Claimed by My Ex's Father, the Alpha King

Enola POV:

"Drink it all, cousin," my cousin, Colette George, whispered, tilting the silver vial against my cracked lips. Archer Reynolds-my husband and the newly crowned Alpha King of Eldoria-stood behind her with one arm wrapped intimately around her waist.

The liquid burned like liquid fire down my throat.

It was Wolfsbane, distilled to its blackest potency, paralyzing my nervous system from the inside out. My fingers twitched against the damp flagstones of the royal dungeon, but my arms refused to lift. Deep in my chest, my inner wolf clawed in agony, suffocating beneath the chemical rot before going completely silent.

I forced my head up through the blinding pain and glared at them. "You fucking traitors! You've been screwing each other behind my back all along!"

Colette's expression sharpened. "Watch your tongue. I am the Alpha King's Luna and the Queen of this realm. How dare you speak to me that way?" Then she giggled, pressing her cheek against Archer's crimson cloak. "Look at her, Archer. She looks like a gutted deer."

Archer Reynolds, once the Prince of Eldoria and now its Alpha King, stepped forward. His polished riding boots came to a halt inches from my face. He did not kneel. He merely looked down at me, his icy blue eyes stripped of every ounce of false warmth he had performed since our childhood.

"Stop struggling, Enola," Archer said, his voice flat and detached. "It only makes you look pathetic. You should be grateful we gave you a painless death."

I forced air past my frozen vocal cords, my vision blurring at the edges.

"My... father..." I rasped.

"Your father is dead," Colette said sweetly, stepping around Archer so I could see the victory shining in her pale eyes. "Your mother too. And your loud-mouthed brothers. Lord Carlisle was kind enough to deliver the forged letters of treason directly to the Elders this morning. The Hanson Pack was wiped out before noon. Not a single stone stands in Northwind Castle."

A violent spasm locked my jaw. My heart pounded so hard against my ribs it felt ready to tear through my flesh.

My entire family.

My parents. Felix. Rocco. Dead because of a stack of forged papers.

"Why?" I choked out, a thin trickle of blood escaping the corner of my mouth. "We gave you... everything."

Archer scoffed, resting an arrogant hand on the silver hilt of his rapier.

"You gave me soldiers, Enola. That was all you were ever good for. Did you really think I would seat a plain, unbonded female beside me on the Silvermoon Throne? If it weren't for your pack's northern garrisons, you wouldn't even have been fit to warm my bed."

He turned, pulling Colette hard against his chest.

Before my dying eyes, Archer buried one hand in Colette's blonde hair and kissed her. His tongue forced its way between her lips while his other hand slid down her body and closed over her ass through the thin silk, grinding her against him. Colette let out a breathless moan and arched into his touch, making certain I saw every obscene movement.

I clenched my teeth until blood filled my mouth. My eyes burned red, and endless hatred surged through me, hotter than the Wolfsbane devouring my veins. He had never once claimed me with such hunger in all the years I had loved him.

Colette pulled back slightly, panting, her painted lips curving into a venomous smile aimed straight at me.

"Everything you had is mine now, cousin," she murmured, pulling a small perfume flask from her silk bodice.

She tipped the glass, splashing a sickly-sweet peony scent over my trembling shoulders.

"Archer will mark me before the entire court at the Winter Solstice. Then every pack in Eldoria will kneel and acknowledge me as their Luna Queen. And your name will be remembered only as a traitor's daughter who died of shame in the dark."

"Come, Colette," Archer muttered, grabbing her elbow with clear impatience. "Don't waste another second on a corpse. The High Council awaits my victory report."

They turned toward the heavy oak door.

The heavy iron hinges groaned as the guards pushed the dungeon barrier shut. The latch slammed down with the finality of a guillotine.

Darkness flooded the cell, absolute and freezing.

I lay in my own filth, the poison freezing my veins until my lungs could no longer expand. The cold stone pressed hard against my cheek.

Archer Reynolds.

Colette George.

The names branded themselves into my soul with white-hot iron.

If the Moon Goddess has any justice left in the heavens, I prayed into the choking dark, my fingernails scraping bloody grooves into the stone, send me back. Give me one more life. Give me one breath beneath the sun.

My heartbeat stuttered, slowed, and began to snap like a dry twig. With the last shred of strength in my dying body, I carved one final vow into my soul.

