Historias cortas de After Death y novelas con Alpha ambientadas en Regret

My pup Asher had been sick for six months. Every time I personally cared for him, he became even sicker. I finally believed the witch's prophecy: I was cursed. My very existence would harm my own pup. I went to the moon temple and prayed that the moon goddess would lift the curse and ensure my pup's safety. From then on, my Alpha mate Damon brought Asher up the mountain every day to see me. Hundreds of miles of mountain road. They made the trip over a thousand times. Our bond never faded with the distance. Until today. A group of rogues broke into the Sanctuary and pushed me down the stone steps. I called Damon all night. No one answered. Then I received an anonymous video. Damon knelt in front of a woman, kissing her swollen belly. Asher stood next to them, grinning ear to ear. "I'm gonna have a brother! Aunt Serena, your pregnancy must have been so tough. Me and Dad will be your knights forever." He turned to Damon, his young face bright with pride. "Dad, I faked being sick pretty well, right? Pretending to feel awful every day, tricking Mom into taking me to the Healer over and over. They never found anything wrong, and she really believed that curse stuff. Went up the mountain all on her own." "But what if Mom finds out? Won't she be mad?" Damon didn't seem worried. "Don't worry. I've got the whole mountain sealed off. She won't find out." Only then did I understand. Everything had been a lie, planned by my mate and my son. I turned around and knocked over the Hope Flame that I had lit for Asher without hesitation. This flame was lit at the cost of my wolf’s strength, offered to the Moon Goddess so that she might bless Asher with health. Through the flames, a familiar figure sprinted toward me.

My Alpha mate Cain's childhood sweetheart Vivienne had returned from her overseas training in healing. She'd made a bet with the other healers that she could use the deadly wolfsbane to cure patients. Every senior healer told her it was absolutely impossible. But she ignored the warnings and injected a massive dose of wolfsbane extract straight into my mother Iris's body. My mother fell into a deep coma after her wolf was killed. My brother Ethan, enraged at the Moonlight Gathering, demanded a Trial by Blood from Vivienne, demanding her life. But Cain had Ethan imprisoned in the Silver Prison before the gathering. I was trembling with rage, wanting to tell everyone the truth at the gathering. But Cain stopped me. “When you go up on stage, tell everyone that what happened to your mother was an accident.” I froze, tears streaming down my face. I was his mate, after all. A flicker of guilt crossed Cain's eyes as he gently wiped away my tears. “Don't cry, baby,” his voice was low and gentle. “Vivian and I grew up together. She saved my life when we were little. She's a good person. She would never intentionally use Wolfsbane to harm your mother. It was an accident.” “You just need to admit it wasn't Vivian's fault,” Cain said, “and I'll get the best healers to treat your mother.” He paused. “Ethan will be released immediately too.” I closed my eyes. “Okay…” Since Vivienne was so important to you, then I would grant your wish. I turned and staged my death, leaving with my mother and brother. But the powerful Alpha broke down, searching the world for me and begging me to come back.

After a century of war, the three races finally reached a fragile peace. The human kingdom, the vampire noble houses, and the wolf clans signed the Covenant of Three Realms. The Royal Court would stand above the races, and only a mixed-blood royal heir would rule all three realms. When my turn came,I chose Owen, Alpha of the Bloodmoon Pack. Our marriage ceremony took place on the Night of the Full Moon Oath. Owen’s foster sister, Nora, fled the Bloodmoon territory after the rite. She crossed beyond the pack’s borders and ran straight into a hunter’s silver trap laid in the forest. The silver tore through her wolf spirit. She died there before anyone could reach her. When Owen arrived, he did not rage. He simply carried her body back to the pack lands and performed the ancient wolf burial rites with his own hands. After that night, he continued to play the role of the perfect mate. But the night I gave birth to our hybrid child, he drove a blade through my throat, his eyes filled with hatred. His voice was filled with cold hatred. “If your bloodline weren’t the only one capable of producing a ruler for the three realms, I would never have married you.” “Nora would never have fled the pack lands. She would never have died in a hunter’s trap. My first child would still be alive.” Pain swallowed everything. When I opened my eyes again. I had returned to the day the king ordered me to choose between the vampire houses and the wolf clans.

