BLIND ALPHA'S CAPTIVE: HER ULTIMATE REVENGE

Avery's POV "Father! I will NOT accept the bond! I don't care what you owe him — I am not a payment or a political sacrifice!” Zara's voice carried easily through the floor from the sitting room below. I sat with my back against the wall and listened. Wolves hear everything. Even suppressed, mine twitched faintly at the sound. “He’s blind, Father!” she continued. “His wolf cannot even see! What kind of alpha leads without sight?” Silence. The heavy, deciding kind. I had learned to read my father's silences the way other people read words; this one meant he was done being patient. "If you still want to remain in this house," his voice came, low and final, "you will accept the mating alliance. Or this family falls. Every last one of us.” "There has to be another option." "There isn't." And then, right on schedule, Zara found her other option. "Send Avery." Her voice shifted, went smooth and reasonable the way it always did when she wanted something wrapped in logic. “She’s unmated. Unwanted. He's blind. He won't know the difference. She never does anything useful anyway. She's been rotting in that room for months. At least this way, she serves some purpose.” “Besides—" a pause, a beat, deliberate, "she owes this pack. After what she did to Mia." My jaw tightened. I said nothing. I never said anything. There was no point. No one wanted to hear my version of events, and I had run out of energy to offer it. "He asked for my youngest daughter." Father said, unmoved. "You are not the youngest, Zara." “Well,” Zara replied softly, “ I wouldn't be the youngest if Avery didn't kill Mia.” The word killed hung thick in the air. “Moreover, he is blind. He would never know." Silence. Then: "Bring Avery. Now." I am Avery Morrow. First daughter of Dorian Morrow. A man who was once Alpha of Silver Ridge Pack before his greed cost him every alliance he had built, destabilized his own territory, and his title handed to someone else. He lives in Nightfall Pack territory now. A subordinate under the very Alpha he stole from. Now he is desperate. And desperate Alphas make dangerous decisions. The chair scraped. The footsteps came down the hall heavy, unhurried, certain. The door slammed open, and two of my father's guards filled the frame, and before I could even stand, they had me by the arms and were hauling me into the corridor like I was cargo. "Move," one said. I didn't fight. I let them drag me down the hallway, and I stared straight ahead, thinking about Mia. My little sister. Sixteen years old and soft-hearted, the only one of us whose wolf never snapped at shadows. Father said I killed her. I knew better. But knowing and proving were two very different things in this house. They threw me down on the sitting room floor. The pain cracked through my ribs and stole my breath, and tears came before I could stop them. Not from sadness, just from the shock of impact, from the body's stupid honesty. Father crouched beside me. His fingers lifted my chin with a gentleness so false it turned my stomach. "You are going to be mated," he said softly. "To Alpha Lucian Draveth. The Alpha of our pack. The most powerful and feared Alpha across three territories.” “Blind. And undefeated.” “You should be grateful." I looked him in the eye and spat on his shoe. "Never." The slap came fast. My head snapped sideways, my body followed it to the floor, and for a second, all I could see was white. My cheek burned. My ear rang. The taste of iron filled my mouth. "You don't have a choice,” Father continued, like the slap had simply been a punctuation mark. His voice had gone flat now, the flatness that meant the performance was over. "Lucian is owed a daughter.” I pushed myself back up slowly. Shaking. But up. I laughed bitterly, wiping my face. "Then you better prepare to bury me, Father. Because the day I stand before that man is the day I stop being your daughter.” “I have lost one daughter already,” Father snapped. “You will not take this family down with your pride.” "I am not Mia. You cannot put her name on me and send me to a stranger's house like I'm a replacement. I won't do it." “You killed Mia,” he hissed. “You will use her name. You will go to the Alpha as Mia Morrow. You will not correct him.” I stared at him. My mouth went dry. "While you are in his house," Father continued. "You will find out what he knows about me. His weaknesses. The alliances I broke.” “Lucian has been watching me. I need to know how much he suspects before he moves against me.” He straightened. "That is your purpose. That is why I am sending you instead of throwing you out." "You want me to spy on him? Not just a mating alliance." “You want me to betray the Alpha?” “I want you,” he said coldly, “to keep this family alive.” He turned and gestured to the guards." Take her back.” As the guards pulled me away, Zara leaned in close, her voice dropping to something almost gentle, which was always when she was most cruel. "Go be useful for once. It's the least you can do for Mia." I didn't answer. I just looked at her. Memorized her face exactly as it was at that moment and said nothing. * * * Back in my room, the silver bolts sealed into place. Dark. Cold. Silent. I sat with my knees to my chest, and I thought about Alpha Lucian Draveth. Blind, powerful, feared by men twice his strength. I thought about walking into his house wearing my dead sister's name. I swallowed hard and pushed the feeling away. Father was sending me to the ruthless Alpha as a lie. As bait. I would go. But not for him. I would go for Mia. And whatever truth waited inside the Nightfall Pack, I would find it. Every last piece of it.