If I ever draw breath again, I will tear Archer Reynolds from his stolen throne, make Colette George choke on the crown she stole from me, and drown every last soul who slaughtered my family in their own blood!

Enola POV:

Death had not ended when my heart stopped.

My soul had torn free of my poisoned body and drifted above the earth, condemned to watch everything that followed. I saw Archer and Colette celebrate the destruction of my family. I saw every lie they had buried, every ally they had bought, and every enemy who would eventually turn against them.

I also saw Fremont Reynolds-Archer's father and the Alpha King who had surrendered his throne to his son-learn the truth too late.

He stormed the royal dungeon to save me. Archer's guards drove silver blades into his back, but Fremont fought his way to my cell and collapsed beside my body. With his last strength, he gathered me into his arms and pressed his bloodstained lips to my cold forehead.

"Forgive me, Enola," he whispered. "I loved you. I should have chosen you before duty made a coward of me."

The man I had known only as my father-in-law died because he tried to save me, my name still on his lips. Until my own death, I had never imagined that the distant, honorable Alpha King had carried such forbidden devotion for me.

Then I watched Archer's reign rot from within. He emptied the royal treasury, executed loyal Elders, and allowed famine and rebellion to tear Eldoria apart. Three winters after my murder, enemy armies breached the capital and the kingdom fell.

I remembered it all-every betrayal, every death, and every turn the kingdom would take. The Moon Goddess had forced my wandering soul to witness the complete ruin of everyone bound to me.

Now the stench of rot and Wolfsbane was gone. Dried lavender, polished cedar, and morning rain filled my lungs. Golden sunlight poured through the arched windows, illuminating the familiar carved laurel wreaths of Northwind Castle.

I held up my hands. The skin was pale and smooth, unmarred by chains or poison. My inner wolf paced behind my ribs, alive and strong.

I threw aside the velvet blankets and stumbled toward the gilded vanity mirror. The reflection staring back at me was my face at twenty years old-youthful, unscarred, with dark brown hair tumbling past my waist.

I had returned to the past with every memory intact.

The heavy latch of the bedroom door clicked.

My entire body snapped rigid. My inner wolf bared her fangs in primal defense.

"Enola? Oh, thank the Goddess, you're awake!"

A woman stepped through the heavy curtains, carrying a steaming porcelain bowl.

She wore a gown of Hanson green, her brown hair pinned in practical braids. Her face was lined with gentle worry, completely untouched by the horrors of execution.

Mother.

The breath punched out of my lungs. My knees gave way, and I dropped to the floor beside the vanity.

"Enola!"

Camila Hanson dropped the bowl onto a table and fell to her knees beside me, wrapping her strong, warm arms around my trembling shoulders. The familiar scent of white camellia enveloped me, real and pulsing with the warmth of a living, beating heart.

I buried my face into the crook of her neck, my fingers bunching into her woolen sleeves as a ragged sob ripped from my throat.

"I have you, darling. You're safe," she murmured, rocking me gently as she used to when I was a pup. "The doctor said it was only a minor fall from your mare, but you slept for three whole days. Your father almost rode down the physician with his guard."

A fall from a mare.

I pulled back, using my thumbs to wipe the tears from my eyes. My hands were steady now, hardened by a chilling clarity.

"Mother," I said, my voice hoarse. "What day is this?"

Camila blinked, brushing a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

"It is the fifteenth day of the Silver Moon, my love. Why do you ask?"

The fifteenth of the Silver Moon.

A full year before the purge. A full year before Carlisle's forged letters, before the slaughter of my bloodline, before Archer and Colette locked me beneath the earth to rot.

I had twelve months.

Twelve months to save my family, prevent Fremont's death, dismantle a prince, shatter a kingdom's treachery, and burn every enemy to ash.

This was no longer merely revenge. The Moon Goddess had once woven the threads of our fate toward ruin. This time, I would tear those threads from her hands and weave our destiny myself.

"Enola?" Camila's brow furrowed, her gaze scanning my eyes. "Your stare... it looks different. Are you in pain?"

I forced my lips into a gentle, reassuring smile and squeezed her warm fingers.

"No, Mother. My head is clearer than it has ever been."

I rose smoothly from the floor, smoothing down my nightgown.