As Gamma of the Creed Pack, I'd held the Northern Border alone for three full years. Every time I called in to ask when I could come home, my mate — the Alpha of Creed — picked up the phone himself. He told me the rogues weren't cleared. He told me the rival packs were still circling. He said, "Nora. One more year. Once we have completely eliminated all our enemies, I will hold the grandest mating ceremony for you. I swear it on the Moon." I believed him. When I dragged myself out of a pile of dead rogues with a silver arrowhead still lodged an inch from my heart, bleeding too fast for a medevac, my warriors had to shift and run me back in wolf form all the way to Creed territory. The moment we crossed the border, I saw fairy lights strung from every streetlamp along the road to the pack house. Pack wolves on the sidewalks were talking loud, smiling at each other. "The Alpha's Mating Ceremony is tonight. He's taking the Elder's daughter as Luna. Three years of peace on the border. It's a good time to be Creed." I coughed dark blood into the fur on the back of my warrior's neck and laughed, short and bitter. He hadn't needed me holding the border. He just hadn't wanted me home.

Three years ago, Arthur swore a blood oath at the Moon Altar. No other she-wolf would ever touch him. Only me. Forever. Three years later, he drugged me with wolfsbane wine, stole my Alpha Seal, and opened Silver Moon's borders to the Rogues himself. My parents took silver to the heart. My sister was sold to the Crimson Court. My pack burned. He crushed my jaw and forced me to watch. "They called me your lap dog. I destroyed you to prove I was no dog." He thought he had all the time in the world to break me. He didn't know. When I had pulled him from that Rogue ambush in the ice, a moonstone shard had pierced my heart. I had three days left to live.

The ninety-ninth time my mate, Valeria, the pack's Alpha Female, blocked our mind-link, I dragged myself, ravaged by Soul-Decay, into the Hall of Covenants. The cold marble steps bit at my bare feet, each one sending a lancing pain through my chest. In the final stages of Soul-Decay, I'd lost my healing abilities. Even the simple act of walking was agony. "I'm here to request a severance of my mate bond." The covenant official took in my pale, gaunt frame, his gaze softening with pity. "Sir," he asked quietly, "don't you have a pack to support you?" I've been invisible to my parents ever since my father brought home my adoptive brother, Silas, when I was ten. And while Valeria was my mate, it was in name only. We had never held a public marking ceremony. She rarely brought me to pack gatherings. Most of the pack wouldn't even recognize me. I wiped away the blood welling at the corner of my mouth. "That doesn't matter anymore," I told the official. "A dying wolf needs no pack."

The night of my first shift at eighteen, my two older sisters brought home a fifteen-year-old orphaned boy. My Alpha sister seized the rare healing herbs I'd spent all my savings on — herbs meant to ease my first shift — and gave them to him instead. "You're strong enough," she growled. "You don't need such precious herbs." My Beta sister snarled with fury, pointing toward the door. "Get out! Don't come back!" I said nothing more, just grabbed my packed bag and left. They assumed I was merely throwing a tantrum, that I'd return in a few days. My sisters, finally free of my presence, took the orphan boy on an international vacation to the Caribbean islands I'd always dreamed of visiting. Many days later, when they returned to the pack, they were shocked to discover I'd accepted an offer from the neighboring pack's Head Healer. The position required fifteen years of isolated herbal research. I could never return home. That night, they fell apart.

I was given a second life in this werewolf world, but it came with a task. The system assigned me four Alpha males. If I could make one of them fall completely in love with me, I would be resurrected in my original human world, where I had died during heart surgery. But I failed to win over any of the four. Because they all fell for the same woman, the true heroine of this world. They attacked me with the cruelest words and bullied me mercilessly, and every single one of them wished me dead. In the end, with my mission failed, I truly died by my own hand. When they saw my body, they crumbled. Not from grief, but from the weight of their own remorse.

