Page 47 of Pregnant, Rejected and Exiled By the Lycan King (Forbidden Alpha Kings #45)

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Damon

Time slowed as the knife descended toward Rhea’s throat.

My shift happened mid-leap, human form exploding into wolf between one heartbeat and the next.

Thirty years of training guided my trajectory, intercepting my mother before steel could meet flesh.

We collided with crushing force, her smaller body flying sideways from the impact.

The knife spun away, clattering across concrete.

I landed in a crouch over Rhea, massive black wolf form creating a shield between her and any threat.

My mother scrambled for the weapon, her elegant composure completely shattered.

She was screaming about omega whores, about betrayal, about sons who were never hers.

But all I cared about was the shallow breathing of my mate beneath me, the too slow movement of our children in her belly.

Carlton and his team poured through the door, weapons drawn, but I snarled them back. This was between family now.

“Stay back! Everyone stay back!” Carlton commanded his team, understanding the delicate nature of what was unfolding.

My mother struggled to her feet, designer clothes torn and dirty from our collision. Blood trickled from a cut on her cheek, making her look wild, unhinged. She backed away from us, toward the shadows where more rogues likely waited.

“You choose her over me! Just like your father!” Lucinda’s voice cracked with decades of suppressed rage.

I shifted back partially, enough to speak while maintaining a protective position over Rhea. “My father... tell me about my real mother.”

“She was nothing! A breeding omega who caught his eye!” Spite dripped from every word as she continued backing away, hands searching for another weapon.

“And you killed her?” The question emerged flat, emotionless, though inside my wolf howled for blood.

The warehouse erupted in movement. Two rogues burst from the shadows, charging at Carlton’s team.

Gunfire exploded, echoing off concrete walls.

I shielded Rhea with my body as bullets flew, feeling her flinch beneath me with each shot.

The rogues fell quickly, professional soldiers against hired thugs, but the distraction gave Lucinda time to grab a broken pipe from the debris.

“Tell me!” I roared over the chaos, still crouched protectively over my mate.

Lucinda swung the pipe experimentally, testing its weight. Even cornered, even exposed, she maintained that cold control I’d known all my life. But now I understood it for what it was. Not strength but bitterness calcified into armor.

“You want the truth? After all these years, now you want truth?” She laughed, the sound sharp enough to cut. “Fine. Let me tell you about your precious mother. Let me tell you why you should never have existed.”

Behind us, Carlton’s team swept the warehouse for more threats, boots crunching on broken glass. I could hear their nervous breathing, their discomfort at witnessing such intimate family destruction. But none of them intervened. They understood this moment couldn’t be interrupted.

The truth poured out of Lucinda like poison from a wound, her pacing growing more agitated with each revelation.

She told us how Dominic found his true mate in Serena, a young healer who worked in the pack’s medical center.

But the timeline was what made my blood run cold.

Lucinda was already pregnant with Laziel when Dominic’s mate bond activated, pulling him toward another woman with a force he couldn’t deny.

“We were pregnant at the same time,” she snarled, swinging the pipe for emphasis. “Both of us round with his children. His wife and his whore, walking the same halls, breathing the same air. Do you understand the humiliation?”

“When was I born?” The pieces were clicking together in horrifying ways.

“Six months before Laziel. You came first, the bastard before the heir.” Her laugh was bitter. “We had to falsify Laziel’s birth records, claiming he was premature. I had to hide my own son for months even after he was born.”

Carlton’s team had finished their sweep, forming a loose circle around us. The warehouse felt smaller with so many bodies, the air thick with tension and the metallic scent of blood. Rhea stirred beneath me, trying to speak, but I pressed her down gently. Not yet. I needed all of it.

“The political marriage couldn’t be dissolved without destroying alliances that kept the pack strong, so Dominic kept Serena hidden even before you were in the equation.

But secrets in a pack never stay buried long.

People whispered about the Alpha’s visits to the healer’s cottage. About how she glowed with pregnancy.”

“So you killed her.” Not a question. I knew my mother, knew her capacity for cold calculation.

One of Carlton’s men shifted nervously, hand tightening on his weapon. The casual confession of murder, even decades old, created a new tension in the air. But Lucinda was beyond caring about witnesses now.

“Father knew?” The question escaped before I could stop it.

