Reborn: The Alpha's Regret and the Serpent's Queen
It was the Mating Ceremony, the most important day for our pack, but for me, it felt like walking to the gallows. I stood on the velvet carpet, waiting for Jacob, the Alpha heir, to claim me.
Suddenly, my younger sister Bella threw herself at the Elder's feet, screaming that she and Jacob were in love. Jacob didn't deny it. He looked at me with cold calculation, announced he chose her, and publicly broke our engagement.
In my previous life, this betrayal broke me. I had fought to marry him, only to become a "defective incubator" locked in a room. I remembered the bruises that never healed and the fire that eventually killed me. While I burned to death, Jacob only cared about saving Bella.
Now, standing in the same spot, the crowd mocked me as "damaged goods." My father sneered, pointing to the back of the room where the "lesser" clans stood, telling me to pick a rat or a snake if I wanted to stay in the Pack House.
They thought they were ruining me. They didn't realize they were handing me the key to my freedom.
I turned away from the smirking wolves and walked toward the darkest corner of the room. There sat Draco, the Serpent King, a man everyone feared and despised.
He was the only one who had tried to smash through the burning beams to save me in my past life.
I stopped in front of him, ignored the gasps of the crowd, and extended my hand.
"I choose you."
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Chapter 4
Clarice POV:
Two weeks later, chaos erupted at the Silver Moon Pack.
My father called, begging. "Clarice, the healers... they don't know what to do. She's been screaming for two days."
Draco closed his book. "We go. To witness the truth."
The Pack House smelled of blood and panic. Jacob was pacing the hall, looking haggard.
"It won't come out," he muttered. "But there's... something else."
A scream ripped through the air. We rushed in.
Bella lay on the bed, soaked in sweat. The midwife was backing away, horrified.
On the sheets lay a pup.
*It wasn't the white Alpha heir. It was a scrawny, rust-red thing with patchy fur and jagged ears.*
"A Red Wolf," Jacob whispered, trembling with rage.
Red Wolves were signs of the Rogue gene. Outcasts.
"You swore," Jacob hissed at Bella. "You swore it was mine."
"It is!" Bella sobbed. "Recessive gene! A throwback!"
"Liar!" Jacob grabbed the pup by the scruff. "This is filth!" He raised his arm to dash it against the wall.
"No!" I shouted.
Draco moved. A black blur. He caught Jacob's wrist in an iron grip.
"The child is innocent of the mother's sins," Draco said coldly. He took the whimpering pup.
"Get a Phoenix Priest," Draco commanded.
When the Priest arrived, he placed a crystal over the pup. "Soul Trace."
Five red beams shot from the pup's chest. One thin thread connected to Jacob. Four pointed toward the Rogue lands.
"Chimerism," the Priest announced. "The mother mated with multiple males during heat to ensure conception. You are the father, Alpha. But only twenty percent."
Jacob turned on Bella, face twisted in hate. "Who?"
Bella broke. "I had to! You said you'd replace me if I didn't get pregnant! I needed more chances!"
"So you let Rogues mount you?" Jacob screamed. "Guards! Find the Rogues!"
Within minutes, three captured Rogues were dragged in. One laughed. "Looks like my swimmers won, boys."
Jacob beheaded him right there.
"Get her out of my sight!" Jacob roared. "Dungeons!"
"Wait!" The Pack Doctor interrupted, hands bloody. "Alpha, you can't move her. Her abdomen... it's still distended. There is another heartbeat. A strong one."
Jacob froze. He looked at Bella's massive belly, which hadn't shrunk despite the birth of the Red Wolf.
"Twins?" Jacob asked, hope warring with disgust.
"Perhaps," the Doctor stammered. "This second heartbeat... it is powerful. Much stronger than the first."
Bella seized the lifeline. "See? See, Jacob! The Red Wolf was just a mistake, a shield! The *real* heir is still inside! He's so strong he wouldn't come out yet!"
Jacob hesitated. The desire for an heir was a sickness in him. He lowered his sword.
"Lock her in the guest suite," he ordered, voice cold. "If the next one isn't perfect, I kill you both."
Draco looked at the ugly, shivering Red Wolf in his arms. "And this one?"
"Dispose of it."
"No," Draco said. "You rejected it. It is mine now."
We walked out. *I looked at my husband, holding the child of his enemy's wife because it was the right thing to do.*
Outside, Draco handed the pup to a guard. "Take him to the Southern orphanage."
He turned to me. "Are you alright?"
"I am," I said, placing his hand on my stomach. "Draco... I think you should know."
He froze, sensing the shift in my heat.
"I'm not like Bella," I smiled. "I didn't need an army. I just needed you."