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.

Hannah Price POV:

After curling on that cold bed all night for the benefit of Penelope's spies, I rose as morning mist covered the estate's hedges. I put on a plain white cotton dress and suppressed my natural White Wolf scent until it was barely detectable.

Walking down the oak hallway from my room, I controlled my breathing, keeping my heartbeat at the rapid, fluttering pace of a frightened rabbit. Last night was only the beginning. Penelope Carlisle, a high-ranking pureblood female, was the true ruler of this household's inner court. If I did not erase her suspicion, I would never make it out the front gates alive.

Stopping before the second-floor sitting room, I knocked softly.

"Mother, it is Hannah, here to pay my morning respects."

A personal maid pulled the door open, releasing a heavy wave of rose essential oil mixed with Penelope's dominant pureblood scent. Penelope sat on a high-backed velvet chair, a porcelain coffee pot and several territory financial reports spread on the table before her. In werewolf households, silver was strictly forbidden on dining tables because even a trace of it burned our skin and poisoned our inner wolves.

I walked in, stopped three paces away, and sank into a deep curtsy. I bowed my head low, deliberately exposing the pale, undefended nape of my neck.

To a werewolf's instincts, baring the neck meant total submission. Looking from beneath my lashes, I saw Penelope's narrow eyes squint as she studied me.

"You caught the cold wind by the lake last night. Are you feeling better?"

Her voice was flat and oppressive. I answered softly, letting a slight tremor slip into my tone.

"Thank you for your concern, Mother. I drank hot water and am fine now."

"You are a smart girl, Hannah," Penelope said, taking a sip from her porcelain cup. "Kaelyn made a scene last night, but you know her temper. If we refuse her, both families will look ugly."

She was testing me to see if I held a grudge or would ruin the selection out of spite. I immediately raised my head, my eyesrimmed with red and filled with submissive confusion.

"Mother, I have never dared to ask for things that do not belong to me. Kaelyn is legitimate, and young master Daryl has a bright future. They are a match made by the Moon Goddess."

A tear rolled down my cheek, and I wiped it away quickly, acting the part of a heartbroken outcast accepting her fate.

"As long as I can share the family's burden, where I go and whom I marry is entirely up to Father and Mother."

At my spineless, self-deprecating words, Penelope's tight jaw visibly relaxed. To a woman like her, a weak illegitimate daughter was far easier to use as cannon fodder at headquarters than an ambitious one.

"Since you think this way, my teachings were not wasted on you," Penelope said, her tone softening as she set her cup down. "The Alpha King's selection is brutal, but you have a pretty face. If you behave, you might find a minor post in the central city, which is better than living under someone's thumb here."

I nodded obediently, clasping my hands over my stomach.

"I will follow all of Mother's arrangements."

Penelope waved a maid over with a gold-rimmed plate of buttered scones.

"Sit and eat something. You look thin as paper. Do not embarrass the Sheppard name when you reach headquarters."

Sitting on the very edge of a small round stool, I took tiny bites of the scone while my mind remained cold as iron. In my last life, showing my intelligence had made Penelope and Kaelyn join forces to crush me; this time, my docile mask would stay on until my hands were around their throats.

Just then, the butler knocked and hurried in, his face pale.

"Madam, Miss Kaelyn is kneeling outside the Master's study again! She swears she will starve herself to death if the Master does not finalize the swap today."

Penelope's brows knitted together in disgust.

"That brainless fool! What a disgrace!"

Standing up to adjust her shawl, she glanced down at me sitting quietly with my scone, her satisfaction growing by the second.

"Rest here. I will go take a look."

Once the door clicked shut behind her trailing skirt, the timid misery vanished from my face. Setting down the half-eaten scone, I walked to the window and watched the guards hurrying toward the main study.

The selection at headquarters had ruthless entry thresholds; a low-ranking bastard would be thrown out at the first genetic scan. Hearing Alvan's angry roar echo from the end of the corridor, I smoothed my white dress and walked out of the sitting room toward the study.

Hannah Price POV:

Walking down the corridor from the sitting room, I reached the half-open mahogany doors of the main study just as a teacup smashed onto the Persian rug inside.

