in Vengeance 176_A Broken Alpha Heiress' Revenge

Riley’s POV

 I had always believed Alpha ric 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 truthid bare in those papers said otherwise.

 ric 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.

 +8 Pearls

 Zara–my mother, the rightful Luna of the Ebonw Pack–had been born into power, the only daughter of a ruling bloodline. She was raised in light, wrapped in luxury, taught tomand.

 ric? He crawled out of a backwater den, born to a ghost of a woman who vanished after giving birth. He wed his way into Ebonw University with nothing but ambition and cold hunger in his eyes.

 And when heid eyes on Zara…..

 He didn’t fall in love.

 He found his golden ticket.

 Their “love story was a farce. Every encounter, every nce, every whispered promise–staged. nned.

 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 ric’s child.

 Cornered, my grandfather was forced to allow the union–but not without conditions. 

 ric would marry in and take the Ebonw name. A true mating bond, bubon Ebonw terms.

 ric 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 Karl—my brother–was born, my grandfather demanded the boy take Zara’s name. Not ric’s.

 That was the final insuli

 But ric yed 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 ric? He pretended to be moved.

 But every breath he took was soaked in resentment.

 That was when she came into the picture–Elira ckthorn.

 A healer. A prophet. A maniptor cloaked in moonlight.

 She saw in ric what few dared to see–ambition that bordered on madness.

 And he saw in her not just an aplice.

 But someone who could help him destroy everything the Ebonw name stood for.

 Their affair wasn’t a slip.

 It was w

 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 rece hers.

 When Zara bore me–his second daughter–he didn’t hesitate.

 He handed me over to the Rogues.

 Not out of panic.

 But calction.

 I was just a girl.

 To him, that meant I had no value.

 As

 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.

 iming the Moon Goddess had chosen this child to ease her heartache.

 Zara, drowning in grief, epted her.

 And ric watched.

 Watched as my mother nursed another wolf’s daughter, believing her to be her own salvation.

 ife reveled in it.

 In the bes

 The cruelty didn’t stop there.

 When I was born. Zara lost a kidney duringbor.

 But that wasn’t a medicalplication.

 It was an operation

 +8 Pearls

 351PM p p.

 The attending surgeon had been bought and paid for.

 Under ric’s order, my mother’s kidney was carved from her body… and imnted into Elira.

 Zara never knew

 And still, she med me.

 Every word she flung at me after I returned from the Rogues cut deeper now.

 Finished

 “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 Ebonw’s heir.

 And the truth?

 It wasn’t just about Elira’s illness.

 Scarlett had inherited her mother’s condition–renal failure.

 And ric?

 He needed a donor.

 That was why he brought me back.

 Not out of guil

 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’tmit.

 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 Ebonw holdings.

 Transferring assets to Elira’s name.

 nning to take the money and flee the continent-

 Leaving Zara and Kael to drown in debt.

 He even ined to strike a final deal with Lucien Duskgrave–one <bst heist before disappearing for good.

 But fate, as always has ws of her own.

 The deal copsed.

 Lucien broke his legs.

 And the wolf who thought he’d outyed everyone was left crawling

 Just like he’d once left me

17kNovel

in Vengeance 176