Heather’s POV
Today was our first anniversary, and I walked into Alpha Austin's office, clutching two things that would make him the happiest Alpha in the world.
First, a signed treaty with the present Alpha King.
And second, a sonogram of our pup.
After I suffered three miscarriages, Austin was finally going to be a father
However, just as I was about to knock, a woman’s voice came from the room.
“When are you going to reject your mate, Alpha?”
My heart seemed to stop in my chest.
The woman continued. “I mean, you just met her, while I had been keeping your bed warm for years.”
I peeked through the tiny crack in the door.
The she-wolf Olivia, who brought me tea and pills, is on Austin's lap. Their clothes were all over the floor.
Austin spoke.
“You know I can’t just reject Heather. She’s the reason the pack tripled. She’s in talks with the king now. That deal will make us the most powerful pack in two regions.”
My stomach twisted as my mate touched another woman the way he used to touch me.
The hands that once held me when I lost our pups were on Olivia’s waist, her hips, and her throat.
"But Austin, what if Heather finds out? Aren’t you worried about what she might do?" Olivia asked.
"She’s nothing without me," he scoffed. "She has no one else. Her father is already dead. I’m all she has left.”
The words punched the air out of my lungs.
Nothing without him?
I forced my hand to stay on the door instead of on the handle.
"So you’re keeping her for business?" Olivia asked. "But I’m still your one and only?"
Austin kissed her shoulder, then her lips.
"Of course. You know how much I love you. I proved it when I told you to keep contaminating Heather’s drinks with birth control concoction."
I leaned against the doorframe. The wood was the only thing holding me up.
No.
Austin could not do such a thing. He was the one who held me when I bled. He was the one who told me it wasn’t my fault.
I had believed every word.
"And the same potion that numbs her from the mate bond," Olivia added. "She’ll never know you’re sleeping with someone else."
My hands trembled as I looked down at the sonogram again.
No wonder my past pregnancies failed.
Three times, I thought I lost a baby because I was too stressed.
Turned out she was poisoning my pups all along.
'Luna, drink this. It will help you relax. It’s good for your pups,' she would have always said.
And me, so stupid, swallowing every drop while Austin rubbed my back and told me to rest.
But two weeks ago, I secretly stopped drinking the concoctions, and I didn't expect that decision would save the babies I carry now.
A phone rang inside the room.
Austin grunted, annoyed. He pressed the speaker and went right back to holding Olivia.
"Alpha, we found the witness you’ve been searching for.”
I held my breath.
What witness?
"Are you sure?" Austin asked.
"Yes, Alpha. He was the one who saw Miss Olivia kill Alpha Henry."
I pressed a hand to my mouth, trying not to scream.
My father?
Olivia killed my father?
My knees buckled. I slid down the wall until I caught myself.
No, this was too much.
My father had been kind to Olivia.
She was a rogue pup from a raid, but my father pitied her and kept her as his own daughter.
And father saved Austin too.
He sheltered him when their old pack fell. Without my father, Austin would have grown up homeless.
So why would they betray him? Why murder the very man who kept them alive?
"Covering up the murder was supposed to be simple," Austin said. "But that damn witness won’t stop running his mouth."
Olivia sighed, as if she were just tired of a boring job. "You should’ve killed him the moment he saw me stab Henry. Now he’s threatening to expose everything."
Each word was another break.
She said it so casually. Like my father was just another problem to clean up.
Austin growled. "I handled it, didn’t I? I told Heather that rogues killed her father. She believed me. She always believes me."
All those nights I had thanked him for staying with me after the attack.
But he had just built my whole world out of lies and then locked me inside it.
Olivia giggled and brushed her fingers through his hair.
"Well, you better kill the witness before dawn. I won’t have anyone ruining our future."
My wolf went silent for a second.
Then she howled inside me, saying, Shift. Kill. End them.
Austin turned his attention back to the call.
"Bring him to the dungeons. I’ll end his life before dawn." His tone was cold.
"Now Heather will believe you forever," Olivia whispered, laughing.
"I’m doing this for you," Austin said. "She runs the pack. You get me. You’re my real one."
My wolf surged up, making my claws slide out. They bit into the wood of the door.
I fought her hard, pressing my back against the frame. The door creaked under the pressure.
"Who’s there?" Austin shouted.
When I realized he noticed me, I pulled away from the door and quickly grabbed the sonogram and the treaty from the floor with shaking hands.
I forced my legs to move.
In the bedroom, I went straight to the safe.
My fingers shook so badly I even dropped the keys twice, but I managed to tuck the documents inside.
My head was spinning. Every breath hurts.
My mate was a liar.
The she-wolf I had treated as my sister was my father’s killer.
The pups I lost were murdered.
My whole life with Austin was a corpse all along.
I stared at the window, fighting the urge to howl.
Austin thought I was a helpless fool with no family to back me up?
But there was one person who had always been in my life since I was a pup. One alpha he could not control.
I straightened my back and opened my mind.
I mindlinked him. "Alpha King Daniel. It’s me again."
His voice came through with a low chuckle. "We just talked this morning. Forget something?"
I stared ahead, eyes burning.
"Forget the treaty with Austin. Instead, let’s make our own agreement."
