My Alpha Let Me Die to Save His Mistress

The mud sucked at my boots, heavy and cold, as if the land itself was trying to hold me back. I didn't care. I scrambled up the slippery embankment of the pack border, my breath coming in ragged gasps. The Council. I just had to reach the neutral grounds. If I could show them what I knew, if I could scream the truth about Bennett and Mateo to the world, justice would finally come.

But the forest was never silent for an Alpha’s wife.

"Luna, stop!"

Three large grey wolves emerged from the mist, blocking the path. They were patrol warriors, boys I had watched grow up. Their ears were flattened against their skulls, their eyes filled with apology, but they didn't move.

"Let me pass!" I screamed, my voice raw. "Bennett is a murderer! He killed Kiara!"

They flinched, but before they could respond, a shadow fell over me. The scent of rain and pine—once my comfort, now my nightmare—suffocated the air. A hand clamped onto my upper arm, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.

"My poor Carmen," Bennett’s voice was smooth, dangerously calm. He didn't look at me; he looked at the patrol wolves. "She’s having an episode. The grief… it’s finally broken her mind."

"I am not crazy!" I thrashed against his grip, but without my wolf, I was nothing more than a fragile human against a monster. "He let the rogues in! He sacrificed our daughter!"

Bennett shook his head sadly, sighing for the benefit of the onlookers. "See? She’s delusional. Take her back to the house. High security protocols. She is a danger to herself."

I was dragged back to the Pack House not as a Luna, but as a prisoner. The pity in the eyes of the pack members as we passed was worse than their scorn. They didn't see a victim; they saw a broken woman who had lost her mind along with her pup.

Bennett threw me into our bedroom and locked the heavy oak door from the outside. I pounded on the wood until my knuckles bled, but silence was my only answer.

Hours bled into one another. I sat curled in the corner, staring at the empty spot where Kiara’s crib used to be before we moved it to the nursery. I felt hollow. My inner wolf was a void, a dark cavern that hadn't echoed with a growl in three years.

Then, a sharp pain spiked in my temples. It wasn't a sound, but a feeling—slimy and intrusive.

*Poor, wolfless Carmen.*

Victoria. She was projecting a mind-link. Even with my wolf dormant, the pack bond allowed high-ranking members to force their voices into my head. I clamped my hands over my ears, but you can’t shut out a mental intrusion.

An image flooded my mind, vivid and cruel. It was a memory, or perhaps something happening right now. Bennett and Victoria were standing in the center of Kiara’s nursery. The soft yellow wallpaper was peeling. They were laughing.

*"This room has the best light,"* Victoria’s mental voice purred, layering over the image. *"Bennett said I could gut it. Imagine, Carmen. Your dead brat’s room turned into my walk-in closet. I need somewhere to put all the gifts he buys me."*

"Get out of my head!" I screamed into the empty room.

*"A wolfless Luna is a stain on this pack,"* she hissed, the image fading into a headache. *"Do us all a favor and let the grief finish the job."*

I didn't sleep that night. Rage kept me warm.

The next evening, the lock clicked open. Bennett stood there, dressed in a sharp black suit. The Winter Solstice. I had forgotten. The entire pack would be gathering in the Great Hall to honor the Moon Goddess.

"Wash your face," Bennett commanded, tossing a dress onto the bed. "You will come downstairs, you will stand by my side, and you will smile. If you say one word about 'murder' or 'betrayal,' I will have you sedated and sent to the asylum by morning. Do you understand?"

I dressed in silence. My hands shook as I applied makeup to hide the dark circles. I wasn't doing this for him. I was doing this because I needed to find another way out.

The Great Hall was suffocating. The scent of roasted meat and pine boughs couldn't mask the underlying tension. As I walked in on Bennett’s arm, the chatter died down. I kept my head high, ignoring the whispers. *"Crazy,"* they said. *"Broken."*

"Happy Solstice, Alpha. Luna."

Victoria approached us, holding a glass of champagne. She looked radiant in a crimson gown that hugged every curve, a stark contrast to my pale, hollow features. She smiled at me, a predator toying with a mouse.

"I'm so glad you felt well enough to join us, Carmen," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "It wouldn't be a celebration without you."

She took a sip of her drink, and the movement drew my eyes to her neck. She was wearing a new necklace. It was a simple leather cord, strung with small, jagged white objects.

I frowned, squinting slightly. They looked like bone. Small, irregular chips of bone.

Then, the room stopped spinning. The noise of the party faded into a dull roar.

I knew those shapes. I knew the tiny ridges on the bottom of the central piece. I had kept them in a small glass jar on the mantelpiece for five years. They were Kiara’s baby teeth. The ones that had fallen out just before she died. The ones that had vanished from our room the week after the funeral.

Victoria saw my gaze. She reached up, fingering the small white teeth lovingly.

"Do you like it?" she whispered, leaning in close so only I could hear. "Bennett gave it to me. He said he found them in the trash. He thought they would make a lovely trophy. A reminder that out with the old... means making room for the new."

A sound tore from my throat—not a scream, not a sob. It was a growl. Low, vibrating, and utterly feral. For the first time in three years, the void inside me flickered with a spark of heat. It wasn't my wolf fully awakening, but it was something primal. Something dangerous.

She was wearing my dead daughter’s teeth as jewelry.

I didn't care about the plan. I didn't care about the asylum. I looked at Bennett, who was laughing with an Elder nearby, and then I looked back at Victoria’s smirk.

"Take it off," I whispered, my voice trembling with a violence that frightened even me. "Take it off, or I will cut it off."