My Mate is the Broken Alpha

Chapter 3

"Those who know their place live longer."

Lydia finished Arthur's thought, a vicious smile playing on her lips as she pushed the annulment parchment closer to me. "You've always been so good at surviving, Winnie, haven't you? You survived his rejection. You survived being tossed to a runt. You survived the slums. So just endure this one more time."

I stared at the heavy silver pen in my hand. Black ink stained my fingertips.

From the side table, the Council Enforcer spoke up, his voice cutting through the tension. "Miss Winnie, you have the right to refuse to sign any document under duress."

Arthur slowly turned his head to look at the Enforcer. "The Council's jurisdiction covers the Alpha's reign, not our internal pack sanctuary registry."

The Enforcer closed his ledger with a soft thud. "The sanctuary registry directly affects mating rights. Therefore, the Council has the authority to document it."

A faint, chilling smile curved Arthur's lips. "You can document whatever you like. But the final decision happens to be mine."

He flicked his fingers again. The heavy wooden doors at the back of the hall creaked open.

Several guards marched in, dragging a group of people from the slums.

They kept their heads bowed, their faces bruised and battered.

My breath hitched as I spotted Bella.

She was only thirteen. A wolfless orphan. Just last year, a border patrol had deliberately crushed her wrist under a heavy boot, and I had been the one to reset the bone and bind it in the dead of night.

Bella kept her eyes glued to the floor, terrified.

Lydia glided over to the young girl and gently stroked her hair—a gesture that looked comforting but screamed a threat. "Tell Winnie, sweetheart," Lydia cooed. "Tell her how her botched healing ruined your wolf mark and gave you those terrible fevers at night."

Bella's small shoulders shook violently. "I..."

Before she could finish, a guard clamped his heavy hand down on the back of her neck. Bella gasped in pain, her knees buckling.

"Stop!" I surged forward, but Arthur immediately blocked my path, his chest acting like a brick wall.

"Stay right there," he growled.

I froze, my chest heaving. "Let her go! She doesn't even have an inner wolf yet!"

Lydia looked at me with mock surprise. "No inner wolf? Even better. That just means you damaged her even worse. You're wolfless yourself, Winnie. Who's going to believe you actually know what you're doing?"

A choked sob ripped from Bella's throat. "It... it was Winnie," she cried, tears streaming down her bruised cheeks. "Her magic made me sick."

My fingers went numb around the silver pen.

Beside me, Aiden leaned heavily against my shoulder to keep his balance. His voice was tight, strained with suppressed fury. "Bella. Look at me."

Bella lifted her tear-streaked face. "I'm sorry, Alpha Aiden," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry. They said they'd send my little brother to the silver mines at the border if I didn't say it."

The malicious whispers in the hall abruptly died.

Lydia's triumphant smile vanished. "The child is terrified," she snapped. "She's speaking nonsense."

Arthur ignored Bella completely. His cold eyes remained locked on me. "You have your testimonies, Winnie. Sign the annulment, and your precious slum rats get to keep their sanctuary. Refuse, and these testimonies go straight to the Council's Tribunal. They'll rot in the dungeons."

The Enforcer stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the stone floor. "Alpha Arthur. Threatening witnesses during an official audit will severely impact your reign evaluation."

Arthur turned to face him, exuding arrogant authority. "Enforcer, I am dealing with illegal and dangerous medical practices within my own territory. If you wish to investigate, I will gladly send every single one of these 'victims' to the Pack Healers for a full re-examination."

Lydia immediately caught his drift. "Oh, a re-examination is incredibly grueling," she purred. "A runt's mental link is so fragile. Breaking it open to inspect it again and again... well, if they aren't lucky, their minds might just shatter completely."

She turned her venomous gaze back to me, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. "Could you bear to watch that happen, Winnie?"

I looked at Bella. I looked at the other battered faces of the people I had saved.

They didn't dare beg me for help. They didn't dare speak up in my defense.

For three years, I had stitched their wounds and brought down their fevers. And their silence now wasn't a betrayal—it was a testament to the suffocating grip Arthur had on their throats.

Arthur pushed the annulment parchment closer. "Last chance."

Aiden grabbed my hand, his grip surprisingly strong. "Don't sign it," he commanded softly. "If you sign it, they'll take you."

I heard the raw panic in his voice.

In three years, I had never heard him sound like this. Even when the patrol guards had broken his ribs for sport, he had merely clutched his side and told me not to waste my precious healing salves on him.

I slowly placed the silver pen back onto the table.

"This isn't about me breaking the law," I said, looking dead into Arthur's eyes. "You want my medical knowledge."

Arthur didn't deny it.

Lydia's face flushed with anger. "Don't flatter yourself, Winnie! The Pack Healers have no use for your pathetic slum remedies."

I stared pointedly at the Luna's silver-moon bracelet on her wrist. "If my remedies are so pathetic, why do your guards raid our cabin's medical box every month? Why did you meticulously track down every single person I've ever treated? Why are you so desperate to annul this bond right before the Council's audit?"

SMACK.

Lydia's hand cracked across my cheek.

The stinging pain radiated across my face, the metallic taste of blood flooding my mouth.

The hall fell dead silent.

Aiden's eyes flared with feral red light. He lunged forward to shield me, but two massive guards immediately slammed him down by the shoulders.

Lydia rubbed her wrist, pouting as if I had hurt her. "Arthur, she scared me."

Arthur stepped right up to me, towering over me. "You used to know when to keep your mouth shut, Winnie."

I turned my head back, spitting a drop of blood onto the marble floor. "I kept my mouth shut because Aiden couldn't stand on his own yet, and the people in the slums had nowhere else to go."

Arthur's eyes darkened with lethal intent. "And you think they have somewhere to go now?"

He raised his hand. The guards immediately grabbed Bella by the arms, dragging her toward the heavy doors.

"No! Please!" Bella screamed, thrashing wildly. "Don't send my brother to the mines! Winnie, please!"

"Stop!" I lunged for the guards, but Arthur's hand clamped around my wrist like a steel vice.

He forced the silver pen back into my trembling fingers.

"Sign it."

On the floor, forced onto his bad knee, Aiden struggled against the guards pinning him down. "Winnie, no! Don't do it!"

Watching Aiden being forced to kneel sent a vicious, tearing pain through the severed mate mark on my chest. It was a searing agony that threatened to rip my heart out.

Lydia crouched in front of Aiden, her tone sickly sweet. "Look at you. You can't even protect your own wife."

Aiden lifted his head, glaring at her with a promise of violence. "One day," he growled, his voice vibrating with a primal frequency, "you will pay in blood for what you've done today."

Lydia laughed out loud. "You? Make me pay?"

My hand was shaking violently as Arthur pressed his heavy palm over the back of my hand, forcing the pen down toward the parchment.

The Council Enforcer stepped forward. "This document is being signed under extreme duress. The Alliance Council will not recognize its validity."

Arthur smirked. "As long as Silver Pine recognizes it, that's all that matters."

The moment the silver nib of the pen scratched against the parchment, the wolf mark on my chest erupted in heat.

But this time, it wasn't the agonizing pain of rejection. It was a blinding, radiating warmth that flooded outward from my heart.

I looked down.

The black ink of the annulment decree was rapidly fading, dissolving into the parchment like smoke.

Lydia's cruel laughter died in her throat.

Arthur finally glanced down at the parchment, his confident smirk vanishing.

Under the guards' hands, Aiden surged upward, shoving one of them back with a deep, rumbling growl. "Don't touch her."