The rogue wolf Beck had kidnapped me and stabbed me ten times with a silver dagger. Now he was forcing me to call my brother, the Alpha of Sterling Pack, and trade the entire northern border for my life. I knew Cain wouldn't care. But I dialed anyway. The line rang for a long time before he picked up. His voice came through, raw with irritation. "What stunt are you pulling now?" "Cain, help me. I've been taken—" I didn't get to finish before he cut me off, cold and clipped. "You'd really stoop to faking a kidnapping to ruin Selene's Chief Healer ceremony tonight? Iris, I swear to god, if you don't show up, you're out of this pack for good." Click. The line went dead. Beck let out a low laugh. Then he drew the silver blade across my throat. Pain swallowed everything. My heart stopped. But my soul drifted up, light as smoke, out of my body. You don't have to throw me out anymore, Cain. I'm never coming back.

On the night of the full moon, both the widowed Omega, Natalie, and I went into sudden, agonizing labor. The pain brought me to my knees on the cold floor. Clutching Kaelen’s hand with the last of my strength, I begged him to take me to the hospital. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Within the pack, everyone believed I was finally getting exactly what I deserved. After all, five years ago, I had cruelly played with Kaelen’s feelings and publicly rejected our mate bond. Now, with my pack on the brink of decline, Kaelen had risen to become the Supreme Alpha, forcing me into a partnership. Yet, while he claimed my body night after night, he bitterly refused to give me his mark. Even when he brought the pregnant Natalie into our home, I merely turned away and walked back to my room without a word—an indifference that only fueled his volatile rage. Until tonight, when Natalie and I went into labor at the exact same time. In my agony, I finally broke down and confessed that I loved him. But Kaelen only saw it as another calculated lie. Scooping Natalie up into his arms, he looked down at me with cold, unyielding eyes. “Natalie was right about you. You’re just staging a premature labor to orchestrate your escape and abandon the pack again.” He sneered, turning his back on me. “If you really love me, you’ll wait until she safely delivers. Don’t even think about running from me this time.” With the Alpha’s absolute command issued, the pack members did everything in their power to stall my delivery, ignoring my fading pulse. By the time Kaelen finally remembered me—deciding he would perform the marking ritual the moment our pup was born—it was already too late. My pup and I were already cold.

Five years after my death, my ex-husband, Adrian Shaw, came home with his childhood sweetheart, Hannah Reed, on his arm. They were preparing for a new mating ceremony. His only wish before the ceremony was to find me and make me pay for severing our mate bond and betraying him all those years ago. To force me to show myself, he destroyed my family's company, drove my father out of his mind, and burned down the home we had once shared. What he did not know was that I was already dead. Five years earlier, desperate to pay for the treatment he needed after a car accident badly injured his inner wolf, I signed up as a test subject at an underground clinic. It was an illegal clinic that used live subjects to test experimental silver-derived compounds and wolfsbane antidotes. I died in its basement. Later, my grandmother, who had dementia, ran into Adrian in the neighborhood. My grandmother's face lit up with joy. "Adrian, you're back? Grace has missed you so much. Come with me. I'll take you to see Grace."

After taking a poisoned drink at a party for my Alpha mate, Magnus Ironwood, I am poisoned with a rare wolfsbane. Since then, my wolf has grown so weak that I can barely maintain a mind-link with the rest of the pack. Magnus travels from pack to pack and to healing centers, searching for healers and praying they can create an antidote for me. On the eve of Spring Hunt Caravan, I force myself out of bed to simmer a pot of meat stew for Magnus and our pup, Ronan Ironwood, only to collapse onto the couch and never wake up again. Moments later, Magnus walks through the door, followed by his assistant, Tala Brightfield, with Ronan in her arms. When he sees me lying on the couch, he sets down the moonstone necklace he buys for me and sighs helplessly. "Don't stay up waiting for us if you're not feeling well, and don't push yourself to make meat stew either." But Tala bursts into tears, "Your Luna doesn't like me, Alpha Magnus! Just half an hour ago, she texted me and told me to stay away from you. I think it's best if I leave." Magnus calls my name. When I don't respond, his expression turns cold, and the tenderness in his eyes is replaced by anger. "Maeve Nightshade! When will you learn the grace of a Luna? Tala has helped me rule this pack, so could you stop throwing these pointless tantrums? "Your antidote is nearly ready. Stop using your poisoning as an excuse to play the victim!" He stands there criticizing my body in front of Ronan, all for another she-wolf. It isn't until he sees my rotting body that he finally loses his mind.

