The Sinner's Return: Claimed By The Vengeful Alpha

Kira Hayes POV:

Because he believed I tried to murder his first love, Isabelle, my fated mate, Dorian, personally threw me into a silver-lined dungeon to rot for five whole years.

That day still haunts me like a suffocating nightmare.

In the dream, his large, hot hand traced the curve of my bare shoulder. The intoxicating scent of cedar and freezing rain wrapped around me. Mate. My inner wolf whimpered in pure submission. I leaned into his touch, my heart pounding as the room temperature seemed to rise. His lips brushed mine, a tender, breathless promise that made me believe I was finally loved.

But the illusion shattered with a deafening crash.

The bedroom door was kicked open. Pack elders and warriors flooded in, their eyes filled with fury and disgust.

Instead of shielding me, Dorian pulled away, leaving me shivering and barely covered by a thin sheet. I was exposed, stripped of my dignity, and humiliated before the entire pack.

The accusations rained down on me like poisonous arrows. "Look at her! The vicious, spoiled brat!" "She couldn't stand the Alpha favoring a sweet Omega, so she resorted to murder!" "She killed our most valiant warrior and left poor Isabelle in a coma! She deserves to die!"

The people who used to flatter me now spat at my feet. The people who used to fear me now condemned me.

I looked up at Dorian, shaking, desperately hoping he would pull me into his arms and tell them it was all a misunderstanding. But his ice-blue eyes held no warmth, only a pure, incinerating hatred.

He grabbed me roughly and personally locked the searing silver shackles onto my wrists. The metal burned my flesh, but it was his voice that destroyed my soul.

"Traitor," he growled, the Alpha command forcing me to my knees. "You will rot in The Pit for what you did."

"No!" I jolted upright, my eyes snapping open to the heavy, moldy ceiling of the underground prison.

I gasped for air, cold sweat soaking my ragged clothes. The searing pain on my wrists dragged me back to the present. I looked down at the ugly, puckered scars. The silver shackles had been a permanent fixture for five years, keeping my wolf suppressed and broken.

"Hey! Traitor!"

A harsh voice snapped me out of my daze. Two female rogue prisoners, my cellmates, loomed over me.

"Still dreaming about the Alpha?" one of them sneered, grabbing my hair and yanking my head back. "He threw you in here for his precious first love, exposed you like a cheap whore, and you still dare to love him?"

I gritted my teeth. Despite the silver burning my skin, despite the endless isolation, the mate-bond inside me was a stubborn, pathetic curse that defied all logic.

"Yes," I whispered, blood tasting metallic on my tongue. "I still love him."

What followed was a brutal rain of kicks and punches. I curled into a ball on the cold, damp floor, taking the blows silently. I refused to beg. I refused to cry out.

Only when I was on the brink of passing out, my vision going black, did the sharp whistle of a guard finally stop them.

Day after day. Year after year. This was my atonement.

Heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed in the corridor, stopping right in front of my iron door.

I instinctively shrank back, pressing myself against the damp wall like a cornered animal. Was it time for another round of "questioning"?

The heavy door scraped open. Officer Hicks stood in the doorway, his face unreadable.

"Kira Hayes," his flat voice broke the silence.

I held my breath, waiting for my death sentence. That would be a relief.

"Your sentence has been terminated early," he said. "You're free to go. Gather your things."

Kira Hayes POV:

I stepped out of the prison doors. The harsh sunlight I hadn't seen in five years stabbed my eyes, making them water uncontrollably.

But the warmth on my skin brought a weak, trembling smile to my lips.

I looked at the towering pine trees outside the prison walls, the wild flowers blooming by the roadside, the butterflies dancing in the air. The world was so beautiful. I took a deep, greedy breath, terrified of missing the taste of fresh air.

I reached out a shaking hand to touch a wild flower, but quickly pulled back, afraid it was just another illusion. Finally, I plucked it and held it to my nose. It smelled like freedom.

I was finally out.

From the naive hope that someone would save me in the beginning, to the complete numbness at the end... I had endured it all. I was released a month early because the warden praised my relentless hard labor in the prison sweatshop. It was more than I deserved. I had no right to complain. I was guilty. If I were the victim's family, I wouldn't forgive myself either.

This was my penance.

I had asked the guards before leaving. Isabelle was still in the Pack's Medical Wing.

I felt I had to do something. So, clutching the few crumpled dollars I had earned from five years of bleeding fingers at the sewing machines, I bought a cheap fruit basket and walked toward the hospital.

As I entered the territory, pack members saw me. They didn't recognize me at first, but noticing my filthy rogue-like appearance, they scattered with disgust.

I kept my head down, shrinking inside my oversized, faded t-shirt, feeling every prick of their contempt.

Standing before the top-floor private suite, my heart pounded with anxiety. I gritted my teeth and pushed the door open.

