Alpha Ruined My Family After Giving Him My Heart

ten years ago, I thought Ethan Calloway and I were bound forever, our love sealed tight.​

The day I brought him home to meet my parents.​

First, he forced my dad, James, to his knees and taped his mouth shut with industrial duct tape, pinning his arms behind his back with zip ties that bit into his skin.

Right in front of him, Ethan ripped my clothes to shreds, his hands cold and cruel.​

He dragged my mom, Susan-who'd been battling Alzheimer's and barely recognized her own reflection-over to the fireplace, where he'd stacked old newspapers and kindling earlier.

He struck a match and tossed it in, then wedged a chair under the doorknob of the study where he'd locked her in.

The smoke alarm wailed as flames licked the curtains, her confused cries muffled behind the door.​

I can still see her silhouette pressing against the frosted glass, the way it warped and blackened before the window shattered in a shower of sparks.​

Dad, still restrained, watched it all-watched me being humiliated, watched Mom burn.​

His screams tore through the house as he gnawed through the zip ties with his teeth, blood streaming from his gums.

He didn't run for the fire extinguisher.

Instead, he grabbed the antique bronze letter opener from the dining table-Mom's favorite heirloom-and drove it into his own chest.​

The metal clanged when it hit the hardwood, his body crumpling over the dining room chandelier's chain. It snapped under his weight, sending the crystal fixture crashing down.

Shards of glass mixed with his blood on the floor, glinting like sick diamonds in the firelight.​

In one night, I lost both my parents.

I knelt in the blood-soaked ground, choking out a single word to Ethan: "Why?"

He grabbed my chin, his sneer cutting deeper than any knife.

"Claire, you really thought I loved you? This is revenge."

Ten years back, a medical mishap on my dad's operating table took Ethan's father, Arthur.

His mom, Catherine, took her own life soon after.

So Ethan spent ten years weaving a love story, a cruel trap just to make me feel the agony of my family, gone.

After that, he kept me caged by his side, tormenting me.

I tried to end it all 200 times, and 2pp times he dragged me back from the edge.

"We'll torture each other till we're old and gray," he said.

What he didn't know was that during our deepest year of love, when he needed a heart transplant to survive, I'd secretly signed a donor agreement.

Now, an artificial heart ticks in my chest, and it's got ten days left before it gives out.

I stood outside Ethan's villa, clutching the diagnosis paper, the words "artificial heart failure" burning my eyes.

The healer's voice echoed in my head: "ten days at most. Get your affairs in order."

Taking a shaky breath, I pushed open the door.

The laughter in the living room died instantly.

Ethan reclined on a shadow - cloaked obsidian throne, swirling a goblet of moon - blood wine.

Four she - wolves encircled him-my cousin Madeline Walsh, cousin Rachel Bennett, best friend Samantha Bswimming pool, and classmate Lauren Pierce.

Draped in sinuous, moon - silk nightshades, their smiles oozed a feral desperation to earn his primal favor.

"You're back?" Ethan's eyes flicked up, his lips curling into a cruel smirk.

"Perfect timing. The game's just starting."

My nails dug into my palms, drawing blood.

For months, Ethan had chased every she-wolf close to me, seducing them, bedding them, all to watch me break.

Now, they were all head-over-heels for him.

Ethan snarled.

"First to shatter her-make her howl like a runt-claims my eternal mark.

Their eyes blazed like wolves zeroing in on a wounded fawn.

Madeline struck first-her fist slamming into my ribs, a sickening crack that stole my breath.

The pain exploded, sharp and searing, and I crumpled, gasping, when suddenly the world warped: I was back at last year's birthday, the kitchen warm with vanilla, Madeline pressing a homemade cake into my hands, her smile soft as she murmured,

"Claire, I hope you're happy. Always."

The memory shattered as another blow landed.

Blood trickled onto the braided leather wristband I'd given her-a graduation gift I'd worked two part - time jobs for three months to craft.

It looped around her wrist.​

"Eight punches and she still won't cry?"

Madeline panted, flicking blood from her nails as she glanced back at Ethan.

"What's it gonna take? Shatter her ribs? Crack her skull?"​

Last summer, she'd held out her wrist, grinning as I fastened the band, and said, "This'll stay on forever. A promise, yeah?" Now it clung to her skin, soaked in my blood.

He leaned back, eyes narrowed like he was savoring a show.

"Next."

Rachel's fingers dug into my wrist-dragging me to the basement corner where we'd carved our initials last summer.

"Remember when you took a blade for me?" she breathed, slamming my hand into the vice.​

I screamed as she twisted the handle.

The scars from that blade-still pink on my palm-burned as motor oil seeped in.

"You said you'd die for me," she laughed, "now bleed for me."

"Boring," Ethan said, glancing at his watch. "Next."

Samantha clamped my hand to the table, rummaging out a rusted sewing needle-the same one I'd used to stitch her torn prom dress that night she sobbed, "You're my soulmate."​

Now she drove it under my thumbnail, twisting. "Three days by my hospital bed?" She laughed, blood bubbling under the nail. "Time to pay back-with screams."

"Time's up," Ethan's voice sliced through. "Last chance."

When Lauren came bounding down the stairs with a cardboard box, my heart nearly stopped. That box-hidden under my bed-held my parents' keepsakes.

"No!"

I finally screamed.

Too late.

Lauren grinned, smashing a photo frame to the floor.

Glass shattered.

My dad's glasses was crushed under her heel.

My mom's favorite necklace snapped in two. When she tore Mom's silk scarf to ribbons, my tears hit the ground.

"I win!" Lauren crowed, rushing to Ethan. "I'm your only mate now, right?"

Ethan's laugh was cold as he gripped her chin. "You think I'd want anyone tied to Claire? You all disgust me."

He hit a buzzer, and guards dragged the shrieking she-wolves out.

I collapsed in the wreckage, trembling fingers brushing the broken pieces of my parents' lives. I picked up half a faded family photo, Mom's warm smile staring back at me.

"Ethan," I sobbed, my voice raw, "wolf like you, who can't love anyone, shouldn't drag others into your mess."

"Who says I can't love?" His sneer was venomous.

The door swung open.

A she-wolf wheeled in a suitcase.

"Ethan, where should I put my stuff?" she asked, voice light.

His face softened instantly.

He pulled her close, kissing her forehead. "With me, of course."

He wrapped an arm around her waist, but his eyes locked on me, cold as ice. "Meet Vanessa Monroe, my chosen mate."

"Remember that crash three years ago? I was on death's door. Vanessa saved me, gave me her heart so I could keep hunting the Bennett pack."

"You said I can't love?"

He pulled Vanessa tighter, his gaze boring into me.

"Watch me prove you wrong."

Shock, rage, pain, despair-they crashed over me like a tidal wave, threatening to drown me. I bit my lip until it bled, the taste grounding me.

Then I laughed.

I laughed until my body shook, until blood coughed up from my throat, until tears streamed down my face.

I gave him my hear and he's cherishing someone else's.

When I signed that donor agreement, the healers swore they'd keep my name secret. Never thought it'd lead to this, him mistaking his savior.

But I won't tell him.

What's the point?

Tell him it's my heart beating in his chest?

That I've got ten days left because of it?

The blood feud-two lives has already severed any bond we might've had.