The terrified screams echoed throughout the pack as they realised the impending danger of death. I cursed my helplessness despite my status as an Alpha. My mind raced to identify who could have orchestrated this within our pack. It had to be an insider who knew precisely how to trap us.

Thalia's panicked cries reached me through the mind-link, urging me to protect our child, pushing me further into the threshold of agony. I summoned every ounce of strength to fight the effects of the wolfbane coursing through my body, but the potion was too potent.

The terror manifested in the form of Kendrick, who instantly shifted to human form upon entering the hall, his sneer menacing. He glanced around the room, laughing, followed by the laughter of his barbarian warriors.

"Kendrick! I didn't realise you were such a coward!" I yelled, trying to provoke him.

Upon hearing me, Kendrick strode towards me while I sat rigidly, only my mouth and eyes able to move, albeit with limited motion.

He approached with a mocking expression. "Do you think I care? I'll legalise any means to get rid of you, Ezekiel... You've been a thorn in my side for so long. Finally, tonight, my wish will come true. Thanks to Vale."

My eyes widened at his last words; Rose's screams, Vale's mother, reverberated in the room, revealing her son's betrayal. Kendrick gestured, allowing Vale to step out of his hiding place. His usually awkward body language transformed; the young man advanced confidently, smiling proudly at Kendrick's praise in front of the entire pack. He had indeed deceived us all this time.

"You know, no one will acknowledge your sovereignty if you achieve it this way!" I retorted, reminding him of the consequences of his deceitful tactics. Other packs wouldn't respect him; he'd face punishment from King Eamon—the Lycan king—banishing his led pack and treating his followers as rogues to be eliminated by King Eamon's forces.

"Too bad you won't live to see that, Ezekiel. But before that, let me have fun first. I won't be satisfied until I see you suffer," he sneered, his eyes leering at Thalia. My inner wolf and I seethed angrily, unwilling to let this man entertain any improper thoughts about Thalia.

Subsequently, Kendrick ordered his followers to lift Thalia, rendering me utterly powerless.

"Kendrick! Release her!" I commanded, trying to emanate my alpha aura toward Kendrick's warriors, but the wolfbane he'd given me seemed to shroud that aura with an imaginary cage.

"HAHAHA!!!" laughed Kendrick at my desperate look.

"Look what I'm going to do to her... Oh, I've wanted that for a long time," Kendrick said, his hands roaming greedily over Thalia's body, stroking roughly her bulging belly. Thalia's tears had spilled over from her mind-link. She apologised and asked me to promise to avenge her later.

"No! You have to live!" I pleaded in response to her message, but Thalia closed her eyes, her tears falling, as Kendrick abused her before my eyes, playing with her body so barbarically as if my Thalia was just a toy.

Thalia's hysterical howls in our mind-link made the whole nightmare even more gripping. I cursed at Kendrick, cursing him over and over again, but that crazy man was getting more and more excited.

I looked at Vale, staring at Thalia with a cold smile. I tried to ask him through the mind-link, but our connection was lost. It was because he had betrayed the pack.

"Argh!" moaned Kendrick as he squirted his sperm into Thalia. This time, Thalia no longer cried; she mumbled apologies to me repeatedly, which only made me sadder.

"Ezekiel, look, your woman is enjoying it!" Kendrick shouted as he patted Thalia on the cheek. Thalia glared at him hatefully.

"Whoo-hoo... She still has embers; too bad I have to get rid of her too; I have to clean up your clan's tonight without a trace."

After saying that, Kendrick pulled Thalia's hair to make her look up, then tore Thalia's neck.

*SLASH*

"Noooo!!!" I shouted agonisingly. Kendrick laughed widely at my response.

I felt, as our mind-link was suddenly severed, an overwhelming sense of emptiness inside me. After that, it was like thousands of sledgehammers were being slammed into my chest simultaneously.

"My Warriors, kill them all!" Kendrick ordered suddenly.

His order was immediately accompanied by cries of despair from all my pack members and the elders. Vale, still smiling... I don't know what possessed that boy to do this to the entire pack, his family.

"Stop!" I ordered desperately, but they paid no heed. The warriors cut off the heads of all my pack members one by one with their sharp claws simultaneously.

A rancid odour instantly filled the air, and blood splatters now colour all the once beautiful fabrics and decorations in the hall.  The blood of all my pack members flooded the floor without leaving a single gap.

They licked the remaining blood from their claws with satisfaction. The hall was now silent, no longer hearing the shouts and prayers to the Moon Goddess, who seemed absent tonight when we needed her.

Vale approached Kendrick with confidence. "How is it, Alpha Kendrick? Have I managed to show my loyalty to you? It's certainly enough to make me your Beta, isn't it? And allow me to unite with Mia," he asked.

Kendrick grinned and patted her on the shoulder, "Oh Vale, you think I'm a fool for trusting a traitor like you? You sold your own pack, the pack you grew up in, and even sacrificed your own mother. Didn't you hear what I said earlier? I won't spare a single one of you, including you!"

"W-wait!" shouted Vale, but Kendrick's two warriors grabbed him. Vale, who didn't eat wolfbane, tried to transform. But before his transformation was complete, Kendrick had ripped off his head, separating it from his body. He was the only pack member I didn't lose. Had I been given a second chance, I would have avenged him. I will carry this grudge to the realm of the dead.

I was the only one left in the room, witnessing the massacre of all my pack members and Thalia, my mate. Her stiff body lay on the floor, her bare body exposed by Kendrick's actions. Her protruding belly was rigid, with no movement from within. I hadn't met my baby yet.

Remembering the days after learning of Thalia's pregnancy, the overwhelming happiness that enveloped our days, no day passed without me greeting the fetus in her womb. Our little son. The dreams I whispered to him when Thalia fell asleep. The little kick that responded when I spoke to him... He hadn't seen the world yet.

This pain seemed to hit my chest hard. I close my eyes, ready if death come to me this very moment. I would never be able to live with this terrible loss.

Kendrick approached me, "Your turn," he said.

"I'll take my revenge on you, no matter which life we meet in!" I vowed as I stared at him sharply.

"I'll wait for you," Kendrick scoffed, and then, with his fangs, he tore my neck, forcibly separating my head from my body.