Mighty Female Alpha, Fearless of Betrayal Chapter 01
After I got pregnant, Vivian showed up at my door with a protection charm. She was the lone wolf my family had taken in and sponsored since she was a kid.
I turned right around and clasped it onto a stray cat’s collar.
In my last life, we were pregnant at the same time.
She told me she’d traded ten years off her own life to get two protection charms from the pack shaman.
One for me. One for herself.
I was so moved I wore mine every single day.
But on delivery day, Vivian gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby boy. I pushed through hours of labor and was handed a stillborn.
Except I could feel it through the blood bond. My baby was still alive somewhere. I went mad searching everywhere.
My Beta Ethan, my mate, told the whole pack I’d lost my mind. He had me committed to the Moonveil Institution and seized control of our pack.
I sank into depression. I never came out.
After I died, Vivian scattered my ashes like she was celebrating a victory.
That’s when I finally understood. The charm she gave me was cursed. A baby-switch hex. A dark witch’s spell that had swapped our children in the womb before we ever went into labor.
Then I opened my eyes.
I was back. Right here. The exact moment she walked through my front door holding that charm.
“Aurora! Get over here, look what I brought you!”
Vivian was sprawled on my couch, beaming, waving me over like everything was normal.
But that smile, that wide warm smile, made every hair on my body stand straight up.
I knew what was behind it now.
“Aurora, I traded ten years of my life for this.” She held the charm out like an offering. “Any pregnant she-wolf who wears it, her pup stays safe and healthy.”
I stared at it. My stomach turned.
No wonder it cost ten years. Because it wasn’t protection at all. It was a dark witch’s curse dressed up to look like a gift.
That thing had stolen my child in another life. And she’d handed it to me with both hands and a smile.
I didn’t reach for it.
Vivian’s smile flickered. Her voice went soft and wounded fast.
“Aurora, do you not want it? I get it, you’re the Alpha of the Calloway pack. You’ve got resources I’ve never dreamed of. Why would something like this mean anything to you?”
“Hey, Viv, don’t read into it!” Ethan walked in from the hallway like he’d been hovering just out of sight.
He lifted the charm right out of her hand and stepped toward my neck. “She’s been pregnancy-brained lately. Slow on the uptake. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t love it.”
The cold metal settled against my skin. A deep chill spiked through me, bone-deep, like ice water flooding my veins.
Every instinct screamed at me to rip it off. I forced myself still.
“Thank you, Vivian.” I pulled on a smile. “I zoned out for a second. This is too much. I honestly didn’t know how to accept it.”
Looking at this woman I’d funded, sheltered, and called my sister for years, something twisted hard inside my chest.
She was a lone wolf when we found her. No pack, no family, nothing. My parents opened our doors to her out of pure generosity.
We covered everything. School, college, living expenses. All of it, for years.
I treated her like blood. Bought her things without thinking twice. Even fussed over whether she’d ever find her fated mate, which was strange, since she was well past eighteen and still hadn’t felt the bond.
“No mate is fine,” she’d told me once. “I’ve got you. I’ll be your most loyal warrior. I don’t need anyone else.”
Then out of nowhere she announced she was doing artificial insemination, due around the same time as me. I was thrilled for her, like a complete fool.
Now I knew the truth. There was no artificial insemination. She’d been with Ethan for months. That baby was his bastard pup.
Ethan glanced at me with that satisfied look, the one that meant things were going according to plan. “Aurora, Vivian sacrificed a lot for that charm. I want you wearing it every single day.”
He’d been nothing when we met. A regular wolf with no rank, no money, no family name. But he was attentive and devoted, and I believed the Moon Goddess had given him to me for a reason.
I never cared that he had nothing. I thought what we had was real.
Now I knew every tender moment had been a calculated performance. A long con to get close to my pack and my family’s fortune.
To be fair, he was competent. He helped me manage pack affairs, handled logistics, covered the details I didn’t have time for. With him at my side, I’d grown into the Alpha I was meant to be.
But he didn’t just want my money.
He and Vivian had worked together to drive me off a cliff.
