Familial Bond 短篇故事與 Alpha Karma 小說

I saw a trending post on a werewolf forum: "How to get your mate to break the bond with you?" The poster said he was going to lie to his mate about going on a wilderness trial, but he was really planning to run off with his "true love." I silently scoffed. What a shameless scumbag. But the next day, my Alpha mate came home, smelling of another she-wolf. "For the future of our pack, I have to go on a lone wolf trial in the wilderness," he said. "We should temporarily break our mate bond." I looked at his phony face and nodded calmly. "Okay. Whatever you say. We'll break the bond tomorrow." Later, he took the family money and his lover and disappeared. But with his parents' support, I became an executive at the family company. He blew through all the money, ditched his lover, and came crawling back to the country, trying to win me over. But by then, I was already at my engagement party with another, far better Alpha. I said it from the beginning. He was the one who chose to abandon his family. Even if he wanted to come back, this place would be nothing but his personal hell.

My Alpha mother had a mark burned into my heart, a Submission Mark, all to guarantee I'd claim first place at the Ascension Trials. The mark was simple in its cruelty: whenever my heartbeat dipped below the intensity of combat training, it would scorch the flesh around my heart. No drifting off. No rest. Not even an extra breath during sparring. When I passed out from exhaustion, she'd pull out an iron whip soaked in silver solution and lash it across my hands. She called it "awakening the wolf's instincts." "You're a she-wolf. If you fail, you become the lowest thing in this pack and every male wolf will have the right to walk all over you." "Every drop of blood you shed is a stepping stone to the top." "Iron doesn't become a blade without fire. I've already begged the Moon Goddess for her blessing. Why can't you just push harder?" Today was the first round of the Ascension Trials on the pack's sacred calendar. I was the first contestant to break out of the underground arena, and instantly the pack's Record Keepers swarmed around me. My mother stood just outside the arena. Flush with pride, she triggered the Submission Mark and pushed my combat reflexes to the absolute limit of my wolf form. "Look at my daughter move, like she has Moon Goddess guidance. All thanks to my one-of-a-kind Branding Enhancement technique." But Mom... two days before the Trials started... Your mark, running at full power, burned my heart to nothing and stopped it cold. What more could you possibly want?

A woman showed up at my cabin door, claiming to be a Beta's mate. She said she wanted to rent my herb field for three hundred dollars a month, to grow medicine for her injured mate. Three hundred? Seriously? That land is the only one in the entire pack—blessed ground that drinks in the Moon Goddess's power. Herbs grown there could pull a dying wolf back from the dead. I turned her down. But she wouldn't let it go. So Sun, my dog, barked and chased her off. Figured that'd be the end of it. Wrong. The next day she came back with two Gammas, busting right through my door. They screamed at me, called me a worthless human who had no business touching pack land. Then they tied me up and made me watch as they burned my herb books, beat Sun, and tore out every single plant I'd grown. What they didn't know? I'm human, yeah. But I'm the adopted human daughter of the Bloodmoon Alpha and Luna. That herb field? Their gift to me on my eighteenth birthday. And those herbs they burned? The only cure for her mate's dying breath.

Three years after my Alpha brother banished me from Blackwood Pack, he donated one dollar to my PackAid fundraiser. His public message read: [Let me know when you actually die. I’ll pop the champagne.] Three years earlier, Serena—the orphan Adrian had brought home from the border—accused me of stealing her silver-purification protocol that had earned Blackwood’s only nomination to the Royal Healer Academy. Adrian never let me explain. He revoked my nomination, cut off my Pack sponsorship, and ordered me out of Blackwood territory before sunrise. [Admit what you did. Apologize to Serena. Then I’ll let you come home.] Then he sealed me out of the Pack mindlink. Overnight, I went from protected Alpha blood to a rogue no Pack dared accept. Three years later, Serena slept in my old room at the Alpha House, wore my mother’s jewelry, and smiled whenever Pack members called her the Alpha’s sister. I dug through trash outside the territory and scavenged scrap in an abandoned industrial district until silver dust poisoned my lungs. By then, my wolf was fading and the healer called it terminal Silver Lung. After reading Adrian’s comment, I called Moonrest Memorial Park. “Hold the cheapest grave you have.” His one-dollar donation had pushed my fundraiser to PackAid’s minimum withdrawal amount. I decided to give him exactly what he wanted.

Right after I reunited with my biological Alpha family, my brother, Henry, forced me to go mountain climbing with him for training even when I had asthma. He was convinced that his family's bloodline was too powerful for someone as physically weak as me to exist among them. Not wanting to disappoint him, I pushed myself to keep up despite my condition. Halfway up the mountain, I suffered an asthma attack, collapsed, and began suffocating. As I struggled to reach my asthma medication, my adopted sister, Ella, kicked my backpack away and sneered. "Eleanor, that's such a pathetic trick. Do you really think Henry will believe you?" She turned to Henry and said in a sweet voice, "Eleanor is faking it again. She's even trying to use her medication to get out of training. I threw her bag away. You won't blame me for that, will you?" Henry shot me a cold, impatient glance. "Eleanor, no werewolf is as fragile as you. Don't even think you can fool us with your little act! Nobody is allowed to help her! Let her get up on her own!" I lay on the ground and struggled to breathe with my hand stretched desperately toward my backpack. I kept reaching until the last of the oxygen in my lungs was gone. Then everything went black, and I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes again, I had become a spirit floating in the air. Looking down at my small, lifeless body, I forced a bitter smile. 'Henry, I'm dead. This time, I really can't get back up anymore.'

