When The Alpha Demanded My Silence

By the end of the year, the Alpha Queen, Mabel Munoz, was diagnosed with a pregnancy.

Gael Foster, the Alpha, who had been absent from the packhouse for over a month, finally returned.

When he stepped into the main hall with a cheerful expression, Aviana and I were being quizzed by the Alpha Queen on our pack training skills. Aviana’s movements were clumsy, and she was leaning against Mabel, playfully whining.

As soon as Gael entered, she straightened up and coolly greeted him, "Father."

The Alpha Queen’s indulgent expression faded, and she greeted him with a distant tone, "Alpha, you’re back."

The atmosphere instantly turned icy.

But Gael, oblivious to the tension, walked over and ruffled Aviana’s hair with a chuckle. "Aviana, you’re thirteen already and still clinging to your mother like a pup. Tell me what’s bothering you, and I’ll take care of it for her, hmm?"

"Father, I’m only twelve," Aviana replied, clearly annoyed.

I could see the moment his hand touched her head—she hated it. But she held back.

Gael’s smile faltered, a flicker of awkwardness crossing his face. The Alpha Queen’s expression grew colder.

"Aviana, you and Ainara may leave now," Mabel said.

"Yes, Mother," Aviana replied, and I followed her lead, bowing slightly.

Just as we turned to leave, Gael called out to me.

A heavy coat was thrown over my head, nearly knocking me off balance. Aviana grabbed my arm to steady me.

"Go fetch me a basin of hot water to wash my feet," Gael said casually.

I froze, clutching his coat.

"Alpha," Mabel’s voice cut in, calm but firm. "Ainara is not a servant. She’s your daughter, the ninth child of this pack."

Gael blinked, squinting at me as if seeing me for the first time. His eyes, clouded by years of indulgence, showed no recognition.

"Ah… is that so? She’s grown so much," he muttered, clearly embarrassed. "I’ll visit her and her mother tomorrow…"

"Alpha," Mabel interrupted, her tone flat. "Her mother passed away some time ago."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

I dragged Gael’s coat out of the room, struggling under its weight. I didn’t need to look back to imagine the expression on his face—surprise, awkwardness, but not a trace of grief or remorse.

Kaeli Payne, my mother, had been fourteen when Gael took her in, during his time as the Alpha of a smaller pack. She was barely sixteen when she became pregnant with me. I was born during a pack run, when Gael was transferring to a new territory. My mother labored for an entire day and night, attended only by a healer Gael had hired along the way.

When I was born, Gael came to see me once, annoyed that my birth had delayed his journey. My mother later told me that my swaddling clothes were made from old garments she’d hastily repurposed.

Yet, despite the ordeal, she was happy. She believed that by bearing Gael’s child, she had secured her place in his life.

But Gael already had a mate and several chosen mates in the main pack. My mother, a naive girl from a neighboring pack, was nothing more than a temporary distraction during his travels.

The women who served him in his pack were all his in some way. That he didn’t abandon us was perhaps only out of some faint nostalgia for the years my mother had spent by his side.

We followed him back to the main packhouse, where my mother marveled at the grandeur of the place. She thought she’d hit the jackpot by being with such a powerful Alpha.

But she didn’t know that from the moment we stepped into the packhouse, Gael never visited her again. To the pack members, she was just "that girl from the neighboring pack Gael brought back."

In the three years we lived there, Gael had completely forgotten about us. He forgot about the girl who had traveled with him, cared for him, and stayed loyal through it all.

He forgot about the miscarriages that had left her frail and ill, and how she had spent her final years in loneliness.

If she had lived longer, would she have seen Gael for who he truly was?

The pack members told me that Gael spent half the night in Mabel’s room before leaving the packhouse again, this time taking Regina Stephens, one of his chosen mates, with him. She was a woman he’d brought into the pack with a hefty sum, known for her charm and beauty.

When Aviana heard the news, her recent gloom lifted, and she suddenly seemed cheerful again. She turned to me, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Father’s going to be promoted again," she said, then gave me a long, appraising look.

She smiled sweetly. "It’s a good thing your mother died early—"

How was that a good thing? I didn’t understand.

But the other siblings did. I saw them smirking behind their hands, their eyes alight with a kind of dark, secret joy.

The entire packhouse was filled with a strange, subdued sense of celebration.

Late that night, I sneaked into Regina’s room, the same room my mother and I had once shared.

In less than a day, it had been emptied.

The only thing left was the faint scent in the air, similar to the one on Gael’s coat from the night before.

It was overpowering, almost suffocating.

But as I stood there, breathing it in, I suddenly found it repulsive.

It stank.