Bled By My Alpha Parents Adopted By The Lycan King Chapter 02
Fifteen
When I woke, I was still in the dark room.
Outside my door, two maids were chattering, voices bright with excitement.
“Lady Vera is finally well. She and Warrior Kade can finally have their happy ending. What a match.”
“He never left her side all these years. Betrothed since they were pups, you know. A proper fated pact.”
“But I heard Lady Vera isn’t really the Alpha and Luna’s blood…”
“Hush. Don’t you dare say that. The way our Luna dotes on her, no true daughter could ask for more!”
Their voices blurred together and my head swam.
…Vera was living the life that should have been mine.
She had her parents. A brother. A mate waiting for her at the altar. And after tomorrow, she would have a husband who would keep spoiling her.
And what about me?
What was I? The ‘Fifteen’?
The voices outside stopped. Footsteps. The door slammed open.
The Luna walked in.
Eight years. Eight years I hadn’t seen her face. And even after everything I’d heard through the wall last night, my eyes still stung when I looked at her.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking. I drank her in like a wolf pup starving for her mother.
She was my mother. MOTHER.
She had come. Maybe she’d changed her mind. Maybe she was here to tell me the truth. Maybe—
The Luna pressed a silk handkerchief to her nose.
“Moon Goddess above. What is that stench? Do you never bathe, Fifteen?”
Fifteen.
My name, because I was the fifteenth Purebred blood slave the traffickers had bred.
I lowered my eyes. My voice came out cracked. “My lady. Vera needs blood every day. If I bathe, the wounds don’t close.”
I did wash. Every day. A wet cloth, careful strokes around the puncture marks. I didn’t stink. She just needed a reason to look at me like that.
There wasn’t a shred of softness in her face.
“Vera is healed. There will be no more drainings. When she mates to Kade Vaughn, you will go with her. And you will not smell like this in the Vaughn Pack house, do you understand? You will never speak of what you are. Never speak of your blood. Not to anyone. Do you hear me?”
Her voice dipped low with threat.
So that was it.
She was afraid.
Afraid I would open my mouth and destroy Vera’s reputation. Afraid the Vaughn Pack would find out their new Luna had been healed with wolf blood.
Was I supposed to spend the rest of my life chained to Vera?
I gathered every scrap of courage I had left and lifted my eyes to hers. “My lady. Vera is well now. Please. Let me go. Send me far away. I’ll never come back. I’ll never say a word to anyone.”
She frowned. “Where else could you go?”
“I just want to find my parents.”
Maybe somewhere behind those cold eyes, there was still a mother who might reach for me.
But I lost the game.
Something flickered across her face. Panic. Then her lip curled.
“Your parents?” She let out a short, brittle laugh. “You don’t have parents. You are a slave. You were bought. A thousand gold coins. Your life belongs to the Pack. Your blood belongs to Vera. You will never leave this pack.”
I opened my mouth to speak.
A knock at the door.
“Luna. Lady Vera says the wedding gown still isn’t right. She wants you to look at it.”
The Luna’s whole face melted. “That girl. Everything has to be perfect. What did I do to deserve such a spoiled little thing?”
Her voice was warm. Doting. The voice a mother used on her daughter.
Then she turned back to me and it hardened again.
“On Vera’s wedding day, someone will come for you. Stay here. Don’t make a scene. Don’t embarrass this family.”
She turned and walked out.
She didn’t look back.
Not once.
My eyes burned. I blinked hard.
What was I hoping for?
Even knowing I was her real daughter, she still meant to keep me as her blood bag. Forever.
And I had been foolish enough to want her to love me.