach.

I coughed up mouthfuls of dark blood, my vision fading at the edges, yet I refused to take my eyes off my baby.

The silver-gold light surrounding the pup burned brighter and brighter, sending spiderweb cracks racing across the concrete walls as chunks of stone began to fall from above.

My child was burning away its own newborn life force just to protect a useless mother like me.

"Run! This place is coming down!"

Realizing the danger, Hampton grabbed Cherise by the arm, dragged her off the floor, and bolted out the iron door.

I reached a trembling hand into the air toward my child, my life draining away with the blood pooling beneath me.

With a deafening roar, the basement ceiling caved in, burying me and that glowing silver-gold light under tons of falling rock.

Karel POV:

Freezing rain dripped through the cracks of the collapsed rubble onto my face as a violent thunderstorm raged outside.

Heavy concrete slabs pinned my lower body down. My blood had nearly run dry, making every shallow breath a torture.

The silver-gold light had faded completely, and my baby's tiny body lay nestled against the crook of my neck, growing colder by the second.

I turned my head with difficulty and rubbed my cheek against its cold, damp fur, tears mixing with the rainwater sliding down my face.

A bolt of lightning struck the mountain above, shaking the earth right before the terrifying roar of a flash flood echoed down the slope.

Through the deafening storm, the rapid chopping sound of helicopter blades cut through the wind, forcing its way over the cliffside.

Suddenly, the heavy boulders above me were ripped away by brute force, letting the howling wind and pouring rain flood into the cramped gap.

A tall, godlike figure leaped straight down from the hovering helicopter dozens of feet above, landing hard on the ruins and shattering the concrete slabs beneath his boots.

Even on the verge of death, an overpowering, intoxicating scent of cedar and pine swept through the rain and invaded my senses.

My heart clenched hard, and a sudden physical surge sent sparks dancing across my freezing skin as the tiny spark of wolf instinct waking inside me let out a weak cry-Mine!

It was the recognition ritual of a Fated Mate chosen by the Moon Goddess, triggering the unmistakable scent, the physical surge, and the inner wolf's roar all at once.

The man tore away the twisted steel bars with his bare hands, his palms splitting open and bleeding without him even flinching.

"Karel! Hold on!"

A deep, hoarse voice filled with madness and terror cut through the rain and slammed into my ears.

I tried to open my eyes wide to see his face, but severe blood loss left only a blurry dark silhouette in my vision.

He dropped to his knees in the mud and gathered my mangled body into his arms, his burning hands trembling violently against my skin and sending an electric jolt straight to my core.

When he saw the jagged incision across my stomach and the lifeless pup resting against my neck, a raw, beastly roar tore from his throat.

"No... I forbid you to die! Even if I have to tear this entire mountain range apart, I command you to live!"

He tried to use an Alpha's Command, yet his voice cracked into a desperate plea.

Resting against his heaving chest, wrapped in that cedar scent, an unprecedented sense of calm and completeness washed over me-the Soul's Peace that only a true mate could bring.

So the man from that night really was him. I had never been touched by a filthy Rogue, and my baby carried the noblest blood in the world.

With my last ounce of strength, my fingers weakly gripped his soaked suit lapel, wanting to speak, only to cough up a mouthful of black blood.

Scalding tears dripped onto my cheek as he bowed his head and pressed a desperate kiss to my freezing forehead.

At the touch of his lips, the red birthmark at my eye burned away completely into a pure white crescent moon, and my world plunged into darkness.

Tick. Tick.

The steady sound of a clock's second hand echoed in my ears.

"Wake up, blood of the Moon Goddess. Your vengeance has only just begun..."

An ancient, chilling female voice echoed directly inside my head, calling herself the Ancient One.

I sucked in a sharp breath and bolted upright like a drowning person breaking the surface of the water, gulping down dry, warm air.

There was no stench of blood, no freezing rain, and no tearing pain in my stomach.

I stared blankly at my unharmed hands, completely free of silver burns, and pressed my palms against my flat, smooth abdomen.

Bright sunlight filtered through the window blinds onto the wooden floor, illuminating the calendar on the wall: Fall Semester, St. Jude Academy.

I scrambled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom, staring into the mirror at my young, eighteen-year-old face with the red birthmark still resting at the corner of my right eye.

I had been reborn-back to the fall semester where everything began to go wrong.