My mate, Alpha Richard, locked our she-pup inside a sealed antique cabinet.

Our asthmatic pup.

All because his adopted sister's pup was throwing a tantrum and needed a "doll" to amuse him.

"It's just a Ball-Jointed Doll in there," he sneered. "Can't you even tell your own pup from a doll?"

Then he walked next door to praise the boy. “You’re so much braver than my pup,” he cooed. “You’re my favorite.”

Later, at a fashion show, he let his sister steal the designs I made for our pup.

He called me a plagiarist to protect her.

I was about to shatter when a man burst through the doors.

In his hands was a funeral portrait of my pup.

————————

1

"I'm so sorry. Her asthma... it was too severe. There was nothing more we could do."

Faced with the healer's words, I shook my head frantically, tears streaming down my face.

"Impossible. Nina just said today was her birthday… she wanted to go to Disneyland. How could she leave me..."

Even though I refused to believe it, the people passing by would look at the body in my arms and hurry away in disgust.

Some sighed with pity. "Her pup dies, and her own Alpha is nowhere to be seen. But look at Alpha Richard—his adopted sister's pup gets a minor injury, and he summons the best healers in the entire pack."

That's right. I held Nina's cold, stiff body and screamed until my lungs burned.

Yet, just one door away, Richard was playing with Monica's pup, Mike. The healer's words drilled mercilessly into my ears.

"It's just a minor scrape on the toes. If you'd brought him in any later, it would have healed on its own."

And then came Richard's stream of gentle reassurances.

"Good boy, Mike, don't cry. Tomorrow is your birthday; how about I take you to Disneyland to celebrate?"

"Of course you're a better boy than my pup, and so much stronger. You're my absolute favorite..."

The tragic irony was, from the day Nina was born, Richard had never once celebrated her birthday.

He'd either "forgotten" or something had come up with the pack.

I couldn't bear to hear the whispers of those around me any longer, nor feel their judgmental stares.

All alone, I prepared Nina for her final rest and took her to the crematorium.

The moment her body turned to ash, the dam of my grief shattered, and tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.

"Nina, Mommy is so sorry. In your next life, please, don't be my pup again."

I cried until I nearly passed out. When I finally dragged myself back to our villa, I found Richard was already there.

He stood there, ready to confront me.

"I already told you, what was in that cabinet was just a doll. Why did you have to shove Monica? Irene, how can you be so vicious!"

Monica, his adopted sister, whom he now valued more than his own mate.

His look of disgust carved into my heart, inch by inch. I was defenseless, unable to argue, and yet, I found myself laughing.

"On a day as important as this, how could I possibly have time to harm your precious lady?"

"An important day? Besides revolving your entire life around me, what other important days could you possibly have..."

But Richard’s words trailed off, as if he’d suddenly remembered something, and he stopped mid-sentence.

My gaze, however, fell upon the plane tickets to Orlando and the Disney World passes lying on the table.

Noticing my gaze, Richard immediately swept the passes away, his expression unreadable.

When he looked up and saw the tears glistening at the corners of my eyes, he was stunned.

His heart softened, and he reached out a hand, intending to wipe away my tears.

"I have a business meeting tomorrow. I’ll throw Nina a proper birthday party this weekend to make it up to her, okay?"

But I turned my face away, my tone lethal.

"Richard Blackwood, don't you forget what the Council of Elders declared: the primary right of inheritance for the Blackwood pack belongs to Nina. Should any harm befall her, that right passes directly to me."

He had once forced me to take suppressant injections to delay my labor, all so Mike could be the nominal heir. The ordeal nearly killed me.

As it turned out, Nina was born first anyway, and it was only out of guilt that the Council of Elders promised me her inheritance rights.

And for all these years, I've been aware that Richard has been secretly transferring assets from the Blackwood Group to Monica, though I've never exposed him.

At the mention of the inheritance, Richard's face instantly darkened.

"What harm could come to Nina? The Council adores her, and she's my pup. I would never harm her, no matter what!"

"I've told you already, it was just a doll. Irene, can't you get it through your head?"

Richard was about to say something else, but a phone call cut him off.

The moment the call connected, Richard's face turned completely grim.

Without another word, he violently dragged me and threw me into the car.

"The thugs you hired ruptured Mike's kidney! You're going to go over there right now and give him one of yours to atone for it!"

When we arrived at the pack's private hospital, the instant Richard saw Monica, his focus shifted entirely to her.

"Richard, Mike's right kidney is gone! He can never be a powerful Alpha again. What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry. I'll find the best kidney to transplant for him. He'll make a full recovery."

As the words left his lips, his gaze slid to my right side—right where my kidney was.

"I've already found you a more powerful replacement."

Before I could even process what was happening, I was thrown into an operating room.

"I'm begging you. I'm a designer, I need to be healthy, my kidney is..."

I clung desperately to Richard's hand, casting aside every last shred of my dignity.

"Richard Blackwood, don't make me hate you even more."

But Richard remained utterly unmoved, his expression blank as he pried my fingers off, one by one. "It's just one kidney. You still have another one."

"I will protect you for the rest of your life."

"Don't worry, the surgery will be quick. You won't feel any pain."

I was bound hand and foot, with absolutely no chance of escape.

The surgery truly was quick.

With no standard sterile environment and not nearly enough anesthesia, the healers loyal to the Alpha sliced open my living body. It took only ten minutes.

The moment I fainted from the pain, I heard Richard's gentle words from outside the operating room.

"Just as I thought. It had to be your kidney in his body to make him stronger."

When I woke again, it was three days later. Not a single person had come to visit me.

My heart was bleeding profusely, but I had no more tears to cry.

Finally, someone came to see me. Someone came to care.

When I saw my mom, Amelia, I suddenly felt like a pup again, and I finally broke down and cried once more.

But in the next second, her cold words plunged me into an icy abyss.

"Cut the crocodile tears. I haven't even dealt with you for lying to me about Nina being dead."

"Monica already told me Nina is having the time of her life at Disneyland," she snapped. "And so what if she dies? She's just a female pup."

Back when you were pregnant, I told you not to get that genetic screening, but you insisted. And that's why you ended up with a pup with asthma.

For a full hour, her venomous words washed over me, until I finally lost all my strength.

Aside from the day my mother, Amelia, came to see me, no one else had visited.

I traced the ugly scar on my side, hobbling out of the hospital and heading home.

The moment I opened the door, I was met with Richard's accusing gaze.

He pointed to the urn placed right by the entrance.

“Who told you to put something so morbid in the house?”

My voice was faint, as if my soul had left my body.

“That’s Nina’s urn. Her ashes are inside.”

A flicker of something—panic?—crossed Richard's face. He gripped my hand, his knuckles white, pressing me for an answer.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Absurdly, I could actually hear a hint of panic in his voice.

I laughed and cried at the same time. “I said Nina is dead! You killed her!”

And in that moment, Monica seized the opportunity to give Mike a look.

Instantly, Mike burst into tears, capturing all of Richard's attention.

“There, there, my sweet boy. Don't cry, don't cry!”

Meanwhile, Monica added fuel to the fire from the side.

“It looks like the urn frightened him. Pups shouldn’t be exposed to the presence of death like this.”

Hearing her words, Richard seemed to understand everything as he glared at me. "Is this your new ploy to harm Monica and Mike? Do you really think I'd believe you?"

With that, Richard smashed the urn to the ground.

My heart shattered into a million pieces along with it.

My attempt to stop him only enraged Richard further.

"If Monica hadn't married my brother back then, do you think you ever would have had a chance?"