Riley's POV I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. "I want to know," I said. My voice trembled, but there was no mistaking the determination behind it. Lucien hesitated, just for a second, before handing me the thick stack of papers. I reached out with slow fingers, feeling as if the weight of those pages could crush my chest. The moment I flipped to the first page, my eyes scanned the printed words-and the blood drained from my face. Each line carved open memories I had tried for years to suppress. Every vague suspicion, every pain that once lingered without a name, was now written in black and white. I had always believed I was kidnapped after birth. Taken by traffickers. But the truth was so much worse. It wasn't strangers who had stolen me. It was my own father-Alpha Alaric of the Ebonclaw Pack. I wasn't lost. I was abandoned. He left me in the Rogue-infested borderlands like discarded trash. All those years I barely survived in that brutal, lawless place... it was by his design. And Scarlett... I had always thought she was an adopted child taken in to fill the void I left. But the records told a crueler tale. Scarlett was no orphan. She was the child of Alpha Alaric and Dean Elira Blackthorn-the High Matron of Mooncrest First Hospital. The same woman who had performed my mother's prenatal care. The same woman who-after I was gone-appeared at Luna Zara's doorstep with a baby in her arms and a prophecy in her mouth:"This child will mend the Luna's broken heart." They believed her. Zara raised Scarlett as her own. All while I-her true daughter-was rotting in the dirt and shadows among Rogues. Alaric had arranged everything. He cast me out to make room for the child he had with his mistress. And then, step by step, he helped Elira rise to power. I couldn't stop the snarl rising in my throat. "Alaric..." I growled through clenched teeth. Tears blurred my vision, hot and feral. I bit the inside of my cheek and forced myself to read on. Elira was born with a degenerative kidney condition. Coincidentally, she was a perfect match with Zara. When Zara underwent a cesarean to deliver Riley, Alaric ordered Elira's surgery at the same time. The surgeon-already bribed-removed one of Zara's kidneys during the operation and transplanted it into Elira. My vision tunneled. So that was why Zara always looked so frail after my "return" to the pack. Why she never had energy. Why she always clutched her lower back. And every time I clashed with Scarlett, she would say: "If I hadn't carried you, my body wouldn't be this broken. Can't you just get along with her? Must you fight her? Are you trying to kill me from stress?" No. It wasn't childbirth that ruined her body. It was the fact that her kidney was ripped out to save her husband's mistress. And she punished me for it.For what? For being the one who was betrayed? I let out a bitter laugh. A deep, broken sound tore from my chest. It wasn't amusement. It was despair. Was this fate's idea of justice? A cruel kind of irony? My laughter echoed through the room, a sound no wolf ever wanted to make-too close to a death-howl. Lucien stood quietly, his usual icy composure replaced with something like grief. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came. Caelum turned his head away, jaw clenched, unable to keep looking at me. Slowly, my laughter died into a hollow sigh. It carried twenty years of suffering. Zara... You always told me I was a curse. A debt sent to punish you. But it wasn't me. It was Alaric. He's the one who came to collect-your health, your pride, your heart. I wonder what you'll feel when you learn the truth: Your cherished adopted daughter is the product of your husband's infidelity. That your own kidney keeps your husband's distress alive. That your beloved mate threw away your child and crowned his bastard as your heir. I closed my eyes and imagined her face when she found out. The horror. The devastation.And I won't lie-somewhere in my battered heart, I felt satisfaction. I wiped away the tears streaming down my cheeks and looked back down at the documents. The next part made my blood run cold. I had always thought the Ebonclaw Pack's power was built by Alaric's ambition and strength. But no. He was nothing more than a gilded parasite. A charming leech. A low-born wolf who married up. I thought he became ruthless only after his affair. But the truth was clear now- He had always been this monster.