Bury my name, Alpha

I bolted down the stone corridor, the heavy thumping of my heart drowning out the distant chatter of the pack house. Happiness surged through my veins, hot and consuming. He was awake. A whole month of sleepless nights, of crushed herbs and quiet prayers, had finally broken his fever. I skidded around the final corner, my breath hitching as I reached the heavy oak door.

The door stood wide open, but the moment I looked inside, the air was ripped from my lungs. I froze.

Aliyah was wrapped tightly around Alpha Kane. She clung to his broad chest, her shoulders trembling in a grotesque display of manufactured affection.

"I was so terrified, Kane," Aliyah sobbed, her voice ringing with fragile desperation. "I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I stayed by your side every single day while you were in that horrible coma. I refused to let the pack doctors give up on you."

Alpha Kane looked down at her, his eyes softening with deep affection. "I am so sorry for putting you through that, my love. Forgive me for causing you so much pain." He lifted his hand, gently brushing a stray tear from her cheek before pulling her back against his chest. Tears of genuine gratitude pooled in his dark eyes as he looked up. "Thank you, my love. I never made a mistake choosing you. You saved me."

A violent shockwave of betrayal slammed into my chest. My blood turned to liquid fire. The sheer injustice of her words broke the invisible chains holding me back. I stepped over the threshold, my boots slamming against the floorboards.

"She is lying!" I shouted, the words tearing from my throat.

Alpha Kane's head snapped up. His embrace tightened around Aliyah instinctively, his protective Alpha aura flaring in a sudden wave of hostility that suffocated the room.

"Vida," he growled, his eyes narrowing. "What is the meaning of this?"

"She wasn't here, Alpha Kane!" I walked closer to the bed, my hands trembling as I pointed a finger at my sister. "I was the one who changed your bandages. I was the one who applied the healing poultices to your wounds every night. Not even an hour ago, she was in her bedroom bragging to Nora about how she couldn't wait to use your wealth and power to rule the Silver Blood pack!"

Aliyah flinched as if struck. She slowly pulled away from Alpha Kane, turning her tear-stained face toward me. The malicious smirk she had worn in the hallway was entirely gone, replaced by a mask of pure, defenseless agony.

"How can you say something so cruel, Vida?" Aliyah wept, burying her face in her hands. She shrank back against Alpha Kane's side, trembling violently. "I know you hate me. I know you've always been jealous because Kane chose me as his mate. But to try and steal my devotion? To bully me in front of him while he's still so weak?"

"Stop pretending, Aliyah!" I took another step forward, my voice cracking under the weight of my fury. "Tell him the truth! Tell him you called him a vegetable and a weak Alpha!"

Alpha Kane’s eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at me. "If Aliyah wasn't the one looking after me this whole time, why is she the very first person I saw when I opened my eyes just now?"

"Because I left for less than five minutes to fetch fresh water for your body!" I gestured wildly to the empty bedside table where my washing basin usually sat. "She happened to walk in the exact second you woke up! She just took advantage of the timing!"

"Don't listen to her, Kane!" Aliyah wailed, squeezing her eyes shut as tears poured down her cheeks. She gripped Alpha Kane's shirt like a lifeline. "Please, don't believe a word she says! She is just creating a story to tear us apart! She is a liar! She has always wanted what is mine!"

"That is enough!"

Alpha Kane's voice roared through the bedroom, a deadly command that vibrated in my bones. He glared at me, his gaze dripping with absolute disgust. The warmth he had shown Aliyah vanished, replaced by a cold, lethal contempt meant only for me.

"Do you really think I would ever fall in love with someone like you?" Alpha Kane spat, his words cutting through my heart like a serrated blade. "Look at yourself. You are not only a liar, Vida, you are completely delusional. Aliyah is my fated mate. She loves me. You are nothing but a jealous parasite trying to leach off her happiness."

The room spun. The man I had kept tethered to life was looking at me like I was a disease.

"I am not lying," I whispered, the agony in my chest making it hard to breathe. "Alpha Kane, please. Listen to me. She doesn't care if you live or die. She only wants your title. She wants the power that comes with being the Luna of this pack. If you marry her, she will strip everything you have."

Aliyah let out another sharp, hysterical sob, curling into a ball on the edge of the mattress. "Make her stop, Kane! Please, make her stop!"

"Get out," Alpha Kane ordered, his voice dangerously low as he wrapped a protective arm back over Aliyah's shaking shoulders. He looked at me with an expression so vile it made my stomach turn. "Leave my room this instant. You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself, envying your own sister's bond. I don't ever want to see your pathetic face in my quarters again."

"No!" I refused to back down. The injustice was a suffocating weight, and I wouldn't let them bury the truth. "I am telling the truth! Ask the maids! Ask anyone who actually stepped into this room!"

Heavy footsteps echoed in the doorway, and the suffocating tension in the room shifted. My parents hurried through the threshold, their eyes darting from Aliyah’s hysterical tears to Alpha Kane's furious expression.

"What is happening here?" my father demanded, his brow furrowing deeply.

I turned to them, a desperate spark of hope igniting in my chest. They knew. Mother was the one who had ordered me to nurse him. They had to tell him.

"Mother! Father!" I cried out, rushing toward them and grabbing my mother’s arm. "Please, tell Alpha Kane the truth. Aliyah is lying to him. Tell him that I was the one who stayed by his side. Tell him I took care of him every single day while he was in that coma. Tell him I’m not the one lying!"