On Alpha Adrian Blackwood’s thirty-fifth birthday, his foster sister, Selena Vale, put on a magic show for the entire Mooncrest Pack. Selena had insisted that I join her onstage and assist with the grand finale. She had spent months learning stage magic and bragging about every new illusion until the entire pack was convinced she was practically a master magician. So when the blades inside Selena’s illusion box turned out to be real, no one believed my screams. Selena laughed into the microphone. “Our Luna deserves an Oscar. Doesn’t she make it look real?” The entire pack laughed with her. Even Adrian frowned at me from the front row. “Elena, enough. Don’t ruin my birthday just because you can’t stand Selena being in the spotlight.” Our six-year-old son looked up at me and said, “Mommy, stop pretending. Aunt Selena worked really hard.” Then the next blade came down. And another. They thought I was putting on a performance to ruin Selena’s magic show. But I wasn’t acting. I was dying.

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.

When a rogue kidnapped me, my dad, a renowned werewolf warrior, and my mom, the pack's only healer, were attending my younger sister Eve's wolf spirit awakening ritual. Seeking revenge after being defeated by Dad years ago, the rogue injected two doses of wolfsbane venom into my neck. He then used my phone to call Dad. All that came through the line was Dad's cold, furious voice. "I don't have time for this lame prank. If you aren't at Eve's wolf spirit awakening ritual within an hour, I'll disown you!" The rogue sneered. "Looks like they love their adopted daughter more than their own flesh and blood." At the crime scene, my parents stared at the corpse that was decomposed beyond recognition before sighing in pity. Neither of them realized the body that had been mutilated beyond recognition was their own biological daughter.

The wolfsbane had reached my bones, and I decided to stop treatment. Once, Ethan Anderson, the pack's Alpha, was the only light in my life. He promised we would travel the continent together, chasing the northern lights across frozen plains and exploring ancient ruins. But while I lay dying from wolfsbane poisoning, he took Murphy Blake, my best friend and the person I trusted most, to every place I had dreamed of seeing. My dreams became the story of how they fell in love. I was ready to let go. I wanted only to see the final place on my list. Then the antidote shattered, my ticket was soaked in blood, and Ethan abandoned me alone in the frozen wilderness. My life entered its final countdown. And there, at the edge of death, I discovered a secret that would change the fate of every werewolf. Ten years later, when the wolfsbane curse that had plagued werewolves for a thousand years was finally broken and everyone called me their savior, Ethan finally understood: He hadn't merely lost a mate who loved him. He had lost the one person who once would have spent her last breath waiting for him to turn back. But by then, I no longer needed his love.

When I was with pup for thirty-five weeks, our pack was struck by an earthquake. I was stuck under a collapsed stone pillar. The pillar was so heavy that I couldn't even sit upright. My mate rushed to the scene, but instead of coming to me, he ran straight to Lucy, who had fallen nearby. "Alpha, Luna is badly injured. The smell of blood is getting stronger. She needs immediate treatment!" Several werewolves gathered around me and were trying to free me, but William stopped them. "Lucy injured her leg. Save Lucy first." One of his subordinates looked at me anxiously. "There could be another aftershock any minute. What about Luna?" William glanced at me. "She's stronger than Lucy. Save Lucy first." Crushed beneath the pillar and unable to get up, I covered my belly protectively. This was the first time I ever begged William. "William, please save our pup–" Lucy suddenly burst into tears. "Alpha, if Luna doesn't want me to be saved, then so be it. "The earthquake happened so suddenly. I instinctively grabbed Luna, but I never expected the pillar to snap and fall on her." William pulled Lucy into his arms and comforted her. "I know you would never do something like that. Annie has just become too sensitive since she became with pup. Even in a life-or-death situation like this, she still can't get her priorities straight." He glanced at me. "I'll come back with more help to rescue you." I felt my wolf spirit growing weaker with every passing second. 'William, I won't survive this time.'

