My Alpha Let Me Die to Save His Mistress

"Take it off!"

The scream tore from my throat, raw and bloody. I didn't care about the Solstice. I didn't care about the pack watching. I launched myself at Victoria, my fingers hooked into claws, aiming straight for the gruesome trophy around her neck.

Victoria shrieked, stumbling back in her heels, but she didn't look scared. She looked triumphant. "Alpha! She's crazy! Help me!"

My fingers brushed the cold, jagged surface of Kiara's tooth just before a massive weight slammed into my side. The air left my lungs in a whoosh. I hit the frozen dirt hard, the taste of mud and dead grass filling my mouth.

A low, vibrating growl shook the ground beneath me. I looked up, gasping, into the amber eyes of a massive grey wolf. Bennett.

He didn't look at me with recognition. He looked at me like a rogue. Like a threat. He snarled, his lips peeling back to reveal teeth far sharper than the ones Victoria wore. He snapped his jaws inches from my nose, a clear warning. *Submit.*

The Alpha aura rolled off him in suffocating waves, pinning me to the earth more effectively than his paws. My human body instinctively curled in, exposing my neck in a gesture of surrender I hated myself for making.

*Apologize.*

His voice invaded my mind, heavy and distorted by the wolf's consciousness.

"I..." I choked, tears blurring my vision. "I can't..."

He pressed his paw harder onto my chest, squeezing the air from my ribs. A whimper escaped my lips. The pack was silent, watching their Luna being treated like a feral dog.

*Apologize to your Beta. Now.*

"I'm sorry," I sobbed, the words tasting like ash. "I'm sorry, Victoria."

Bennett’s wolf huffed, a sound of derision, and stepped off me. He trotted over to Victoria, nuzzling her hand before retreating to the trees to shift back. Victoria smoothed her dress, looking down at me with a pitying sneer.

"Poor thing," she said loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Grief makes people do ugly things."

I lay in the dirt, too broken to move. I wanted the earth to swallow me whole.

Then, the gravel of the driveway crunched under heavy tires.

The atmosphere shifted instantly. The murmurs of the pack died out, replaced by a sudden, tense silence. Three black SUVs rolled into the clearing, their windows tinted dark as night. They looked like sleek predators amidst the rustic setting of our Pack House.

The lead car’s door opened. A pair of polished black boots hit the ground.

The man who stepped out was tall, with broad shoulders that strained against his dark charcoal suit. But it wasn't his size that made the air in the clearing grow heavy and electric. It was his aura. It rolled off him like a thunderhead, dark and oppressive, tasting of ozone and imminent violence.

Alpha River George.

My breath hitched. I hadn't seen him in years, not since we were children running through these same woods. He had been a boy then. Now, he was a king.

Every wolf in the clearing, including Bennett’s Beta, instinctively dipped their heads, their inner wolves recognizing a predator far higher on the food chain.

River didn't look at them. His gaze swept the area with laser focus until it landed on me.

I knew what I looked like. Mud-stained dress, hair wild, tears streaking my face, kneeling in the dirt.

River’s movement stopped. His pupils blew wide, swallowing the iris until his eyes were almost entirely black. His jaw clenched so hard a muscle feathered in his cheek. For a second, I thought he was going to shift right there and tear the throat out of anyone standing near me.

Then, the mask slammed back into place. He adjusted his cuffs and began to walk toward the gathering, his stride eating up the distance.

I scrambled to my feet, trying to brush the dirt from my dress, shame burning my cheeks. I stumbled toward the drinks table, desperate to hide, to wash the taste of mud from my mouth.

My hands shook so badly I couldn't grip the ladle for the punch.

"Allow me."

The voice was deep, vibrating in my chest like the low hum of a cello. I froze.

River stood beside me. Up close, he was overwhelming. He smelled of deep ocean and cedar wood, a scent so clean and powerful it cut through the stench of my own misery.

I stumbled back, my heel catching on a tree root. I flailed, bracing for another fall.

River’s hand shot out, catching my elbow.

*Zap.*

A jolt of static electricity, sharp and hot, arced between our skin. It wasn't just a static shock. It was a current, traveling up my arm and slamming straight into my heart.

*Thump-thump.*

Deep inside me, in the dark void where my wolf had slept for three years, something stirred. A tiny, phantom warmth. A heartbeat that wasn't my own.

I gasped, looking up at him. River’s eyes were locked on mine, wide and stunned. He felt it too. His grip on my arm tightened, not painful, but anchoring. Like he was the only thing keeping me from floating away.

"Carmen," he breathed, his voice rough.

"Get your hands off her."

The growl came from behind us. Bennett pushed between us, his face flushed with anger and exertion from his recent shift. He reeked of wet dog and pine.

He grabbed my other arm, yanking me away from River. The loss of contact made me physically cold, as if the sun had just gone behind a cloud.

"She is my mate, River," Bennett spat, puffing out his chest, trying to expand his aura to match River’s. It was pathetic, like a candle trying to outshine a bonfire. "And she is unwell. Do not touch her."

River didn't back down. He didn't even blink. He looked at Bennett’s hand on my arm, his lip curling in disgust, before raising his eyes to Bennett’s face.

"She doesn't look unwell, Bennett," River said, his voice dangerously calm. "She looks abused."

The air between them crackled, thick with aggressive pheromones. Bennett gripped me tighter, possessive and cruel, but my eyes were glued to River.

For the first time in three years, I didn't feel alone.