The Devil Alpha’s Last Chance Chapter 02

The Devil Alpha’s Last Chance Chapter 02

Zayden’s hand froze in midair. “Fine. I’ll just pretend I’ve spent all these years raising an ungrateful rat.”

Only after his footsteps disappeared down the stairwell did I finally relax. I hurried over to help Mrs. Patty up. “Mrs. Patty, are you alright? I’m so sorry…”

“I’m fine.” She gently patted my shoulder.

She could see how embarrassed I was, but she didn’t ask a single question. She simply smiled and said, “Take good care of yourself.”

After returning home, I collapsed onto the couch, completely drained. My body trembled uncontrollably as memories crashed over me like a tidal wave.

“What a joke. Didn’t you love drunk driving? Why won’t you drink piss now?”

“Drink it! Crawl on the floor like a dog, and maybe we’ll believe you weren’t the one who killed someone.”

“So what if you were born into a good family and pack? Why isn’t your Alpha brother getting you out of here?”

Humiliation had been part of everyday life in werewolf prison.

They forced me to kneel and lick leftovers off the floor. They ordered me to break a thick wooden post with my bare hands. When I no longer had the strength to keep trying, they broke my hand instead.

After that, I began coughing up blood more and more often, and my wolf grew weaker by the day.

At first, whenever I cried and begged to see Zayden, he still came. But somehow, he eventually decided I was lying. Later, he stopped visiting altogether. He didn’t even send his Beta anymore, only a prison guard carrying a message.

“Alpha Zayden has people watching you inside the prison. He said he’ll come see you when you stop pretending.”

The day I was released, I quietly disappeared from the pack without seeing a pack doctor. I simply told myself that however many days I had left, I’d live them one at a time.

I had finally grown used to my quiet life here.

So why had Zayden suddenly come looking for me again?

I lay awake until dawn before grabbing my umbrella and heading to the cemetery.

After resigning from my job as the cemetery caretaker, I sat numbly on a wooden bench, clutching the medical report in my pocket until it crumpled.

Half a month earlier, I had suddenly collapsed at work. When I woke up, another caretaker was crying while holding me.

That was when I learned I had no more than a month left to live.

The rain fell harder and harder, and the diagnosis in my pocket became more wrinkled beneath my grip.

Suddenly, a warm hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me to my feet.

“Zayden said you were hiding here. I didn’t believe him.”

“You disappeared without a word. Did you think our engagement meant nothing?”

I looked up and met the dark, unreadable eyes of Lucian, the Alpha of the Darkstone Pack and my former mate.

“Don’t you think you’re being selfish?”

Selfish?

When he had slept with Zara in my own bed on my birthday, turning me into the laughingstock of the entire pack, had he ever thought about whether he was being selfish?

My gaze fell to the bonding ring on his left ring finger.

It matched the one Zara wore.

Including the three years I had served in prison for her, they had been together for five years.

My stomach churned violently.

I shoved him away and bent over a nearby trash can, vomiting uncontrollably.

Lucian frowned and instinctively reached over to pat my back, but I recoiled from his touch.

He paused before suddenly asking, “Are you pregnant with another man’s child?”

Before I could answer, he added, “Does that man have the last name Pryce?”

The slap echoed sharply.

My entire body shook with rage, “Lucian, you’re disgusting!”

I turned to leave, but he caught up with me, half dragging and half supporting me into his car before locking the doors.

“Let me go!”

“Zayden’s already at your apartment. Aren’t you going home?”

That single sentence drained every bit of strength from my body.

I stared at him in disbelief.

“Do you really enjoy tormenting me that much?”

Lucian’s brows furrowed.

“Don’t say things you don’t mean. Once we’re back at the pack, our engagement will continue as planned. You’ll still be my Luna.”

Then he seemed to remember something.

“But legally… we’re no longer considered true mates. Zara and I have already signed a bond-sealing deal, and I’ve marked her.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

Avoiding his probing gaze, I said calmly, “Then I wish the two of you a lifetime of happiness and lots of children.”

…

When the car pulled into the familiar rundown neighborhood, Lucian said, “Zara came looking for you too. I’m heading to the airport to pick her up.”

I ignored him and quietly got out of the car.

The moment I opened the door, I saw Zayden sitting on my worn sofa, staring blankly at my medical textbooks and notebooks.

“You used to love being a pack doctor,” he said quietly. “You were always so passionate about studying medicine. Why… didn’t you continue?”

He looked up at me, confusion filling his eyes. Then he slowly looked around my shabby apartment, his voice growing hoarse.

“I won’t argue with you about changing your last name anymore… but how have you been living all these years?”

Maybe I imagined it.

But I could have sworn I saw his eyes redden.

Calmly, I took the notebook from his hands.

“Don’t worry. I’ll never compete with Zara for a healer’s position again.”

“So… will you finally let me go?”

His hands suddenly gripped my shoulders.

His eyes were bloodshot.

“You disappeared for an entire year without a word!”

“Who’s really tormenting whom?”

“What do you mean you’ll never compete for a pack doctor’s position again?”

“What happened to your hand?”