The Sickly Alpha's Substitute Bride: His Unholy Obsession

ALETA POV:

The wind howled, a hungry wolf's cry against the cliff face, whipping my hair across my eyes like tiny lashes. My arm burned where the Rogue leader, Gunnar Thorne, gripped it. In his other hand, he held my stepsister, Justine.

We stood on the crumbling precipice, the roaring ocean far below. Before us stood Jamel Faulkner, Alpha of the Faulkner Pack. My husband. My Fated Mate.

"Let them go, Gunnar!" Jamel's voice was a thunderous roar, his Alpha aura pressing heavily against the gale. "Your brother Roric is my prisoner. You have my word on an exchange!"

Gunnar threw his head back and laughed, a harsh, grating sound that cut through the wind. "An exchange, yes. But a fair one. One life for one life."

Gunnar yanked both Justine-my sister and me forward. Because of our shared bloodline, we possessed the same dark hair, the same striking green eyes, and nearly identical features. To a stranger, we were reflections of each other.

"They look like twins, Alpha," Gunnar sneered, his claws digging into my shoulder. "I only care about my brother, and I will only trade him for your true Luna. Point her out. Tell me which one is your wife, and I will let her walk back to you. The other one goes over the edge."

The world seemed to hold its breath. I looked at Jamel, waiting for the immediate, instinctual claim of a mate. I waited for him to say my name, Aleta, the woman he had married.

Instead, I found agonizing hesitation. His gaze darted frantically between us, lingering on Justine's tear-stained face.

In that suffocating silence, the truth crystallized in my mind. He was going to abandon me.

Beside me, Justine trembled, playing the portrait of fragile terror perfectly. But as Gunnar shifted his grip, she leaned her head slightly toward mine. Under the cover of the howling wind, her voice slithered into my ear, a venomous, triumphant hiss.

"He will choose me, Aleta," she whispered, her breath hot against my cheek. "Do you know why? Because I am carrying his child."

A cold knot formed in my stomach, but I kept my face entirely impassive, listening to her poison.

Justine continued, her tone dripping with mockery. "And you? Married to him for years with a barren womb. Did you really think it was a curse from the Moon Goddess? Jamel has been slipping contraceptives into your meals since your wedding night. He never wanted your pups. He only ever wanted me."

The revelation was a blade to the heart, forging my lingering disbelief into pure, unadulterated ice. My inner wolf, Sera, snarled in the depths of my mind, demanding blood.

"Time is up, Alpha!" Gunnar barked. "Who is your wife?"

Jamel's hands clenched into fists. His eyes locked onto Justine, filled with a desperate, protective fervor.

"Justine," Jamel declared, his voice raw but loud enough to echo off the rocks. "Justine is my wife. Let her go."

A public rejection. A complete erasure of my existence.

Gunnar smirked, shoving Justine forward toward safety while his grip tightened on me, preparing to cast me into the abyss.

Justine stumbled forward, a fleeting, ugly smirk flashing across her lips as she looked back at me. She had won. Or so she thought.

I met her triumphant gaze, my expression terrifyingly calm. I leaned forward, my voice slicing through the space between us with lethal precision.

"Haven't you heard, Justine?" I asked, my tone dripping with dark amusement. "Villains always die because they talk too much."

Before Gunnar could react, before Jamel could even take a breath, I channeled every ounce of my remaining strength. I twisted violently, ripping my arm from Gunnar's claws, leaving a trail of blood in the air.

I lunged.

I slammed into Justine with the force of a battering ram. Her feigned sobs morphed into a genuine, piercing shriek of absolute terror as my arms locked around her waist in a deathly embrace.

The momentum carried us both over the crumbling edge.

We plunged into the void, tangled together like poisonous vines. The rushing wind, Jamel's enraged, horrified shout, and Justine's desperate screams all faded into a distant, meaningless roar.

Then, the freezing ocean rushed up to meet us, and darkness swallowed me whole.