in Vengeance 175_A Broken Alpha Heiress' Revenge

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.

 +8 Pearls

 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 ck 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 ric of the Ebonw Pack

 I wasn’t lost. I was abandoned.

 He left me in the Rogue–infested bordends like discarded trash.

 All those years I barely survived in that brutal,wless ce. 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 ric and Dean Elira ckthorn–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

 “Thus child will mend the Luna’s broken heart.”

 They believed her

 Zara raised Scarlett as her owIL

 All while 1–her true daughter–was rotting in the dirt and shadows among Rogues

 ric hund arranged everything

 astant out in 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.

 “ru 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, ric ordered Elira’s surgery at the same time.

 The surgeon–already bribed–removed one of Zara’s kidneys during the operation and transnted 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 shed with Scarlett, she would say:

 +B Pearls

 “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 bitterugh.

 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 </bughter echoed through the room, a sound no wolf ever wanted to make–too close to a death–howl.

 Lucien stood quietly, his usual icyposure reced 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 </bughter died into a hollow sigh.

 It carried twenty years of suffering.

 You always told me I was a curse

 A debt sent to punish you

 But it wast

 It was r

 one who came to collect–your health, your pride, your

 ider 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 Ebonw Pack’s power was built by ric’s ambition and strength.

 But no

 He was nothing more than a gilded parasite. A charming leech.

 A low–born wolf who married up.

 1 thought he became ruthless only after his affair.

 But the truth was clear now-

 He had always been this monster.

17kNovel

in Vengeance 175