The Alpha I Left, The Brother in-law I Chose

My Alpha mate, Razen Blackspire, killed our pup for a liver offering to save my own sister, Navielle, his first mate.

So I did the unthinkable. I bound myself to her mate, Keegan Thunderhowl, to take revenge.

Now, Razen wants me back, and Navielle wants me dead.

***

Nivella's POV

A cold numbness spread through me as I stood by the carved wooden door, listening to their voices echo inside the stone hall. The scent of wolf musk and moon incense lingered in the air.

“Razen, are you sure no one has sensed it?” Layton asked, his tone uneasy.

“No one,” Razen answered, his voice sharp and calm. “Nivella still believes Sven’s death came from a rogue pack ambush.”

My blood turned to ice.

Sven… My son…

“What about the healers?” Layton continued. “Are you sure they will stay silent?”

Razen let out a low scoff. “I gave them enough gold and bound them by oath. They will carry this secret to their graves. I am the heir of Blackspire. None would dare stand against me.”

Secret?

My heart slammed hard against my ribs.

What secret?

“You took your own son’s life for a liver offering,” Layton said, his voice dropping in disbelief. “For Navielle.”

The world tilted. My breath caught painfully in my throat.

No no no…

I heard that wrong!

Sven… dead… because of a ritual? For Navielle? My own sister?

“You think I wished for this?” Razen growled. “I had no other path! Navielle was dying, and Sven was a perfect match. One life for another. Her life is worth far more.”

His words pierced deep into my chest. I clutched at my heart, struggling to stay upright as I staggered back.

My son…. my Sven…

He had not died to rogues like Razen told me. He had been taken… sacrificed by his own father.

“Razen,” Layton said, his voice shaking. “Sven was only a pup.”

“And Navielle is my future Luna,” Razen snapped. “Sven was weak, sickly. He would not survive long in this world. I did what had to be done for the pack.”

“There were others who could match her if you waited even one more night,” Layton argued.

“That risk was not worth taking,” Razen said firmly. “Navielle is everything to me.”

Tears slid down my face as I forced myself to stay silent. Every word he spoke tore something inside me apart. I couldn’t believe this was my mate, the man who once swore under the moon to protect me.

My gaze dropped to the parchment in my trembling hands. The healer’s mark confirmed it. I was carrying a pup. I had come from the healer’s den with joy in my chest, ready to tell him we would have another pup after losing Sven, my seven-winter old boy.

But now that happiness felt distant, like a fading dream.

My fingers tightened around the door until they ached. Razen had killed our son.

“And Navielle, how did she react after you sacrificed her sister’s pup for her?” Layton asked quietly.

“She pitied the boy,” Razen said without care. “But she understood. He was already dying.”

Anger and disbelief surged through me.

My own sister accepted it. She allowed my son to die for her sake. How could she?

“I only hope Nivella never learns the truth,” Layton muttered.

“She will not,” Razen replied with cold certainty. “She’s too soft. Too trusting. Even if she learns it, she has no one. She’s powerless.”

Powerless?

My jaw tightened as that word burned through me like fire.

A mother’s rage is not something the moon can calm.

I would make them pay. Both of them!

They took my pup. They broke me. And now, I would break them in return.

I left the Blackspire stronghold with tears falling freely, my chest tight with betrayal.

I climbed into my carriage and drove without direction, not caring where the road led. I only needed distance. Distance from him and from everything.

The path blurred as my tears would not stop. My mind replayed every word I had heard.

At last, I found myself at the sacred burial grounds. The place I had avoided because the pain was too heavy. My hands trembled as I stepped onto the cold earth.

Sven’s grave rested at the far edge, beneath a lone silver tree. I fell to my knees, my fingers brushing over the name carved into stone.

Sven Blackspire

Beloved Son. Forever under the Moon.

A broken sob left my lips as memories crashed over me. The night Razen returned, covered in blood, his face filled with false grief.

“He was taken by rogue wolves,” he had said, voice shaking. “It happened too fast. I couldn’t save him.”

I had screamed and collapsed, my world shattering in an instant. When I woke, Sven was already buried. Razen told me it was done quickly, to spare me from seeing my son lifeless.

But now I knew. It was never mercy. He buried Sven to hide his sin.

“I am sorry, my little one,” I whispered, my tears falling onto the stone. “I should have kept you safe. I should have seen the truth.”

“You will not fade,” I vowed, my voice trembling with grief and fury. “They took you from me, Sven. But I will make them answer for it. Every one of them.”

I rose slowly, wiping my tears as something dark settled inside me.

Razen called me powerless.

Not anymore.

He was about to learn how wrong he was.