After I Died, My Mate Chose the MurdererChapter 1 Unloved by my mate...
Elara POV
Ever since my fiancé, Ryland Ashford, the Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, reconnected with his first love, Selene Hawthorne, he forbade me from keeping flowers. His hatred for them seemed to grow stronger each day as if the very sight of a bloom disgusted him.
One stormy night, I was bound and gagged and taken into a dilapidated cabin at the edge of Darkwood Forest, a known hideout for rogue wolves. The rogue wolves that captured me forced me to call Ryland.
“Ryland, the flowers in the garden are dying. Please, can you hurry to the woods near the East River and bring back some fresh seeds?”
But Ryland didn’t sense anything unusual instead he yelled at me. "How many times have I told you not to grow flowers? Selene’s allergic to pollen! Do you even care why she ended up in the pack hospital? How can you be so selfish?”
I heard a soft feminine voice in the background but before I could say anything else, he ended the call.
The next day, sacks marked with a silver paw print were scattered all over Crescent Moon Pack. One sack was left at the front gate of the packhouse, where our Alpha held his daily meetings.
Ryland was urgently called back to investigate.
It took him three agonizing days and nights to piece together the contents of those sacks. When he finally did, he realized it was me—his fiancée, the woman he had been bonded to since childhood.
When Ryland arrived at the packhouse, he still had the colourful ribbons used to celebrate Selene’s recent recovery around him.
“When was the first sack discovered?” he asked with a sour expression.
“It was a member of the patrol team,” responded Ethan, the Beta of our pack. “He found the first one outside the eastern gate. At first, he thought it was a sack of deer meat, maybe a rogue wolf’s kill, and was going to take it home. Later, he caught the scent of werewolf blood and brought it here."
"This is a direct challenge to our pack!" Ryland snarled, his fists clenching beside him. “Whoever did this wants war.”
In addition to the sack found at the Packhouse entrance, a dozen more of varying sizes were discovered and brought in. Ryland's brow furrowed, this was an unusual case. Whoever had done this was ruthless.
"The damage is severe," Ryland muttered, "Piecing it together will be a challenge.”