The Alpha Who Threw Me Away for a Fake Pregnancy Chapter 06

The Alpha Who Threw Me Away for a Fake Pregnancy Chapter 06: The True Form

“The silver pool activates the dormant marrow,” Kael explained. He stopped at the edge of the circular basin.

I stared at the shimmering, metallic liquid. “It looks toxic.”

“It kills weak blood.”

“And if Caleb was right? If I am just a barren failure?”

“Then you will drown,” Kael stated flatly.

“A blunt assessment.”

“The King requires a weapon, Aria. Not a victim.”

I clenched my fists. “I am no one’s victim.”

“Prove it. Strip.” Kael turned his back to me, facing the massive stone pillars.

I pulled my shirt over my head and dropped it. My pants joined the pile. The chill of the underground sanctuary bit into my bare skin.

“Will I lose my mind?” I asked.

“Only if you fight the change.”

“I’ve suppressed my wolf for twenty years. I don’t even know her name.”

“She knows yours,” Kael murmured. “She has been waiting a long time.”

“What if she destroys this room?”

“The room can be rebuilt. Your bloodline cannot.”

I stepped down into the basin. The liquid silver felt like ice. It clung to my calves, heavy and thick.

“Walk to the center,” Kael ordered.

I pushed through the resistance. The water reached my waist.

“It’s freezing.”

“It will boil soon enough.”

“Look up.”

I tilted my head. A massive glass dome arched over the altar, framing the full moon perfectly. The pale light pierced the glass, striking the surface of the pool.

“Do you feel the pull?” Kael asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t fight it. No matter how much it hurts.”

The water ignited.

It didn’t burn with fire. It burned with pure, blinding energy. The silver liquid surged, wrapping around my torso like a vice.

My spine snapped.

I didn’t scream. I laughed. A harsh, jagged sound that startled even me.

“Aria!” Kael shouted, his shadow shifting against the far wall.

“Stay turned around!” I choked out.

My knees inverted with a sickening crunch. The agony tore through my muscles. I bit down hard on my bottom lip. The delicate skin ruptured. Hot copper flooded my tongue, coating my teeth.

“Do not resist the structural shift,” Kael warned, his voice tight. “Let the bones break.”

“I’m letting them!”

“Breathe through the tear.”

“Stop giving me orders!” I snarled.

My shoulders dislocated simultaneously. I collapsed forward, plunging my hands into the glowing silver.

The human weakness I had carried for two decades shredded apart. Caleb’s mocking voice, Sienna’s smug smile, the pitying looks of the elders—they dissolved in the searing heat of the pool.

My jaw elongated violently. The cracking sound echoed off the marble walls, sharp as a gunshot.

“The fur,” Kael asked, keeping his back turned. “What color is it?”

I couldn’t answer. My vocal cords were thick, expanding rapidly in my throat.

I wasn’t turning into a common gray stray.

Thick, metallic gold fur erupted from my pores. It gleamed under the moonlight, radiating an impossible brilliance.

My ribcage expanded, snapping and reforming twice its original size. The pool suddenly felt entirely too small. The water sloshed violently over the edges.

I pushed upward.

My massive front paws slammed onto the granite edge of the basin. Claws the size of hunting daggers slid from my toes. They gouged deep, jagged trenches into the solid stone.

The excruciating pain vanished.

Absolute, terrifying strength rushed into every fiber of my being. The humiliation of the past five years evaporated. The memory of Caleb handing Sienna that bronze key felt like a distant, pathetic joke. I was no longer the quiet wife standing on the porch.

I was a Royal Lycan.

I was massive. Easily standing seven feet at the shoulder.

“Aria?” Kael called out.

I threw my heavy head back. I didn’t speak.

I howled.

It wasn’t a normal wolf’s call. It was a sonic boom. The sound wave distorted the air itself.

The glass dome high above the altar shattered instantly.

Thousands of jagged shards rained down. They bounced harmlessly off my thick golden coat, clattering against the marble floor like hail.

I shook my massive frame, sending silver droplets flying across the room.

Kael spun around.

His ice-blue eyes widened in absolute shock. He stared at my golden fur, my towering height, the deep gouges in the granite beneath my paws.

“A true Royal,” he whispered, his voice stripped of its usual militant calm.

“Submit,” my wolf rumbled. The word didn’t come from my human vocal cords. It vibrated directly into his mind.

He didn’t hesitate.

Kael threw his jacket aside. His body contorted, bones snapping in rapid, practiced succession. Within three seconds, a massive black wolf stood in his place. He was huge, but still a full head shorter than me.

He stepped forward, his head lowered. His front legs bent, preparing to press his belly to the floor in ultimate submission.

Before his snout could touch the marble, a noise ripped through the sanctuary.

A mechanical siren. Deafening and shrill.

Red emergency lights flared to life along the walls, bathing the ruined altar in a violent crimson glow.