The Glacier King's Blood Oath
I am the Heartwood of the Dark Moon Pack. My blood allows the forest to flourish and keeps our pack strong. It’s the deepest secret between me and the Alpha, Lucian.
For five years, I have lived in his shadow. By day, he’d embrace his pureblood fiancée, Michelle, to the roaring cheers of the pack. By night, he’d sneak into my tent and kiss me as if he were starved. "Tabitha, my soul knows only you," he’d murmur. "Michelle is just a pawn to secure my throne. You have to understand."
And I believed the lies he spun.
Until the Centennial Celebration, when Michelle deliberately shattered the Moon Goddess's Sacred Chalice. Sobbing, she pointed at me before the entire pack, accusing me of casting dark magic out of jealousy.
Hearing the pack's roars to burn me at the stake, Lucian panicked. To protect the image of his “perfect fiancée,” he crushed my wrist in front of everyone and commanded coldly, "Throw this vicious woman into the ice dungeon until she confesses!"
In that moment, I understood the warning in his eyes—he needed me to take the fall, to appease the pack’s rage.
My gift had secured his throne, yet my life was worth less than a single tear from his beloved.
He thought the ice dungeon would be a minor punishment. But he didn't know that for a half-blood like me, the extreme cold would freeze the very life from the pup in my womb.
And he had no idea this was the last time I would ever love him.