"Send for Felix. Tell him to meet us in Father's study immediately. There are matters concerning our pack's future that cannot wait another hour."

Enola POV:

"You summoned me like the castle was under siege, little sister," Felix said, closing the heavy oak door of Father's study behind him.

My brother was twenty-four, broad-shouldered, and bore the heavy jawline of the Hanson line. As our pack's future Beta, he already wore a leather sword-belt across his tunic, his brown eyes carrying the sharp vigilance of an Alpha's lieutenant.

He pulled out a high-backed chair, sitting across from Mother and me at the long mahogany table. The hearth crackled with dry pine logs, throwing long orange shadows over the maps of Eldoria pinned to the stone walls.

"You look pale, Enola," Felix added, his brow pinching with genuine concern. "You should be resting after that tumble."

"I did not tumble from my horse, Felix," I said, locking my gaze onto his. "And we do not have time for rest."

Mother sat beside me, her hands folded tightly on the table.

"You frightened me upstairs, Enola," she said. "Whatever cannot wait another hour, tell us now."

I leaned forward, keeping my voice low, precise, and cold.

"Prince Archer and Colette George have been lovers for months. In one year, during the Great Hunt, Archer will use false evidence provided by Lord Carlisle to accuse Father of high treason. The Royal Guards will march north, slaughter our warriors in their beds, and burn our castle to the ground. I will be dragged to the royal dungeons and poisoned with Wolfsbane so Colette can take my place as Luna Queen."

The silence in the study fell like lead.

Felix stared at me, his fingers freezing on the armrest of his chair. Slowly, the worry on his face curdled into sharp disbelief.

"This is madness," Felix said, exhaling a dry breath. "Archer is the Crown Prince. Your betrothal to the royal house was sealed by the King himself. And Colette is our cousin. Her mother is our aunt. Why would she-"

"Because she wants a crown, and Archer wants our northern armies without the inconvenience of an unyielding Hanson wife," I interrupted, my tone cutting through his skepticism like a blade. "It already happened to me. I died in that dungeon. My spirit remained after death and witnessed everything that followed. The Moon Goddess sent me back with every memory intact."

"Enola," Felix said, his voice dropping into the stern register he used on insolent recruits. "A nightmare brought on by a head injury is not pack intelligence. You are talking about accusing the heir to the throne of treason."

I didn't blink.

"Then wait for the ninth bell," I said. "Before it finishes ringing, Rocco will walk through that door carrying a royal dispatch delivered at the east gate."

Felix's eyes narrowed. "Rocco is inspecting the southern wall."

"He was," I replied. "The dispatch bears Archer's private seal, but the red wax is cracked straight through the wolf's left eye. It orders Father to send three hundred warriors away from Frostfang Pass for joint exercises in the capital before the next full moon."

I held Felix's gaze.

"The final sentence reads, 'The Crown does not ask twice.'"

Before Felix could answer, the first stroke of the ninth bell rolled across Northwind Castle.

The second followed. Then the third.

By the eighth stroke, hurried boots were pounding down the corridor. The study door burst open just as the ninth bell rang.

Rocco stood on the threshold, breathing hard, a rolled parchment clenched in his hand. "A royal dispatch just arrived at the east gate."

He crossed the room and handed it to Felix. The red wax seal was cracked straight through the wolf's left eye.

Felix tore the parchment open. His eyes moved rapidly over the order, then stopped on the final line.

"'The Crown does not ask twice,'" he read aloud.

Mother gasped, her knuckles turning white against her lips.

Felix stared at the dispatch for ten long seconds. When he turned back to me, the skepticism in his eyes had been completely replaced by cold, absolute shock.

He crossed the room, dropped heavily onto one knee before my chair, and took my cold hand in his calloused grip.

"My wolf answers to you, Enola," Felix swore, his Beta instinct surging through his voice. "If our pack is to burn, tell me who to kill first."

"No one yet," I replied, pulling him to his feet. "An assassination will only bring the King's armies down upon us early. Archer must destroy himself."

"How?" Mother asked, her gentle eyes suddenly hardening with the primal fury of a mother wolf protecting her den.

"He wants to be rid of me," I said, a slow, cold smile touching my lips. "So we will give him every reason to do it in broad daylight, before the entire court. And we will start with Colette."