I slowed my steps at the threshold. Kaelyn was sprawled on the floor with messy hair, her forehead pressed to the floorboards as she wailed. Behind his wide black-walnut desk, Alvan Sheppard's face was livid, veins bulging beneath his gray hair.

"Did the family raise you all these years so you could act like a lunatic?" Alvan roared, slamming his palm on the desk. "The selection spot at headquarters was set by the elders! Swapping brides is a joke!"

Kaelyn raised her tear-streaked face, her eyes burning with sick obsession.

"Uncle! Daryl will become the most glorious commander in the entire territory! Marrying him is the greatest help I can give our family! Please let me have him!"

Standing outside the door, I sneered inwardly. Daryl was a congenital wolfless waste who could not even connect to the pack Mind-Link-whenever a normal wolf projected thoughts to him, it felt like knocking on a hollow, silent wall. Kaelyn was fighting for an empty shell.

Sitting on a leather sofa nearby, Penelope rubbed her temples and spoke coldly.

"Alvan, since Kaelyn has made up her mind, forcing her to headquarters will only cause a scandal at the ceremony and disgrace our whole clan."

Alvan choked on his anger. I could tell he knew she was right, but the roster had already been submitted to Nightshadow Pack headquarters. Changing candidates required a legitimate excuse.

The timing was ripe. Taking a deep breath, I knocked lightly and stepped into the study with a trembling voice.

"Father, Mother, Cousin, please calm your anger."

Every eye in the study snapped toward me. Like a drowning woman spotting driftwood, Kaelyn scrambled across the rug and clutched my hem.

"Hannah! Tell Uncle right now that you volunteered to take my place at headquarters! Tell him!"

I shrank back as if terrified by her grip, looking toward Alvan with tears pooling in my eyes.

"Father... since Kaelyn loves young master Daryl so deeply, I cannot bear to see her hurt herself or bring shame to our house."

Seeing my submissive posture, Alvan's expression softened slightly as he sighed.

"Hannah, are you truly willing to take her place in the selection?"

"I am willing to share Father's worries," I replied, lifting my gaze before letting panic wash over my face. "However, Father, there is one fatal problem. The Alpha King's selection tests not only appearance, but conducts strict bloodline and status verifications."

Alvan raised a brow.

"What do you mean?"

"I was raised in the side courtyard, listed in the clan archives only as a marginal illegitimate daughter," I said, dropping my voice low with shame. "In our world, rank and entry to the royal court are strictly bound to certified bloodlines. If I step into headquarters with a lowly bastard title, the genetic inspectors will charge our family with disrespecting the throne in the very first round!"

Alvan's pupils shrank, and he sucked in a sharp breath. As an experienced elder, he surely knew how ruthless the old noble inspectors at headquarters were. Penelope also sat up straight, her eyes narrowing.

"Then what are you suggesting?" Alvan asked, his stern tone wavering.

I dropped to my knees on the carpet, touching my forehead to the floor.

"I beg Father and Mother to record my name officially under Mother's branch in the main genealogy book, granting me the status of a high-ranking pureblood legitimate daughter of the Sheppard family!"

"Out of the question!" Penelope snapped, her face darkening at the insult of adopting a concubine's child.

Kaelyn, however, screamed frantically.

"Aunt Penelope! Just say yes! It is only an empty title on paper! As long as she goes to headquarters to die in my place, who cares whose name she is under?"

At the words "die in my place," both Alvan and Penelope stiffened. Hiding my face against the rug, I smiled coldly asAlvan paced the floor in his heavy boots before stopping in front of his wife.

"Penelope, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures," Alvan said grimly. "Only under your name can she legitimately represent our clan."

Penelope's chest heaved, but looking between her hysterical niece and my kneeling form, she gritted her teeth.

"... Whatever the Master decides."

Alvan immediately pulled a gold-embossed genealogy contract from his drawer, wrote my name into the legitimate first-daughter line, and stamped the heavy clan seal onto the paper.

"From today on, you are the legitimate pureblood eldest daughter of the Sheppard family," Alvan declared.

"Thank you, Father! Thank you, Mother!" I bowed deeply, my fingernails digging into my palms inside my sleeves to contain my triumph.