My Death Shattered My Alpha Dad

I had been dead four days, yet my father was still tearing through the territory vowing to rip me apart with his own hands, because he was convinced I had slipped wolfsbane to his precious stepdaughter, Kate Lawrence.

"Is that wretch still alive?"

In the manor's council room, my father, Alpha Jack Blackwood, questioned as if he were inquiring about a mangy Rogue.

The butler, Marcus Benton, answered, his voice trembling, "Alpha Jack, Ava is still in the cell."

Dad raised his whiskey. "I spoiled her, and now she has dared to desecrate the sacred full moon ceremony. This time, I'll make sure that she learns a lesson she'll never forget."

Marcus said carefully, "Alpha Jack, the silver chains are burning her skin and suppressing her wolf... Ava might not hold on!"

"That's what I want," Dad replied, his words sounding like ice. "Let her taste what Kate suffered. Only when silver burns her own flesh will she understand how wrong she was."

He spoke like he had forgotten I had already been down there for a full seven nights.

Marcus was about to speak again, but Dad stopped him with a dismissive flick of his hand. "Enough. She won't die so easily. Silver-plated chains will hurt her, but they won't kill."

If I still had a voice, I would have laughed.

He was wrong. He was absolutely wrong.

What he didn't know was that on the second night, Katherine Monroe, Kate's mother, bribed a guard to drive a syringe of pure silver into my veins.

Pure silver was death to us.

Four days ago, the poison had spread through my blood. My wolf vanished first, and then my heart stopped still.

What lingered then was only a shard of me, a will that wouldn't fade, tied by something I couldn't name to the man I once called my father.

"Dad, don't be angry. Please let Ava out. Punishing her with silver is too much."

A soft voice floated down the stairs. Kate stepped into view, wearing my favorite white dress—the one my mother had left me.

At the sight of her, Dad's face softened with a tenderness he had never shown me. "Kate, you're too kind. She nearly caused permanent damage to your wolf. There can be no mercy for that."

His indifference pierced me like shards of ice.

We shared the same blood. How could he treat me as if I were nothing to him?

In the wine cellar, I heard Marcus sigh under his breath. "He treats his own daughter like trash but treasures someone else's daughter like a jewel!"

"Dad, you're so good to me. I almost wish you were my real father." Kate's eyes teared up as she leaned against his shoulder.

"Silly girl," he murmured. "In my heart, you're my daughter.

"Kate, you're nearly 18 years old. You'll find your fated mate soon, so stop clinging to your dad."

Katherine finally appeared, carrying herself with the poise of a Luna.

Before Dad married Katherine as his second wife, I thought he would remember Mom forever.

However, the new marriage wiped away the old memories with ease.

Looking back, maybe Mom dying from a hunter's silver bullet was a kind of mercy. At least, she didn't need to see the man she loved turn so cold.

I thought I would see Mom again soon in the Moon Goddess' embrace.

If there were a next life, I would rather be an ordinary werewolf than his daughter.

"Darling, isn't it enough? Ava is your daughter, after all," Katherine said, feigning kindness.

Katherine and Kate put on an act of compassion. If they had any mercy, they wouldn't have let me suffer in a silver cell for seven days and nights.

The cruelest part was that the cell they locked me in was meant for traitors and Rogues. Now, it had become my tomb.