Isabelle lay there, pale and motionless, hooked up to various monitors. She had undergone multiple skin grafts; though healed, the scars from the fire were still visible. Her mother, Eleanor, sat by the bed, looking haggard and wiping away tears.

I clutched the fruit basket, my knuckles white. My throat was so dry, and having barely spoken for five years, my voice came out as a raspy stutter. "Aunt... Aunt Eleanor..."

Eleanor turned around. When she recognized my face, her expression morphed into pure, unadulterated fury.

"You!" she shrieked, charging at me. "You ruined my daughter! How dare you show your face here!"

My legs gave out. I collapsed to my knees, bowing my head so low it almost touched the floor. "I'm... I'm sorry, Aunt Eleanor... I was wrong... I came to apologize..."

I clumsily held up the fruit basket. I was so naive. I used to be a spoiled Alpha's daughter who didn't care about anyone's feelings. I thought a sincere apology could earn a shred of forgiveness.

But Eleanor snatched the heavy basket and, with a scream of rage, smashed it directly into my head.

"You think a simple 'sorry' fixes this?!" she roared. "I will never forgive you! You should suffer everything my daughter suffered! Why are you out? Who pulled strings for you?! Why didn't you just die in that hole?!"

The impact knocked me to the cold tile floor. A wave of dizzying pain exploded in my skull.

Something warm and wet trickled down my forehead, blurring my vision. When I blinked, I saw red. Blood. The sharp wire from the basket had cut me deeply, and blood was pouring out relentlessly.

The loud commotion drew a crowd of nurses and pack members to the door. I lay there on the floor like a pathetic clown, surrounded by hatred and disgust.

I was no longer the proud girl who would be comforted over a tiny paper cut.

Swallowing my immense shame, I tried to wipe the blood from my eyes and slowly push myself up from the floor.

But as I did, a pair of impeccably polished, expensive leather shoes stopped right in front of my face.

The intoxicating, freezing scent of cedar hit my senses.

I froze, my breath catching in my throat as I looked up.

Kira Hayes POV:

My face turned as pale as a sheet of paper. I immediately dropped my head back down.

Five years could change a person completely. It changed me, and it changed Dorian Blackwood.

He was even more imposing than before. Dressed in a tailored black suit, his sharp, handsome features exuded a cold, untouchable nobility. He was the Alpha King, born with a halo, the man who had cast me into hell.

And I? I was just a convicted criminal. A piece of trash.

I was terrified. The moment I was thrown into The Pit, an uncrossable chasm opened between us. Especially after those rogue prisoners beat me, mocking my pathetic love for him, I knew I had no right to ever奢望 (crave) his love again.

Panic seized me. I scrambled to get up from the bloody floor.

But the more desperate I was to flee, the clumsier I became. I slipped on the scattered fruit and fell again, looking exactly like a filthy rat scurrying in the gutters.

Dorian had stopped walking.

However, his gaze didn't even land on me. Just as I thought, the gap between our statuses was so vast that a dirty rogue didn't warrant a second glance from the Alpha.

My scent had been so ravaged by the silver shackles that it was practically non-existent. To him, I was just a wolfless beggar blocking his way.

His Beta, Mr. Foster, stepped forward with a look of utter disgust. "Where did this filthy beggar come from? Get lost! Stop blocking the Alpha's path!"

Hearing those words, a bitter sorrow twisted my heart. I bowed deeply, my body trembling.

He doesn't even recognize me anymore, I thought.

"I'm... I'm sorry," I rasped, my voice barely a whisper. I kept my head down, ready to scurry away.

But at that moment, Eleanor rushed out of the room, pointing a trembling finger at my back.

"Kira Hayes! Don't you dare run!" she screamed hysterically. "You pay for my daughter's life!"

The crowd outside gasped in shock. Everyone knew about the scandalous tragedy from five years ago.

Whispers erupted like a swarm of angry bees.

"That's Kira Hayes? No wonder Eleanor is so furious. She's the murderer!" "The Hayes Pack is completely gone, yet she still has the nerve to show her face here? She should be sliced into a thousand pieces!"

My body went rigid. Hearing my name spat out with such venom, being reminded of my family's ruin... the shame and pain were suffocating.

Under the burning stares of the crowd, I slowly, mechanically moved my feet, desperate to escape.

"Kira Hayes?"

A low, powerful voice suddenly cut through the noise, freezing the air in the corridor.

My steps halted.

Dorian turned his head slowly, his ice-blue eyes locking onto my fragile back. If they hadn't screamed my name, he truly wouldn't have recognized the skeletal ghost I had become.

His handsome face darkened into a terrifying mask of fury. His gaze was a physical weight. "How did you get out?"

I slowly turned my head and met his cold, murderous eyes. My heart stopped beating.

The terror was absolute. Without a second thought, I turned and ran for my life.

"Seize her!" Dorian growled, his Alpha command echoing down the hall.