When I felt the silver tear through my body, the Moon Goddess bound me to Cedwin from four years ago. His younger self was going to propose, when he saw me covered in blood through the cool moonlight. His eyes widened in shock. And back at the present, Cedwin started toward me, his arms shielding Laura—who barely suffered a scratch. Kicking away the building in his way forcefully, the shockwave left me coughing blood. Even so, Cedwin was glaring at me, those red eyes of his that once only cared about me now devoid of warmth. "How jealous and despicable can you get?" He growled. "Feigning an attack just to scare Laura? Heck, that silver almost looks real—you really make me sick!" And with that, he turned to me, leaving me stuck under the debris, still paralyzed by the silver. On the other hand, the Cedwin from four years ago was clawing at the moonlight. He was intent on saving me, but there was nothing he could do but watch. In the end, my lips curled up as I looked at the youth in the moonlight, even as blood streamed out of my mouth. "Don't." As he froze, my smile broadened, serene. "I don't want to be your Luna anymore."

My elder sister, Alice, was a white wolf. A witch had foretold that my power would devour hers, that the moment I shifted during our coming-of-age ceremony, she would die. The only way to save her was to suppress my power, let her shift first at the ceremony, and break the curse. To save her, my parents spent eighteen years breaking me. And the night before our ceremony, they followed the witch's orders and locked me in the basement with silver-banded iron chains. "Be good, Maria. The silver will only delay your shift. Just get through tomorrow, and your sister lives. Then we can all stop suffering." The chains pressed against my chest. I could barely breathe. But something was wrong. My shift was starting, early. I slammed my fists against the door. "Mom, it's starting. I'm shifting now—" "Don't lie to me." Her voice cut through, sharp and loud. "The witch said both of you shift on ceremony day. Or are you really that eager to watch your sister die?" Footsteps faded down the hall. The pain hit, searing, ripping through every bone. I curled into the corner, feeling my wolf slip away.

Mom was Dad's fated mate. A half-blood Omega. A rogue with no pack. But every night, Dad would kiss her all over and make a promise. "I will bring you back when I become Alpha. You will be my Luna." But he lied. He took the Alpha title the year I was born. He needed power. So, he rejected my mom. He mated with a high-born she-wolf instead. Mom never got her dream mating ceremony. The backlash from the broken mate bond drove her insane. She became bitter and cruel. She tortured me just to get Dad's attention. "Call your father. Tell him your first shift hurts. Beg him to come." Dad just roared at me. "You learned your mother's dirty tricks. You are a disgusting parasite!" They took all their hatred for each other out on me. Later, Dad's pureblood Luna gave birth to a son. He became the perfect Alpha and a loving father in the pack's eyes. Mom completely lost her mind to jealousy and the severed bond. She bit me black and blue. She fed me liquid wolfsbane. All just to beg Dad to come see us once. That day, Mom went completely crazy. To force Dad to show up, she pushed me off the second-floor balcony. I hit the back of my head. My legs snapped. I cried and begged her to take me to the pack doctor. She just slapped me hard across the face. Then, sick in the head, she took a picture of me dying in a pool of blood and sent it to Dad. "Stop playing the victim! You have Alpha blood. You will heal. You are just like your cold-blooded father, born to torture me! This is all to make him come back to us!" Dad finally arrived. He released his crushing Alpha aura. He sent Mom flying across the room. "If you dare use this half-blood mutt to trick me again, I'll kick you out of this apartment. Get out!" Crazy screams mixed with sharp cries. I lay on the cold floor. The agonizing pain slowly faded away. Would they finally stop fighting this time?