The Alpha Who Threw Me Away for a Fake Pregnancy

The heavy oak doors splintered inward. Two armored guards crashed onto the stone floor, sliding across the polished surface.

Dust plumed into the air.

"Report," Caleb commanded, stepping away from the table.

A bleeding guard, his uniform shredded at the shoulder, scrambled to his knees. "The eastern barrier, Alpha. A massive breach. Dozens of rogues are pouring through the lower valley."

Caleb cursed loudly. "Miller, Thorne! Evacuate the outer settlements immediately. Get the warriors to the tree line."

"What about the severance ceremony?" Elder Miller asked, pointing a shaky finger at the parchment.

"The ink can wait," Caleb snapped.

He adjusted his combat jacket, his eyes already scanning the hallway outside. He pointed a rigid finger at me. "Do not move from that chair, Aria. We will finish this when I return."

"I don't take orders from you anymore," I said.

He didn't bother arguing. He just ran. The elders flooded out behind him, shouting frantic commands into the corridor. Their heavy boots thudded against the stone, the sound fading rapidly into the distance.

The chamber emptied in seconds. A heavy, suffocating silence settled over the ruined doors.

Only two of us remained.

Sienna stood up from her plush seat. She smoothed the front of her white cotton dress. The tears vanished from her eyes instantly. The trembling stopped completely.

"He didn't even look back at you," Sienna noted.

I kept my gaze fixed on the silver fountain pen resting on the table. "You dropped your pathetic act rather quickly."

She walked toward my end of the long mahogany table. Her steps were light, completely devoid of the timid hesitation she showed Caleb. "I don't need to pretend when he isn't here to watch. You're pathetic, Aria."

"Careful," I warned her. "You are still speaking to a Luna."

Sienna laughed. A sharp, grating sound that echoed off the stone walls. "You have no title. You have no wolf. Caleb told me everything. You can't even shift properly, can you?"

"My wolf is none of your concern."

"You're just a barren failure holding onto a dead marriage," she continued, stopping right beside my chair. The cloying scent of vanilla and crushed berries thickened the air, making my stomach churn. "A weak lineage. A forgotten, broken family. You only became Luna because your father bought the position with his wealth."

"My father saved this territory from starvation."

"And now I rule it," Sienna declared, placing a hand on her stomach. "My pup will inherit everything your family built. The pack house. The treasury. Caleb. You are nothing but a stepping stone."

Sienna's gaze dropped to my chest. She noticed the tarnished silver chain resting against my collarbone. An old heirloom, passed down from my mother. The only piece of my true history I kept visible.

"What a cheap trinket," she mocked. "Did you buy that at a human market? It doesn't belong in a pack house."

Her hand darted forward. Her manicured fingers hooked around the fragile silver metal.

She yanked upward.

I didn't think. I reacted.

My hand shot up. I clamped my fingers around her wrist like a steel vice.

Sienna gasped, trying to pull her arm back.

I squeezed harder.

The fragile bones beneath her skin ground together. I felt the delicate structure of her wrist yielding under my grip. A sudden, violent heat erupted in my veins. It wasn't the frantic panic of a rejected mate. It was the cold, certain weight of dominance, finally awake.

Twenty years. I had suppressed this bloodline for two decades. I hid the truth of my heritage to protect Caleb's fragile ego, to let him play the role of the supreme Alpha. I kept my wolf caged, her power muted, just so he could feel strong.

No more.

"Release me!" Sienna shrieked, her voice pitching into a panicked whine.

"You do not touch my things," I said.

My voice dropped an entire octave. It vibrated with a strange, heavy frequency that rattled the glass windows of the chamber.

Sienna's eyes blew wide. She stared straight into my face, no breath left to scream.

A searing heat flooded my vision. I knew exactly what she saw. The dull brown of my human eyes was burning away, replaced by a blinding, metallic gold. The undeniable mark of a true pureblood Alpha.

The full weight of my aura slammed into her.

Sienna's knees buckled instantly. She crashed to the stone floor, whimpering like a kicked pup.

"Aria... please," she choked out, her face turning a sickly shade of gray. She couldn't breathe under the crushing weight of my command.

I stared down at her trembling form. The urge to snap her wrist faded entirely. It was replaced by absolute, freezing indifference.

She wasn't worth my rage. Caleb wasn't worth my loyalty. They deserved each other.

I released her arm.

Sienna collapsed completely, curling into a tight ball on the floor. She gasped for air, clutching her bruised wrist against her chest, too terrified to even look up at me.

I turned my attention back to the mahogany table.

The severance decree lay flat against the wood, waiting for my signature.

I picked up the silver fountain pen.

I pressed the nib to the parchment. I didn't hesitate. I dragged the pen across the dotted line, pressing down with all my strength.

The metal tore through the thick paper. A harsh, jagged rift split the document in two, ruining Caleb's perfect decree. My signature slashed across the tear, bold and final.

I dropped the pen. It clattered loudly against the wood.

"Enjoy the scraps, Sienna," I said.

I turned toward the shattered oak doors. I walked out of the council room, leaving the crying stray behind on the floor.

But as I stepped into the dark corridor, a low growl rolled out of the shadows near the staircase. Not Caleb's. Deeper. Older. A sound that made the dormant thing under my skin lift its head.

A man stepped into the strip of light. Tailored black suit. Ice-blue eyes that swept over me once and missed nothing. On his collar, embroidered in gold thread, sat a crest I had not seen since I was a child: a wolf rearing over a sword.

The royal crest. The one my father told me to forget existed.

"Twenty years I've been looking for you," he said quietly, and dropped to one knee on the stone. "You're walking the wrong way, Your Highness."

My blood turned to ice.

Caleb thought he had thrown away a barren wife.

He had just handed the throne back its lost heir.