The Body Collector's Betrayal I Won't Save You TwiceChapter 1
I was an ordinary Death Walker from the Hollowmere Pack. By chance, I pulled both the Alpha Heir Fenris and the Beta Lord Hadeon Ravencrest from the river, and I became pregnant with the Alpha Heir's pup.
On the night of our Moon Ceremony, the Alpha Heir never showed. He took his bonding procession to Elder Thornwood's den and mated Cressida Thornwood instead.
I tried to confront him, but Hadeon Ravencrest stepped in my way.
He confessed that he was the one who'd gotten me pregnant that night. He said he was willing to bond with me and take care of me for the rest of my life.
A moon cycle after the bonding, raiders descended on my pack. All one hundred and ten households were slaughtered. Not a single soul survived.
Standing before that mountain of corpses, wolves denied their Moonfire Rite, I collapsed under the weight of my grief. I lost the pup.
Hadeon never left my side, never even changed out of his bloodstained clothes. It took a long time, but slowly, he pulled me back from the edge.
Three years later, I was carrying again. I wanted to tell Hadeon the good news right away, but on my way to find him, I overheard a conversation between him and a friend.
"Hadeon, the Alpha Heir keeps undermining you at every turn. Doesn't that eat at you? Back then, you bonded Perenna Ashvane for his sake and even claimed a pup that wasn't yours."
"I didn't do it for him. I did it for Cressida. In this territory, the firstborn pup inherits regardless of his mother's rank. If Perenna had given birth to an heir first, how would Cressida ever secure her place in the Alpha King's court?"
"We all know you're hopelessly in love with Cressida Thornwood, but did you really have to annihilate all of Hollowmere to keep them quiet? The Death Walkers have been all but wiped out since then."
"I had no choice. The wolves in Hollowmere knew too much. To eliminate any future threat, every last one of them had to die."
I had always believed that falling for the Alpha Heir was the greatest mistake of my life. I never imagined that falling for Hadeon Ravencrest would prove a far worse one.
……
"Just now, one of the servants from the den came by. Your attendant turned her away, but I think I heard her say Perenna is carrying..."