I died on the day I was supposed to receive the Silvermoon Devotion Medal from the pack. My family, though—they were busy celebrating my little sister winning the "Pack's Best Neighbor" award at her birthday party. While she made her wish for the whole family to love her forever, I dialed my fated mate, Alpha Theodore, begging for help. He cut me off with an impatient snap— "Diana, this is the most important moment of Elara's life. Quit pulling those petty stunts for attention." It was the ninety-ninth time he'd chosen her over me. But there won't be a next time. Because I'm already dead.

The Westmere pack had one rule about the Alpha's seat: only the Alpha's biological children could inherit it. I was my parents' only child. For as long as I could remember, I'd known I would become the first female Alpha in our pack's history. The trouble was that I hated being tied down. My father spoiled me, so he took in my cousin Evan Hale to take care of pack business for me. Evan had to pass an annual review on New Year's Day to keep his job as my assistant. But in 13 years, I never once took those reviews seriously. I passed Evan every single time. Over time, every wolf in the pack came to see me as the Alpha heir in name only. They believed Evan was the one my father really wanted to take over. Then Evan decided to marry Winona Crane, the daughter of Victor Crane, the Emberwind Alpha. Victor had heard all about Evan's achievements, and he agreed to the marriage without a second thought. To celebrate, I went out and conquered three new territories as a gift for Evan. I also gave Winona a villa to welcome her to Westmere. But on their first day as mates, she sold the villa. On the second day, she revoked my fingerprint access to every restricted area in the pack. Then she sent me a bill. "Lorelei Hale, I had no idea you'd spent 85 million dollars of Evan's money over the years." "You're a grown woman now, You can't keep dragging Evan down, can you?" "I want you to swear on the Moon Goddess that you'll pay back every cent within a month." I pointed at myself, wondering if I'd heard her right. "Me? Pay you back? Is this what Evan wants too?" Winona frowned. "What, are you trying to weasel out of paying?" I actually laughed. Sure, Evan had handled pack business for me for 13 years. But Westmere had never belonged to him. The only reason he'd kept his job as my assistant was that I'd waved him through his review year after year. And as it happened, the new year was only three days away. There was still time to revise Evan's review.

In the sixth year of my mating with Kael, his Alpha brother died in a rogue attack. Kael inherited his brother’s seat as Alpha. He also inherited his brother’s Luna, Vivienne. Every time he came back from her bed, he held me and said the same thing. “Baby, I only love you. Vivienne is the daughter of the Silverfang Alpha. Our pack is unstable and we need their support. This is a deal, nothing more. The moment she gives birth to an heir, I’ll declare you my one and only Luna.” Their room was right next to mine. Every night I lay there and listened to Vivienne’s pleasure and the low, satisfied growls he never made for me anymore. For half a year I went from feeling like my chest was being carved open to feeling nothing at all. At the end of that half year, Vivienne announced she was pregnant. The same day, Kael announced he would hold the mating ceremony with her. I stopped waiting. I closed my eyes and reached for the mind-link I had not used in six years. I called my father, the Alpha King. “Dad. You were right. I regret it. Come take me home.”

I’d just stepped onto the moonstone stage at Ettelgard Academy’s annual Induction Ceremony. The screen behind me went black. The next second, a recording blasted through the hall. 【“I’m out of funds. Send me five thousand.”】 【“I need the Alpha-level combat ring tonight. Give me access.”】 【“If you don’t, I’m telling everyone your big secret. Your whole ‘untouchable Alpha’ act? It’ll be over. You’ll be ruined.”】 The crowd of a thousand elites from every major pack went silent. Then whispers erupted. That girl on the recording? The one shamelessly demanding credits? Yeah. That was me. And the guy she was "blackmailing"? Julian Valerius. The strongest pureblood wolf of our generation—the one everyone expected to become an Alpha. Scarlett, the Beta pack’s heir, stormed the stage. She pointed right at me, her voice shrill with fake righteousness. “Did you hear that? Aurora Vance isn’t some quiet bookworm. She’s a leech! A parasite who’s been blackmailing Julian for credits and privileges! A disgrace to her bloodline! She doesn’t deserve any honor from this academy!” A thousand sharp glares cut into me like daggers. On the dais, the Elders’ faces were grim. Scarlett savored my humiliation, her voice dripping with arrogance. “Aurora, Julian is too generous to stoop to your level. But you will apologize. You will beg this academy for forgiveness for being a shameless, clinging fraud!” I stared at the screen, the recording of my "blackmail" still playing. Exhausted, I pressed my fingers to my forehead. This was a total joke. Julian Valerius is my grandfather’s youngest son. My dad’s little brother. He is my literal, honest-to-God uncle. And that “big secret”? It was a threat to tell everyone how our grandmother used to chase him around the manor with a switch when he was a kid.