“He suspected but could never prove it. He changed laws to protect omegas because of her.” Lucinda’s smile was cruel as she advanced slightly, testing my reaction.

“Every kindness he showed you was guilt over her death. Every time he looked at you, he saw the woman I let die. But what could he do? Accuse his pregnant wife of murder? Destroy the pack’s stability for a dead omega? ”

The pieces of my childhood clicked into place with painful clarity.

My father’s distance despite his duty. The way he’d push for omega protection laws with passion that seemed personal.

How he’d sometimes stare at me with such sadness before turning away.

He’d known or suspected but couldn’t prove his wife’s crime without destroying everything.

“Laziel was mine. My blood, my child, my truth in a marriage built on lies.” Tears finally came, but they were for Laziel, not remorse. “He deserved to be heir, not you. He was the true son, not the bastard who came first.”

The cruelty of it, the calculated emotional starvation of a child, made my wolf snarl. She’d raised me in the same house as her beloved son, forcing me to watch him receive the love I’d never have, all while knowing I was actually the elder.

“You encouraged his obsession with Rhea.”

“I thought if he claimed her first, history wouldn’t repeat..” Her laugh was broken as she raised the pipe higher. “Instead, you killed him for her. My baby boy. Just like your father would have killed for Serena if honor hadn’t held him back.”

“I killed him because he threatened my mate.”

“Your mate.” She spat the word and charged, pipe swinging toward my head.

I caught it easily, wrenching it from her grasp and tossing it aside. But she wasn’t finished. Nails raked across my face as she attacked with bare hands, decades of suppressed rage finally exploding. We grappled, her smaller form surprisingly strong, fueled by madness and grief.

“Enough.” Rhea’s voice, weak but firm, cut through our struggle. “You’re wrong about everything, but you’ll never see it. Your hatred has blinded you to love.”

Lucinda made one final lunge, not for a weapon but for Rhea herself, hands extended like claws toward my mate’s throat.

I caught her wrist easily, the bones fragile under my grip.

For a moment, we were frozen. The woman who’d raised me with calculated coldness and the son she’d never wanted, the elder who’d been forced to pretend to be younger.

She twisted in my grip, surprisingly strong for her age, fueled by rage and grief.

Her free hand clawed at my eyes, spittle flying as she screamed about omega whores and stolen birthrights.

But as we struggled, she stumbled backward.

Her heel caught on the uneven concrete, the same debris she’d navigated so carefully before.

Time slowed again as she fell, arms windmilling for balance that wouldn’t come. I reached out instinctively, despite everything, but momentum carried her beyond my grasp. Her eyes went wide with surprise, then fear, as she realized what was happening.

The sickening crack when her head hit the floor echoed through the warehouse, sharp and final. She’d fallen hard, the angle wrong, neck twisted in a way that made Carlton curse softly. Blood pooled beneath her silver hair, spreading like all the secrets she’d kept.

I knelt beside her, hands hovering uncertainly. Even now, even after everything, she was the only mother I’d known. The woman who’d raised me to believe I was younger, lesser, unwanted, all while knowing I’d been born first.

Her eyes found mine one last time, and I saw not the mother who’d raised me but a woman consumed by bitterness until it killed her. Blood bubbled from her lips as she tried to speak.

“Damon...” Her voice was whisper-thin.

“I’m here. Despite everything, I’m here.” I took her hand, feeling how cold it already was.

“Should have... been heir... my boy... not the bastard...” Her breathing grew labored, rattling in her chest. “Your omega... will destroy... you too...”

Her final words came on her last breath, prophecy or curse, I couldn’t tell. Her eyes went vacant, hand slack in mine. The woman who’d raised me without love, who’d shaped me through absence and coldness was gone.

I closed her eyes gently, then stood. Around us, Carlton’s team remained silent, witnesses to a tragedy decades in the making. But I had no time for grief or processing. Rhea needed medical attention, needed the chains removed, needed safety after this nightmare.

I turned back to my mate, ready to free her, to carry her to help. But the sight that greeted me drove everything else from my mind.

Rhea made a pained sound, face contorting with something beyond drug effects. Her body tensed, back arching against the chains. When I looked down, there was blood between her legs, spreading across the concrete in a pattern that made my heart stop.

“The twins,” she gasped, hands clutching her belly. “Something’s wrong with the twins.”