The Alpha's Greatest Regret Is Our Daughters

Just because my five-year-old twin daughters upset my mate's former lover, he condemned them to the Iron Fang Den, a brutal training camp where young wolf pups were broken into obedience.

The wardens came to our packhouse before dawn.

They forced open the gates and marched inside, reaching for my daughters as though they were criminals instead of frightened little pups.

My girls clung to the stone doorway, crying for their father.

I dropped to my knees.

"They're only five," I begged, tears burning my eyes. "They're still pups. No child survives the Iron Fang Den unchanged. Please... they'll die in a place like that."

"If someone must answer for their mistakes, let it be me. I'm their mother. I failed to teach them properly. Punish me instead."

My mate stood beside the woman he had once loved, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

He looked at our daughters without the slightest trace of pity.

"You've coddled them for far too long," he said coldly. "That's why they've grown so wild and disrespectful."

"I'm their Alpha and their father. If you can't raise them properly, I will."

He met my tear-filled gaze without wavering.

"Do you truly believe I would ever harm my own flesh and blood?"

The next morning, my sister-in-law and I raced to the Iron Fang Den.

What awaited us shattered my soul.

One of my little girls lay motionless on the cold stone floor.

Her tiny body was covered in purple bruises and whip marks.

Her breathing had long since stopped.

At that very moment, my mate was celebrating throughout the pack, announcing that his former lover was carrying his new heir.

I stared at my sister-in-law with empty, lifeless eyes.

"My daughter is gone."

"I have nothing left to fight for."

"Please."

"Let me leave this pack."

"I don't want anything anymore."

……

By the time they carried my daughter to the pack healers, she no longer had a heartbeat.

The healers took one look at her small, battered body and quietly covered her with a white shroud before she ever reached the healing chamber.

My sister-in-law looked at me with eyes full of sorrow.

"It's all right," she whispered, though her voice shook. "Grandfather and I will stand by you. My brother is the one at fault. I swear the Howell bloodline will make him answer for this."

Before she could say anything else, I silently handed her my crystal communicator.

On its glowing surface was the message Jordon had shared with the entire pack only two hours earlier.

"Little one, your parents have loved you since before you were born."

Attached was a healer's pregnancy scrying, clearly showing that Annette was six weeks with pup.

Annette Tate.

Jordon's first love.

The color drained from my sister-in-law's face.

After a long silence, anger replaced her shock.

"I'll summon my brother immediately," she said through clenched teeth. "Don't worry. The Howell Family will give you the justice you deserve."

A bitter smile touched my lips.

Instead, I activated our mate-link crystal and called Jordon myself.

The connection had barely formed before his impatient voice echoed through it.

"Are you calling to tell me the pups are being mistreated again?"

"They're members of the Howell bloodline. Who would dare lay a claw on them?"

"I only sent them to the Iron Fang Den to learn discipline. Do you really need to harass me without end?"

"Diana, I'm sick of this."

Before I could speak a single word, the connection was severed.

The crystal had been on speaker.

Every cruel word reached my sister-in-law without restraint.

She stood frozen, her face deathly pale, unable to find anything that could comfort me.

I tried to smile.

Instead, tears streamed silently down my face.

"I've lost everything," I whispered.

"Please... let me leave this pack."

"I truly can't endure it anymore."

Before my sister-in-law could answer, several Pack Enforcers approached us.

"Are you the family of the deceased pup?" one of them asked gently.

"The wardens responsible for the Iron Fang Den have been taken into custody. We need your cooperation to complete the investigation."

The moment I entered the pack's Hall of Judgment, I saw the same wardens who had dragged my daughters away from our home the day before.

Reason abandoned me.

I broke free and threw myself toward them, screaming through uncontrollable sobs.

"You monsters!"

"They were only five years old!"

"How could you do this to innocent pups?"

"How could you?"

The Pack Enforcers quickly restrained me before I could reach them.

My sister-in-law wrapped her arms around me as I collapsed, shaking uncontrollably in her embrace.