THE EXILED ALPHA STOLE ME FROM HIS BROTHER

POV: Mirabel The blood ran warm down my cheek and dripped onto the stone floor of the healing chamber, but I did not flinch or cry out. Three years of practice had taught me how to bleed in silence. "Clean yourself up before the feast tonight," Luna Valentina said from behind me, her voice dripping with the satisfaction of someone who enjoyed causing pain. "I will not have your disgusting face ruining my celebration." I kept my eyes fixed on the herbs I was grinding, my hands steady despite the throbbing wound she had just carved into my skin with her claws. "Yes, Luna." "Look at me when I speak to you." I raised my head slowly and met her cold blue eyes. Valentina was beautiful in the way that poisonous flowers were beautiful, all bright colors hiding something deadly underneath. She smiled when she saw the blood flowing freely down my jaw. "Three years ago tonight, you lost your wolf and became nothing," she said softly. "Three years ago, my Victor finally saw you for the worthless creature you always were. I want you to remember that while you serve drinks at our renewal ceremony tonight. I want you to watch him hold me and know that you will never matter to anyone ever again." She turned and walked out of the chamber, her silk dress trailing behind her like a snake's discarded skin. I waited until her footsteps faded completely before I allowed myself to breathe. Joy appeared in the doorway moments later, her round face tight with worry. She was the only omega who still dared to speak to me, and she did so at great risk to herself. "Mirabel, your face... let me help you." "It is nothing." I returned to grinding the healing herbs, pressing down harder than necessary. "She barely touched me." Joy crossed the room and gently took the mortar and pestle from my hands. "Stop lying to me. I can see how deep she cut this time." She was right, of course. Valentina had grown bolder over the years, her punishments escalating from slaps to scratches to wounds that would leave permanent scars. And why would she restrain herself when no one in the pack would stop her? Certainly not Victor. I closed my eyes as Joy pressed a clean cloth to my cheek, fighting against the memories that always surfaced on this night. The anniversary of my destruction. The anniversary of the night I lost my wolf and everything else that mattered. "You should not be here," I told Joy quietly. "If someone sees you helping me..." "Then they see me helping you." Joy's voice carried a stubborn determination that seemed too large for her small body. "I am not afraid of Valentina." "You should be." "Perhaps." Joy finished cleaning my wound and began applying healing salves. "But fear is a cage, Mirabel. I watched you live fearlessly for years before... before everything changed. The woman who trained me to become a healer would never have accepted this treatment. She would have fought back." "That woman had a wolf," I said flatly. "That woman had power and status and a mate who loved her. That woman died three years ago." Joy was silent for a long moment, her hands still gentle on my injured face. "Did she die? Or is she simply waiting?" I opened my eyes and looked at my only friend, this small fierce omega who refused to abandon me despite the danger. Joy had been my apprentice once, back when I was training to become Lead Healer of Silvercrest Pack. Back when Victor still looked at me like I was precious. Back when my wolf ran beneath my skin and made me feel whole. "Tonight is the night," I said quietly, so quietly that even wolf hearing would struggle to catch my words. "Everyone will be at the feast. The guards will be drinking. I am going to the archives." Joy's hands still. "Mirabel, if you are caught..." "Then I am caught and they kill me and this miserable existence finally ends." I held her worried gaze without blinking. "But if I am not caught, I might finally learn what happened to me. Why and how my wolf was taken. Joy, I have read every text I could steal glimpses of over these three years. Wolves do not simply vanish from their bonded humans. It is impossible. Unless..." "Unless dark magic was involved," Joy finished for me, her voice dropping to match my whisper. "You truly believe someone did this to you deliberately." "I know someone did this to me deliberately." I took Joy's hand in mine and squeezed it firmly. "And tonight I am going to find proof." The feast began at sunset, and I took my place among the servers with a fresh wound still burning on my cheek and murder still burning in my heart. The great hall of the Silvercrest mansion blazed with candlelight and echoed with laughter. Every high ranking wolf in the territory had gathered to celebrate the mating ceremony renewal between Alpha Victor and Luna Valentina, a symbolic recommitment that couples performed every three years to strengthen their bond. All around me, pack members ate and drank and danced, their wolves just beneath their skin, their joy completely genuine. I moved through the crowd like a ghost, refilling wine glasses and avoiding eye contact, waiting for the moment when I could slip away unnoticed. Then Valentina's voice cut through the celebration like a blade. "Everyone, I require your attention for special entertainment." The music stopped. The crowd turned toward the raised platform where Victor and Valentina sat on matching thrones carved from dark wood. My feet stopped moving, some instinct freezing me in place even before I understood why. Valentina's cruel smile found me across the crowded hall. "Mirabel. Come here." Every eye in the room turned toward me. Whispers hissed through the crowd like steam escaping from a boiling pot. I walked toward the platform on legs that did not feel like mine, my server's tray still balanced in my trembling hands. Victor sat motionless on his throne, golden and beautiful as always, his face completely empty of expression. Once I had loved that face more than my own heartbeat. Once I had traced those perfect features while he slept beside me and thanked the moon goddess for blessing me with such a mate. Now I looked at him and felt nothing but cold ash where love used to live. Valentina rose from her throne and descended the platform steps with deliberate grace. She carried a full glass of red wine in her manicured hand, and her smile grew wider with each step that brought her closer to me. "Kneel," she commanded. I placed my tray on a nearby table and lowered myself to my knees on the cold stone floor. The movement came automatically now, three years of conditioning stripping away resistance. Around me, pack members watched with eager anticipation, hungry for whatever spectacle their Luna had planned. Valentina stopped directly in front of me and slowly, deliberately, poured her wine onto the floor between us. The red liquid splashed against stone and splattered my worn dress, spreading into a dark pool that reflected candlelight like old blood. "Clean it up," Valentina said sweetly. "With your tongue." The hall erupted in laughter. My hands pressed flat against the cold floor, and my heart pounded against my ribs like a caged animal throwing itself against bars. I had endured so much humiliation over these three years. I had swallowed my pride and my anger and my grief so many times that I barely remembered what they tasted like. But this... I raised my eyes to Victor's throne and found him watching me with that same empty expression, making no move to intervene, offering no hint of the love he had once sworn would last forever. He would let this happen. He would watch me crawl and lick wine from the floor and he would do absolutely nothing. My face lowered toward the spreading pool of wine, toward the laughter and the humiliation and the complete destruction of whatever remained of my dignity, and I made myself a promise that burned brighter than any pain. After tonight, things would be different. After tonight, I will have my answers, and then I will make them all pay. The great doors of the hall exploded inward with a force that shook the walls, and a man walked through the smoke and destruction, and every wolf in the room dropped to their knees without understanding why. I looked up from the wine soaked floor and met the dark burning eyes of a stranger whose presence alone pressed against my chest like a physical weight. And for the first time in three years, I heard a whisper deep inside me where my wolf used to live