Burned By The Alpha,Saved By The Lycan King

I gave up half my soul and my rare White Wolf bloodline to save Alpha Silas from deadly silver poisoning.

For three years, I hid my painful scars, believing my sacrifice was the foundation of our eight-year love.

But on the morning of our mating ceremony, he wrapped my handwoven bridal cloak around another woman.

He had mistaken a lying Beta female for his savior, and to pay off her family's massive debts, he decided to sell me off.

He forced me to drink wine laced with Wolfsbane, entirely paralyzing my inner wolf.

He took my dead mother's sacred amulet and gifted it to the liar.

Then, he threw my weakened body into a transport vehicle, sending me as a tribute bride to a rumored mad and dying Alpha.

When wild rogues ambushed our convoy and trapped me in a burning car, Silas was right there.

But instead of saving me, he rushed to shield the lying woman from a tiny scratch, leaving me to burn alive.

As the flames licked the windshield, my heart shattered completely.

I had torn my own spirit apart to keep him alive, and this was my repayment?

To be poisoned, robbed, and left to die in the ashes for a parasite?

But I didn't die in that fire.

The "dying" Alpha tore open the crushed metal to pull me out himself.

He wasn't a cursed old man, but a terrifyingly powerful Lycan-and my true fated mate.

This time, I will embrace my new empire, and watch Silas lose absolutely everything.

Chapter 1

Aria POV

The night before my mating ceremony, the packhouse was quiet, but my werewolf hearing caught every whisper.

I stood outside the heavy oak door of the Alpha's study.

Inside, the scent of expensive cigars mixed with the sour smell of anxiety from the pack Beta.

"We can't afford Serena's family debts," Alpha Silas said, his voice a placid, toneless instrument, stripped of the rumbling warmth that once vibrated through my own collarbones.

"But Alpha," the Beta replied, "to give Aria as a tribute bride to the Shadow Pack? The whispers from that territory speak of an Alpha afflicted by some curse-withering from age and a decaying mind."

"It is the only way," Silas stated. "They will forgive the debt for a bride. Serena is too delicate a creature for the man whose territory is said to be lined with the skulls of challengers."

My breath caught in my throat; it was the sickening lurch of a misstep on a darkened staircase, a sudden, weightless fall that seized my limbs.

Silas, the man I had loved for eight years, was planning to trade me to a rumored madman.

"And if she resists?" the Beta asked. "Aria is not a docile wolf."

"My mother has seen to it," Silas answered with unnerving ease. "She is introducing Wolfsbane into the ritual tea tomorrow morning."

Wolfsbane was a toxic herb that would suppress my inner wolf, leaving me as weak as a human.

"Once she has taken it, any capacity to shift or fight will be nullified," Silas finished. "She will be loaded into the transport before she grasps that the wedding has been cancelled."

My jaw ached from the force of its clenching, and a thin, metallic taste bloomed under my tongue-the physiological backlash of my wolf attempting to tear its way up my throat.

She wanted to splinter the door from its hinges and demand a reckoning.

But I forced her down, keeping my breathing entirely silent.

A scream formed at the base of my throat, only to be swallowed back down. As a hot pressure built behind my eyes, I drove the nails of one hand into the palm of the other, until the sharp sting of breaking skin eclipsed the burn of unshed tears.

I simply turned around and walked back to my room in the dark.

My mind did not conjure visions of the future, but a single, cold resolve took root in my marrow. One day, I would be the one with power. One day, I would stand over Silas as he knelt in the mire, and I would make him watch as I ground the moonlight cloak, the one woven with my own blood, into the filth with my heel.

But that was a vow for another time.

The sun rose on the day of the mating ceremony.

I sat in my room, staring at the mirror, my face pale and emotionless.

The door swung open, and Silas walked in.

He was flanked by his Warriors, but my eyes went straight to the woman clinging to his arm.

Serena.

She was a Beta's daughter, wearing a dress that was far too white and far too expensive for a mere guest.

She started crying the moment she stepped into my room, her manufactured tears carrying the cloying scent of spoiled sugar.

"Oh, Aria," Serena sobbed, purposefully pulling down the collar of her dress.

Right there, on her pale neck, was a fresh, bruised bite mark.

It was a temporary marking. A werewolf male bites a female to claim her temporarily, mixing their scents together.

My best friend and bridesmaid, Maya, stepped forward, her eyes flashing with pure rage.

"Have you lost your senses?" Maya shouted. "Appearing in the bride's chamber displaying a love bite from the groom?"

I placed a hand on Maya's arm, sending a wave of calm to her angry inner wolf.

"It is of no consequence, Maya," I said softly, though my chest felt like a hollowed-out cavity.

The other bridesmaids hurried into the room, carrying the ceremonial garments.

They brought out the moonlight cloak, a sacred item meant to be worn by the bride during the vows.

Silas took the beautiful, shimmering cloak from their hands.

But he did not walk toward me.

He turned and wrapped the moonlight cloak gently around Serena's shoulders.

"Serena endured a difficult shift last night," Silas announced to the room. "Her constitution is weak. She requires the warmth."

He then picked up a rough, cheap woolen blanket from a nearby chair and tossed it at my feet.

"Put that on, Aria," he commanded. Tomorrow, I would be gone-but I already knew every poison they planned to pour down my throat.