The lower-ranked werewolves around who were watching immediately burst into raucous laughter.

Someone said, "No matter how rare her bloodline is, she still can't keep the Alpha by her side."

Another chimed in, "Ms. Morgan is clearly the one he truly loves. Those two little brats don't matter at all."

Rowan was still gloating and pressing me with questions, but I could only see his mouth opening and closing, and I could not hear what he was saying, because images of my children's deaths flashed before my eyes.

I saw their fine baby fur matted with blood and mucus, wailing and crying out for their mother and father.

I closed my eyes and swallowed back the metallic taste of blood rising in my throat. I turned and walked away.

Rowan grabbed my wrist, his grip so hard that it felt like he would break my bones. "How dare you ignore me?! You disappear all night without a word, and now you come back with a cold face. Don't tell me you went and slept with some other male werewolf, and now you are desperate to get rid of me?"

I glared at him with disgust, my eyebrows arching high. "Not every werewolf is as filthy as you!"

My words enraged Rowan completely.

He lunged forward and threw me onto the bed, tearing my clothes apart brutally. "You think I am filthy? Today I will let the whole pack see how wanton you are in bed, you slut!"

The bed still carried the lingering scent of his lovemaking with Vera, and it made me nauseous.

My pale face only earned me rougher treatment and more vicious curses from him. "Stop putting on that pitiful look on your face! Do you think I don't know that it was Vera who saved me three years ago?!"

Rowan leaned his face close to mine. His eyes were bloodshot with rage, and he was about to show his fangs. "You just impersonated her, lying that you were the one who saved me, and tricked me into marrying you, you fraud! What do you think you are?!"

I finally couldn't suppress the pent-up resentment any longer. I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face.

The sharp smack echoed through the room for a long time.

Rowan froze. He held his cheek, his eyes stopping being bloodshot for a while and then turning red again, and then his fury erupted.

He struck back and slapped me, sending me to the floor. My forehead hit the sharp corner of the bed frame, and then there was a bloody wound on it.

"How dare you strike your Alpha?!" he roared, and he hurled his powerful aura down upon me.

My bones groaned under the weight of his aura, and every rib in my chest felt like it was about to break.

I lay on the ground, blood from my forehead streaming into my eyes, turning my vision red.

I coughed up a mouthful of blood, and it ran down my chin from the corner of my mouth.

Then I lifted my head and gave him a cold smile. "You want to see the children? Fine! Go find them in hell! They are already dead! You killed them with your own hands!"

Rowan's face stiffened for an instant, and then he burst into loud laughter.

When he finished laughing, he kicked me in the shoulder and sent me rolling half a turn across the floor.

"Elara," he crouched down and grabbed my hair to lift my head. "You are getting more vile by the day. Now you even cursed your own flesh and blood. You disgust me!"

He released my hair and stood up. "First thing tomorrow morning, I want to see those two children in the council hall. If you try any more tricks by then, I will kill you, Elara."

With that, he stormed out and slammed the wooden door shut with a deafening bang. Dust and plaster rained down from the walls.

I lay on the cold floor for a long time.

Years ago, I had rescued Rowan from a rogue, which was an outcast werewolf that did not live with their pack.

For that, the rogue had torn half my shoulder apart, and I had nearly died in the snow.

He had been unconscious, and I had knelt outside the Temple of the Moon Goddess to beg for medicine so that he could live.

Rowan had once held my hand tightly and sworn he would never hurt me or betray me.

But Vera had stolen the credit for my deed, and she turned Rowan into a man full of hatred for me.

The blood on my forehead slowly dried. The spot in my shoulder where he had kicked was swollen, and even the lightest touch sent a piercing pain through me.

Serane whimpered from deep in my mind. "Elara... don't listen to him... let's go... just go..."