The Alpha Who Threw Me Away for a Fake Pregnancy Chapter 05

The Alpha Who Threw Me Away for a Fake Pregnancy Chapter 05: The King’s Domain

The tinted windows of the SUV blurred the passing trees into a dark, endless smear. I sat in the leather backseat, staring at the heavy gold box resting beside me. Kael drove in total silence.

“How long did he know?” I asked.

“The King tracks every drop of royal blood,” Kael answered, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. “He has known where you were since the night he placed you in the Hale pack as a child.”

“Twenty years of hiding.”

“Twenty years of testing, Your Highness.”

I flinched at the title. “Don’t call me that. Not yet.”

“As you wish.”

Kael steered the heavy vehicle off the main highway and onto a private, unmarked road. The asphalt quickly turned into smooth gray stone.

Massive iron gates swung open automatically. We drove into a sprawling courtyard. The royal estate loomed ahead, a fortress of pure white marble cutting sharply into the overcast sky.

The SUV stopped. Kael stepped out and opened my door.

“He is waiting,” Kael said.

I grabbed my small suitcase from the floorboard. Kael gently took the leather handle from my grip.

“You won’t need this anymore,” he murmured.

I left the bag behind. I walked up the wide stone steps. Two guards in heavy silver armor pushed the towering double doors inward.

Cold air rushed over my face. The throne room stretched out endlessly, framed by towering marble pillars. The architecture dwarfed anything Caleb had ever owned.

At the far end of the hall sat the Alpha King.

His hair was stark white, his face lined with decades of war and rule. He wore a simple dark tunic, but his aura pressed into every corner of the massive room.

I stopped fifty feet away.

“Approach,” the King commanded.

His voice echoed, deep and resonant, vibrating right through the stone floor.

I closed the distance. I didn’t bow. I kept my chin raised, meeting his piercing blue gaze.

“You survived the wastelands of the lower packs,” the King noted.

“I survived a weak Alpha and a pathetic betrayal,” I corrected him.

A faint smile touched the corners of his weathered mouth. “Fire. Good. You retained the fire.”

He pushed himself up from the golden throne. He descended the three marble steps, moving with a stiffness that betrayed his age, yet his presence remained entirely overwhelming.

The scent hit me then.

Not the vanilla or pine of Caleb’s territory. This was raw ozone and crushed iron. The scent of absolute pureblood power.

My knees trembled. A strange, heavy pull anchored itself deep in my chest. My inner wolf clawed at my ribs, but not in anger. She recognized her origin.

The King stopped right in front of me.

“Turn around,” he instructed.

I hesitated, then rotated, presenting my back to him.

His rough, calloused fingers brushed against my skin. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled the fabric down, exposing the nape of my neck.

“There it is,” he murmured.

“The mark of the exile,” I said softly.

“The mark of the true blood,” he corrected.

His thumb traced the faint, crescent moon birthmark hidden just below my hairline.

I shivered. The contact lit a hot wire from my nape to my tailbone.

The King released my shirt and stepped around to face me again.

He looked into my eyes, the metallic gold of his own irises flashing briefly.

“Your mother and I hid you the only way we could,” the King said. “The council would have slaughtered a female heir in her crib, before she ever shifted. She sealed her own wolf to mask your scent. I gave you to a border pack and let the world forget your name.”

“So you sold your own daughter to a weak Alpha.”

“I placed you in the crucible,” the King countered. “A true ruler cannot be forged in soft silk. You needed to learn the cruelty of our kind to govern them properly.”

“I learned enough cruelty to last a lifetime.”

“You let me endure his abuse,” I accused.

“I let you discover your own breaking point,” he replied. “And you never broke. You tore his severance decree in half.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Your spies are fast.”

“My Royal Guard is efficient.” The King gestured to the side of the room. “Your trial is officially complete.”

Kael stepped out from behind a marble pillar. He walked forward, carrying a long, velvet-wrapped object in his hands.

He unwrapped the dark fabric, revealing a heavy metallic scepter. It was forged from black iron, twisting upward into the shape of a snarling wolf.

“Take it,” the King ordered.

I stared at the ancient weapon. “If I take this, I claim the throne.”

“If you take it, you claim your birthright.”

I reached out. My hand hovered over the iron handle for a fraction of a second.

I wrapped my fingers around the cold metal.

A sharp, electric shock pierced my fingertips. The energy shot up my arm, racing straight into my chest like a lightning bolt.

My knees buckled instantly.

I swayed forward as the ancestral magic flooded my veins. The bloodline resonance hammered against my skull, demanding total submission.

A low whimper escaped my throat. The sound echoed loudly in the vast, empty hall.

The King caught my elbow, steadying my weight before I could hit the floor. His grip was entirely unyielding.

“You feel them,” he said. “The generations before you.”

I gasped for air. “It burns.”

“Power always burns at first.”

I gripped the scepter tighter. I forced my locked joints to straighten. The trembling in my legs slowly faded, replaced by a terrifying, intoxicating strength.

“Caleb thought I was barren,” I said, my voice dropping to a harsh whisper.

“You are pureblood,” the King replied. “You cannot breed with common dirt.”

“He stripped me of my title.”

“He freed you from a cage.”

The King moved his hand from my elbow down to my wrist. He squeezed my trembling fingers around the iron scepter, locking my grip in place.

His blue eyes hardened into chips of ice.

“Now,” the King whispered, his voice laced with lethal promise. “It’s time to make them pay.”