Riley's POV I had always believed Alpha Alaric only turned cruel after falling for his mistress and fathering Scarlett. That perhaps somewhere, before betrayal twisted his soul, there had been a shred of decency. But the truth laid bare in those papers said otherwise. Alaric had never changed. He had always been a predator. The kind of wolf who stalked his prey from the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Zara-my mother, the rightful Luna of the Ebonclaw Pack-had been born into power, the only daughter of a ruling bloodline. She was raised in light, wrapped in luxury, taught to command. Alaric? He crawled out of a backwater den, born to a ghost of a woman who vanished after giving birth. He clawed his way into Ebonclaw University with nothing but ambition and cold hunger in his eyes. And when he laid eyes on Zara... He didn't fall in love. He found his golden ticket. Their "love story" was a farce. Every encounter, every glance, every whispered promise-staged. Planned. He knew exactly what he was doing. Zara's father-my grandfather-saw through him instantly. A lifetime in leadership had sharpened his instincts. He forbade the match outright. But Zara had never known rejection. Never known wolves who lied with pretty words. Blinded by what she thought was love, she rebelled. She fell pregnant before even graduating from the Academy. With Alaric's child. Cornered, my grandfather was forced to allow the union-but not without conditions. Alaric would marry in and take the Ebonclaw name. A true mating bond, but on Ebonclaw terms.Alaric smiled, bowed his head, and agreed. But inside... he seethed. He saw it as humiliation. An Alpha forced to surrender his name. He buried that rage deep, waiting. When Kael-my brother-was born, my grandfather demanded the boy take Zara's name. Not Alaric's. That was the final insult. But Alaric played the long game. He whispered poison into Zara's ears, sowing distance between her and her father. He made himself the victim, the poor, rejected mate. Zara believed him. She even promised that their next child would bear his name. And Alaric? He pretended to be moved. But every breath he took was soaked in resentment. That was when she came into the picture-Elira Blackthorn. A healer. A prophet. A manipulator cloaked in moonlight. She saw in Alaric what few dared to see-ambition that bordered on madness. And he saw in her not just an accomplice... But someone who could help him destroy everything the Ebonclaw name stood for. Their affair wasn't a slip. It was war. He orchestrated Elira's pregnancy. He wanted it. He wanted to look Zara in the eyes while hiding a child that would one day replace hers.When Zara bore me-his second daughter-he didn't hesitate. He handed me over to the Rogues. Not out of panic. But calculation. I was just a girl. To him, that meant I had no value. A son he might've kept. But a daughter? He discarded me like broken armor. Then, in the aftermath of his betrayal, Elira appeared at Zara's side-arms cradling a newborn-Scarlett. Claiming the Moon Goddess had chosen this child to ease her heartache. Zara, drowning in grief, accepted her. And Alaric watched. Watched as my mother nursed another wolf's daughter, believing her to be her own salvation. He reveled in it. In the lies. The cruelty didn't stop there. When I was born, Zara lost a kidney during labor. But that wasn't a medical complication. It was an operation. The attending surgeon had been bought and paid for. Under Alaric's order, my mother's kidney was carved from her body... and implanted into Elira. Zara never knew.And still, she blamed me. Every word she flung at me after I returned from the Rogues cut deeper now. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be strong. You broke me. You and your constant defiance-why can't you be more like Scarlett?" Scarlett. The daughter of the woman who stole her health. The daughter my father raised as Ebonclaw's heir. And the truth? It wasn't just about Elira's illness. Scarlett had inherited her mother's condition-renal failure. And Alaric? He needed a donor. That was why he brought me back. Not out of guilt. Not to reunite a family. But to carve out my body, piece by piece. A match for Zara meant a match for Scarlett. He even had me imprisoned-framed for a crime I didn't commit. Because no one mourns a convict. No one asks questions when a criminal vanishes under the knife. All those years... He had been liquidating the Ebonclaw holdings. Transferring assets to Elira's name. Planning to take the money and flee the continent- Leaving Zara and Kael to drown in debt.He even tried to strike a final deal with Lucien Duskgrave-one last heist before disappearing for good. But fate, as always, has claws of her own. The deal collapsed. Lucien broke his legs. And the wolf who thought he'd outplayed everyone was left crawling. Just like he'd once left me.